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topic: Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr (77 articles)

Zwecki

Wed, May 4 2005, 9:00:01 pm GMT

I finally got him a PayPal account.

Günther Tschurnig|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr

So you can now send him a few bucks.

It took a while, but with Günther Tschurnig's help Zwecki has a PayPal account at: «j.zwecki» . I know a number of you wrote in telling me that there were problems sending money to Zwecki, because he hadn't opened his account (this is sort of supposed to be automatic). Well, now it is operating.

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Zwecki

Mon, May 2 2005, 5:00:04 pm EDT

Thanks for your help.

Robert Reisinger

Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Robert Reisinger

Both Robert Reisinger and Zwecki write to express sincere thanks for your support. There is a problem setting up the PayPal account for Zwecki. Robert writes:

PayPal is not working yet, but I'll let you know as soon as I get any news regarding that. In the meantime everybody can send money to the account which Günther Tschurnig opened for the fundraising.

Here are all information you need:

Account Number: 10249 Bank-code: 34390 Account Name: Tschurnig Günther Spendenkonto Zwecki Bank: Raiffeisenbank Ohlsdorf / Austria BIC-Code (SWIFT) RZ OOAT 2L390 IBAN AT97 3439 0000 0001 0249

(editor's note: I'll be sure to get back to Oz Report readers when Robert gets this working.)

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Zwecki

Wed, Apr 27 2005, 5:00:02 pm EDT

Someone that can use a little help from the flying community.

Robert Reisinger

Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Robert Reisinger

Robert Reisinger «r.reisinger» writes:

Zwecki was an Austrian Team-Pilot for a very long time. In 2002 he crashed on launch at the Zillertal Open in Tyrol. The situation now is that he is not able to walk or use his hands, but he can move his arms, and of course he needs permanent special help. He had to rebuilt his house as well as buy and pay many other tings that cost a lot of money.

Now he needs a special wheel chair which he can use on his own outside; a cross-country wheel chair which is very expensive. If you think that you can't go outside to take fresh air and have a look at your surroundings without having somebody with you to help, you know how important it is for Zwecki to get this feeling again. I really hope, that the "flying family" will help him!

Those of you who would like to help Zwecki out can use PayPal to send him money at «j.zwecki».

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Zwecki

Tue, Apr 26 2005, 5:00:03 pm EDT

Needs a new wheel chair.

Robert Reisinger

Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Robert Reisinger

https://ozreport.com/7.110#3

Former Austrian competition flex wing pilot Joseph Zweckmeyer is looking for a new very expensive wheel chair. Robert Reisinger asked for help for him at the Flytec Championship and pilots responded.

As I recall, Zwecki originally crashed on launch at the Alpen Open at Gnadenwald. 

I've asked for a more detailed request from Robert, but in the mean time, those of you who like to help Zwecki out can use PayPal to send him money at «j.zwecki». A good number of the donations that came to the Oz Report during the Flytec Championship went to Zwecki.

Discuss Zwecki at the Oz Report forum

Alpen Open - day 1

Wed, May 26 2004, 6:00:00 pm EDT

It clears up for the memorial day weekend.

Alpen Open

Alpen Open 2004|Belinda Boulter|Johann Posch|Manfred Ruhmer|Oliver Schmidt|PG|Robert Reisinger|sailplane|weather

Alpen Open 2004|Belinda Boulter|Johann Posch|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Manfred Ruhmer|Oliver Schmidt|PG|Robert Reisinger|sailplane|weather

The task and the flight on-line at the HOLC

Things are different in Europe. A lot different and I say, Viva Le Difference.

At the landing field we've got a beer hall set up to take care of all the pilots and drivers and all the spectators that will be dropping by for a bit of Saturday spectacle. Red Bull is here with their tent. Food is being served to all the folks coming to see the carnival. The army rescue helicopter will come in later in the late to simulate a paraglider pilot rescue from a tree.

The Alpen Open is three meets in one over three days: a paraglider, flex wing, and rigid wing meet. The paragliders will launch from a different launch and we will launch from right over the landing field in Gnadenwald, ten miles from Innsbruck, Austria.

The landing field at 2,800' is next to our pension, Pension Martinsstubben, and the small toll road to the launch at 5,000' and restaurant at the top is a few hundred yards down the road. Very convenient. There is a huge mastiff rising an additional over three thousand feet above and behind launch to the north. The valley runs east/west, with Innsbruck to the west.

Landing Zone from our pension.

There is an airport in Innsbruck, obviously, and very restricted airspace. As our task will take us in that direction we'll have to be sure to stay up on the mountain side to stay out of the airspace. There is a glider port right next to the commercial runway and I do get to see a few gliders using it.

This is the sixteenth annual Alpen Open, and they expect about 100 pilots total. It is a fun meet, only three days, but the winner gets to qualify to go to a meet in Rio if they do well in another meet also, so it is somewhat serious. There is something at stake other than bragging rights.

There is supposed to be a pilots' meeting at the landing zone, but it just turns out to be instructions for the paragliders to get into the waiting taxis, so we drive up to the top in Ron's leased van. There are a bunch of hang gliders already setup so we (Ron and I) know that we've been wasting our time. We set up right away next to the restaurant.

Things drag on and the meet director doesn't call the task and the pilot meeting until about 1:30 PM. The task consists of three turnpoints, a race start, and is basically an out and return to the Gnandenwald landenplatz, 105 kilometers. It takes a while to get the weather report and to input the task.

Once we are done, the problem is the start window opens in forty minutes and we've got to get forty pilots off of launch in time to get them to have at least half an hour each to get high in the start circle. This is not going to work. Thankfully Ron and I are setup right at the end of the short launch lane (one of two).

We immediately get dressed up very warmly. I've got two pair of long pants on, and six layers on my upper body with two balaclavas over my head and a pair of Flytec neoprene gloves. I usually wear football receiver gloves, but I'm looking for the extra warmth. They work great. It is supposed to be about 18 degrees at 10,000'

The launches don't go very quickly. Many pilots are allowed to cut into the line. Favorites are played with some pilots getting in. There is not time enough to launch every one even before the start window opens. It is a disaster.

Ron and I launch at about the start window time. Ron will get low and land as will Johann Posch. Six of the eighteen rigid wings will land without going out of the start circle. A number of flex wings will land also.

Belinda captures me launching

The pilots that got the relatively early launches will get high before the start window opens. I'll leave the start circle at launch height after messing around for fifteen minutes trying to get up over launch. Running down the ridge/course line I'll find 200 fpm and stick with it until I'm to 2,500' over launch. I figure I've got a half an hour penalty as it is for the late launch, so just stay up and make the course.

The wind is about six mph out of the east north east, a little over the back. I'm really frightened about rotors here in the Alps, but everyone is saying that it looks great for today with light winds and good thermals. Cloud base is a little over 9,000'. There are plenty of thin clouds over the mountains and none out in the valleys.

After a slow start I stay above 7,000' getting almost 9,000' heading west to a control point which is a huge hotel on the plateau above the main river valley where you'll find Innsbruck. We then have to go six miles further to a house on a much higher plateau at 6,000' away from the mountain sides. All the pilots stick as close to the mountain sides as possible before heading out to take the turnpoint.

I've noticed that the air is pretty turbulent for a day that is supposed to be nice. I'm flying a C/V (protoype V) from AIR and thoroughly enjoying the glider. I'm glad I'm not on my VX.

Coming back into the head wind the turbulence factor increases. I've already left a few thermals that didn't please me, but this time I have to stay in one that it far too powerful and not at all smooth. I'm averaging about one thousand feet less than on the way out.

Just passed the hotel control point on the way back Oliver Schmidt almost hits me without ever seeing me. I didn't see him until he almost hit me. I race ahead and get a bit low, where I encounter Mr. nasty, and then run for the Wall, next to the airport.

The lift is coherent and pleasant to fly in there and going up a a moderately reasonable 350 fpm. I can get to back over 6,000' which is comfortable, although well below the ridge line, and with bits of lift coming up the face facing south, I can maintain altitude just trying to make it back at 14:1.

I see a small sailplane turning right on the hill side in front of me and I figure he wouldn't stop for the weak stuff. I go over to the spot he just left and climb another thousand feet in three minutes, nine miles out from goal. I've got less than 10:1 to get to goal so I pull into a narrow valley behind a jutting rock face and straight line it to goal.

After landing and downloading my 5030, I file a protest for the day and Ron joins me in the protest. I find out later from Robert Reisinger that Seppi has also filed the same protest. The pilot meeting was held too late to have a start window at 2:30 PM. No word yet on how the protests were dealt with. I did it with a smile and told them I was having a great time, which I am. Did I say how much I was enjoying the ATOS?

Many pilots complained/remarked also about how bumpy the air was. I was scared a few times and left lift often, but I was assuming that was just me. The AIR ATOS C/V felt great. I was very glad I had it instead of the VX. Manfred Trimmel was flying the VX.

Gunther Tschuring got beat up on the way back at 6,000', flew immediately out into the lower valley and landed. I had thought that with the light winds we would have a good day, but apparently we did not. Pilots thought that this was a very bad day for turbulence. I'm feeling pretty good, because if this was as bad as it gets, then I'm feeling like maybe I can handle this.

No word on scores or the protest yet. The Alpen Open web site (http://members.chello.at/drachenflieger/Aktuelles.htm) doesn't seem to have anything posted.

Zwecky was just here in his powered wheel chair. He looked good. Came by to visit his old pilot friends. Has a girl friend I hear.

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Zwecki

Wed, Apr 23 2003, 4:00:04 pm EDT

electric|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Oz Report|Thomas "Tom/Tomas" Weissenberger

Thomas Weissenberger <tomtom@direkt.at> writes:

Two weeks ago I and the other Austrian pilots celebrated Zwecki´s birthday. We all met at his home which is in a small village in a little valley in the middle of nowhere. I would call it the Austrian Tigerland.

Zwecki is now back home from the rehabilitation center in the lavish care of his parents and his girl friend. They renovated his house to make it suitable for him to move in his electric wheel-chair. He is still sitting in the chair, but his mind is totally clear and full of optimism! The most significant thing in my eyes is that he still thinks and talks with us about flying. He is listening curiously to hang gliding stories, he talks with us about flying and he takes part at some of the Austrian pilot meetings.

He might be away from the comp scene physically but he is watching it fully interested. Next week end we have a comp in Austria where he will be involved into the task setting and briefing. With his left hand he can use the computer and he is also reading the Oz Report!

I am writing this to let everybody know about Zwecki´s whereabouts and that he is happy about any support of all the pilots who know him!

Zwecki is now 34 years old. Birthday greetings to: <j.zwecki@aon.at>

His next goal is to fly sailplanes. See you in goal Zwecki!

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Zwecki

Sun, Apr 13 2003, 3:00:05 pm EDT

crash|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Oz Report

Manfred spoke briefly about Joseph Zweckmeyer today to tell us that he is doing well and recovering. His mind is back to normal (whatever was normal for Zwecki) and he wants to fly.

At the moment I can’t find my original article on Zwecki’s crash as the Oz Report search isn’t working correctly due to update we are going through.

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WPRS »

Tue, Jul 23 2002, 5:00:01 pm GMT

Sarah Bowyer|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Andreas Olsson|Antoine Boisselier|Anton Raumauf|Attila Bertok|Betinho Schmitz|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|David Chaumet|Davis Straub|Francois Isoard|Gerolf Heinrichs|Gordon Rigg|Guido Gehrmann|Johann Posch|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Manfred Ruhmer|Mario Alonzi|Michael Huppert|Naoki Itagaki|Oleg Bondarchuk|Oliver "Olli" Barthelmes|Paris Williams|Richard Walbec|Robert Reisinger|Rohan Holtkamp|Steve Elkins|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/rankings/class1/
http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/rankings/class5/

Sarah Bowyer at CIVL got right on the case and got the new world rankings out right after the Worlds:

Class 1:

Position Name
1 Ruhmer Manfred
2 Heinrichs Gerolf
3 Boisselier Antoine
4 Rigg Gordon
5 Bondarchuk Oleg
6 Gerard Jean-Francois
7 Alonzi Mario
8 Reisinger Robert
9 Gehrmann Guido
9 Olsson Andreas
11 Williams Paris
12 Holtkamp Rohan
13 Walbec Richard
14 Richardson Ron
15 Palmarini Jean-Francois
16 Schmitz Betinho (Carlos)
17 Durand Jon Jnr
18 Zweckmayr Josef
19 Baier Bob
20 Barthelmes Oliver
20 Bertok Attila

The 2001 Australian Meets were dropped, so the Australian pilots suffered a bit.

Class 5:

Position Name Country
1 Ciech Christian Italy
2 Ploner Alessandro Italy
3 Posch Johann Austria
4 Straub Davis USA
5 Raumauf Toni Austria
6 Chaumet David France
6 Huppert Michael Switzerland
8 Barmakian Bruce USA
9 Elkins Steve UK
10 Itagaki Naoki Japan

The Worlds, the Europeans, the Floridameets, and the Australian meets count big time for WPRS points. The top rigid pilots didn’t fly in the Europeans, and too few flew in the Australian meets, but they did fly in Floridaand at the Worlds in Chelan and Spain. It is clear that the Floridameets and the Australian meets should be as valued by CIVL as the Europeans. They are international meets.

The pre-Worlds in Brazilshould be well attended and that will affect the Class 1 ranking. Again the Brazilian pre-Worlds should be considered as valuable as the Europeans.

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Zwecky

Sun, Jun 16 2002, 7:00:02 pm GMT

Josef Zweckmayr

Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr

Saskia «staffbox» writes:

Zwecky is still in the hospital in Austria. If anyone would like to send Zwecky a card or letter you can do it at the following address:

Josef Zweckmayr
Kienberg 10
A – 4453 TRATTENBACH
AUSTRIA

All the E-mails I received from Zwecky’s friends have been forwarded to his family. Thank you all for your concern.

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Zwecky⁣ in a coma?

Tue, Jun 4 2002, 8:00:02 pm GMT

Josef Zweckmayr

Josef "Zwecki/Zwecky" Zweckmayr|Mark Mullholland

I have heard 3rd hand that Josef Zweckmayr, well known Austrian competition pilot, blew a launch and is hurt bad. He is reported to be in a coma (may be put into the coma by the hospital like what they did to Mark Mullholland). The prognosis is that he probably won’t walk again.

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1000+ Hang Gliding Pictures - $20

Tue, Oct 23 2001, 5:00:09 pm EDT

David Glover|Flytec Championships 2001|picture|record|tandem|US Speed Gliding Nationals 2001|World Championships 1999|World Record Encampment|World Record Encampment 2001|World Speed Gliding Championships 2000

David Glover «dhglover» writes:

A thousand pictures are worth… - Enjoy the people, places and things of:

The World Championships in Italy 1999
First World Speed Gliding Championship in Greece 2000
Flytec Championships at Quest and Wallaby comps 2001
Zapata/Flytec-World Record Encampment 2001
US Speed Gliding Nationals 2001 (includes a QuickTime Movie)

All on CD-ROM. See what it's all about, re-live the experience, use as a screen saver. $20 for US residents (outside the US only $25) prices include shipping.

Bonus Pictures: How to get a "Free" tandem in Florida.

Send credit card info, US$ check or money order to: David Glover, 416 E. Dale St., CO Springs, CO, USA 80903-2925, 719. 630.3698, fax# 413.460.5708, «david»

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2001 Worlds »

June 30, 2001, 4:00:00 pm MDT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|André Wolfe|Attila Bertok|Betinho Schmitz|Christian Ciech|dust devil|Gerolf Heinrichs|Gordon Rigg|Guido Gehrmann|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Luiz Niemeyer|Manfred Ruhmer|Martin Harri|Paris Williams|Roberto Nichele|Robert Reisinger|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Tomas Suchanek|Vicki Cain|weather|Worlds 2001

Vicki Cain «vix001» writes:

The last day's task was an 85.8 km task with goal at the Villamartin airstrip
TP 1 Montellano Castle
TP 2 Horacio Airstrip
TP 3 Puente de la Nava

The day looked really promising with pilots getting strong lift and high over launch 2200m, but once out of the mountains the conditions were quite different with weak scattered thermals where they battled to just stay up. Gerolf said that he and Manfred both got way low at one point, about 50 m. Attila won the day when he and Tommy flew 3 km back to the launch after the last turnpoint to make goal.

From 1900 m with strong tail wind they headed off on final from 20 kms out. 20 pilots made goal. Attila, Manfred, Franc Peternel, Andre, Paris, Tommy, Carl Wallbank, Martin Harri, Ian Miskin, Bob Baier, Rafael Bossas Cerda, Jean-Charles Balembois, Antoine Boisselier, Robert Reisinger, Gerolf, Gordon, Jean-Francois Gerard, Mario Alonzi, Guido Gehrmann, Roberto Nichele. No Australians in goal! But 4 French and 4 British pilots so the French pipped us at the post for the 3rd place teams medal.

I didn't make goal to see Manfred come in but heard there was a huge cheer when he crossed the goal first.

Congratulations again Manfred!

Final Results:

1stManfred RuhmerAustriaLaminar5187
2ndGerolf HeinrichsAustriaLitespeed4927
3rdRobert ReisingerAustriaLaminar4768
4thRohan HoltkampAustraliaClimax4483
5thBob BaierGermanyLitespeed4378
6thLuiz NiemeyerBrazilLaminar4170
7thAntoine BoisselierFranceLitespeed4134
8thAttila BertokHungaryLitespeed4120
9thGuido GehrmannGermanyTopless4114
10thGordon RiggBritianLitespeed4080
11thParis WilliamsUsaLaminar4079
12thJean-Francois GerardFranceLitespeed4041
13thTomas SuchanekCzech RepublicLitespeed4023
14thMartin HarriSwitzerlandLitespeed3925
15thBetinho SchmitzBrazilLitespeed3920
16thJosef ZweckmayerAustriaLaminar3898
17thAndre WolfBrazilLaminar3835
18thRon RichardsonBritianCheetah3818
19thSteve MoyesAustraliaLitespeed3643
20thGustavo SaldanahBrazilLitespeed3636

Austrians 1st, 2nd and 3rd!
Team Results:

1stAustria15175
2ndBrazil13374
3rdFrance12666

Class 2 Final Results:

1stAlessaandro PlonerAir Atos5240Italy
2ndCristian CiechAir Atos4984Italy
3rdManfred TrimmelAir Atos4464Austria

There was some drama on the hill before launch, with dust devils flying around. A big one got Viktor's glider, we watched it get lifted 50 feet in the air flip over and sail down the face of launch. Bobby and Steve are repairing it this morning.

Nene Rotor was not able to fly yesterday as he has a broken foot in 3 places. He was walking down to the task board and lost his footing and broke his foot! He has a plaster cast to his knee.

Well it's all over and we are all looking forward to the presentation this evening. Last night there was a rock festival on the local football field called Delta Rock 2000, with live rock bands, and stacks of people. The town of Algodonales has been fantastic, friendly and supportive of the competition in their town of 6000 inhabitants.

Getting use to the Spanish culture has been different. Siesta from 2-6pm where everything closes down except the bars and cafes, the streets are barren with everyone lunching and relaxing in the cool to escape the hottest part of the day. This was my first trip to a non English speaking country so the language barrier was fun, not too many people speak English, ordering a meal was sometimes by making animal noises! Moo!!! The organisation was excellent, Juaki and his team did the best they could with the difficult weather conditions, everyone keeps telling us the weather patterns have been unusual for this area. But that's life with hang gliding competitions.

I have attached 1 photo, and am more than a little embarrassed that I don't have a photo of Manfred! But I do have one of the Moyes boys at goal yesterday!

Class II teams: Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Japan, Germany, France, Spain, USA, Great Britain

Find results at: http://www.algodonales.org/hgwag2001/resultadosing.htm

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2001 Worlds – taking a hat »

Wed, Jun 27 2001, 6:00:00 pm EDT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Andreas Olsson|Attila Bertok|carbon fiber|Chris Muller|Christian Ciech|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Gerolf Heinrichs|Ghostbuster|Gordon Rigg|Johann Posch|John Borton|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Luiz Niemeyer|Manfred Ruhmer|Oleg Bondarchuk|PG|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Vicki Cain|Worlds 2001

See latest reports at http://www.theleague.force9.co.uk/worlds/worlds.htm Apparently the best conditions so far, but due to airspace considerations, a short task was called. 70 pilots at goal. John Borton says that Paris may have won the day.

Vicki Cain «vix001» writes:

Yesterday was cooler and less stable, clear blue skies. We heard early that it would be an open distance day and headed up the mountain early, but a task was called 120.6-km dogleg to Villanueva del Trabuco with the turnpoint at Estepsa. Steve was off first again at 3pm in the ordered launch, but no one pushed today! He took off at 3.30 pm, Gerolf made a push after Steve so the lane moved quickly. Once there are about 50 pilots in the air Juaki blows a siren to hold the launches on all 3 lanes until the congestion eases. Gerolf gets off, but the launch order is stopped just before Attila and Manfred. They wait about, I guess 10 minutes, but it's too long for Manfred, he's getting impatient. Then the siren goes off again and they are away.

We head down the hill and hear when we get to HQ that there was a mid air between a rigid wing and hang glider, following is a note from this mornings briefing. Accident: Yesterday there was an unfortunate mid air collision. We must again stress the importance of flying like you drive-watch out for the other guy! The two pilots who were involved in the accident were the Russian, Natalia Petrova, who suffered minor injuries and the American, Mark Mullholland, whose injuries were more serious. He had to be evacuated by helicopter and taken to a hospital in Seville. Although he is in ICU, his condition is stable and he is conscious. We thank the German doctor and Corinna Schwiegershausen for all their help.

Each pilot who was unable to launch due to the accident will receive the number of points which is an average of their scores for all the previous tasks. There are 16 pilots.

We head out on course and intend to go to goal. Molly and I in one car and Bill and Bobby in the other. We are on the Australian radio channel and hear that Phil is down so Bill leaves to pick him up. Shortly after I get a call from Brett for pick up. We all bought Spanish mobile phones from the HQ at about A$130 each, they are really handy for retrieve. We find Brett at about 8. 30 in a big open field between an olive grove and a sunflower field.

Neither car make goal to see them come in but we hear it was exciting. Luiz Niemeyer wins the day with a time of 2:38:53, Manfred is 14 seconds behind Luiz and Gerolf 4 seconds behind Manfred. It was cross tail to the turnpoint and tailwind to goal. 21 pilots make goal (sorry I don't have any Class 2 results )

Pilots to make goal: Luiz, Manfred, Gerolf, Nene, Zwecky, Attila, Reisinger, Oleg, Rohan, Gordon Rigg, Tommy, Ron Richardson, Romero Castrillon, Oliver Kalin, Paris, Bob Baier, Jean-Francois Gerard, Steve Moyes, Andreas Olsson, Richard Walbec, Jon Durand Jr.

Brett gets a call from Chris Muller who is at Granada for the Paragliding World's. They have a day off because of the strong wind and we meet up with them in Antequerra for dinner. Home by 1 am.

We find out this morning that Jonny is penalised 10 % of his score for aerobatic maneuvers over launch. He's not a happy chappy. Jonny has been playing games with the launch marshal that stands out in front. As he takes off he grabs the launch marshal's hat!!!

I just realised that from my report it looks like that Jonny was penalised for playing with the launch marshal, that was not the case. Another pilot in addition to Jon did a low pass out it front of launch, they were both penalised for that reason.

 

Photo of Manfred, Markus (Gerolf's cousin and driver), Gerolf and Richard

Class I after five tasks:

1 RUHMER, Manfred Icaro - Laminar MRX 14 AUT 3632
2 HEINRICHS, Gerolf Moyes - Litespeed 4 AUT 3479
3 HOLTKAMP, Rohan Airborne - Climax 13 AUS 3254
4 REISINGER, Robert Icaro - Laminar MRX 14 AUT 3254
5 BAIER, Bob Moyes - Litespeed 4 DEU 3033
6 BONDARCHUCK, Oleg Aeros - Combat UKR 2975
7 NIEMEYER, Luiz Icaro - Laminar ST14 BRA 2924
8 MOYES, Steve Moyes - Litespeed 5 AUS 2834
9 SCHMITZ, Betinho Moyes - Litespeed 4 BRA 2761
10 BERTOK, Attila Moyes - Litespeed 5 HUN 2750

Class I teams:

Austria, Brazil, Australia, France, Germany, Great Britain, Switzerland, USA, Spain, Ukraine

Class II after five tasks:

1 PLONER, Alessaandro Air - Atos - C ITA
2 CIECH, Cristian Air - Atos - C ITA 3820
3 TRIMMEL, Manfred Air - Atos - C AUT 3383
4 BUSSINGER, Diego Air - Atos - C CHE 3232
5 ITAGAKI, Naoki Air - Atos JPN 3228

Johann Posch was second on the fifth task. Diego Bussinger is doing much better in Spain on his ATOS than he did in Florida on his Ghostbuster. I wonder what "AIR ATOS C" stands for. Maybe the ATOSes with carbon fiber control frames? Two of the Italians state that their gliders as "AIR/Icaro ATOS." The Aeriane - Swift Prototype continues to do poorly.

Class II teams:

Italy, Austria, Switzerland, Japan, Germany, France, USA, Spain, Great Britain

Team scoring now seems to be fixed. Previously only two pilots were being reported in scoring Class II.

WAG Hang Gliding web site: (http://www.wag2001.org/Hang%20Gliding/Main%20Frame.htm):

You can find results (if and when) at:

http://resultados.wag2001.org/hg_c1.asp
http://resultados.wag2001.org/hg_c2.asp

or

http://www.algodonales.org/hgwag2001/resultadosing.htm
http://www.algodonales.org/hgwag2001/resultados.htm (Spanish)

2001 Worlds (Championship and Air Games) »

Fri, Jun 22 2001, 1:00:00 pm EDT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|André Wolfe|Christian Ciech|Gerolf Heinrichs|Jim Lee|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Manfred Ruhmer|Paris Williams|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Steve Blenkinsop|Wills Wing|Worlds 2001

After three tasks in Class I:

1 RUHMER, Manfred Icaro Laminar MRX 14 AUT 1883 
2 HEINRICHS, Gerolf Moyes Litespeed 4 AUT 1747 
3 HOLTKAMP, Rohan Airborne Climax 13 AUS 1737 
4 LEE, Jim Wills Wing Talon 150 USA 1612 
5 WOLF, André Icaro Laminar ST14 BRA 1569 
6 REISINGER, Robert Icaro Laminar MRX 14 AUT 1549 
7 BAIER, Bob Moyes Litespeed 4 DEU 1493 
8 OLSSON, Andreas Moyes Litespeed 2001 SWE 1491 
9 SALDANHA, Gustavo Moyes Litespeed BRA 1466 
10 ZWECKMAYR, Josef Icaro Laminar MRX 13 AUT 1465

It looks like Rohan did make goal on the second day. Originally he was scored as missing goal by .1 kilometers. I've asked Vicki to check on what the story was. Rohan is doing great and this is a big leg up for the Airborne Climax.

Jim Lee is also doing very very well, while Paris Williams who was formerly hot on the Talon is not doing so well.

Andre Wolf is ahead of Betinho and Nene. Manfred is enough ahead, but not well ahead of Gerolf and Rohan who are almost tied. Four Laminars and four Litespeeds in the top ten.

These results would actually be formatted if the world meet organizers didn't insist on PDF files – those proprietary monstrosities.

For some reason the tasks are quite low in validity. Don’t know what the story is there. I'll try to track it down. I mean 1,800 points after three tasks? Weird.

After three tasks Class II:

1 PLONER, Alessaandro Air Atos 2340 
2 TRIMMEL, Manfred Air Atos 2205
3 ITAGAKI, Naoki Air Atos 2061
4 CIECH, Cristian Air Atos 2014 
5 POSCH, Johan Air Atos AUT 1919

Gee, Air ATOS seems like the big winner here.

Steve Blenkinsop «sblenk» sends in this British web site for the worlds. It comes with the little British oriented commentary. A little behind the others, but at least it uses HTML!: http://www.theleague.force9.co.uk/worlds/worlds.htm

WAG Hang Gliding web site: (http://www.wag2001.org/Hang%20Gliding/Main%20Frame.htm):

You can find results (if and when) at:

http://resultados.wag2001.org/hg_c1.asp
http://resultados.wag2001.org/hg_c2.asp

or

http://www.algodonales.org/hgwag2001/resultadosing.htm

G. W. Meadows «gw» writes in after the first task's results:

I'd like to report to you that the winner of Task 1 is Sergey Drobyshev. Sergey is the main designer at Aeros. He has been the main push behind all of the Aeros high performance flex wings. I've said for years (since seeing him fly at the Turkish World Air Games in 1997) that he's a great pilot, but they can only send one pilot to most international competitions from Aeros. I'm very proud to see my friend Sergey's name at the top of the list.

The next day Sergey finished 101st.

The Italian Class II pilots seem to be out in full force (well almost) at the Worlds. The Italian Class II team is in first place. It does appear as though few of the top Italian flex wing pilots are here. Boycotts are tough to sustain.

Mike Barber second at Millau

Fri, Jun 8 2001, 5:50:00 pm EDT

Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Kathleen Rigg|Manfred Ruhmer|Martin Harri|Mike Barber|Rohan Holtkamp|Rohan Taylor|Wills Wing

Of course, let's not forget that Manfred was first (but then this is not news). That Mike Barber was second is. He was flying against good competition also, although many of the top pilots weren't there. This is prep meet for the Worlds, coming soon.

Bo was in eighth, but that hot shot Paris, who was doing well on his Wills Wing Talon (which btw now comes is the 140 edition -www.willswing.com) at the last meet, didn't look so good on his new Laminar coming in 16th. Wonder what the problem was?

1

RUHMER, Manfred

AUT

3295

2

BARBER, Mike

USA

2816

3

HARRI, Martin

CHE

2547

4

ZWECKMAYER, Joseph

AUT

2239

5

GUILLEN, Bruno

FRA

2150

6

HOLTKAMP, Rohan

AUS

2070

7

ALONZI, Mario

FRA

2032

8

HAGEWOOD, Robert

USA

1965

9

MOCELLIN, Françoise

FRA

1951

10.

RIGG, Kathleen

GBR

1927

You can find the full results at: http://www.domchauvet.com/delta/millau-classic.htm.

Discuss "Mike Barber second at Millau" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Florida meets - post partem depression

Sun, Apr 29 2001, 5:00:00 pm EDT

Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Gary Wirdnam|Gerolf Heinrichs|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Malcolm Jones|Manfred Ruhmer|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Steve Elkins|Tomas Suchanek|Wallaby Ranch|weather|Wills Wing

Florida meets - post partem depression

Actually it isn't that bad. We've been on a high from flying ten of the last fourteen days in a very intense competition. Many (if not most) of the world's best pilots have been here in Florida. It has been like a Worlds at a place with superior conditions and flying.

Quest Air and Wallaby Ranch turned into little Olympic villages with so many pilots coming from Europe and South America. It was great to hear all these different languages in dinner. Pilots and friends really love this hang gliding community.

There were quite a few British pilots here (they are not able to fly in their own country these days). Johnny Carr reminded me that lots of British pilots read the Oz Report and he wanted me to mention what a great guy he is. At least he realized that foot landing the Swift was a special event.

We are now slowly packing and cleaning up after ourselves. Repairs are the order of the day. The strong east winds with high and low clouds have stopped any possible flying, so we are entertaining ourselves in other ways. Soon even the holder overs will be gone and the Ranch will seem far too quiet.

There is nothing more fun than a friendly little hang gliding competition. It was great to have Tomas Suchanek back and flying well. It was great to see Paris Williams do so well, after doing so poorly on his last glider at the 1999 Worlds in Italy. It's great that Manfred still dominates, but that others are pressing him hard. Gerolf came in second and came close.

Lots of ATOSes were sold here after the competitions. Seven so far and one is still available, having been brand new, flown only once, before the pilot brought it here. The pilot chose not to fly on a number of windy days, also. Shipping is still quite a barrier, so it is nice to be able to sell your glider after coming to the United States.

I'll be checking on the web site logs to see how many clicks I'm getting on yesterday's special naked hang gliding issue. Too bad I can't identify who clicks on the pictures and downloads them to their special folders.

On the sixth day of the Wallaby Open the Dragon fly pilots flew a special formation in the morning. This is what it looked like and these are the tug pilots:

With this many Dragonflies and a good number of trikes it is possible to hold a major competition at an adequately sized flight park for probably 150 pilots and still get everyone off in time. The Wallaby Ranch is a little small and the new extensions will help quite a bit.

Even Quest Air is a bit small, but adequate for these numbers. You have to be right on top of the organization and do a lot of planning in advance. Getting pilots to launch earlier is crucial.

Both the Wallaby Open and the Flytec Championship could use better organization. The pilot meetings were held too late at the Wallaby Open. They need to be moved up an hour. On the two days that we didn't fly, we probably could have if we had been out at the flight line earlier and had adequate time to launch in reasonable conditions.

The Wallaby Open organizers should have been more cognizant of the launch time validity rule that invalidates a day if there is not adequate time to launch everyone. Starting earlier and applying this rule (like they did at the Flytec Championships) would have reduced the amount of emotional decision making.

Both organizers did not rely on their committees as much as they should have. They tended to take them as advisory, when I find it best to let the pilot task, safety, and protest committees make the decisions. The organizers can then just implement the decisions. This worked spectacularly well at the last Bogong Cup.

The task committee at the Wallaby Open was a bit more emotional than the one at the Flytec Championship. One member in particular had quite a few feelings about which task should be run. Other than the 95-mile square, most of the tasks were under called at the Wallaby Open.

Scoring at both meets was not quite up to the high standards set in Australia. It is nice to have the author of the Garmin checking program as your score keeper at the Forbes meet. In the end the scores did get figured out, and with more experience on all their parts, things will get better.

Overall the emotional content of the launch or not launch decision has to be considerable reduced. The emotions rule both the pilots and the organizers. I believe that we need to plan ways to keep these emotions in check so that our best thinking can be in charge.

Reporting the weather in certain ways feeds into this emotional atmosphere, and after a few days, I tried to watch my words carefully for their emotional content.

Final Results Class I:

1

RUHMER, Manfred

Icaro MRX2001

AUT

4499

2

HEINRICHS, Gerolf

MOYES Litespeed

AUT

4345

3

SUCHANEK, Tomas

MOYES Litespeed

CZE

4193

4

WILLIAMS, Paris

WILLS Wing Talon

USA

4179

5

SCHMIDT, Betinho

MOYES Litespeed 4

BRA

4056

6

REISINGER, Robert

Icaro Laminar 14ST

AUT

3960

7

MOREIRA, Lincoln

Icaro Laminar Mrx 14

BRA

3958

8

ARAI, Chris

WILLS Wing Talon

USA

3881

9

WIRDNAM, Gary

AEROS Combat

GBR

3664

10

ZWECKMAYR, Josef

Icaro Laminar ST14

AUT

3601

Final results Class II:

1

PORTER, Brian

BRIGHT Star Swift 135

USA

3633

2

TRUTTMANN, Hansjorg

A-I-R Atos

CHE

3400

3

SHARP, Dave

A-I-R Atos

USA

3020

4

ELKINS, Steve

A-I-R Atos

GBR

2871

5

STRAUB, Davis

A-I-R Atos

USA

2797

Malcolm Jones feels that the prize money should basically go to the top guy in his competitions. This philosophy is quite a bit different than what we saw at the Flytec Championship, where there was a wider and deeper distribution of prizes:

Class I:

First Place Manfred Ruhmer $4000.00 (Original Design Medal)
Second Place Gerolf Heinrichs $1500.00 (Original Design Medal)
Third Place Tomas Suchanek $500.00 (Original Design Medal)
Fourth Place Paris Williams Brauniger IQ Comp Vario (retail value: $1000.00+)

Class II:

First Place Brian Porter $1111.11 (Original Design Medal)
Second Place Hansjoerg Truttmann
Third Place Dave Sharp

Unfaired Rigid Wings only:

First Place Hansjoerg Truttmann $1500.00 (Original Design Medal)
Second Place Dave Sharp $300.00 (Original Design Medal)
Third Place Davis Straub Rotor Kickass Harness (Retail value: $1000.00+)

Total Value of Prizes Awarded: $10,911.11

First Place Class II $1111.11 provided by Super 8 Motel
Third Place Class II Rotor Harness provided by Nene Rotor
Fourth Place Class I Brauniger IQ Comp provided by Wills Wing

Malcolm wanted to separate the faired from the unfaired rigids given the stark difference in their performance potential. Therefore the top three unfaired rigids received prizes. My prize wasn't actually a prize, as Nene and Carlos had already asked me to try one of their harnesses. I agreed to do so, under the condition that it stay their harness and that at a later point I would give it back to them or make other arrangements. Still it was nice to be in third after Brian was pulled from the rigids' scoring.

Full results at www.wallaby.com.

Wallaby Open – we circle the square

Tue, Apr 24 2001, 5:00:00 pm EDT

Aeros Combat|Belinda Boulter|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Dave Sharp|Gary Osoba|Gary Wirdnam|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|J.C. Brown|Jim Yocum|Johann Posch|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Manfred Ruhmer|Paris Williams|Quest Air|Steve Elkin|Steve Elkins|Wallaby Open 2001|Wallaby Ranch

Today we played in the Green Swamp. A ninety-five mile task with three turnpoints that were supposed to keep us out of the worst parts of the Green Swamp. Still, that is where we go to have our fun.

The first day at Wallaby Ranch.

The flex wing pilots have been complaining about the rigid wing pilots. The meet director is setting the start times for the rigid wings first with the last start time shared with the flex wings. The flex wing pilots are complaining that Manfred just goes first and uses the rigid wings to go fast when they glide and then sits on top of them in thermals. The other flex wing pilots want to make it so Manfred can't keep using the rigid wings.

The meet director, JC Brown, decides to spilt the classes, with the rigid wing pilots doing the task counter clockwise and the flex wings clockwise. The task is Wallaby Ranch, to Quest Air to Cheryl airstrip to the Intersection of 98 and 301 and back to the Ranch. The reverse for the flex wings.

The forecast for the day looks great. Here is what Gary Osoba reports:

Probably the best day I've seen unless the moisture transport from the Atlantic is more saturated than what is shown. Good looking sounding, good looking wind stack with honest southeast winds feeding into a convergence line which should form through the middle of the state and extend into southeastern Georgia. Moisture profiles in the boundary layer show lots of latent heat adding to the lift. Thermals should be very strong but not violent. Well organized, powerful climbs. Lots of clouds. A real day for racing.

The start window opens at 1:15 and closes at 2:15 for both groups. It looks like an early start might be the ticket given the length of the task. Pilots are still a bit reluctant to get into position to launch, so pilots are still launching after the second start time.

The hot pilots in the flex wing category take the 1:15 start time. A few rigid wing pilots, including the Swift, take the 1:30 clock. Hansjoerg, Dave Sharp, Jim Yocum, Diego Bussinger, and I take the 1:45 start. We are half an hour behind the flex wing guys, but going the opposite direction.

The sky is full of cumulus clouds and there is plenty of vertical development. The sounding shows that it won't go high enough to over develop except in isolated cases. The six of us are gliding together and starting from cloud base. After three miles Diego in a Ghostbuster is quite a bit below the ATOS pilots (the rest of us).

While it is a cakewalk to Quest Air for Dave, Hansjoerg and I, I hear that 1/3rd of the rigid wing pilots go down on this first leg. We are lucky to get the timing right. We scrape off Diego and Jim and pick up an ATOS pilot from the earlier gaggle at Quest.

It is a 15-mile leg to Cheryl to the northwest. Six miles out from Cheryl we spot Brian flying straight to the turnpoint just over us, but quite a bit higher. Maybe we'll catch him.

We approach the turnpoint down below 3,000' and I scoot under a cloud street just before the turnpoint that turns out to be barely working. Hansjoerg is lower and not getting up. Dave and I are barely climbing.

Hansjoerg is trying the ATOS winglets on today. They seem to negatively effect his performance. We have no trouble gliding with him.

Suddenly we lose GPS coverage. We won’t be able to get the turnpoint if it doesn't return soon. Heck, we can't even find the turnpoint as we don't have an arrow to follow.

After a few minutes of weak climb, the GPS coverage returns and Dave and I can get to the turnpoint. We should have gone there first as there was a thermal there out in the sunlight and not under the clouds. We've scraped off Hansjoerg.

As we climb out at the turnpoint the flex wings start diving at us coming in from the south. Looks like there has been good lift along their flight path. Dave and I head out and find good lift all the way to the next turnpoint 25 miles to the south. We are on our own high over the Green Swamp.

Making the turnpoint south of Dade City and getting up at the west side of the Green Swamp, we are sitting pretty at over 6,000' and at cloud base. We now have to cross the Green Swamp going east for ten miles. It turns out to be one long glide with no lift over the Swamp.

We get so low that Dave drains the ballast from his ballast tanks. He's down below 1,500'just as we get to the east edge of the swamp.

I've been watching a cloud just to the north of our line and I find a little bit of lift under it and call Dave over. We climb out to cloud base 17 miles from Wallaby.

There is pretty much of a cloud street back to Wallaby and we just take it home.

We've been getting reports all along from Belinda at goal. The flex wing pilots who started much earlier are coming into goal (Of course, Brian is there long before anyone. This will completely screw up the scoring for rigid wing hang gliders by devaluing their times to goal and not putting much differentiating between other rigid wing pilots.)

Gerolf will win the day by 9 minutes. I remember seeing him launch early. He was on a mission.

Paris Williams will blast around the trees to come in low and fast for third for the day.

Having jettisoned his ballast Dave comes in a little behind me. Much later Steve Elkins makes it, then much later Hansjoerg, and finally just as goal closes Michael Hubert comes in. Another all ATOS finish at goal.

A total of 27 pilots make goal (much better on the goal crew after 73 yesterday).

Here are the preliminary results (I pull these off the goal keepers time sheets, so I'm unsure of the pilot's start time):

Class I:

Gerolf – Litespeed
Manfred – Laminar
Paris – Talon
Zwecky – Laminar
Tomas – Litespeed
Andre – Laminar
Chris Arai – Talon
Nene – Litespeed
Betinho – Litespeed
Reisinger – Laminar

Class II:

Brian – Swift
Davis – ATOS
Dave Sharp – ATOS
Elkins – ATOS
Hansjoerg – ATOS

Second day results:

Class I:

1

Ruhmer, Manfred

Icaro MRX2001

AUT

01:46:22

887

2

RAEMY, Kilian

MOYES Litespeed 4

CHE

01:44:00

863

3

SCHMIDT, Betinho

MOYES Litespeed 4

BRA

01:49:46

843

4

SUCHANEK, Tomas

MOYES Litespeed

CZE

01:49:47

841

5

HEINRICH, Gerolf

MOYES Litespeed

AUT

01:49:58

836

6

WIRDNAM, Gary

Aeros Combat

GBR

01:45:20

830

7

ROTOR, Nene

MOYES Litespeed 4

BRA

01:50:44

826

7

WOLF, Andre

Icaro Laminar

BRA

01:50:44

826

9

MOREIRA, Lincoln

Icaro Laminar Mrx 14

BRA

01:51:24

814

10

REISINGER, Robert

Icaro Laminar 14ST

AUT

01:52:06

805

Class II:

1

PORTER, Brian

BRIGHT Star Swift 135

USA

01:26:56

756

2

TRUTTMANN, Hansjorg

A-I-R Atos

CHE

01:45:39

590

3

MEIER, Richard

A-I-R Atos

CHE

01:49:58

532

4

YOCOM, Jim

A-I-R Atos

USA

01:51:38

521

5

SHARP, Dave

A-I-R Atos

USA

02:01:14

514

5

POSCH, Johann

A-I-R Atos 140

AUT

02:01:14

514

Full results (when available) at www.wallaby.com.

Flytec Championships 2001 - Results »

Sun, Apr 22 2001, 9:00:01 pm GMT

Flytec Championships 2001

Flytec Championships 2001|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr

Overall in Class II:

1 Porter, Brian Bright Star Swift Usa
2 Elkins, Steve Air Atos Gbr
3 Straub, Davis Air Atos Usa
4 Posch, Johann Air Atos Aut
5 Bowen, Campbell Flight Design Ghostbuster Usa

Class I:

1 Ruhmer, Manfred Icaro Laminar Mr 2001 Aut 3326
2 Heinrichs, Gerolf Moyes Litespeed Aut 3229
3 Schmitz, Betinho Moyes Litespeed Bra 3136
4 Williams, Paris Wills Wing Talon Usa 2913
5 Zweckmayr, Josef Icaro Laminar Mr 2001 Aut 2718
6 Suchanek, Thomas Moyes Litespeed Cze 2682
7 Hazlett, Brett Moyes Litespeed Can 2633
8 Lee, Jim Wills Wing Talon Usa 2563
9 Wirdnam, Gary Aeros Combat Gbr 2451
10 Castle, Kari Moyes Litespeed Usa 2428

Complete (but not updated, yet) results at flytec.com.

Discuss "Flytec Championships 2001 - Results" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Flytec Championships – Round Four »

Fri, Apr 20 2001, 9:00:00 pm GMT

Aeros Combat|Bobby Bailey|Bo Hagewood|Brett Hazlett|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Dave Sharp|David Sharp|Davis Straub|Flytec Championships 2001|Gerolf Heinrichs|Glen Volk|Icaro Laminar MR|Jim Lee|Johann Posch|John "Ole" Olson|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Kari Castle|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Mulholland|Martin Harri|Oleg Bondarchuk|Paris Williams|Steve Elkin|Steve Elkins|Tip Rogers

Tomas sneaks around the lead gaggle to win the day!

We have a conundrum during the task committee. There are two different forecasts for the winds. One says winds at 20 mph out of the east and the other says 10 mph. The task committee can't decide what to do. We look outside and the winds look light out of the southeast.

We send Bobby Bailey up in a tug and he reports 8-10 mph out of the southeast with the cloud base at 4,500'. There are cu's every where (except on the forecasts).

We decide on a 92 mile task due north, so we'll have a cross wind most of the way.

The launch window opens at 1 PM with the first start time at 1:30 so things start happening really quick. The last start time is 2:15, so they only have an hour and fifteen minutes to get everyone in the air and high enough (cloud base) to get the last start gate (which most people want anyway).

Bo gets launched first and takes the first start time. The ground crew and the tug pilots get going right away and the field goes bananas as everyone realizes that they need to go right now. Quiet one minute, the next the place is blasting with engine noise.

Just before 2:15 there are almost a hundred pilots at cloud base or in cloud base 4 miles north of Quest. It is hard making sure that you are high but not too high at the start time and at the start circle circumference. We are near 6,000'.

At 2:15 it is a race straight north as we head toward Leesburg and the lakes to the northeast. We turn to go up wind a bit, but it looks like there won't be any clouds or action down wind of the lakes to our north.

I'm a bit behind today so I get to see the action. Manfred and Betinho are on the left side of the spread of pilots. Tomas and Martin Harri are pushing more up wind to the right and east. I'm following them.

I watch Betinho and Tip Rogers in an ESC. Tip started earlier and is taking a thermal and drifting to the west. I focus my attention on Betinho as he begins to search an area and as he hits something I go toward him. Tomas and Martin will find something in a minute and I see them going up also. But, we are in lift and there are cu's every where around us.

I'm thinking that we had better head a bit to the west because the wind off the lakes is cutting the lift to our east. I'm also thinking that we probably want to be on the west side of the Ocala National Forest so that we should fly to the north west.. It's no fun going down in the forest.

I drive west to the next cloud as soon as we get up and the rest of the pilots seem to think that this is a good idea. We are rewarding with strong lift to cloud base. Now we've got a bit of a blue hole to the north, but lots of open areas that look like thermal producers below.

I lose track of Martin and Tomas, although I do spot some pilots further to our east heading up the west, and downwind side of the lakes. They look low.

We pass over some rigid wing pilots who've gone down earlier west of Leesburg, and it is slow getting up to Bellview. Still we don't get below 2,000' and the gaggle is hanging tight.

Once we get north of the lakes, we get into better lift and start getting back above 5,000'.

I'm not able to stay in front like I did on the previous day, so I have to do a bit of following from below. Still it is possible to stay up with the lead gaggle, and even get in front a few times to lead. I seem to like to be in the lead even if sometimes it is a bit costly in strategic points.

We get strong lift all along the Ocala National Forest and are ripping up the sky. The lift has been strong and often quite a bit too strong and turbulent. I think that courage is the word for the day. I have to keep calling up my courage to get back into rough thermals, and I'm sure that I'm not the only one. I just don't want to hit anyone.

At thirty miles out I'm out in front with Betinho and Manfred but a few hundred feet below them. I can't see them so I miss it when they start working something. We are in a big blue hole and I have to keep running to the clouds to the northeast. I find 800 fpm in a smooth thermal at 1,600' over a clear-cut area. The clouds now fill in to the north all the way toward goal (or it looks that way from here).

The lead guys get away from me as I make the low save even as I climb out to 7,400' in strong lift. Dave Sharp and Johann Posch take the lead and get high twenty miles out. Manfred, Reisinger, Zwecky, Gerolf, and Betinho are now a bit behind them to the east.

Dave and Johann head toward goal at Keystone airport thinking that they will find something within the next twenty miles. Brian Porter goes with them. Thirteen miles out they are down to 1,500' with Brian 500' over their heads. He picked the wrong folks to pimp off of.

Manfred and crew are doing much better just a couple of minutes in front of me. I can now follow them from back and below.

We find good lift all along the way unlike Dave and Johann who get stuck. Brian is able to get away from them and get to goal.

Sixty pilots make goal. Glen Volk and Chris Arai head for goal when the Tangent tells them to go, but the air doesn't cooperate and produce no net negative lift. They land 3 miles from goal.

Bo makes it into goal first with the first start time. His speeds are a bit slow, so he doesn't get a lot of bonus points, but he does get enough to put him in third place.

Tomas and Martin make it fast to goal beating the rest of us by almost 20 minutes. They flew on their own and must have found some better lift lines out over the National Forest.

Steve Elkins on an ATOS left 15 minutes earlier, had a good run and got the early bonus points to place first for the day in Class II. Brian and Mark have ballasted up their gliders so that they wouldn't be able to foot launch or land them, and they used the high weights to their advantage on this strong day.

Here are the results:

Day 4:

Class I:

1

Suchanek, Thomas

Moyes Litespeed

Cze

02:30:56

897

2

Harri, Martin

Moyes Litespeed

Che

02:33:06

866

3

Hagewood, Bo

Wills Wing Talon

Usa

02:57:54

792

4

Ruhmer, Manfred

Icaro Laminar Mr 2001

Aut

02:49:36

763

5

Heinrichs, Gerolf

Moyes Litespeed

Aut

02:49:40

760

6

Schmitz, Betinho

Moyes Litespeed

Bra

02:49:42

758

7

Zweckmayr, Josef

Icaro Laminar Mr 2001

Aut

02:50:34

752

8

Reisinger, Robert

Icaro Laminar Mr 2001

Aut

02:50:49

749

9

Hazlett, Brett

Moyes Litespeed

Can

02:52:10

742

10

Bondarchuk, Oleg

Aeros Combat

Ukr

02:54:28

730

Class II:

1

Elkins, Steve

Air Atos

Gbr

02:49:54

937

2

Porter, Brian

Bright Star Swift

Usa

02:49:08

928

3

Mulholland, Mark

Bright Star Millennium

Usa

02:49:28

914

4

Yocom, Jim

Air Atos

Usa

02:49:54

906

5

Straub, Davis

Air Atos

Usa

02:51:24

892

 Overall:
Class I:

1

Ruhmer, Manfred

Icaro Laminar Mr 2001

Aut

2691

2

Heinrichs, Gerolf

Moyes Litespeed

Aut

2554

3

Schmitz, Betinho

Moyes Litespeed

Bra

2506

4

Zweckmayr, Josef

Icaro Laminar Mr 2001

Aut

2470

5

Suchanek, Thomas

Moyes Litespeed

Cze

2453

6

Hazlett, Brett

Moyes Litespeed

Can

2441

7

Lee, Jim

Wills Wing Talon

Usa

2396

8

Williams, Paris

Wills Wing Talon

Usa

2369

9

Wolf, Andre

Icaro Laminar

Bra

2319

10

Castle, Kari

Moyes Litespeed

Usa

2275

Class II:

1

Porter, Brian

Bright Star Swift

Usa

2844

2

Straub, Davis

Air Atos

Usa

2682

3

Sharp, David

Air Atos

Usa

2568

4

Elkins, Steve

Air Atos

Gbr

2529

5

Posch, Johann

Air Atos

Aut

2473

Complete results at www.flytec.com.

Flytec Championships – Day 1 »

Sat, Apr 14 2001, 8:00:00 pm GMT

Aeros Combat|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Dave Sharp|David Sharp|Davis Straub|Flytec Championships 2001|Gary Wirdnam|Gerolf Heinrichs|Glen Volk|Jim Lee|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark Mulholland|Mike Barber|USHGA

The forecast called for winds 10-15 mph out of the west. The sounding showed moderate thermal strength with consistent winds (in strength and direction) all the way to above cloud base at 12-15 mph out of the west. The task committee went bananas (I'm on the committee so I can critique it), and called a 62 mile task.

First, there is a leg to the north, northwest 21 miles at 325°. Unfortunately that's 12 miles into the wind. Next comes a leg to the northwest, which includes 10 miles downwind. Finally and then a return leg with a few miles downwind.

The idea was to do basically an out and return at 90° to the west wind (can't go east here unless you want to go into Orlando airspace). The leg to the west was thrown in without sufficient thought regarding the strength of the winds and the moderate nature of the thermals.

Flying, we basically take two steps forward and then two steps back. Here's a look at a track log near the first turnpoint, showing the drift.

Later, I asked Mike Barber what he was showing for winds. He said that earlier in the flight he was measuring 14 mph out of the west. Later, around 3 PM, his Tangent showed 20 mph. My Brauniger was showing 12 mph at 240.

Not only did we have a hard time getting any where, because of the strong head winds going to the first turnpoint, but we also couldn't get very high, 3,800' was the highest, and we didn't climb very quickly, with maximum climb rates averaging between 300 to 400 fpm.

Here's a chart of altitude gains going to the first turnpoint.

With all this wind you would have thought that the air would have been very turbulent, but this was not the case. Perhaps do to the light lift, there didn't seem to be any sharp edges to the thermals. It wasn't always easy coring up, but it was possible even from low even in the strong winds.

Many flex wing pilots were only able to make the minimum distance or less with 40 out of 70 pilots given the minimum distance. Six of the twenty-nine rigid wing pilots got the minimum distance.

I was flying with Dave Sharp and I first heard from him on the radio 13 miles out from the first turnpoint. I was 18 miles out. Half an hour later both he and I were 13 miles out from the first turnpoint. Gives you an idea of the degree of difficulty the task presented.

As we got closer to the first turnpoint, the proportion of rigid wings increased. Many flex wing pilots had gone down before the first thermal on the course. Brian Porter in the Swift, Mark Mullholland in the canopied Millennium and Greg Dinnauer in the faired Millennium were all together 12 miles out.

Manfred, Dave Sharp and Gerolf made the first turnpoint. Gerolf lands a mile and a half beyond it, Dave lands 5 miles below it, and Manfred is able to make the second turnpoint and get some of the way back.

Given that flex wing most pilots didn't make in the minimum distance, the day was very devalued. Rigid wing pilots got a few more points, but not many, as no one made it half the distance of the task.

The charts below show distance and points in the last two columns.

Class II:

1 Sharp, David Air Atos Usa 27.9 211
2 Porter, Brian Bright Star Swift Usa 23.2 189
3 Straub, Davis Air Atos Usa 22.3 185
4 Yocom, Jim Air Atos Usa 20.0 171
5 Mulholland, Mark Bright Star Millennium Usa 17.7 158
5 Meier, Richard Air Atos Ita 17.7 158
5 Dinaur, Greg Bright Star Millennium Usa 17.7 158

Class I:

1 Ruhmer, Manfred Icaro Laminar Mr 2001 Aut 43.8 131
2 Heinrichs, Gerolf Moyes Litespeed Aut 24.8 102
3 Zweckmayr, Josef Icaro Laminar Mr 2001 Ita 19.4 93
4 Wirdnam, Gary Aeros Combat Gbr 18.6 91
4 Cook, Steve La Mouette Topless Gbr 18.6 91
6 Walbec, Richard Wills Wing Talon Fra 17.9 89
6 Lee, Jim Wills Wing Talon Usa 17.7 89
6 Hollidge, Andy La Mouette Topless Gbr 17.7 89
9 Arai, Chris Wills Wing Talon Usa 17.6 88
10 Raemy, Kilian Moyes Litespeed Che 17.4 87
10 Barber, Mike Moyes Litespeed Usa 17.4 87
10 Volk, Glen Moyes Litespeed Usa 17.3 87

Complete results at www.flytec.com.

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The Florida meets should be hot

Mon, Feb 19 2001, 4:00:00 am EST

Hansjoerg Truttmann|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Manfred Ruhmer

There is no Bassano competition. Manfred, Tomas, Gerolf, Betinho, Andre, Attila, and Zwecky are among the many other top pilots are scheduled to come and compete in the Flytec Championship and the Wallaby Open. The Swiss are sending a team including Hansjoerg Truttmann on his ATOS. We expect many European and Brazilian pilots.

This could be the most hotly contested hang gliding competition in many years, exceeding the level of competition seen recently at the European and pre-World championships. Given the good dry conditions currently seen in Florida, we may have the most hard fought and tightly contested competitions ever staged in the US.

The flight parks are going to have to be at their best as they will be put to the test by the large contingent of high level (and highly competitive) pilots. They have both performed admirably in the past in high stress circumstances, and we can expect that they will get everyone in the air fast and safely.

Still, it would be a good idea of the parks to educate pilots early on, before they arrive, about how the launch procedures will be carried out, how tasks will be chosen, and how to prepare themselves. We could also hope that they would be able to share resources so that there are plenty available to get everyone away in a timely fashion.

Everyone wins from these two meets. I would hope that the hang gliding community can get a positive PR shot in the arm from the high level of competition.

I'll be reporting on the preparations taking place in Florida for the upcoming competitions over the next weeks.

Wallaby Open

Sat, Feb 17 2001, 1:00:02 pm EST

André Wolfe|Joe Bostik|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Manfred Ruhmer|Mike Barber|Robert Reisinger|Wallaby Ranch

Wallaby Ranch «fly» writes:

The Wallaby Open is sanctioned.

Joe Bostik said there is some doubt whether his friend Tomas will actually be able to make the Florida meets (we hope he can).

He and Manfred have been registered in the Wallaby Open for weeks along with Gerolf Heinrich, Josef Zweckmayr, Robert Reisinger, Atilla Bertok, Andre Wolf, Mike Barber, Betinho Schmitz (the entire World Champion Brazilian team) and (including the waiting list) well over 100 other pilots from around the world.

George spins his ATOS

Tue, Aug 29 2000, 2:00:01 pm GMT

ATOS|George Ferris|Harry Sudwischer|James "Jim" Zeiset|Mark Bennett|spin|Worlds 1999

George Ferris sent to the rigid wing list and to me a report on his spin and crash of his ATOS. I have included it here. I have also included some updates from George, responses to a few comments, and additional comments. George wrote:

I have over 200 hours on my Atos and previous to this incident I have never experienced a tendency for the Atos to spin. There was no warning, like previously stated by other pilots. I had just initiated a hard turn to the left, high bank, with a lot of speed when the glider began spinning to the left.

(editor's note: I ask George: "What exactly do you mean by a hard turn?" He responded: "Going from a neutral position (bar centered) then jamming the bar to one side and push out slightly."

Personally, I have only once jammed the bar to one side on my ATOS when I had little ground. One day in Italy at the 1999 Worlds, I tried to whip the ATOS around like I would a flex wing as I came into land, jamming the bar out to one side, and pushing out. The ATOS turned real quickly, it also slid (or appeared to) on the inside wing. I had to jam the bar in the other direction to get it straightened out and level over the lz. I landed on my wheels with my hands still on the base tube. I haven't tried this particular maneuver since at any altitude.

I will move the bar to one side quickly, but I really don't push out. I certainly don't move my weight to one side as I'm just trying to deploy the spoileron quickly and not add weight shifting to the mix. I have never had the problem that George discovered with his ATOS other than the one day in Italy.)

The glider spun twice in a nose down attitude then went into a vertical dive, which it quickly recovered from.

(editor's note: I asked George, "How high a bank?" George responded:

"I meant to do a 90°, but it went past 90 because the inside wing stalled. When I first initiated the turn I felt the outside wing rise faster than normal. I thought it had entered lifting air, which may have happened, but it kept accelerating because I was entering, or entered a spin immediately."

George had initiated a very high-banked turn. Personally, I have never tried to initiate or even continue banking up to 90° or anywhere near it. In the strongest, smallest thermals, I couldn't be over 60°. Therefore, I haven't had occasion to experience what George has.)

This all happened about 200 ft above the trees in front of the ridge I was flying. It happened so fast that I felt that I was just along for the ride.

Did my inputs help the glider to recover? I have no idea, they were all reflexes, there was no time to think about it. It was all over in a matter of seconds.

When I recovered from the dive I was facing into the ridge 20 feet over the trees tops with no air speed and no room to pull in for recovery. If I had another 50 ft to spare I would have been able to get the glider flying again but that wasn't the case.

The glider stalled and I plowed through the treetops ending up on the ground. The only injury I received was from my knee hitting a rock as I made contact with the ground.

I really have no explanation on why the glider entered the spin after I initiated the turn other than I may have pushed out more than I normally would but I'm not sure. The snap turn at high speed, that I meant to do, I had done many times before.

The only advice I can give is not to initiate any sudden inputs, particularly at high speeds( 40+ mph), when in close proximity to the ground. I consider myself lucky, even though my glider is destroyed, to come out of this with a swollen knee.

Well, has anyone got any spare D-tubes and ribs for sale?

Dennis, <catapult@bendnet.com>, writes into the rigid wing list:

"Aw c'mon Suds, don't do an "unbiased journalist" number on us. Your CBRW bashing is no more credible for than Davis's Mill bashing. I was among the ranters and ravers back when Davis was claiming it was impossible to spin or overspeed a CBRW but the facts are out there now so let's try to be objective."

Oz Report readers are free to go back and check the record. During the time that I was reporting on the spins of the Millennium, and for almost a year afterwards, there were no reports of any rigid wing hang gliders spinning. My personal experience with the Exxtacy was that I could not spin it. The only spins that have been reported recently on the Exxtacy (we didn't have Ghostbusters and ATOSes at the time) have been deliberate spins. It still appears to be very difficult to get an Exxtacy to spin.

At the time of my reports on the spinning Millenniums, it was clear to me that there was a very distinct dividing line between the Millennium and hang gliders. Part of that distinction was the fact that the Millennium was easy to spin, and hang gliders, by and large, were very difficult to spin. Therefore, hang glider pilots, unlike ultralight sailplane pilots, did not have to be concerned with spin and spin recovery. This was another sharp dividing line between two separate pilot communities.

Now, that is no longer the case. Because the control frames of the Ghostbuster and the ATOS have been moved back relative to the Exxtacy, these hang gliders can be spun by pushing out. Pilots who fly these hang gliders, need to know something that only sailplane pilots needed to know before.

Harry Sudwischer<skywild@mindspring.com> writes into the rigid wing list:

"Davis keeps harping on his dislike for rough or sharp edged thermals . His love of big smooth lift Florida Style comes through in a lot of his writing. His instinctive dislike and avoidance of rough air while flying his ATOS is right on the money. All you CBRW pilots should take heed and modify your flying habits accordingly. You could do worse than emulating the "barefoot one" .Remember nothing succeeds like success :-)"

I, of course, have often thought about this issue. Is my dislike of rough air a function of my glider? Am I just a wimp? Having tasted the fruits of great flat land flying does the rough air often present in the mountains just seem second rate by comparison? Or am I getting older and wiser?

This is a very emotional issue for long time hang glider pilots, so even if I try to present a rational perspective, it threatens many entrenched feelings, life style choices, etc., etc. Recently I had an opportunity to exchange a few e-mail messages with Mark Bennett. He wrote how he hadn't moved to Houston in part because of the lack of access to the mountains for flying. He thought it was quite ironic considering our world record encampment in Zapata, and then the Lone Star Meet in Hearne, right next to Houston, and how great the flying was there.

Today I was talking with Jim Zeiset, long time Colorado mountain pilot, who spoke about how great the flying was in Hearne. He then said that he cut short a possible cross-country flight in the mountains, that he would have taken if the other pilot had stayed up. After that pilot went down he felt that it wasn't worth the effort to fly in the trashy air even though he had a retrieval driver.

As I recall my most vivid memory of how much I enjoyed the smoother air, was in fact not at a time that I was contrasting a mountain site with a flat land site, but rather the contrast between two gliders. I was in Australia flying a 166 Moyes Xtralight that I bought from Moyes. The glider was really too big for me, but it sure was fun to fly. I loved how it felt in the air, and had my longest flight up to that point on it, on a day that the task at Hay was called at 142 miles.

By the time that we got to Forbes for the next meet, by Icaro Laminar ST showed up, and I got a chance to fly a little racecar of the glider. The contrast was stark, especially because it had been so soon after my Moyes glider. It scared me a bunch of times. It just wasn't as enjoyable to fly it, even though I could penetrate a lot better with it.

Later I took this glider to the King Mountain meet, and scared myself a bunch more. For example, I continued to fly there on the day that the US number 1 pilot refused to fly his Laminar ST.

After thousands of hang gliding flights, my preference is to fly in conditions that are enjoyable. Others are free to make their own choices. I "harp" about flying in fun conditions because I want pilots to be aware that it is OK to fly in enjoyable conditions. You don't have to prove your "manhood" ever time you take to the air. That's not the point, as far as I'm concerned.

So I leave it up to the reader to determine whether they think I "harp" on the fun air of Texas, Kansas, or Florida, because I fly an ATOS. Maybe, but not likely.

Discuss "George spins his ATOS" at the Oz Report forum   link»

The Europeans

Sat, Jul 22 2000, 6:00:00 pm EDT

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Gordon Rigg|John Aldridge|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Justin Needham|Kathleen Rigg|Manfred Ruhmer|Oleg Bondarchuk|Richard Walbec|Robert Reisinger

John Aldridge, «HGMeethead» writes:

The best looking day of the comp so far and a 82 kilometer elapsed time race from Venet to goal at Gnadenwald.

The start was delayed due to endless discussions about the previous day's events, but the task eventually got under way and there were no mishaps at launch today. The Austrians were among the early starters and soon moved off. It was obvious that cloudbase was at a reasonable height above the crest line and reports of a 3200 metre cloudbase soon came over the airwaves. However it was not smooth, particularly close to the mountains, and pilots had to work hard in the air. Despite this it was a good day at 38 flex wings and 8 rigids made goal.

Manfred was first in goal again but Richard Walbec, who had started 15 minutes later, came in two minutes later. In third place was Robert Reisinger, then Oleg Bonderchuk and Francoise Mocellin - a good day for the French. So:

1. Walbec – FRA
2. Ruhmer – AUT
3. Reisinger – AUT
4. Bonderchuk – UKR
5. Mocellin – FRA
6. Olsson – SWE
7. Ploner – ITA
8. Baeumer – D
9. Alonzi – FRA
10. Herrmann – CH
14. Ron Richardson
20. Justin Needham
23. Ian Miskin
46. Kathleen Rigg
49. Gordon Rigg
73. Carl Wallbank
Overall:

1. Ruhmer
2. Reisinger
3. Bonderchuk
4. Zweckmayr
5. Plattner
6. Harri
7. Alonzi
8. Herrmann
9. Heinrichs
10. Walbec

In the women's comp both Francoise Mocellin and Corinna Sweigerhausen have closed on Kathleen Rigg with Francoise moving into second place - but still 500 points behind Kathleen

Christof Krazner won the rigid class task, but was slower than the first eight of the flex wings. However it was enough to move him up to 4th place, he has one more day to get into the medals.

2. Hoffman-Gruber – D
3. Bussinger – CH
4. Ramauf – AUT
5. Gaetano - ITA

Overall rigid:

1. Hoffman-Guber
2. Bussinger
3. Gaetano

The team scores still have to be produced manually and are not available at this point.

The European Championships »

Thu, Jul 13 2000, 7:00:00 pm EDT

Christof Kratzner|Gerolf Heinrichs|John Aldridge|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Justin Needham|Manfred Ruhmer|Oleg Bondarchuk|Robert Reisinger

John Aldridge, «HGMeethead», writes:

Warm front approaching from the NW. 5/8 SC, CU temporary 2/8, initially below rest line but rising up to 2200m. A little better in the afternoon but rain due in the evening. Thermals temporary and weak from 11 AM High cloud (from the approaching front) will cut these off in the afternoon. Valley winds 10 - 20 kph (6 to 12 mph), local gusts to 25 (16 mph). 30 (19 mph) at 2000m and moderate turbulence in lee rotor.

Tomorrow wet. Media forecasts show rain thru' till Saturday.

There is a possibility of a short task in the Zillertal valley so an early start. Both the organisers and the pilots are keen to get some scores on the board.

On arrival cloud was below launch and most pilots did not seem to think a task was possible. At noon Roland Vikutetch set a 46.7 km (29 miles) task from the Zillertal launch, north up the valley and returning to Mayrhofen before a short glide into goal.

Only 2 start tarps and a short launch window to get a task in before the expected high cloud cover. Most pilots still did not believe a task was possible a rigged lethargically in expectation of eventually making a sled ride to the bottom through occasional gaps in the cloud.

Just before the window opened at 1 p.m. a wind dummy showed that there were thermals but as soon as the window opened it looked unsoarable again. By 2 PM nobody had launched and the window was expended from 2:30 closing to 3 PM.

At 2:08 the first pilot (Richard Walbec) launched and found a thermal almost immediately. Francoise Mocellin followed, missed that one and started to core another. People woke up. The first 20 pilots to launch were soon doing well and heading off for the start gate.

Launch conditions then deteriorated and there were problems on the lowest and shallowest of the three launch points. A trickle of pilots continued to get away from the other two points, but Corrina Sweigerhausen's failed launch slowed things up on the low one.

No planks got away with the early gaggles and later an ATOS crashed at the lower launch where there were also periods when conditions were unlaunchable. As the extended window closed there were over 20 pilots still trapped on the hill. Steve Cook managed to get his Top Secret off the lower launch with 2 minutes to spare. Christof Kratzner followed him and was the last to launch into a pretty dreary sky. Justin Needham and Ian Miskin were among those trapped in launch queues while one launch point was empty of pilots. The Brits paid dearly for the loss of their non-flying team leader.

Along the course things were better. As nobody had launched before the second tarp this had effectively turned into a straight race and Manfred Ruhmer was the first in goal. With Gerolf Heinrichs in second the Austrians were looking strong, with 4 to count the arrival of Rupert Platner, Josef Zweckmayer and Robert Reisinger in goal ensured they won the day. The French had 3 in goal while the Germans only managed one and the Brits had to sweat.

Gordon was first Brit across the line and it seemed certain that Carl Wallbank would follow. Kathleen had chosen the "wrong" side of the valley on the return leg and began to look doubtful. Grant Crossingham was already down 4km short of the turnpoint and Ron Richardson, at just 50 ft below Carl, had been unable to use the weakie that got Carl up at the first turnpoint and he landed there.

Carl and Cookie then met up in what they describe as a better thermal than anything they encountered at the pre-worlds in Spain.

(editor's note: The reader might be interested in some of my previous Oz Reports reporting on the pre-Worlds site in Spain. Just search for Spain or pre-Worlds or look through the 1999 index.)

Cookie effectively glided home from there on his plank while Carl had to fly more cautiously and followed him in 10 minutes later.

With all pilots accounted for and Kathleen still flying but with no radio contact, it was with great relief that we saw her heading back for the second turnpoint and arriving in goal shortly there after.

The first class 2 glider in goal was Marcus Hoffman-Gubin from Germany with Swiss pilot Gothard Menzi second (both on ATOS) with Steve Cook in third place.

Met man Rudolf Kaltenbock was seen walking around the goal field looking extremely smug - especially as we could see a blanket of cloud to the west and the rain he had forecast falling on Innsbruck.

The short distance and high number of pilots stuck on launch devalued the task and Manfred got 585 points. Gerolf is second and Oleg third. Team results have not been published but it looks like Austria well in the lead from France and then UK.

Magic Wallaby

Tue, Apr 25 2000, 9:00:04 am GMT

Andre Wolf|Wallaby Open 1999

Andre Wolf writes:

I came here last year to fly the Wallaby Open expecting just another normal hang gliding competition. What I found was much more. The atmosphere of the Ranch amazed me. I simply felt as if I had found the best place on earth to be. The friendship and happiness were immediately contagious. My first thought was that I could never miss this meet from then on. I also remembered something I read about the Ranch: “You may never want to leave.”

This year these thoughts have even grown inside me. I feel that, in years to come, when I shall retire from competition I will still find myself a one-man comp and for sure it will be Wallaby. Even later, when I could not fly anymore, I would like to be here to help people feel all these emotions that I am feeling now.

At last I would like to address Malcolm a few words and I think I will be speaking on behalf of everybody here in this meet, especially all the Brazilian pilots and families. Malcolm, thank you for creating this little paradise and sharing it with us. Thank you, Malcolm, for all you have been doing for the sport of hang gliding. But above all, thank you Malcolm for being this nice and gentle host we all know that you are.

Discuss "Magic Wallaby" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Big dogs at the Florida meets

Wed, Mar 15 2000, 3:00:03 pm EST

Allan Barnes|André Wolfe|Betinho Schmitz|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Dave Sharp|Davis Straub|Ghostbuster|Hansjoerg Truttmann|Jim Lee|Joe Bostik|Johann Posch|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Manfred Ruhmer|Mark "Gibbo" Gibson|Mark Poustinchian|Mike Barber|Oleg Bondarchuk|Paris Williams|Richard Walbec|Robin Hamilton|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

The Florida meets have proven quite attractive to the top pilots. And since the two meets are only a day apart we expect pilots who attend the Wallaby Open, will most likely go up to the ACC meet also.

I've asked Malcolm and G.W for the names of the highest-ranking pilots who are coming to their meets. Here's what I've learned so far. The number following their name is their Word (WPRS) ranking.

The Wallaby Open:

In Class II:

Brian Porter (2), Johnny Carr (on a Ghostbuster and not a Swift) (4), Hansjoerg Truttman (ATOS) (5), Davis Straub (ATOS) (6), and Johann Posch (ATOS) (9). Also Jim Zeiset (18), Gibbo (Ghostbuster) (21), Campbell Bowen (Ghostbuster) (24), and Mark Poustinchian (Ghostbuster). Dave Sharp (ATOS) (1), according to Malcolm, is a strong maybe. I've heard that he won't be able to come.

In Class I:

Betinho Schmitz (1), Andre Wolf (3), Joel Rebechhi (4), Oleg Bondarchuck (5), Jim Lee (6), Manfred Ruhmer (8), Ron Richardson (11), Richard Walbec (13), Steve Cook (14), Sandy Dittmar (15) Robin Hamilton (20), Mike Barber (24), Chris Arai (28), Tony Marty (34), Pedro Matos (36), Luiz Niemeyer (40), Luis Rizo (41), and Gustavo Saldanha (50) have committed to the Wallaby Open. Joe Bostik, former US National Champion will also be there along with Paris Williams. Malcolm says that Allan Barnes (2), Steve Moyes (7), Gerard Thevenot (16), and Josef Zweckmayr (41) are strong maybes.

GW writes:

I've got over 40 people entered, but the top folks wait until the last minute - especially without the threat of the meet filling up. Quest is BIG and can handle lots of pilots. I expect a 60 –70 pilot show at this point. I've HEARD of ALOT of people coming – they just haven't told me for sure. Not unusual.

Hmmm, maybe folks should contact GW soon, as it looks like it is filling up.

At the ACC

In Class II:

Brian Porter (2), Davis Straub (ATOS) (6), and Johann Posch (ATOS) (9). Also Jim Zeiset (18), Gibbo (Ghostbuster) (21), Campbell Bowen (Ghostbuster) (24), and Mark Poustinchian (Ghostbuster). I'll bet some of the other rigid wing pilots that go to Wallaby will go to the ACC also.

In Class I:

Oleg Bondarchuck, Jerzy Rossignol, Joe Bostik, Tony Marty, Paris Williams, and I assume a bunch of others that make it to the Wallaby Open.

You can sign up for either or both meets. Just go to http://www.wallaby.com and http://www.justfly.com.

Gibbo spins his own tale

Fri, Mar 10 2000, 3:15:01 pm GMT

Mark "Gibbo" Gibson|Mary Ellen Fennessey|Mike Eberle|Russell "Russ" Brown|Sarah Bowman|Steve Kroop|Wallaby Open 1999

Mark Gibson, <GIBBOGEAR1@aol.com>, writes:

March 9, 2000, was the day the Georgia boarder was finally crossed!! Flying my spaceship (Ghostbuster) near cloud base looking down at the St. Mary's River was a very special moment for me.

(editor's note: Perhaps Gibbo is remembering ruefully another space ship that took away first place from him on the last day of competition at the 1999 Wallaby Open.)

I'm so busy now in my Trike shop that I'm only able to get out and fly on 100+ mile looking days and so many other pilots can shoot for it daily, luck would be on my side today though!

Mike Eberle arranged a small Ghostbuster get together at Quest Air and 4 of us showed up. I was of course a little late. Mark P, Campbell Bowman and Steve Kroop were already set up and preparing their harnesses. I begged them to wait so we could fly together, but they just laughed at me.

The day was looking so awesome by now that all of us thought we had an honest chance of making the border. Mike Eberle put his money where his mouth is and announced he would pay $1000 dollars to every GB that made the crossing today. Hmm, $1000. Steve Kroop (Flytec man) upped the pot with $300 or a new map GPS for the pilot who used a Flytec vario. Wow, lets go!!!

Quest Air has been getting a large share of the long flights this summer, because pilots are able to get on the unseasonably dry plains north of the flight park earlier, and thus can fly on the fastest part of the course line longer. We were taking off a little before noon and the clouds to the north look like 3:00 PM!

(editor's note: These plains are usually known as swamps.)

I launched last, but quickly caught the other GB's after getting released in a 800fpm boomer straight to cloud base. I pull in the flaps and go on 45mph glide…wow I'm already flying faster then best glide and its not even noon? Slow down Gibbo, I warn myself don't get to excited this early and bomb out!!!

Campbell and I break away a bit, he's in a bit of a racing mood too, so our S2F stays high. We make time to Ocala only getting to 1500 agl once and on more then a few occasions flying wing tip to wing tip in 800 fpm lift right to cloud base (Love the sound of my screaming Flytec!) On one climb we both whited out at the same time. My last view of Campbell he was letting off flaps and retracting them preparing for a dive to the NW. I was doing the same and diving for the NE.

(editor's note: Campbell and Gibbo are big boys, and have the ballast to outrun the other two featherweights.)

After Ocala, Campbell and I split up, he takes a route pretty much over I-75 slightly to the west. I choose to fly even more to the west under a nice line of clouds. When I get to them I'm a little late and they have spread out shadowing the ground. I end up making a real slow climb from 1200 agl back to cloud base.

(editor's note: In a southwest wind Gibbo has positioned himself for a downwind run to the Georgia border.)

I get some good air after this slow point and find myself SW of Gainesville at the beginning of a convergence line that is directly on course to the Georgia finger. For the next 60 miles I pretty much stay between 6100 and 4500 ft! As I'm cruising, I keep looking back to see if any other pilots are making it too, but the clouds are drying up behind me as fast as the are forming ahead. I'm finally fast enough to stay on the front edge of the convergence, unlike so many other attempts when I missed it and bombed out in the blue.

I ask my Dad, Albo, to get ahead of me and check out the LZ's across the state line because on the map it looks like only trees. He reports palmettos and slash piles for LZ's - not really desirable for a carbon space ship!

Luck would continue for me though and I would stay pretty high until St. George, Georgia, at this point I'm down to 2000 ft and its blued out every where. I start searching for a LZ. To the NW of town I spot a green field, awesome! When I get there, of course, there's a power line running right thru the middle of it, well beggars can't be choosey. I pull on the flaps and set up for landing gently touching down 140 miles form Quest and at the top of the Georgia finger!

Awesome!!! Getting the record now means I can work in peace while cloud streets are forming over my shop! ha-ah. I would like to thank all the guys that make my flying possible: Mike Eberle and the guys at Flight Designs for building and supplying me with the most advanced rigid wing on the market today (GhostBuster), Steve Kroop for the best and most reliable Vario/GPS combination and the coolest bracket (Flytec), and Russell Brown for the bitchin' 914 tug and awesome flight park (Quest).

Discuss "Gibbo spins his own tale" at the Oz Report forum   link»

The Mexican Millennium Cup

Tue, Feb 1 2000, 6:00:01 pm EST

CIVL|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Glen Volk|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Manfred Ruhmer|Robin Hamilton|Valle de Bravo|Wills Wing|World Pilot Ranking Scheme

There is some hang gliding action in the Northern Hemisphere. The Mexican Millennium Cup is taking place at Valle de Bravo south of Mexico City. Out of the blue I received the first days results from Flavio Tebaldi, «dclaveno», with the note that the "Laminar is alive."

Well, I didn't think it was dead, but from the saturation coverage of the Moyes Litespeed in the Oz Report, you'd think that the Litespeed was the only high performance glider out there. It's nice to see Icaro 2000 and the Austrian national hang gliding team striking back.

You'll notice that the Austrians (and Laminar pilots) hold the first three places. Sandy Dittmar, Wills Wing's Southern Hemisphere pilot, and Venezuelan National team member, was only a few seconds behind Josef Zweckmayr. It's nice to see Manfred at a CIVL-sanctioned meet. Now if enough pilots show up to make the meet worth anything in terms of WPRS points.

It's nice to see Robin Hamilton, English National team member, in the comp. We missed him at the Florida comps last year. Glen Volk, our favorite San Diego commercial real estate broker, is the top US pilot on the first day and he's flying a Moyes Litespeed. Corina Schwigershausen, the current Women's World Champion, and also on a Moyes Litespeed, is doing quite well. Making Jerzy Rossignol on his Aeros Stealth question his manhood, no doubt.

Day one the Mexican Millennium Cup, with the first eleven pilots, all those who made goal: 

1

Ruhmer Manfred

Icaro Laminar 14st

aut

1:38:59

958

2

Reisinger robert

icaro laminar 14st

aut

1:49:08

840

3

zweckmayr josef

icaro laminar 13st

aut

1:49:56

825

4

dittmar sandy

wills wing fusion150

vnz

1:51:10

810

5

Hamilton robin

icaro laminar 14st

gbr

1:51:19

803

6

salgado erick

icaro laminar 14st

mx

2:22:18

639

7

volk glen

moyes litespeed

usa

2:22:41

634

8

schwigershausen corinna

moyes litespeed

ger

2:23:12

629

9

hoffmann oliver

bautek twister

mx

2:40:14

558

10

rossignol jerz

aero stealth

usa

3:34:13

498

10

hunt jeffrey

wills wing fusion150

usa

3:32:54

498

The full results can be found at http://glide.delta.net.mx/eneva/i8f.htm. Click the Hang Gliders button.

Ceara XC

Sat, Jan 29 2000, 11:00:02 pm GMT

Chico Santos|Joel Rebbechi|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr

It started 2 days after the end of the High Level comp. We took a plane to Ceara (a region approx. 3,000 km N from Rio and about 3 driving hours from Fortaleza, a very dry area).

There were 50 pilots, half of these were paragliders, 2 rigid wings and the rest were ‘good old’ hang gliders. The paragliders flew open distance every day and we had race-to-goal, without turnpoints, tasks between 70 and 215 km long.

It was mostly flatland flying with some hills and small mountains. Conditions were great with SE winds and good thermals (between 3-7 m/s). I heard, though, that conditions should be even better during September/October; but the wind would be too strong for the paragliders to take off, during the competition a couple of days were on the limit for them.

This is an excellent area for hang gliding, we had excellent flying., I am sure that on two out of the 5 days, if we would have been allowed to fly an open distance with an early take off time, a +/- 400 km flight could have been possible!

During the competition take off was between 12:00 and 13:00, hang gliders starting after the paragliders (open distance), and start time was the same for every hang glider pilot (first pilot in goal was automatically the winner). I found this a very good setting because it avoided the ‘hanging around’ strategy of waiting on or over take off, even by good flying conditions; but this was only possible because there were not too many competitors.

There were 2 tasks of 180 km, one of 215, another one of 120 and, on the last day, one of 70 km. On the long tasks the average speed of the winner was always over 60 km/h and the fastest one overall of 75 km/h. There was a 100$ price per task for the winner and 50$ for the second place; I earned (ha!) 450$ and Joel Rebbechi 350$ he won one task, came in second in 3 tasks and third on the last one.

I was impressed by the fact that, sometimes, we would take off and fly together on the very beginning; but then we would each take our own direction ending up flying the whole course on our own and only meeting again in goal. On the 215 km task, each of the 3 pilots in goal, Zweckmayr, Joel and me, flew a different route and did not see the others for 4 hours; but still the time difference between the first and last one was not greater than 7 minutes! Often it was just us three in goal with Stellbauer, a German rigid wing pilot.

HG Results: Manfred (1st), Joel (2nd), Zweckmayr (3rd). Chico Santos plans to have this competition again this year, with separate dates for PG and HG, and improvement of the retrieval system. It often took a lot longer to get retrieved, due to the poor road infrastructure of the area, than getting to goal.

This was my last XC competition in 1999 and I am very happy with my results last year, not only because of the World Champion title, but because I was able to win every XC competition I registered to. I hope I will continue to fly this way!

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Manfred’s Rumors

Sat, Jan 29 2000, 11:00:01 pm GMT

Aaron Swepston|Betinho Schmitz|Gianni Hotz

Gianni Hotz at Icaro 2000, <staff@Icaro2000.com>, asked me to publish this issue of Manfred's Rumors in the Oz Report. If you looks at Manfred's comments below about the world pilot ranking system, I think you'll understand why.

Competitions Summary

High Level

It was held in Rio de Janeiro at the São Conrado beach, there were 48 pilots in total, some foreign pilots (approx. 6) and 4 women. The competition consists of man-to-man flights and then landing on the beach. There are two possibilities, depending on the weather conditions; every task is worth 1,000 points.

The idea is that two pilots, starting together, fly around a small course with some (3-4) turnpoints; the fastest pilot gets 900 points. The remaining 100 points are awarded for landing precision (spot landing) and manner (no crashes allowed, not even small ones!). If during the task the weather conditions are not good enough for you to complete the course whoever flies the furthest down the course or whoever is able to stay up for, exactly, 40 minutes gets the 900 points. If both pilots are very close, either in the racing or duration flight, it will be the 100 points available for landing which will allow you to win.

A set of rules have been specifically written for this competition, that makes it possible for the pilots to decide after take off, the best strategy to use. Of course this also means there is the risk of making the wrong decision and blow up your chances of winning. For instance, if you reach the second turnpoint in 30 minutes and there are still 2 more to go and the conditions are not good and getting worse, you may decide to fly back to the landing area and land in time to complete the 40 minutes.

Well, it can be the right choice if your contender does not fly past the second turnpoint and flies longer, or less, than 40 minutes…but if you land and he reaches the third turnpoint or finishes the course, well, then not even the 100 points for landing will help you much!

It is quite complicated and it took us a while to understand, I hope you got the picture. Unfortunately, the weather was not great and often we flew half-way down the course and then decided to make it a duration flight; only on the last day, for the final and semi-final rounds, we had good weather and were able to complete the set courses.

I came in first, second was Beto Schmitz and third Tomas Suchaneck after flying against one another on the final round. Tomas said this would be his last competition with a hang glider, I was sorry to hear this because he is a great sportsman plus can still be a very strong rival in competition, with the right equipment and motivation. I hope to still have several occasions to fly, against or with him, somewhere.

Aaron Swepston was in Rio to attempt breaking last year’s record of 76 consecutive loops by an American known as “Mad Mitch”; unluckily the organization was not able to engage an experienced pilot with a powerful trike who could tow Aaron up to the required height. He did fly some aerobatics, though. There were a lot of spectators on the beach and there was a lot of media coverage, it was a good competition to get sponsors interested in the sport. I really enjoy this competition a lot and hope to go back for it later on this year!

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Rotor Harness »

Thu, Nov 18 1999, 6:00:02 pm EST

André Wolfe|David Glover|Scott Rutledge|weather|Worlds 1999

Nene Rotor from Brazil has come out with a streamlined harness, one of many super slick harnesses that were on display at the Worlds in Italy last July and August.  At the time I wanted to do an article on the various cool harnesses, but I couldn't get enough pictures of pilots in the harnesses.  They all wanted to launch just as I wanted them to line down in their harnesses.

Gerolf Heinrich was flying a cigar-shaped M2 from Austria.  The Woody Valley harnesses from Italy had second skins that fit completely over the pilot and harness.

My Seattle-based flying bud, Scott Rutledge (proud owner of a Ghost Buster) finally got himself a new harness, after flying his rigid wing gliders with a mess of spaghetti.  He's pretty amazed about his new harness in the following article, and I'm hoping other pilots will write in about their new world-class harnesses.  Then you can discount some of the extra enthusiasm from each pilot.

Scott writes:

You may have seen a testimonial about a new harnessin this month's Hang Gliding Magazine (USA).

Andre Wolf, second-place finisher (World Championships), comments, "The Rotor harness is the most aerodynamic and comfortable harness I have ever flown."

I now posses a Rotor harness and let me tell you that this thing is a marvel.  The only protrusions that exist on the outside are one small chest buckle (the other waist buckle is inside the zippered area) and the chute handle.  The four externally accessible pockets for radio, cameras and drogue chute, are behind neoprene covered slits.  Even the aero tow loops that are sewn just below the shoulder straps have slits to allow them to be tucked inside when not in use!

There is a unique system of bungees inside the harness that allow cameras or radios to be attached, such that they will be pulled back into their internal pocket automatically.

A normal sized parachute is accommodated internally and sits inside a Mylar lined pouch just behind the lower back.  The chute handle is easily grabbed with either hand.

Another amazing aspect of this harness is in how many adjustments are possible.  The slider mechanism is a large diameter polypropylene rope, and the attachment to the fiberglass back plate can be repositioned via numerous adjustment holes to accommodate CG. The single point suspension attaches to a plastic tube around the rope, which creates enough friction to hold a head up or head down position, and still allow repositioning by pulling or pushing against the control bar.  The entire slider mechanism is concealed underneath a slit along the back.

Ingress and egress are accomplished with a single zipper track.  Down at the top, and up from the bottom via close and open strings.  Since there is only one zipper track, and no other lateral slits, it is easy to bring the two zippers together to stop any cold air leaks.

The shoulder straps and leg loops are adjustable, and the overall length can be altered via shims in the boot.  For added comfort there are foam inserts for lower leg rests.  These inserts are foam blocks that slide into pockets that can also be adjusted backward and forward.

The outside cloth is heavy-duty Cordura, while the inside material is finer pack cloth.  The foam material between the two layers is relatively thin.  There are huge full length zippered pocket areas inside for storage.  And I even discovered a previously overlooked smaller zippered pocket in the boot area.  Permanently mounting my camelback inside was easily facilitated with a Velcro closure for the top back inside pocket.

Overall harness weight has been kept very low, most likely due to the lightweight back plate, and slider rope.

The bullet shape, which is found to be more aerodynamic than a blunt boot, is held via a foam block in the boot.

The harness is custom built by body measurement, but because it is very adjustable it can easily be made to fit another person, if resale happens.

Since the weather has been so crummy I have only been able to hang in my basement, but even so I find that this harness is very comfortable.

I flew with my last harness for 10 years.  It has become increasingly obvious that with all its suspension lines, it had too much drag.

If you want to purchase a Rotor harness check out:

Contact: David Glover, (706) 657-8485, «david».

Competition »

Sat, Aug 14 1999, 10:00:01 pm GMT

competition

There has been a bit of discussion on the hang gliding mailing list about the state of hang gliding competition in the US. In Europe there is a competition just about every weekend during the flying season. Many countries have league meets which are used to determine the world team.

This is possible because there are just a lot more hang glider pilots per square mile in the middle of Europe, and it is a lot easier to get pilots from one country together for a meet than it is in the big spread out US. There are so many meets with so many countries putting them on and people go to other meets in other countries the way we would go to another very close by state or county.

This is the first year for the Gastein Open. Gastein is but one of 100 small valleys just in Austria, any one of which could put on such a meet. The local pilots organized it and made it into the National championships. They had at least forty sponsors, which made it possible to give good prize money to lots of pilots as well as rent a big LZ and put on a fair at goal with lots of entertainment.

Other than Manfred Ruhmer, the other European pilots are in about the same class as Chris Arai and Jim Lee (even Mike Barber when he isn't flying the worlds this year). We just needed a few more pilots of this caliber. Many of the best US pilots have recently quit flying competitions.

The US could be better at international hang gliding competition, but it would require a great effort on the part of the USHGA, the hang gliding schools, and the pilots to promote the sport and build a base of new pilots strong enough to filter the best to the top. It would require many more regional meets to give them experience, and cheaper national meets to encourage them to travel long distances.

We could certainly do it, but it requires a strong commitment to make hang gliding really successful as a sport in the US. Even in Austria, it is still seen as a hobby for guys who are a bit strange, and not a true sport.

Discuss "Competition" at the Oz Report forum   link»

The Austrian Nationals – there's a reason why it's green in Austria »

Wed, Aug 11 1999, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Austrian Nationals 1999

It's not hard to be green, when it rains all the time. Actually the rain didn't come till later today (and last evening), but it has been raining steady for the last three hours (since 5 PM).

When I drove out of Italy in the morning yesterday from the seaside German resort town of Pesaro it was 94° Fahrenheit (34 Celsius). When I arrived that afternoon in Bad Hofgastein it was 61 (16). Blue with a few cues in Italy, cues everywhere in Austria, many with rain underneath them.

The Austrian Nationals, otherwise known as the Gastein Open, started today, Thursday, with a low cumulus cloud base in the valley, higher cumulus clouds on the mountains tops, and then cirrus above. We looked down to the valley clouds 1000' below us from launch at the top of the ski lift at Dorf Gastein.

The Gastein valley is a little southerly climbing offshoot from a more major east west valley to the north. With Bad Gastein at the top, high luxury built on the steepest hills, Bad Hofgastein, down in the first flat lands, and dedicated to the hot springs, and Dorf Gastein, the place with a bar that encourages hang and paraglider pilots.

There are plenty of large hay fields at the bottom of the valley for landing (along with lots of power lines down the middle of the valley). The valley is less than a mile wide at the base, but with the light winds we experienced today, it was quite manageable.

After setting up next to the ski lift, we waited around looking for any example of lift under the gray ski. It kept coming up the back or east side lightly, which didn't give great promise to the area in front of launch.

There are about 45 pilots signed up for the meet. For a meet that determines the Austrian champion, the organization seemed a bit low key, something on the order of the Chelan XC Classic. They did have a map with turn points, a big pilot number sticker, turn point co-ordinates, and film.

Around one thirty the meet organizers called a short task, 17 miles. First, back up the valley, 7 miles to a lower than launch turnpoint, down the valley to a turnpoint across from launch, but again lower, and than landing at the LZ below launch.

All the instructions about the task were, of course, given in German, and even though I can speak enough to get around, I suddenly felt very Japanese. Fortunately there were pilots who helped out and I got the word about photos and start times (we were timed from launch).

We only had 1 hour and 15 minutes to launch and everyone was crowded together a bit too closely to assure easy access to the launch on the lee side of the mountain (and facing into the valley with the task). Fortunately, the rigid wing's came up the lift a bit late, so we were all in back, located near a launch facing into the wind.

Recognizing my good fortune, especially that fact that this launch was a sturdily built wooden ramp compared with the carpet laid on the grass on the leeward side, I promptly turned my glider around, and became the head of the back line. All one had to do was launch, and immediately turn right to clear the ridge top and get back to the right valley.

I launched soon after Manfred. He had already ignored the few pilots who launched earlier and painfully got up just in front of the leeward launch. He headed right on the course line to find weak but manageable lift on a ridge to the north. Those few of us a bit behind him, took a similar course of action and were rewarded.

Stopping to work whatever lift there was, and there wasn't much, pilots were able to progress up the valley and stay high enough to get the first turn point which was about 1000 feet below launch height. Speed was not an issue, but survival was. There was filtered sunlight in the valley below.

A few pilots made it back to the second turnpoint and goal, include Manfred, Zwecky, and one rigid wing pilot. Over a quarter of the pilots went down in one field on the way to the second turnpoint, including Robert Reisinger (he flies a bit fast). The field sits next to a ridge that funneled the up valley winds which we encountered down low, and produced a good head wind as well as 900 fpm down. It started to rain soon after we landed.

The goal field is outfitted with a few large tents in order to provide entertainment to those sightseers who come by to check out the Gastein Open, which is advertised all over the valley. With at least forty sponsors, and lots of public activities to go along with the meet, it puts hang gliding in a favorable light.

There is a rock band on Saturday night (almost all the music on the radio in Europe is in English) in the LZ, and there is food and beer being served there everyday. This aspect of the organizing is quite advanced.

The weatherman calls for good weather on Saturday. We'll be here tomorrow, Friday, to see if we can get off another task like today. The contest lasts through Sunday.

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The Worlds - reflections »

Sun, Aug 8 1999, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Worlds 1999

You can find the final official results for the 1999 Worlds at: http://www.fivl.it/mondiali/CLASSIFICHE/clasweb.html.

I hope that you didn't mind me going a bit overboard on the last Oz Report and sending out so many pictures. I wanted to give a feeling for the day of celebration. I feel the need to promote the sport and encourage everyone. I do that by trying to let everyone participate, even if it is just by seeing what is going on.

On Sunday after the competition we all marched again in Sigillo and we were saluted at the town square. The flag wavers came from Gubbio and put on a show that we unfortunately missed during the first march. The mayor herself spoke again, as did numerous regional and FAI officials. We got incredible support from Sigillo and from the regional Italian governments and sport agencies.

Here, David Glover, who provided all the digital photos during the Worlds, captures the flag wavers with their flags in the air in front of the Sigillo municipal building across from the central plaza:

Chris Arai mentioned that when they marched in Bishop at the Worlds in Owen Valley no one there even took notice. The Italians were much more into the pageantry and importance (self generated, of course) of the 1999 World Hang Gliding Championships as an event. It was great to be a part of it.

The town of Sigillo is well aware of the draw of Monte Cucco and built a hang glider youth hostel just to the north to provide cheap housing and food to visiting hang and para glider pilots. Adventure tourism for a site that has little other reason to draw foreign tourists other than the fact that it is not full of tourists.

For our third place as a team we (the rigid team) received bronze medals from both the FAI and the FIVL (the Italian hang gliding association). Of course this was a bit corny, but it felt real enough after the fact. We were definitely working hard to win the team championship during the last few days as we realized that we had a very good chance to win.

All the pilots took home a box of regional food specialties provided by the town, and we ended up with actually the best meal I had in Umbria, a lunch for pilots at the Villa Anita park in the center of Sigillo. I wouldn't have minded even a bit of regional dancing during lunch.

This was the first hang gliding world championships with a substantial Class II presence – 25 pilots from eight countries. The meet organizers responded to our interest and definitely made us feel welcome. We were more than happy to complete the tasks with a high percentage and quite a bit quicker (most often) than the flex wing pilots.

I expect that there will be a growing pilot interest in Class II gliders and that we will see them in future meets including the World Championships. I'll be at the Austrian Nationals starting on Thursday, and hope to entice enough Class II pilots to fly to make for a valid championships.

Monte Cucco had been described as quite windy during the previous competitions (1998 pre Worlds and 1999 British Nationals). The organizers moved the competition to a bit later in the year to address this problem. Apparently it worked because we had only three days where wind was even an issue and on two of those days we easily flew tasks (not so easy for me), and one was cancelled but turned out to be very flyable.

It was great to have a long meet, so that there were plenty of opportunities for valid tasks and no great pressure to get a task off every day if the conditions weren't right. The meet director may have cancelled the task on the last day somewhat before he took in all the information provided by the FAI stewards, but this was a relatively minor slip up.

While the Italians are reputed to be disorganized, I found them to be surprisingly well organized, if in an Italian manner. There were many, many volunteers, and everyone seemed to be happy doing their part to help us out. I got to speak with the computer guru and he worked hard to get out the results in spite of difficulties with the servers. On the last day every team leader got a CD-ROM with the results in HTML.

There were no major accidents during the meet. There was one tumble, Christian Ciech, flying a Laminar ST 14 (1999 model). The next day he flew the Laminar ST that was produced for Larry Tudor on the US team (Larry didn't travel to Italy), and decided to keep the sprogs in their factory position. He seemed to do better after that. ☺

In general, Gianni Hotz's boys did well on their Icaro 2000 Laminars, winning the top three places (Betino Schmitz was the third Brazilian in fourth place and he flies a La Mouette Topless glider). Laminars sell well throughout the world except in the US.

Those of who flew the AIR ATOSes really enjoyed them. Obviously they did well as Christof Kratzner won the meet on one, and 7 out of the top 10 finishers flew them. They do have little production/design problems still, especially the number eight rib (I broke my other one doing a perfect landing on the last day), but I'm sure that they will work all these little bugs out. Dave Sharp helped me fix both of the breaks, and they are much stringer now.

It was a great test of the ATOS to fly it at the worlds with the first production runs and do so well. The fact that the company principals were there flying in the Worlds and supporting the pilots speaks to their commitment to and participation in the sport. This is what it takes to make a great glider, and they certainly did that.

I flew the meet with a round base tube and plastic wheels (I usually fly with no wheels and my aero base tube). While this reduced the performance of the ATOS somewhat, it didn't account for any of my poor performance days. I really appreciated the wheels one day (not a task day) when I landed on them after making too quick a turn after my base leg. We had two spare down tubes with us and I don't recall any ATOS pilot requiring any new down tubes. Mine are as straight as they came from the factory.

I hope to fix the wheels so that they can work with my aerodynamic base tube. Perhaps I can make the wheels a bit sleeker also. I really appreciate the extra safety factor provided by wheels, and for me it is worth the tradeoff in performance.

The UK team flew as a team, and as a consequence did well (coming in second). The Austrians who had flown as a team at Forbes in 1998, and won the meet, apparently went without radio communication between pilots, and therefore slipped to third in Class I.

I got to land in some interesting fields in valleys that had no flat bottoms. Landing up hill in light winds was great, even if the vegetation turned out to be above my head. There were lots of oddly placed power lines, but there always seemed to be options, although I was pretty cautious about this aspect of flying here. Only now and then did I find a field that was actually level or flat except at goal.

I only experienced one small bout of substantial turbulence (coming into Mount Subasio on the southeast side) during all the flights, in spite of some often times reasonable winds. The air was quite thick and supportive and the ATOS always felt solid. I did get to see Christof's flex quite a bit as we raced to goal at 70 mph (without speed bumps). He beat me by 4 seconds (as I recall).

The Worlds were quite challenging due to the terrain, winds, and light thermals. Judgment was a big factor, and pilots had to stick together in hard times. There never was a day for all out racing (even if I thought so).

You could often race up and down the spines of the main range until you got near the canyons that cut through the range. If you had to go out in the valley for a turnpoint, either it was great as the valley was working even better, or it was very hard as the only lift was on the mountain sides. Sometimes you went fast, but you had to put on the brakes very often and assess the new conditions carefully.

I had the great fortune to go completely off course line to find lift on a dark day and thereby get almost to goal when many others failed to get the first turnpoint. This has often not worked for me, so it was great when it actually did work.

I learned a lot, and I'm sure that others did. Now I hope that it just sticks with me. The competition is not just for those who end up in first place, but requires the cooperation of everyone. We all agree to come here and test ourselves against ourselves and against each other. Both competitions are happening at once.

The world hang gliding community and their supporters around the world have once against produced a lively and interesting competition with lots of human drama and excitement. I hope that I have communicated a bit of it to you, and will try to improve my communication skills for future events.

One final note. Other than the Worlds, my other reason for going to Italy was to enjoy the food. I had previously had an opportunity to visit Venice, Florence, Rome and Sicily, and had a great time eating wherever I went, whether fancy or plain. There were numerous bests of life in all sorts of categories, including when we accidentally walked into Alfredo's in Rome.

I had hoped for a similar experience this time, but have been sadly disappointed by the regional cuisine (if you can call it that) in Sigillo. Mike Barber had complained to me before I left about the fact that you could only get pasta and pizza in Sigillo and Costacciaro. I thought this was a bit cavalier, and gave short shrift to the fine Italian pasta that I had experienced early.

Unfortunately Mike was quite right in his evaluation, both in its tone as well as its description. The pizza, a recent phenomena in Italy, is very cheap food, extra, extra thin crust like cardboard, with bad toppings. The pasta is mediocre by my standards (the fresher pasta you can buy at supermarkets in the US and in the local grocery stores). There is other food, but not the various types of eggplant and pepper dishes (other than at the grocery stores) that I had really appreciated on my previous Italian tours.

I felt that the Umbrians were a bit too prideful about their food, and that they should learn from their brothers to the south or in more traveled areas where foreigners have a more experienced palate.

The photos above were taken by David Glover (http://www.1800hangglide.com).

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World's wrap up »

Sat, Aug 7 1999, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Worlds 1999

The official results are in and Manfred Ruhmer and Christof Krtazner are indeed the World Champions.

You can find the results at: http://www.fivl.it/mondiali/CLASSIFICHE/clasweb.html.

Here's a shot of an actually happy Manfred at the awards march. Manfred flew an Icaro 2000 Laminart ST 14, and flew for the Austrian team (which placed third in Class I. The UK was second.):

Also Christof is quite happy winning in Class II for Germany on an AIR ATOS:

The US rigid wing team came in third place and received bronze medals from the FAI and the FIVL:

The Swiss rigid wing team was in first and wished to thank Felix Ruehle for his wonderful ATOS gliders which they all flew.:

Brazil was the winning team in Class I with three pilots in the top four and sprayed the crowd with Champaign. Andre Wolf made an impassioned plea for safety at competitions and thanked the meet organizers for running a very safe meet:

The photos above were taken by David Glover (http://www.1800hangglide.com).

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Manfred Ruhmer and Christof Kratzner – World Champions

Fri, Aug 6 1999, 10:00:02 pm GMT

Worlds 1999

Manfred Ruhmer, flying an Icaro 2000 Laminar ST, and flying for the Austrian team, has won the World Championships in Class I at Monte Cucco. When the last day of the competition was cancelled a great cheer went up from all the pilots who all admire Manfred greatly and felt that he deserved the championship. He was promptly covered with Champaign.

Here's a shot of Manfred coming in on the last task day:

We are as yet unsure why the last day was called, although there were issues with high winds forecasted for later in the day, which proved to be in error. A number of pilots flew the task and found it to be the easiest day of the meet. We found the smoothest lift out in front and pilots who ran the back range zipped up and down it without any problems.

Jim Lee finished 14th and Chris Arai was 24th as the top placing class I USA pilots (in fact the only class I USA pilots to make goal during the meet).

Christof Kratzner, flying an AIR ATOS, and flying for the German team, is provisionally the world champion in Class II, awaiting an appeal on photos from Johnny Carr. We will find out the final results tomorrow. Dave Sharp was the top finishing American at fourth and Brian Porter was fifth.

You can find the results at: http://www.fivl.it/mondiali/CLASSIFICHE/clasweb.html.

The USA rigid wing team was third. The first three team scores were very close (139 points separated us out of 10,000) and the Americans had closed quickly on the Swiss and Germans in the last few days.

The Brazilians won the Class I team competition and you would have thought that they had just won the World Soccer Cup.

The ATOS pilots did very well over all with seven of the top ten placings, to go along with Christof's first place.

The last task was called at Mount Subasio near Assisi as it faced into the prevailing south wind. The inversion broke late at about 2 PM. There was a wave cloud behind the mountain. The air in front, and apparently behind, was smooth and the climbs were easy in front for us.

After the task was called, Guido Gehrmann was doing aerobatics in front of Monte Cucco. On his his third loop his glider broke. The wires were attached up the down tubes a ways and he blew the down tubes out. He threw his chute, then shot his other rocket deployed chute.

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Big tasks, light day, some at goal »

Fri, Aug 6 1999, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Worlds 1999

On the next to last flying day of the Worlds, the meet organizers call two long tasks, one for rigids and one for flex wings. We are so happy not to have to fly together as the gaggles are thick. I have never seen such gaggles. Lots of folks don't seem to mind coming up really really close to you.

The tasks are long, 140 kilometers for the rigids and 129 for the flex wings. We launch from Monte Cucco, but our start gate is out in front and the flex wings start from a bit down the course line.

We are asked to go south along the range to a town to the south and east, then back to the turnpoint north of Gubbio, then to the towers north east of there back on the range, and then to Sigillo.

The weatherman calls for the inversion to break through just as we begin to launch, so they've added a few start gates later in case it is too hard at launch. Dave Sharp and I take off later. Jim Zeiset is suppose to get the first start clock at 1:15 PM, we get ours at 1:30 PM, and Brian Porter goes in at 1:45 PM.

Launching later I find much better lift to the right of launch and out away from the hill. All the pilots who've been floating around with light lift suddenly notice that someone is getting up and we have a party.

The American rigid team is still in third place, but due to Brian's big win in his ultralight sailplane, we are only 100 points out of second and another 100 points out of third. If two Americans make goal, we could go into the lead.

After Hansjorg fell down yesterday, Christoff Kratzner from German is in second behind Johnny Carr in his barely foot-launchable ultralight sailplane (he tripped on launch yesterday way down the run and had to restart from much lower. His knees had bandages on them today). Brian moved up to fourth and Dave Sharp down to fifth. Johnny Carr had his fitieth birthday today.

With the American rigid team with a chance to win the worlds, we are acting even more like a team. Now if only everyone's radios worked well enough to actually communicate. Jim and I are the only ones that can be clearly heard.

We catch Jim at the end of the valley (about 13 miles from the start gate) as we race down 25 miles toward the first turnpoint. We are with the flex wings for the first part of the run down the course. They will peel off to the right to go to Trevi, then Assisi, back to north of Gubbio then to goal. At the end of the valley Jim goes down. Soon after that many of the flex wing pilots go down near Nochera Umbria.

This is a notorious pass and it is often hard to get passed here if there is shading, you are low, or there is wind. The rigids get to go over the back to the east at this point to go to their turnpoint, so they don't have to deal with the problems that many flex wing pilots faced.

We are able to get quite high before we bail over the back, and work the next big ridge to the east. The turnpoint is at the end of the ridge a few miles after it peters out into low hills. We get stuck on the low hills until Dave Sharp tells me that he has made the turnpoint and found weak lift in the valley downwind of us. I zip around it, head for the valley and show the other rigid wing pilots where the better lift is. A bunch of us get up and out of there and on course back toward Gubbio.

With the west wind we still have to jump a range to get up into the main valley, but it presents no problem as we cruise to the west face, rigid soar moving along to the north until we hit a good lift. After that we still have the task of jumping into the wind to the next shallow ridge about three miles to the west.

By now we've heard of the carnage in the flex wing division. Chris Arai is down at Qualdo Tadino, Ryan, Paris and Jim Lee all go down at or near Nochera Umbria.

I take the back range (Monte Cucco) while Dave Sharp gets high at the windmills and heads out across the valley to catch the lip of the small ridge at 3,000' (1,500' AGL). I'm able to find a good thermal just north of launch, get to 6,700' and cross the valley to get good lift just south of Gubbio. I'm five minutes behind Dave now, and we are running in front. Hansjorg is just a few minutes behind.

Dave joins Christof and Johnny Carr at the turnpoint north of Gubbio. They find a hot thermal north of the turnpoint and climb to 7,200'. We had just passed Brian ridge soaring low at Gubbio accompanied by an ATOS.

I get to 6,200' just before getting the turnpoint photo and plunge off downwind to get into the great lift that Dave reported. He takes the altitude that he gained and uses it to get all the way to the towers at Mt. Norena, the third turnpoint. I don't find the lift on the course, and continue down wind to the base of the mountain and land.

Johnny Carr is the first glider into goal, followed by Christof and then Dave. Hansjorg comes in a half hour later and Alain Chauvet a bit later. No one else makes goal from the rigid wings. Brian Porter lands to the northeast of the third turnpoint.

A few minutes later Gerard Thevenot comes in first from the flex wing pilots. About twenty flex wings make goal. Manfred Ruhmer, who is in first, makes goal third, so he probably keeps his place. A number of Brazilians make goal, so their team is still in the lead for the World Championship.

Here's a shot of Gerard landing after crossing the goal:

The photos above were taken by David Glover (http://www.1800hangglide.com).

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Manfred's birthday present to himself

Wed, Aug 4 1999, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Allan Barnes|Andre Wolf|Betinho Schmitz|Brian Porter|Chris Arai|Dave Carr|Dave Sharp|David "Dave" Glover|David "Dave" Sharp|Gerolf Heinrichs|Guido Gehrmann|James "Jim" Zeiset|James Freeman|Jim Lee|Johnny Carr

James Freeman writes that you can find the results of the Worlds at: http://www.fivl.it/mondiali/CLASSIFICHE/clasweb.html. This is sort of true. Check it out and see if they are up to date.

The second day of a high pressure brings a bit lighter conditions, and they are worried about a stable air mass coming in later in the day. When we first get to launch at Monte Cucco, there are no cumulus clouds, and lots of scattered cirrus.

After an initial attempt at a task call is called off after the whole task committee quits when the meet director calls a different task (after agreeing to the tasked called by the task committee), we get a shorter task – 80 kilometers, pretty much in front of Monte Cucco.

As we begin to take off around 12:30 PM, a rigid of high clouds comes in and really brings the dark shadows throughout the valley in front of launch as well as up the hill. Still there is a nice breeze at launch and pilots are slowly climbing out to 5,500'.

Here's what the launch looked like just before we launched:

We are asked to fly south down the range about 15 miles and take a photo of a factory out in the valley. The next turnpoint is to the north on the west side of the valley, although every one runs back to the range to get back up. This turnpoint is at the south end of a low range on the west side of the valley, and it is followed by a turnpoint at the north end of this low range.

The next turnpoint is back to the east at the Monte Cucco range 4 miles north of goal at Sigillo, which makes for a short final glide.

With almost complete shading, we head south along the range, working light lift and every now and then finding 600 fpm. It's easy to make the factory to the south.

Working back north along the range again presents lots of opportunities to get up, but no one gets real high. About half way back to goal it is time to head out into the valley with little hope of getting up.

The lead gaggle heads into the gloom with those of us 5 minutes behind watching to see what happens as we work on getting high before taking the plunge. There are about 15 gliders still hanging on a bit to the north of me on the range also waiting.

As I cross the valley and get to within 2 miles of the castle on the low range, I spot a couple of flex wings circling in zero to a bit up. I join them as I watch other flex wing pilots deck it in the dark near the turnpoint. Chris Arai, Gerolf Heinrichs, Guido Gehrmann, and many others are going down. Dave Sharp is out in front with them down to 150 feet.

I hang with the flex wing pilots as the gaggle at the wind mills comes and joins us. The gaggle is now full of ATOSes with Hansjorg, etc. We continue hanging in zero to a little bit up and gain maybe 300' over 15 minutes.

We slide a bit to the north, find another patch of lift in the darkness, and then run to the turnpoint, before heading to the south end of the ridge. There are gliders way below us turning so there must be something.

We work the top of the ridge line and the dark begins to lift a little, and we start getting up better as the pilots 2000' below us also work whatever they can find. As we continue working the low ridges and moving north, we get more sun and we are able to get up to 5,500' and it feels like the slow times are over and we are back to hang gliding.

The rest of the task goes well with plenty of sun on our west facing hills. Dave Sharp gets up and gets going really well just south of Gubbio. Brian Porter who went over first with Dave, drifted back over the valley to the Monte Cucco range, got up really well, and was able to fly right back to us and join us in a good thermal just south of Gubbio.

We blaze down to the turnpoint north of Gubbio, and then have no problems making it to goal Almost all the rigid wing gliders make it into goal within a half hour of each other.

Here's the results from today for Class II:

Hansjorg came in first today overall and in Class II. This means that he will probably be in the lead overall again, after the lead was taken by Johnny Carr in the Swift yesterday. Johnny Carr flew very conservatively today.

Dave Sharp came in third and should move into fourth place overall. Jim Zeiset decked it just after the second turnpoint as he was out early and in front of everyone.

Manfred came in second to goal today, but we don't as yet know just when he started it is our understanding that he got the fastest time and should move back into first place. Oleg decked it by the second turnpoint.

Here's the placing at goal for today for Class I:

With Andre Wolf in soon after Manfred he should move from first down to second place. Betino Schmitz came in right after Andre, so the Brazilian team should continue their dominance of the Worlds. Allan Barnes had a good finish, which may move him up to third.

Jim Lee was the only American flex-wing pilot to make it into goal. As of yesterday the top five places who Laminar ST (Icaro 2000). Also team Wallaby Ranch is not doing too badly with Manfred first, Andre Wolf second, Allan Barnes third, and Betino Schmitz in the top ten.

Oh yes, Manfred is thirty four today.

Padro Matos who was leading until today, Manfred happy after completing his task, and a faired instrument package.

The photos above were taken by David Glover (http://www.1800hangglide.com).

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Ghostbuster reappears at Worlds

Tue, Aug 3 1999, 10:00:01 pm GMT

Ghostbuster|Worlds 1999

We were surprised to see one of the Ghostbusters return to launch today. We asked Daniele Bello what the story was. He had told us earlier that he had problems with the flaps and with the speed bumps.

It seems that yesterday when he landed out, he had company. Francois Chamoux flying the ixbo, landed on Daniele's Exxtacy 99 and broke the leading edge.

With a broken Exxtacy, Daniele decided to go back to the Ghostbuster. Francois didn't seem to have any problem with his ixbo and was up there flying it today. We think that Daniele is flying factory gliders from Flight Design, especially now that he has ordered an ATOS.

Berndt Weber's special ATOS nose, the weather giy who called it right today, and the gliders on Monte Cucco launch with Monte Cucco in the background.

The photos above were taken by David Glover (http://www.1800hangglide.com).

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Manfred storms back »

Tue, Aug 3 1999, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Worlds 1999

Big air, big task, high altitudes, big finish, a big day.

When I go outside in the morning I see that Sigillo and Monte Cucco has returned to the conditions that we first experienced here two weeks ago. It’s warm, there are no clouds in the morning, and the air is still. It looks like it will be a good day.

Finally we get to take off from the main Monte Cucco launch facing west out into the valley that contains Sigillo and the Villa Dama. Clouds are forming by 10 AM as we start setting up.

The task is 72 miles. We are asked to head down the range to a tower 30 miles to the south, jump out in the valley to the Basilica at Asissi, and back to the LZ just below the launch just north of Sigillo.

The rigids get two start times 1 and 1:15 PM, and the flex wings get the same start times, plus a few more to spread them out a bit.

Unlike every other day in this meet so far, we immediately start climbing at launch and get to cloud base at 6,700' MSL (5,200' AGL). The main problem is waiting long enough to take the second start gate. Christof and Juerg Ris don't wait and get out on the course as the first rigids. Most of the flex wing pilots hold back.

With strong lift running down the range is a piece of cake. I get a later start then most as I run out to the valley first looking for lift that turns out to be false. Oh, well, just trying to get ahead of everyone puts me a bit behind.

Dave Sharp is running with Hansjorg as the rigids are in front of the flex wings who start a bit later. Johnny Carr on the Swift and Brian Porter on the Utopia are catching up with the ATOSes 15 minutes in front of them and finally catch them at the first turnpoint.

Manfred starts late and Joseph Zweckmayr starts early so he's out there with Dave and the other rigid wings. I've turned the risk factor way up on the Ball Vario and am working with a bunch of flex wing pilots hoping from one 500 to 700 fpm thermal to the next trying to catch up. Until today, 300 fpm was great.

The course line is full of thermal markers and it makes it easy for racing as we blow down the course. Brian is now in front with Johnny Carr and Dave is with Hansjorg. They are catching up with Christof and Juerg. The flex wing pilots for the most part are just behind them.

The jump to Asissi, which has its own big mountain out in the valley, can be taken from a point further north off the range to the east, or in a straight line from the turnpoint. Those pilots who stay high can get up on the mountain first and blast into Asissi. Dave and Brian are blasting, I get low and have to work the sunny side of the mountain, but get to cloud base very quickly at 7,600'.

Johnny Carr gets to goal first to win the day. Brian lost him and makes it in 24 minutes later. Then the ATOSes start coming in with Dave Sharp in fifth and Hansjorg in fourth. As they started later than Juerg and Christof, they are the winning Class II "hang gliders" for the day.

Josef Zweckmayr comes in after Dave as the first flex wing pilot, and soon behind him Manfred. Manfred got a much later start and wins the day.

More pilots pour into goal and probably 100 flex wing pilots make it in. Almost all the rigid wing pilots get to goal. I'm slow having made Asissi late, and having to work the range low back 20 miles to goal.

Bettino appears to be the top placing Brazilian for today in 22nd, but it looks like the total scores will again completely change. Here are the totals in the flex wing class after yesterday:

There were three Brazilians in the top four places yesterday with Allan Barnes from the UK in third. Manfred had been moved down to a tie for sixth with Oleg. Steve Moyes had moved into tenth. Here's a shot of Andre Wolf who was in second:

The Brazilian team is doing well and appears to be leading in the team competition. I say appears because we aren't getting provisional team scores.

Jim Lee and Chris Arai made goal for the US team. All the US rigid team members made goal.

I have asked the meet organizers to get the daily results up on the web, but it doesn't appear to be happening.

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The Worlds – Day Eight »

Mon, Aug 2 1999, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Worlds 1999

A very challenging day indeed. The meet organizers send us to the west facing launch up at Monte Cucco (finally we go to the main launch), knowing that it is blowing down (light). Hmmm!

We wait around with our gliders on our racks, until finally we get the word to go around to the east-facing launch about 1 km away, where, what do you know, it is blowing up lightly. We set up in another huge launch area with lots of well-chewed grass.

The meet organizers have given up all pretense of separating class I and II, as we can now setup wherever we like, we have the same launch times and start gate times. Of course, this means that we class II pilots have to suffer the infernal gaggles of 194 pilots over launch in weak conditions.

With high clouds blocking the sun at launch, but cumulus a few miles to the north predicted to OD, it looks like a tough day for a 76 kilometer task to the north and back to the LZ on the west side of Monte Cucco.

The multiple start gates does provide a small bit of spread in the field, but most of the pilots take the 2:15 PM gate and run the east face of Monte Cucco heading to the next valley and the west face of an even bigger mountain. Wherever you go the place is packed. Slide up within a few feet of the hillside, and you still find yourself with lots of "friends."

Dave Sharp and I follow Oleg (a familiar strategy) and hook up with Jim Lee on the west face of the bigger mountain a few miles to the north of launch, and start working the broken and jagged lift to 5,400'. The task is 20 miles to the north, a large tower on the top of a high mountain. It is possible to get the turn point photo from below the top of the mountain as long as the tower is still in the picture.

Once we top out I head east to jump over into the valley on the east side of the mountain. I had just seen a couple of pilots try the west face further to the north, and they plummet. Everything is in shade as we are now under the over development.

Forty pilots cruise along the east side of the ridges, trying to find zero sink and hoping to stay up as we lose 2,000'. After ten minutes of this, I break off from everyone heading slowly down, but toward goal, and head out east into the valley about 3 miles to a land fill that looks like it has been in the filtered sunlight for about 10 minutes at least. It is a very small bright spot in a twenty-mile square dark area.

At 200' off the ground, I start working zero, which turns into fifty. I'm flying with Dave, but he's still hanging on the mountain, until he gets my report. Fifty turns into a hundred, then two hundred, and finally, three hundred, as I climb 4,000' and drift back toward the course line.

Many other pilots have maintained on the course line, and now they are in trouble. All the Austrian team, including Johann Posch, Manfred Ruhmer, Robert Resinger, and Josef Zweckmayr go down by the first turnpoint. Oleg and Gerolf are down there also.

Dave and I work our way toward the first turnpoint, but we are high and get up again to 5,400' over the previous day's first turnpoint, just 6 miles south of today's turnpoint and high on the ridge. Working now the west side of the ridge line, we are watching the sun shine on the valley's to the west, as small gaggles work light lift over sunny fields below us.

After dropping 1,800' I catch some broken lift on the rocks below the turnpoint and start working back up. After a few turns, twenty of our friends come over from the west to join Dave and I as we climb out to get over the tower. Down below at the base we can see a field with at least twenty gliders, and there are others plastered on the steep hillsides next to us.

Five hundred feet over the top, we swoop to the turnpoint about a mile away, rounding the base of the tower at about 200'. We then skim along the top of the mountain on our way back out to our previous thermal and toward the next turnpoint to the west just north of Gubbio.

No one is at goal yet, and it looks like this is the remnant of 194 pilots - about 20 to 30 pilots. The gaggle includes the British team, which is flying very much as a team. Dave and I have been flying together and as a team, but we are having difficulty communicating with Jim Zeiset (who lands at the first turn point), and Brian Porter, who is way behind because he forgot to take a photo of the task board.

We glide for 5 miles, and then work zero sink that gets better as we make our way out of the hills and into the Gubbio valley. We finally get enough lift to get us back to 5,400' and on our way strongly to the turnpoint. Dave goes on a head missing the last thermal, but finds the best thermal of the day to the south of the turnpoint. We climb to sixty five hundred feet. Working together we are able to leave twenty flex wing and two rigid wing pilots behind.

Dave has a lead foot and goes on final 11 miles out. I go with him but reluctantly as I feel that it would be better to head south to the next set of clouds and then get into goal from the west. There is a strong east wind at goal: 10 to 15 mph. None the less, I overrule my gut and go with Dave. The pilots behind us go south toward the clouds. The Brits are working together.

Dave and I don't find any lift coming into goal and we both get low. At 300' AGL Dave pulls rabbit out of the hat as I land less than 2 miles from goal. Dave comes in to goal as the fourth rigid to goal. I get the distinct displeasure of watching all the pilots I climbed through and out glided pass over my head to goal.

Dave and I are again the top placing American pilots (as well as American rigid pilots) as Brian Porter isn't able to get to the first turnpoint. Chris and Jim Lee land by the first turnpoint. Ryan goes down on the leg from the first turnpoint to Gubbio. Mike Barber goes down by the first turnpoint.

Five of the six first crossings to goal were British pilots. Here is a shot of Allain Barnes who was the top placing British pilot after the third task:

Johnny Carr won the day in his Swift. He gets to goal just as we start our final glide. The top two rigid wing leaders – Hansjorg Truttmann, and Christof Kratzner, did not complete the task. They landed by the first turn point. The Brazilian flex wing pilots did very well with three Brazilians at goal. We think that Pedro Matos who was in second, is now leading the flex wing competition. The Brazilian team may be leading the flex wing team competition.

Andre Wolf, another Brazilian, who was in 6th, may be in second, or perhaps ahead of Pedro. Carlos Niemeyer, a Brazilian who was in 9th, is now in the top five. I'm guessing a bit on these results, as the score keeper is not getting out the scores to the Internet or to the team leaders in a very timely fashion.

Seven of the top ten flex wing pilots did not make goal. Everything is turned upside down, and this is a meet that Manfred and Oleg will head to battle back to win. Chris Arai was in fourth place after yesterday and Jim Lee was in 16th, as the highest placing Americans in the flex wing category.

Andre Wolf was placing bets at 5 or 10 to 1 that Manfred would win the Worlds. It doesn't look like a good bet at the moment.

Gaggles over Tre Pizzi, rigid wing gliders line up, Paris Williams launches at Tre Pizzi.

The photos above were taken by David Glover (http://www.1800hangglide.com).

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ATOS cracking their ribs »

Sun, Aug 1 1999, 10:00:02 pm GMT

Worlds 1999

We've got Dave Sharp, Berndt Weber, and Felix Ruhle here at the Worlds, so there couldn't be any better support from the manufacturers and their US representative. This is great because we are breaking quite a few ATOS ribs. Berndt says that he fixed 5 yesterday. Dave fixed a cracked rib on my glider the day before, and a mushed one on Johann's today.

Some of the problems come from pilots pounding in, and some from pilots not properly folding in the ribs, but there are too many problems to all be the fault of the pilots. The eighth rib is especially easy to crack by a hard landing or an improper folding. Berndt says that they will fix this by putting in a plastic pin that will flex. On the Exxtacy the final rib had bungies. It's great that it is so easy to fix carbon fiber ribs.

The ATOS doesn't have cams on the wing tips like the Exxtacy, Ghostbuster, and E7. This makes for a bit of unpleasant grunting and groaning. I bought some clear green plastic hose to put over the tips to protect the strings. It looks pretty nice (wish I had some red hose also for the left tip), but it sure wish I had cams.

There is already wear on the sail, and some of it came from bolts on the spoilerons actuators. I told Berndt to turn the bolts around to reduce the wear and to cover the bolts tops with Velcro (which I did). Felix first wanted to blame the pilots for not releasing the spoileron wire before swinging the ribs, but it was in fact a manufacturing mistake.

The sail zipper is still hard to zip up although it is getting better. I really had a hard time with it at first.

I wish there was a way to keep the outer three ribs closed when you break down the glider so that they could be in the most protected position. The fact that they can swing out easily (a feature actually), may make it easy to crack the eighth rib.

It is hard to insert the spoileron wire after setting up the glider without pulling out the pin that connects the base tube and downtubes. It is a very clean connection, but still this is a problem. Felix recognizes this and says that he is coming up with a solution.

The bag is much bigger on the ATOS than on the Exxtacy, so that is much appreciated. It is now easy to get the glider in the bag. Still, it would be nice if there was a bit of extra padding around the nose, which wears on the bag. Thank goodness it has two zippers unlike my Exxtacy bag.

It is not all that easy to roll up the tips and get the spoilerons to fit nicely in the bag. I still haven't figured out how to do this, and Felix couldn't provide any good advice.

I put a crinkle in my whack tube sleeve because it is easy to have the turnbuckle sit in it when you open the wing. You had to be careful about this on the Exxtacy also, but it seems easier to screw this up on the ATOS. Well at least my Exxtacy and ATOS match. I much prefer the nose wire clip on the ATOS. It definitely won't come off.

I almost wore through a flap rope on my first ATOS flight. This was because the pulley was reversed at the back by the keel. I put a new rope on and I haven't had a problem with it since.

Felix mentioned that he was able to stall the ATOS when he was banked up in a turbulent thermal and he pushed out hard on the outside corner bracket in an attempt to reverse the glider. The glider started shaking and he pulled it in to gain speed. Unlike the Exxtacy, Felix built the ATOS with the bar back further, so it is possible to stall it.

I still need to put my hang point further back in order to reduce the bar pressure when I push out. It was very easy to get the ATOS flying fast into goal and I pulled away from the two flex wing gliders that were with me.

I did get the ATOS to slip a bit when turning into final when I really whipped it around. This surprised me because I was use to the Exxtacy, which you really can't whip around. I flattened it out quickly, but it was a bit of a scare.

I'm really enjoying flying the ATOS (but, then I liked my Exxtacy also). It is very nimble and has great performance, although not so great with me at the controls. All the problems I've had are minor relative to those I originally had with the Exxtacy. I sure hope that Berndt and Felix listen as well as they have this week to pilot feedback. It is great that they are here and can see what is going on.

I asked Berndt if it is true what I had heard which was that he wanted to produce a glider with soul. He said yes, and that he thought that they had done that.

Felix and Berndt at goal (although neither flew there today), Hansjorg at goal, and Dave Sharp fixing Johann's 9th rib at goal.

The photos above were taken by David Glover (http://www.1800hangglide.com).

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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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The Worlds – Day Seven »

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

Worlds 1999

Finally, a good day. Light winds, although they are over the back at Monte Cucco, so once again we are sent to Tre Pizzi with its east-facing launch. This is not the Monte Cucco worlds, but the Tre Pizzi worlds.

Hansjorg Truttmann in his ATOS finds out just how light when he takes off and the glider gets away from him without going up. He takes out a downtube and bottom bracket. Felix Ruhle switches gliders with him and fixes Hansjorg's glider on launch and launches a bit later. Hansjorg is leading class II, so Felix wants him to continue winning.

Hansjorg had moved to the right of the main class II launch to launch and it was a rounded hill that didn't provide any ground effect to the wings. Perhaps that is why he didn't get off.

With the light winds and weak thermals due to the high cirrus, many of us are stuck low over launch as the class II and class I gliders have the same launch and start times. We work weak lift until a few minutes before the last start gate opens at 1 PM and then head out low to a thermal over the start gate 2 miles in front of launch in the valley.

The task that is called asks us to fly north back to Monte Cucco through the mountains and away from the valleys, and then head further north to a big building high on an upper plateau. Next we have to head west to a small lake north of Gubbio, hit the Monastery above Gubbio, and then southeast against a head wind, back to the LZ at Sigillo – a 50 mile task.

After getting the start gate Dave Sharp and I ignore the light lift in the valley and run back to the ridge north of the launch. There we find much better lift (200 fpm) to get us up to over 5,000' MSL (3,500' AGL) and now we're ready to jump back into the mountains to the north. There are a few pilots out in front of us, but many are still left over launch with its weak conditions Probably a third of the field hasn't even launched yet. We hear that Jim Zeiset, Ryan Glover, Paris Williams, and Mike Barber are down near the start gate. Brian Porter is behind us in the air trying to get his GPS to work.

Dave and I race to catch up with the ten pilots in front of us. Since we started on the last start gate, we assume that everyone is racing from the same start time of 1 PM, and you know exactly where you are in the race. Fifteen miles later we are over the launch at Monte Cucco, but on the east side or back side of the launch. We are 500 feet over launch, but below the top of Monte Cucco, and we have to slide around the east side of it with our wing tips in the grass. Thank goodness the winds are light. Jim Lee and Chris Arai are with us and flying well.

I make a wrong guess as to where a bit of lift is and get 200' below Dave, Jim and Chris. They will use that extra altitude to leave me way behind as we approach the 1stturnpoint.

I climb to 6,500' 5 miles out from the 1stturnpoint, which we can see high up on the plateau to our north. Dave Sharp climbs to 6,500' 3 miles from the turnpoint and is able to glide into it and get around it with 4,700'. I don't find lift to take me to 6,500' that close to the turnpoint, and get lower as I head upwind toward it. Christian Chiech and Bettino Schmitz, both of whom are top flex wing pilots, are in front of me and well below me as we head for the turnpoint. They are not going to make it on a glide.

There is a narrow gorge between the turnpoint and us and Christian Chiech is running along the north side of the gorge heading east below the turnpoint. Suddenly, I see what appears to be another glider next to him, then I see that it is a parachute. He falls a few hundred feet and then lands gently in the trees, 1000' up the gorge from the main road. I call in his position and he is later retrieved with no problems.

Not getting any lift and falling fast, I head east to a cloud over the town on the east side of the gorge. It works, I climb to over 5,000' and am able to snap a shot of the red roofed building as I pop over the top of the mountain and then plummet into the valley to the west. By now, Brian Porter and Johnny Carr in the Swift have caught up with me, and they head north up the valley, while I fall to the south with four flex wing pilots.

We start working 50 fpm up 800 feet above a small town next a little ridge, hoping for anything to get us out of this valley which is far off the main roads from Sigillo. We work forever to get up enough to dive into the hills on the back (east) side of Gubbio, and then again I get stuck working ridges with zero sink, while I wait for something to change.

Half an hour later, the sun comes out and I suddenly find myself going up at 200 fpm and there appear three flex wings who enjoy my newfound fortune. Meanwhile Dave Sharp has made it into goal having found more lift than he could deal with after the second turnpoint. Hansjorg and Christof were the first and second class II gliders into goal.

Manfred and Oleg were the first gliders period into goal with Oleg just behind Manfred, as is his want. Here's a shot of Manfred and Oleg discussing the task, which they agreed was too easy:

The flex wing pilots are I are able to climb out to over 5,000' and get to the clouds north of Gubbio for the second turnpoint, and another climb now to 6,500' just after the turnpoint. Foolishly, I thought this was enough to get me to goal, as Dave had reported too much lift in the convergence getting to goal.

I lose 2,000' getting to the turnpoint at Gubbio 4 miles to the south, and almost another 2,000' running along the west-facing hills south of Gubbio and am forced to drive into the sunlit valley south of Gubbio and west of Sigillo, downwind from the goal.

A couple of us work 200-300 fpm, drifting away from goal, but getting up enough, 4,500' to try once again to get up over the hills between us and Sigillo. We see a flex wing and a ATOS low in the hills, but turning. The ATOS turns out to be Felix.

Felix continues forward and lands about 3 miles from goal on the hillside. I and two flex wing pilots stop at the crest and work weak lift, that finally gets us up to 4,100' (2,600' AGL) 4 miles from goal, and lets us pull in against the 15 mph head wind, and make it to goal quite late. Only one other glider makes it in after us.

30 or 40 pilots make goal out of 194, so there are a lot more happy faces than on previous days. Johan Posch again makes goal for the third time in a row. Perhaps his film will work out this time.

I reported yesterday that Gerolf had hurt his knee. It wasn't hurt too bad and he was flying today.

I don't have results yet and they seem to be pretty slow about putting up the results on their web site. It would appear that Manfred is now leading Class I as Gerard Thevenot came in quite late. Hansjorg Truttmann got his film problems straightened out and is now in first in Class II. Brian Porter landed just short of goal, but Johnny Carr in the Swift made it to goal (he had a hard time getting down). Christof is probably in second.

Chris and Jim Lee make goal, with Chris scoring well. Chris was the fourth flex wing into goal. Jim broke his nice new carbon fiber downtube.

It is not clear yet how many points the day is worth as many flex wing pilots landed very early by the start clock. About half the rigid wing pilots made goal. The one IXBO made goal along with all the ATOSes.

Here are the Class I results before that last task:

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The Worlds – Day Five »

Fri, Jul 30 1999, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Worlds 1999

In the morning it is blowing over the back again at Monte Cucco (which we have yet to launch from), but the only clouds are on the hills, so we are headed for Tre Pizzi with its east launch. By the time we get to launch, at 10:30 AM, the clouds are right at launch and we can't see 100 feet, but the wind is less than ten miles per hour straight up, so we set up.

The clouds clear and the day looks great, even with the low cloud base. Finally, they call a task which both Class I and Class II gliders will attempt, 55 miles, up and down the ridge with little forays out into the valley for some turnpoint photos.

The rigid wings are the first off again with a start gate at 12:45. The flex wings will follow with three start gates beginning at 1 PM. With the flex wings starting 15 minutes behind, the best flex wing pilots will soon be catching the slower rigid wings.

We gain a few hundred feet right off launch, but it is mostly ridge lift. Most of the us work it down the ridge to the start gate where there is a convenient thermal that gets the first ten rigid wing pilots out on course and headed 19 kilometers to a small church on the hill side (the first turnpoint). There is reasonable lift and staying away from the ridge works as we work the thermals in the valley and smaller hills.

With a northeast wind, there is plenty of head wind on the way back to the second turnpoint north of the launch. Hansjorg Truttman, Christof Kratzner, and Brian Porter are in the lead, with Felix Ruehle, myself and another ATOS pilot just behind them. As the first three pilots make the second turnpoint, the second gaggle gets stuck low on a ridge just before the turnpoint, and have to find a thermal out in the valley. Just as we enter it, Manfred Ruhmer and Johann Posch in an ATOS join us. We climb to 4,800' (3,300' AGL), which is quite high for this meet so far, and race to the second turnpoint.

One piece of advice: if Manfred is turning in weak lift, stay with him. I don't and land soon there after. Three rigid wing pilots and Manfred keep turning at the second turnpoint in broken lift. Johann and Manfred (at least) make goal.

Manfred was the first flex wing pilot to launch and got the start gate at 1 PM. Therefore, he was able to catch the second gaggle of rigid wing pilots about an hour into the flight.

Here's a shot of Manfred just before he launched:

Dave Sharp got low early but was able to slowly work it up. He makes the second turnpoint about ten minutes after the second gaggle, and continued on course, but was unable to get to goal landing at the last turnpoint. Felix Ruhle made goal along with a number of other ATOS pilots. Jim Zeiset landed early after the first turnpoint.

Hansjorg, Chritsof, and Brian (in the Utopia) battled it out for the lead working their way toward the turnpoints out in the valley, and scooting back when they didn't have enough altitude to make them. They would then gain altitude back at the ridge, before making another try.

Hansjorg was finally able to get away, and while Brian was doing a few extra turns wondering where the goal field was, he flashed into goal to win the day. Brian figured it out, and came in next.

Here's a shot of Hansjorg at goal:

After a few more ATOSes made goal, Manfred came in alone only to be followed by more ATOSes. It was a very long time before another flex wing made it into goal – maybe an hour or more before Gerard Thevenot came in followed by about ten flex wing pilots. Chris Arai was the only American flex wing pilot to make goal.

It looks like Manfred might jump into the over all lead after being 97 points down after the first day. Hansjorg should jump into first place in the rigid wings, as Johnny Carr, in the Swift, came in quite late (for a rigid wing pilot).

There may be results at: http://www.fivl.it/mondiali/cucco99.html

The three small shots above: Pilot meeting, Jos Guggenmos's red E-7 with winglets, an ATOS launching.

The photos above were taken by David Glover (http://www.1800hangglide.com).

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The Worlds – Day Four »

Wed, Jul 28 1999, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Worlds 1999

The day is called at 9 AM before we have a chance to go up to launch.

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The HG Worlds – Task One (Day two) »

Tue, Jul 27 1999, 10:00:00 pm GMT

Worlds 1999

Late Monday afternoon the rain stops, the clouds rise, and we head an hour north of Sigillo for a later evening light thermal and rigid lift flight that gets us 800' over and back to Villa Dama at 12:30 AM.

There are no clouds on Tuesday morning, and we take off down the hill toward town around 9:30 AM heading toward Trapezi an hour to the south east, assuming that with the north east wind they will move the competition to this site. Amy is still in the team leaders meeting and contacts us on radio to confirm our launch location.

We are the second van to launch, and have to climb a couple of hundred feet up to the east facing launch. The rigid wings get the first and a bit lower launch, well the flex wings get to go around the corner a bit more directly into the wind. It matters not.

There are two Ghostbusters here and a prototype Top Secret (it looks a lot like the ATOS that Gerard saw at the Wallaby Open, but no sail over the front of the leading edge, and folding ribs) from Gerard Thevenot. We all swarm around the lower launch, and get ready quickly because we will be launching first. Our launch window opens at 1:15 PM and closes at 1:45 PM. The start tarp comes out at 2 PM, and it is a race.

Dave Sharp and I get off at 1:35 PM and we are among the first 5 to launch. The launch is actually closed before all the rigid wing pilots get off. The last ones force their way through the launch director. There will be some kind of penalty.

We are great wind dummies for the flex wings as we climb right out 1000' to cloud base. Oh, boy, what is the deal with this 1000' to cloud base business? The winds at launch were about 15 mph out of the northeast.

After getting the start gate 5 miles south down the valley we catch a thermal in the middle of the valley and drift back toward the ridge. There proves to be sparse and broken lift there, but we need to work whatever we can. Lift was good at launch, but weak thereafter.

I geek it at the first turn point, not even finding it, given that the GPS co-ordinates are ½ mile off. Jim Zesiet lands about ½ mile from me. Dave Sharp continues on then, misreads his GPS or vario. Thinks he's way high coming into goal, then realizes he's not anywhere near goal, and has to go on final anyway. He lands short

Brian Porter also misses the first turnpoint, has to go back after going ten miles north up the valley, and gets another shot of the turnpoint. He makes goal, but stalls his Utopia on landing and hurts it pretty bad. We'll see if he'll be in action tomorrow.

We think that Christof Kraztner in an ATOS wins the day, but he will be getting a penalty as he launched late. Twelve rigid wings made goal out of the two dozen or so here at the Worlds.

The flex wing gliders take off after us, but no one launches until ½ hour into their launch window. Then they dribble off the hill. Conditions are now quite weak. They have a slightly longer task, and no flex wing pilot makes goal. Gerard Thevenot may have won the day.

Results may or may not be up at: http://www.fivl.it/mondiali/cucco99.html.

Tomorrow looks like it will be blown out. The next day looks like rain. Maybe Friday will be good.

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Cold and wet in Monte Cucco »

Sun, Jul 25 1999, 10:00:01 pm GMT

David "Dave" Glover|Worlds 1999

It's hard to remember back to Tuesday and Wednesday when we were bathed in lower ninety degree temperatures with plentiful cues and great flying. On the day before the start of the 1999 World Hang Gliding Championships, it rained here most of the afternoon. Today, the first day, has been called at 9 AM as the clouds are well below launch, with full coverage of high clouds above, and strong winds parallel to launch. At 11:45 AM it begins to rain. Five days in a row of non-flyable conditions here at Monte Cucco.

On Sunday night there was a pilot reception and parade through the center of town at Sigillo. We arrived back from Asissi at around 6 PM to find that the only through street in town had been blocked off in preparation for the festival and parade.

We didn't march until 10 PM, after the parishioners of a local church held their march. While the town is small, and our parade was short, we kept stopping and waiting. I couldn't figure out what was going on, and there were few, if any spectators.

Finally, we approached the central square, and I saw what the problem was. The whole town had come out to greet us and the parade route was squeezed down to single file. As we marched through the central plaza, the town's people, all cheering for each country, mobbed us. It was really moving.

There were speeches by the mayor of Sigillo, and the president of the local region. The Korean ambassador to Italy was there. Then a whole pageant began.

A woman dressed in white robes hung from a rope that came out the bell tower of the municipal building, and danced across the face of the building missing the pigeon spikes. Two women wearing masks and long hooped skirts stood 12 feet tall and moved through the crowd. Two fifteen foot diameter helium balloons painted to represent brother sun and sister moon, carried dancers above the crowd. A light show played on the municipal building's wall.

Photo credits for the last few Oz Reports go to Dave Glover at http://www.1800hangglide.com.

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Arriving at Sigillo »

Mon, Jul 19 1999, 10:00:04 pm GMT

Amy Whitfield|Belinda Boulter|Chris Arai|David "Dave" Sharp|James "Jim" Zeiset|Johann Posch|Paris Williams|Worlds 1999

After enjoying the camaraderie at the beer hall at the LZ of the Alpen Open, we get an hours drive toward Italy, and our eventual destination, Sigillo, a small resort town at the base of Monte Cucco, site of the 1999 Worlds. We heard from Jim Zeiset's report that it looked like a 200-kilometer day at Gnadenwald on Monday.

We finish the drive the next day at around 6 PM and check in at the American team's villa, the Villa Dama, situated across the 5 mile wide valley from Monte Cucco. The view from the pool takes in the length of the valley and gives the guest pilots a good idea of the coming tasks. Later in the evening Jim and Amy join Chris Arai, Dave Sharp, Johann Posch, Belinda, and I here. We expect Jim, Kathie, and Rachael Lee tomorrow. Paris Williams is already setup at the camp ground.

Monte Cucco towers about 3000' above this high valley, rounded and grass covered at the top. It appears that there are launch areas for hundreds of gliders. The wheat and hay fields below have been harvested and they sit golden brown and reassuring to any cross country pilot. The stories about the venturi and turbulence in the narrow valley to the south are true according to Chris, but from here it seems like just an extreme story. Perhaps when the winds kick up, it will be more of a concern.

Nikki Hamilton told us that 26 rigid wing glider pilots are signed up for the worlds.

Pictures will follow.

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British Nationals at Monte Cucco

Mon, Jul 5 1999, 6:00:02 pm EDT

Allan Barnes|André Wolfe|Betinho Schmitz|Blue Sky|British Nationals 1999|Gordon Rigg|Jim Bowyer|Jim Lee|Jim Page|Justin Needham|Kathleen Rigg|Mike Barber|Monte Cucco|Richard Walbec|Steve Elkin|Steve Elkins|Wills Wing|Worlds 1999

Jim Bowyer reports on the British Nationals:

A good entry - 95 pilots from GB, Belgium, Brazil, Columbia, Denmark,France,Israel, Italy, Japan, Luxembourg, Norway, Sweden, the USA and Venezuela.

This will definitely be serious practice for the forthcoming World Championship with the entire French national squad here plus other world class pilots from national teams including Gerard Thevenot, Jim Lee and Mike Barber, Betinho Schmitz and Andre Wolf, Lars Bo Johansen amongst others.

BRITISH NATIONALS - Monte Cucco Day 1

Day 1 dawned with mainly clear skies but some signs of early cumulus over the mountains. After three practice days with the wind on the northeast side of the hill a light breeze from the southeast was very welcome and the task was set from the main Monte Cucco launch.

No met forecast was available but the day looked set to improve from a weak start and a 102 km task was set. The route started off 41 km south to the aerials at Pale di Foligno, 16 kms out west to Assisi and a difficult 32 kms north to Gubbio before the short run back into goal at Villa Scirca.

The sky always looked better well to the south but the launch area and first part of the course was under clear blue and pilots were in no rush to get started. Eventually a few launched and the climb out, although not looking easy initially, improved as the afternoon wore on. As they headed south a large cu-nimb could be seen developing down there; fortunately it was behind the main line of mountains and never really threatened the task. However, many found the conditions down towards the first turnpoint difficult and some failed to climb there to photograph it.

The struggle out to Assisi claimed a few more but the leg from Assisi to Gubbio was always going to be the difficult one and lack of time dictated that pilots had to take the direct route, rather than the longer but probably easier one back to the mountain chain. The lead gaggle developed into two and Justin Needham dropped out to land about 10 km short of Gubbio. The remaining mix of French, Brazilian and British pilots (plus Gerard) pressed on and eventually three could be seen approaching goal.

Allan Barnes was first across the line with Gerard Thevenot and Betinho close behind. A few minutes later a larger gaggle appeared, with a couple of stragglers behind and needing a little more height. Steve Cook and Jean Francois Palmarini led this group in with Steve Elkins, Richard Walbec and others following. Eventually the stragglers made it, Ron Richardson, Jean Francois Gerard and, some 15 minutes later Lars Bo Johansen. It was then 6:15 and the day had pretty much died off at this point leaving Gordon Rigg to land at Gubbio with a feeling of dejavue - he landed in the same field as he had towards the end of last year's pre-Worlds when the day closed down on him at Gubbio.

The start gate timing was by data back camera and provisional timings have shown that Betinho played his usual racing game from behind and made the fastest time, followed by Gerard and Steve Cook. With two Brazilians, four French and four British pilots among the 13 in goal the French team Envoi DuBois lead the team comp and Francoise Mocellin leads the ladies rankings from Kathleen Rigg.

The conditions had not developed quite as well as expected and made the task a challenge. However, with a good quality field to show what is possible a lot of good flying was done and some of the lower ranking British pilots took advantage of the possibilities to show up well in the task results.

Day 2 Report

No met again today so WYSIWYG for task setting. Light southerly wind on the main Monte Cucco launch and blue out front. No met means no info on possible cu-nimbs so stay in front of the ridge. The task was set as a 84 km elapsed time race starting with a 20 km run north to Mt Petrano then back 41 km south to the factory at Colle before racing back to goal at the Monte Cucco south landing.

Despite the blue sky and slow climb outs for the gliders early to launch most pilots soon found booming conditions along the course. There were some minor delays as they returned from the first turnpoint and topped up at Monte Cucco for the run south. Early pilots through were Andy Hollidge and Carl Wallbank who had taken advice to get around the course early and hope to follow the fast guys through some of the sections as they caught up.

However once they had joined up they raced each other and were surprised not to get caught until they were half way to the second turnpoint. Here Gordon and Kathleen Rigg overtook them after getting much better air across the Fabriano gap and arriving above them. Gordon eventually arrived in goal 17minutes before the next pilot - Carl.

From then on the goal marshals had their work cut out to keep track of the packs of gliders racing across the line. Goal was a happy place with well over 70 pilots getting in and results are going to be all about time points. Most of the top pilots had recognized this early on and climb and race was the order of the day.

Risks were taken and the most high profile casualty was Allan Barnes who took a dodgy final glide and decked it just short of goal. Happiest pilots were the lower ranking ones making goal with new league pilot Jim Page hugging his borrowed Laminar and Claudia Mejio last in but almost speechless with excitement at making it for the first time.

Results after 2 tasks

1 66 Richard WALBEC 1,846 Fusion
2 9 Steve COOK 1,775 Topless WC
3 100 Betinho SCHMITZ 1,749 Topless
4 62 Jean-F PALMARINI 1,733
5 89 Gerard THEVENOT 1,708 Topless
6 64 Jean-F GERARD 1,655 Laminar ST
7 7 Ron RICHARDSON 1,655 Cheetah
8 78 Andre WOLF 1,638 Laminar ST
9 2 Gordon RIGG 1,588 Laminar ST2
10 72 Lars Bo JOHANSEN 1,535 Laminar ST
11 56 Koji DAIMON 1,526 Topless
12 55 Jim LEE 1,525 Wills Wing Fusion
26 71 Mike BARBER 1,271 Topless

Full results can be found at;

http://www.theleague.force9.co.uk/national/2ndleg.htm

The Worlds - behind the times »

Fri, Jun 25 1999, 4:00:00 am GMT

Manfred Ruhmer|Worlds 1999

I feel like I'm going to a third world country heading into the wilds of central Italy for the 1999 Hang Gliding World Championships at Monte Cucco.. Yes, I realize that that is part (or all) of the charm, but still I have grown so dependent on sophisticated communication technology, that I'm wary of what awaits me.

No only will it be difficult to connect back to the rest of the hang gliding community to report on what's happening, but it appears that the meet isn't up to date on the latest innovations in competition technology. In fact it is quite a bit behind the competitors.

The use of GPS turn point verification has been proven in at least three Australian meets and two US meets over the last 9 months. Competition pilots and meet organizers have raved about this innovation that makes everyone's life so much easier.

Unfortunately, CIVL, the governing body for the Worlds, decided at its last meeting to stick with photo turn point verification. This is really too bad, as those pilots who have been exposed to the new ways will find the old ways so creaky. Manfred Ruhmer in his rumors column mentioned how he would like to see GPS's used at the Worlds (for turn point verification).

Also, there appears to be a rule that may disallow the use of the Automated Pilot Tracking System and the netcast. Now it will be difficult to do the netcast at all, as we are not sure if there is a digipeater anywhere near the site. But to keep pilots from using this simple means of telling their drivers where they are would be most unfortunate.

The Worlds seem to have the least amount of flexibility and innovation of any of the many meets that I've attended. It would appear that the CIVL BOD mechanisms just aren't up to snuff. I truly hope that we can get around these problems and work with the stewards and the meet organizers. My experience in Australia doesn't leave me hopeful, but maybe that was just a case of an extraordinarily bad meet director.

I, of course, have exchanged numerous e-mail messages with CIVL BOD members as well as the organizers. I politely point out these issues and hope for the best. Perhaps if you are a World Team pilot for your country and want to be able to use GPS turn point verification, you can have your team leader bring up this issue. You might take a look at the rules as published on the World's web site (http://www.fivl.it/mondiali/cucco99.html) to see what I'm getting at.

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Manfred's rumors

Thu, Jun 10 1999, 6:00:01 pm EDT

Manfred's rumors

Icaro 2000|Manfred Ruhmer|PG|Quest Air|record|Wallaby Ranch|weather|Worlds 1999

Icaro 2000 has added as new magazine to their web site.  With kudos to the Oz Report, they've decided to take their destiny in their own hands, and get Manfred to give his own opinions about what's what.  You'll find it, as well as a contest to name their first paraglider at their web site http://www/icaro2000.com.

Saskia Cavotta, at Icaro 2000, asked me to put Manfred's first article in the Oz Report:

Introduction

I am about to introduce you to our new initiative, here at Icaro 2000; it consists of a periodically report written by Manfred Ruhmer, about his life and views.  As most of you know, he is presently the best ranked pilot and has been among the best in the world during the ‘90’s. He started flying in 1986 and entered his first international competition in 1989 –World Championships in Fiesch (Switzerland)– where he came in 44th. In 1990, he participated in the European Championships in Kranjska Gora (Slovenia), where he came in 2nd: ever since he has been in the top –during 9 consecutive years.  His perseverance and devotion are admirable.  During the ‘90’s, in the Europeans he has always placed among the first 5 and in the Worlds among the first 10, added to the innumerable competitions, national and international, that he has won.

Manfred is a naturally talented pilot and an incredible individual.

I often talk with him about several flying subjects, he has a lot of knowledge, experiences, opinions and information about hang gliding; therefore, I think it is great that this project intends to share it with you.  I will be collaborating with him and organizing the issues.  I hope you will find this web page appealing and am interested in knowing what you think about it; therefore, looking forward to receiving your suggestions in order to improve it. Since it is an experiment, it is very important to receive lots of feedback.  Besides, this project also gives you the opportunity to write directly to Manfred and ask him about the aspects of hang gliding that most interest you.  Your questions, and their respective answers, will be published because they may be what others would like to know.  It will also help us decide the topics to review.

The aim of this work is to present Manfred’s points of view in a clear way; these are Manfred’s ideas, as mentioned above, and does not mean they are always shared by Icaro 2000.

We will dedicate this first issue to Manfred’s recent trip to the U.S., where he flew 2 competitions and won both of them.

Claudia Lucía Mejía de la Pava

Icaro 2000 – Italy

The Wallaby Ranch Open & the U.S. Nationals 1999.

The Wallaby Ranch Open was held in Florida, from April 18th until April 24th. Many pilots have agreed that it was one of the best meets they have ever attended to, and I am among them.

The facilities were excellent for towing, landing and relaxing, the organization was superb and the weather great!  It was my first time flying in Florida and, even though these flatlands are not like the Australian ones, they are good enough to satisfy demanding pilots.  This competition was very close to being a perfect meet; it has set standards that will be very hard to beat and I am looking forward to the next year’s Open!  Even though I was satisfied and the outcome was totally positive (I even came in first!), there are a couple of comments that I would like to make, which may help improve the meets.

Something I lament from every U.S. meet I have attended to, is the fact that the Americans have been reluctant to adopting the GAP Scoring System.  This is the most suitable scoring system for hang gliding meets, any other system used will not satisfy the needs of the competition nor those of the pilots.  I noticed, for instance, that the lack of the Early Bird Bonus (extra points awarded to the pilots who start the task earlier in compensation for the risks implied by flying in front of the others) and of the Early Arrival Bonus(points awarded to the first pilots in goal), influenced the pilots’ choices.  Such bonuses encourage pilots to start early and try to finish first because you do not need to be the fastest one in order to get them; these extra points may help you climb positions, though.  Without this type of motivation, every pilot waited until the last minute to start; therefore the air was very crowded, increasing the hazard of a mid-air collision.  These are not the only advantages of the GAP system, maybe the most obvious ones, but it is certain that any respectable, mid-size competition must use it.

The organization provided GPS transmitters, which were placed inside the glider’s sail, in order to always know the path flown by the pilots.  This system is commonly used in sail plane competitions.  It was pretty nice to fly with them and, hopefully, they will be used in every decisive competition (i.e. Worlds, Europeans, Air Games…). Scoring may be done much faster since you do not need to wait for picture developing, -only if you want to have a back up camera but these will only be considered in case of problems with the transmitters.  It was even possible to make a live broadcast via internet, of the daily tasks, thanks to these gadgets!  The transmission interval can be set by each pilot, going from intervals of 5 up to 30 seconds, depending on your GPS model.  Intervals of 15-20 seconds are all right as you make the transitions (flying from one thermal to the next one); you must be careful, though, when you want to track your flight around the turnpoint, especially if you are a fast pilot who usually takes the pictures very close to the trunpoints.  It happened to me once that the line traced between the two points, showed by the transmitter, was very close to being out of sector.  I could have lost a lot of points even though I did fly around the turnpoint properly!  The solution to this is either setting the GPS to a 5sec.  interval (which will give you 2.8hrs of recording), or, marking your position as soon as you are in sector.  This is done by pressing "mark" and then "enter" –within 5 seconds–.

The organizers mentioned planning to set a rental service of these devices, it would be interesting to have them during the Worlds!

The WR Open counted with good prize money, which was great and encouraging.  Prize money is a big motivation for pilots and a step forward in getting the sport to be known; hang gliding needs to become a more commercial sport and organizers should be able to sell it as a product in order to get some real sponsorship.  If the WR Open organizers keep up their good work maybe they will be able to make of it a BIG event, with TV coverage, spectators and much more!

Unfortunately, for the U.S. Nationals organizers, this meet was held right after the WR Open (April 25th – May 1st) and, as I said before, the standards set by the WR was very hard to meet.  Anyway the good weather conditions –only 2 days cancelled–, the excellent flying facilities plus the effort of the organizers made it worth flying; the people at Quest Air (another flying ranch in Florida, place where the nationals were held) gave their best to make of the Nationals a good competition, and they succeeded!

I was never really 100% happy with the way the U.S. Nationals I have flown in (’96, ’98, ’99) were run (I was happy to win every time, though). I regret the lack of the GAP Scoring System, mentioned above, and the high costs this competition involves for the participants.  We all know that the United States is huge; therefore, it costs a lot to get to the different places where this competition is held.  The entry fee is extremely high, for a national competition (between 250-350$, while in Europe we pay between 50-150$), plus the films for the main cameras were not always included!  I have never really been thrilled by this competition, my decision to attend relied on marketing convenience and, like this year, how easy it was for me to be there: since I was already there for the WR Open it was quite simple to go to the nationals because Quest Air is very close to the Wallaby Ranch and it was one competition right after the other one.  I must admit it was a good strategy, knowing that a lot of pilots would go to the WR Open the organizers made it easier for them to attend to the nationals too!

I was definitely satisfied with this trip to the U.S., as I said, the only major drawback was the scoring system.  I also mentioned another couple of things which I retain would only help improve the meets.  During these 2½ weeks I spent there, I was able to fly a lot and get to know a new location: the Florida flatlands.  These are not as dry as the Australian ones (which I know well and use as reference); –Florida has lots of swamps, the famous ‘Everglades’–, has somewhat weaker conditions –thermals up to 6-7m/s– and do not offer the opportunity to fly extremely long distances (I doubt being able to break the world dist.  record there). Still these flatlands have good weather conditions, are excellent for x-country flying and for hosting great competitions; moreover, Florida offers the advantage of being flyable during February and March, months that in Europe do not offer conditions to fly good x-country making it even better because meets in Florida will not overlap with the European ones.

First combined FAI 1 + FAI 2 hang gliding competition in Europe

Fri, Jun 4 1999, 4:00:01 am GMT

A.I.R.|Bernd Weber|Bob Baier|Christof Kratzner|Guido Gehrmann|Hans Bausenwein|Jos Guggenmos|Lukas Etz|Martin Henry|Oliver "Olli" Barthelmes|Ralf Miederhoff|Rosi Brams|Worlds 1999

by Hans Bausenwein

The German Hang Gliding League meet from 22nd of May to 30thof May was the first real European competition, where flex wings and rigid wings flew against each other.

The first task was launched from Hochfelln, a mountain in the south-east of Germany, famous for it's XC-potential. The transport up to the top was by a two section cable car, that only had the capacity to transport 5 flex wings or two rigids at a time. This was the main reason, why the competition was moved to another site after just one task. The rigid wing pilots were just complaining too much about the lack of easy transport.

Task no. 1 was a 93 km flat triangle with only 5 pilots out of the 55 competitors at goal.

There were 8 rigid wings and 47 flex wings in the competition. The rigid wings were 3 ATOS, 2 Guggenmos E 7, 2 Exxtacy and 1 Ghostbuster. Among the 47 flex wing glider were only 3 king posted gliders. The task wasn't a very valid one since 17 of the pilots, which were on the course early, had to land after only 15 km, among them half of the rigid wing field. Christof Kratzner on his first thermal flight with the ATOS was winning the task for the rigids, with Bernd Weber, managing director of A.I.R., coming second on his ATOS. Bob Baier on his Laminar ST was the overall winner of the task and with 3:25 hrs. almost one hour faster than Christof.

In spite of the Bob's brilliant result it was obvious, that the flex wings had no chance to keep-up with the "stiffies". Therefore it was decided to run two separate scores for the "flexxies" and the "stiffies". This is why I cannot give you a combined results list.

We moved to Zell am See in Austria. Schmittenhöhe was our launch site for the next three tasks. And what amazing tasks these were going to be! Schmittenhöhe is 2000m asl, 1250m above the wide open valley floor with spectacular views to the main range of the eastern Alps, called "Hohe Tauern". Jo Bathmann has launched his 205 km World Record FAI-triangle from there. Transport for gliders was easy, but expensive in a big cable car with ⅓ of each glider sticking out of the window. Launching is possible to any direction. There is enough space to rig hundreds of gliders at a time.

The 2ndtask was a flat triangle with 70 km. The day was under called because it appeared to be too wet in the beginning because of the thunderstorms on the previous day. It was a race to goal with 34 "flexxies" and all 8 rigids in goal. Christof Kratzner was winning again with 48,6 km/h and Bob Baier in the flex wing class with 44,27 closely followed by Hans Bausenwein..Christof's and Hans' times showed a difference of 15%. Both pilots had very similar performances during the past years. Later tasks showed a similar difference between the ATOS and a well tuned Laminar ST, which can be understood as the performance difference of these two gliders. The E7's and Christian müller on an Exxtacy, that was Felix Rühle's private one (which tells me, that it certainly is very well tuned) showed similar performances, less than the ATOS. Christian müller is a paraglider competition pilot, who hasn't flown hang gliders for 6 years and just started to fly his Exxtacy.

Task no. 3 was the biggest closed circuit task ever set in a hang gliding competition, a 210 km flat triangle, set along the race course of the "Pinzgauer Spaziergang" (Pinzgau walk). Christof Kratzner was smoking (he really smokes in flight) down the course on his ATOS and again winning with an amazing 46,4 km/h average. 7 of the 8 rigid wing gliders made goal and 11 of the 47 "flexxies". Jobst Bäumer was winning the flex wing competition with an as well amazing average speed of 42,95 km/h.

Task no. 4, the last task of this competition, to me seems to be a valid task to look at the performance differences of rigid wings and flex wings again. The task was a 106 km FAI-triangle followed by an add-on part of 24 km, total task distance 130 km. Very consistent conditions over the whole task and flying time. The task was set to beat the existing speed over a 100km FAI triangle world record, set by Martin Henry from Canada on 22-07-98 with an average speed of 34,81 km/h (FAI 1).

Again all 8 rigid wings made goal again and 18 of the flex wings. Christof Kratzner on his ATOS (who else?) was winning again averaging 42,47 km/h, best flex wing pilot was Jobst Bäumer with 37,96 km/h closely followed by Oliver Barthelmes and Hans Bausenwein. Jobst's average over the course of the triangle was 35,62 km/h, so he claimed a new World Record, as well as Rosi Brams (29,22 km/h) in the feminine category. Christof and Hans did not have their barographs turned on.

The next day, after the comp was over, Hans went up again to beat Jobst's World Record of the previous day with all the documentation well prepared and an official ÖAeC observer at site he managed to fly the course all by himself averaging 36,43 km/h, a new World Record.

So let's look at performances again:

Christof Kratzner ATOS: 42,47 km/h
Hans Bausenwein Laminar ST: 37,46 km/h
Christian müller (Felix Rühles Exxtacy): 38,01 km/h (second fastest time of the day)
Kurt Schuhmann E 7: 37,55 km/h

The result shows a performance difference between Hans' and Christof's gliders

(Christof and I are convinced it is the gliders and not the pilots) of appr. 14%. If the Laminar has a glide ratio in between 14 and 15 than the glide ratio of the ATOS can be calculated to be in between 16 and 17. Many of my friends, who fly hang gliding competitions agree, that the performance of a good Laminar ST is in between 14 and 15. Flying next to Christof's ATOS even lets me believe the performance difference is bigger, than what I unscientifically calculated. The performance of the E 7 is similar to a very well tuned Exxtacy and somewhere in between the ATOS and the Laminar ST, but closer to the ATOS. This was also what I could see when I watched Bernd Weber on his ATOS and Kurt Schuhmann on his E 7 doing a long valley crossing together.

So what about the Ghostbuster? Lukas Etz did not seem to do too well with it. He only flew it in the first two of the 4 tasks. The glider suffered by some transport damage and Lukas did not dare to continue to fly it anymore. He changed to an Exxtacy. I also would not want to evaluate the performance of this Ghostbuster. It was the first one made, the one which was presented at the FREE FLIGHT exhibition mid of April in Garmisch and it looked pretty prototypish too me.

German Hang Gliding League 99 FAI 2 total scores

position pilot's name glider task 1 task 2 task 3 task 4 points
1 Kratzner Christof Atos 575 617 940 774 2906
2 Weber Bernd Atos 548 454 557 473 2032
3 Guggenmos Josef Guggenmos E 7 303 423 754 458 1938
4 Hoffmann-Guben Marcus Atos 107 433 681 605 1826
5 Schumann Kurt Guggenmos E 7 107 406 651 541 1705
6 Etz Lukas Ghostbuster 100 422 615 505 1642
7 müller Christian Exxtacy DNS 363 646 572 1581
8 müglich Dieter Exxtasy 107 114 229 463 913

The first four pilots of this list will be the German Hang Gliding National Team FAI 2 for the 1999 World Championships at Monte Cucco Italy.

German League 99 FAI 1 total scores

position name 1.task 2.task. 3.task 4.task 5.task 6.task points
1 Baier Bob 636 294 443 710 830 812 3725
2 Baeumer Jobst 828 197 374 128 941 932 3400
3 Barthelmes Oliver 591 195 118 553 826 910 3193
4 Bausenwein Hans 560 155 118 640 817 888 3178
5 Bolz Holger 616 195 DNS 631 895 674 3011
6 Woll Gerald 479 168 118 606 835 681 2887
7 Kausche Peter 502 160 251 527 794 437 2671
8 Miederhoff Ralf 497 146 353 425 584 593 2598
9 Rauch Thomas 417 154 202 498 566 756 2593
10 Hertling Steffen 458 109 199 451 702 666 2585

As by 30-05-99, the German National Team FAI 1 for the Hang Gliding World Championships 1999 at Monte Cucco in Italy will be:

1. Guido Gehrmann, La Mouette Topless

(the current World Champion, who could not fly the League this year, because he is trainee Lufthansa pilot)

2. Bob Baier, Icaro Laminar ST
3. Jobst Bäumer, Aeros Stealth
4. Hans Bausenwein, Icaro Laminar ST
5. Gerald Woll, Icaro Laminar ST
6. Oliver Barthelmes, Moyes CSX 5

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Worlds? »

Mon, May 3 1999, 3:00:02 pm GMT

Worlds 1999

I found the following at the World's web site:

We regret to inform you that as the World Championship tasks assignment has been delayed, we are not in a position to supply anyone with further information regarding registrations, invitations and references.

Therefore, we suggest all the teams, which intend to take part in the Championship, to contact Mr. Vittorio Zardo (Aeroclub d'Italia General Manager) fax no. ++39.06.519.57.034 phone no. ++39.06.519.59.760 in order to receive specific information.

We will inform you on our web-site, as soon as the AEROCLUB will decide about who will be concerned in the practical organization of the Championship, and who will be the people in charge for it.

We apologize for the inconvenience, which is due to the "well-known" bureaucracy of the Aeroclub d'Italia, the unique Italian Deputy by the FAI.

http://www.fivl.it/mondiali/cucco99.html

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Northern California aerotowing clinics

Mon, May 3 1999, 4:00:02 am GMT

Dragonfly|Moyes America|USHGA|Vicki Cain

Vicki at Moyes in Australia sent me the following notice:

Moyes America will be hosting a two weekend tow clinic June 4-14 to introduce aerotowing to the pilots of Northern California and to demonstrate the feasibility of the establishment of a Dragonfly Tow Club in the area. We have been invited to utilize the beautiful facilities of Jim and Connie Indredo, Crazy Creek Soaring, 3 miles North of Middletown California. 'Hungary' Joe Sazarli will be providing the Dragonfly and Aerotow seminar material.

All current USHGA member, hang 3 pilots are welcome to attend. The registration fee for the two day clinic is $250. Attending pilots receive two complete days of Aerotow instruction, 5 slow climb tows (to maximize tow time) to 2500', use of glider, all tow equipment, site use for two days one night, two soda-pop tickets and tons of fun.

Tow clinics are limited to six pilots. Each day start promptly at 7 AM with a mandatory Ground School. Clinics are scheduled for the following dates. June 4-5, June 6-7, June 8-9, June 10-11, and June 12-13. Dates subject to change with notification.

All pilots are welcome to drop in for a look and aerotow rated pilots are encouraged to tow up for a flight behind Hungary Joe's Dragonfly from the beautiful Crazy Creek Gliderport. First tow is 25$ (covers site use fee and tow to 1500') all subsequent tows are $15 to 1500', $20 to 2500'. Onsite camping is available for $10 per night, per car.

Send the $250 clinic registration fee to Moyes America 1795 40th Ave SF CA 94122. Include your name, address, phone #, email address, USHGA #, hang rating and desired clinic dates with second choice. A package of study info and local area info will be sent upon receipt of registration fee. Cancellations after May 31, 1999 will incur a $50cancelation fee.

A Dragonfly Tow Club Party will be hosted by Moyes America June 12. Pilots, friends and family are invited for an afternoon of flying, eating and late night BS sessions.

<flyamoyes@aol.com>

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The Oz Report at the Worlds

Mon, May 3 1999, 4:00:01 am GMT

Worlds 1999

It looks like the Oz Report will be going to the 1999 Worlds in Monte Cucco, Italy. They'll take place the end of July and the first week of August. We'll know for sure within a few weeks.

The US is sending a ten person team (6 Class I pilots, and 4 Class II pilots). We are still checking to be sure that there will be enough countries (4) at the Worlds to hold a valid World meet in Class II. Germany and the US are definitely committed to going. We are hoping for Switzerland and Austria at least. Please encourage your country to send at least one rigid wing pilot to the Worlds.

The Worlds last for three weeks, with one week for practice and two weeks of competition. This means I won't be able to cover the Canadian Nationals personally, but I hope to have a correspondent there.

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Dave Sharp's ATOS report

Tue, Apr 20 1999, 4:00:04 am GMT

ATOS|David "Dave" Sharp|Exxtacy|George Ferris|Peter Radman|Wallaby Open 1999

Dave Sharp is flying the ATOS in the Wallaby Open. He also works for Altair, the US distributor. He previously was the US factory pilot for the Exxtacy. He both flies the ATOS as a job and represents the ATOS throughout the US.

Here is his report on his experience so far:

So I've been holding off just a bit to tell everyone about this awesome new wing. I wanted to at least get some air time before hand. I can happily report that it should more than meet everyone's expectations.

We managed to get the Atos cleared from customs a day before the meet started. I was down in Miami at 10pm pried open the beefy wood box and found everything in tact with no damage with only one problem NO Sail ?.

I drove back to Quest to crash for the night, (2:30 am)

Saturday morning I met up with Peter Radman we both left for the Ranch right away hoping and praying Felix who arrived that night would have the sail. He did and we assembled the Atos at Quest in a hanger out of the pouring rain.

Felix test flew it, then I got to fly. Next George Ferris who drove 1200 miles just to check it out got to take her for a ride. I've been flying the Atos now for 3 days and have about 10 hours.

First the glider is really 73 pounds, The Carbon Fiber work is very slick. Felix uses a little different carbon fiber fabric on the D-tube the result is lighter and stronger and easier to work on.

The Atos is a foot or so shorter in pack down than similar wings. First you insert a foot long section of 7075 with a carbon fiber rib attached to it then you insert a fiberglass wand that plugs into a delron fitting.

The ribs swing out but stay internal and Felix has designed a very clever and simple pinky size cam that you can tension with the flick of a finger.

The spoilers and flaps attach directly to the sail with Velcro, no spoiler or flap sleeves. At first I did not like the idea of having to peel them on and off BUT you don't have to THEY STAY ON. You just fold over the sail and they lay on top of the glider, VERY NICE.

The sail work is very clean no proto type here !. The aspect ratios is incredible 12:1 and must be the sexiest hang glider out there.

Flying : off the cart it tracks very well with good pitch feed back. The control bar is several inches closer than what I was used to which I like as opposed to way out in front of my helmet. Bar Pressure is a little more than my last glider but I had no problem going 70 mph.Roll is slightly different , a sharp input will give a quicker roll when desired but normal type Exxtacy like handling can be expected.

Stall speed is a mile or two higher, and the glide is a little better with flaps on but still much less than a high performance hang glider. Flare feel is the same but is much lighter when you do the final push out. Glide is about what is claimed, I am consistently seeing a steady walk away from last years rigid wing models. Sink rate is the same but every day I'm getting more dialed into and finding my self on top more often.

In a few week I will be going up to Altair and we will be making an on line manual to show more details. Look for it on the Altair web page.

I have lots of photos of the ATOS , and will be publishing them soon. Even photographic evidence of the weight – 73 pounds.

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Wallaby Open results

Mon, Apr 19 1999, 4:00:01 am GMT

Wallaby Open 1999

Class II

This is my guess as to the results of day two. The preliminary results given to me by the scorekeepers appear to have a number of errors.

Dave Sharp
Felix Ruhle
Mark Gibson
Davis Straub
Jim Zeiset

Cumulative:

Mark Gibson
Dave Sharp
Davis Straub
Felix Ruhle
Brian Porter

Class I:

Oleg Bondarchuck
Jim Lee
Andre Wolf
Manfred Ruhmer
Dustin Martin
Allan Barnes
Ryan Glover
Sandy Dittmar
Kari Castle
Mike Barber

Cumulative:

Manfred Ruhmer
Oleg Bondarchuck
Jim Lee
Dustin Martin
Kraig Coomber
Ryan Glover
Kari Castle
Mike Barber
Sandy Dittmar
Paris Williams

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Practice day for Wallaby Open rained out

Sat, Apr 17 1999, 4:00:00 am GMT

Wallaby Open 1999|weather

It has finally rained in central Florida after more than three months of drought. We have had only one day of rain since we arrived here in mid-January. Forest fires were breaking out over the last few weeks, some destroying homes. Sun 'n Fun, the big air show in Lakeland, FL, just 30 miles from here, was partially evacuated on Wednesday due to a fast moving fire that threatened them from the west.

It has rained here at Wallaby Ranch about 2 inches in the last hour, and we are on the southern edge of the rain clouds as shown below:

Over most of the United States the skies are clear, but when we get to Florida, the radar and satellite photos show a much different story:

Those of us who have been here for a while are celebrating the rains, and look forward to getting rid of the haze which built up a bit over the last week. We expect slower going the next few days with the wetter ground, but with light northwest winds, we should be flying toward the drier areas.

The rains stop in the afternoon and a number of test flights are taken before dusk.

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Watch the race at home or work

Fri, Apr 16 1999, 4:00:01 am GMT

Wallaby Open 1999|US Nationals 1999

The Wallaby Open and the Nationals will be netcast live, so that you will be able to track the race (at least the top five pilots and maybe the top fifteen). While the web site won't be active until Sunday afternoon (Eastern Daylight Savings time, which is 4 hours ahead of Zulu time), you can check it out in advance. You'll find it at http://www.wallaby.com/wallabyopen.

We are hoping that all the glider manufacturers tune in on their computers to see how their boys (and girls) are doing. Of course, the race results will also be published every day at the same site.

Please tell other people about this live netcast and have them tune in to see what is going on. It won't be the be all and end all of live hang gliding competition coverage, but it will be a start.

Also enter the contest at http://www.1800hangglide.com to win a Flytec vario. If you have read previous issues of the Oz report, you should have a pretty good idea of who will place well in the Class I category.

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One slot left for the Wallaby Open

Tue, Apr 6 1999, 4:00:03 am GMT

Wallaby Open 1999

There is only one slot left available for the Wallaby Open. Apparently the Nationals are just about completely full also. Here’s whose coming to the Wallaby Open:

1. Zweykmeyer, Josef
2. Wolfgang (Austria)
3. Alden, John
4. Arai, Chris
5. Barber, Mike
6. Bezenover, Jose
7. Bolt, Mark
8. Bowen, Campbell
9. Cameron, Patty
10. Castle, Kari
11. Coomber, Craig
12. Cutts, Buddy
13. Davis, Gary
14. de Silva, Francisco
15. Funk, Dean
16. Furrer, Vince
17. Gibson, Mark "Gibbo"
18. Glennon, Mike
19. Glover, Ryan
20. Goodman, Bubba
21. Gotez, Rudy
22. Hagewood, Bo
23. Hamilton, Robin
24. Hildebrand, Judy
25. Jaramillo, Nicolas
26. Kendall, Greg
27. Kennedy, Nick
28. Lee, Jim
29. Martin, Dusty
30. Mulholland, Mark
31. Pagen, Claire
32. Pagen, Dennis
33. Porter, Brian
34. Posche, Johann
35. Rhumer, Manfred
36. Rizo, Carlos
37. Rizo, Luis
38. Rogers, Tip
39. Rossignol, Jerz
40. Rowleski, Steve
41. Ruhle, Felix
42. Sayer, Wayne
43. Scarli, Reto
44. Schmit, Betinho
45. Sharp, Dave
46. Shipley, Mitch
47. Simmons, Jack
48. Smith, Nancy
49. Straub, Davis
50. Thevenot, Gerard
51. Volk, Glen
52. Welch, Peter
53. Williams, Paris
54. Wolf, Andre
55. Yocom, James
56. Zeiset, Jim
57. Meier, James
58. Warren, Steve
59. Bondarchuck, Oleg
60. Nenno

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Prototype ATOS at Bassano

Tue, Apr 6 1999, 4:00:01 am GMT

ATOS|Christian Ciech|David "Dave" Sharp|Felix Rühle|Gerard Thevenot|Hansjoerg Truttmann|James "Jim" Zeiset|Jos Guggenmos|Josef "Zwecki" Zweckmayr|Laurent Thevenot|Manfred Ruhmer|Oleg Bondarchuk|Robert Reisinger

Hansjoerg Truttmann from Switzerland sent in the following dramatic report of flying at Bassano, Italy, last weekend. This meet is a traditional early meet and is usually rained out.

I had the privilege to fly the prototype ATOS (editor’s note: more on the state of the ATOS below) on Easter Sunday in the Bassano Meet in northern Italy. There were pilots like Manfred Ruhmer (four times winner in a row at Bassano), Oleg Bondarchuk, Ruppert Plattner, Christian Ciech, Gerard Thevenot, Josef Zweckmayr, and Robert Reisinger (editor’s note – all world team flex wing pilots) . So I was very much wondering how I would be able to follow them with the prototype ATOS(editor’s note – Felix Ruhle, the ATOS designer, brought two ATOSes to Bassano over the weekend)

In the first three days of the competition I was flying my Exxtacy (as guest pilot, I was the only pilot with the "Open class"-ranking) with considerable success: 1st on day one, 2nd on day two - one second behind Manfred Ruhmer - and again 2nd on day three, behind Manfred (of course).(editor’s note – great flying on the Exxtacy. This is the first time we have an Exxtacy pilot beating Manfred on a flex wing. Of course, we know that rigid wings have higher performance then flex wings, so the real comparison will be against other rigid wings.)

On day four, Felix Ruehle was with me at take off, and I got to try out the prototype ATOS. I was impressed by the light weight of the prototype ATOS which is about 33 to 34 kg. I was also impressed by the simplicity and the short time to set up the wing.

We had to fly a 70km-task, twice crossing a valley of about 7 km with a start gate opening at 14.00. The start-window was open at 12.30, so I used the time to get some practice with the prototype ATOS, which I had never seen before.

Circling felt quite different then with the Exxtacy. I had to high side a little bit (as Felix had told me before), and turning into and out of the circles was slower than with the Exxtacy. As we knew already at take-off, there was too much slack of the control frame, so I wasn't able to use the full rudders (editor’s note – I assume that he means spoilerons) without touching the downtubes with my shoulders.

All in all, when I was circling alone just after take-off, I wasn’t impressed with the rate of climb. But after 30 minutes the rest of the pack took off and I could compare climb rates for quite a long time, since we all tried to get the highest before flying over the flatlands to take the start gate. I was surprised. We (prototype ATOS and me) stayed on top of all pilots all the time - so the prototype ATOSes rate of climb must be ok!!

After we got the start gate we had to follow a ridge for about 20 km. Thermals were slow and there was some head wind. After about 10 km I was with Ruhmer and Reisinger. Oleg Bondarchuk and the others were below us. After 15kms - before crossing the previously mentioned valley - we couldn't immediately find the strong thermal we had expected there, so Reisinger and I flew to Oleg’s gaggle circling in a good thermal below us, while Ruhmer took a good one very close to the hill.

Finally, I left the ridge to cross the valley about 2 minutes after Ruhmer and 150m below the height that he left with. That was the moment where I expected prototype ATOS to show its abilities. And it did!!!

It was obvious, Reisinger and Oleg lost height and distance at the same time. The difference between prototype ATOS and the best flex wings was impressive. Also, the prototype ATOS was gliding much better than my Exxtacy. So I caught up to Manfred again.

On the other side of the valley, at Santorso (the turn point), Manfred made a little mistake looking for thermals in a gully that hadn’t worked on previous days. I went directly to the turn point about 2 km away from the ridge where I met Manfred, who was below me now.

Coming back to the ridge I immediately found a very good thermal while Manfred, who arrived a bit lower, had to wait a minute for the next phase. We were about half-way through the task at this point and I knew - after now knowing enough about the climb rate and gliding ability of the prototype ATOS - that it would be impossible for the others to catch me before goal.

On the way back I had two more good thermals and when I left the last one, Manfred was entering it about 350m below me. On the final glide I felt what Felix Ruehle had told me at take-off: The pitch-forces of this prototype ATOS where high, so that I couldn’t get more than 85 km/h.

I arrived in goal out in the flats after 1:37:07 about 300m too high(!) and I was able to wait in a thermal for Manfred who crossed the line 6 minutes and 25 seconds later. After the flight, everybody, Oleg and Manfred included, were very much impressed by the performance of the prototype ATOS.

The prototype ATOS has proven its abilities to me without any doubt. I congratulated Felix Ruehle to his masterpiece. We talked a lot about the handling and he gave me the impression that he knows just what to change, to give ATOS the same excellent handling we all like with the Exxtacy.

He told me, that he is sure, that the production ATOS will have even more performance than the prototype I had flown. So I suppose, that ATOS will bring a new dynamic to the rigid-wing-movement (hopefully also to hang gliding) and it will dominate the market in this and the next year. I ordered mine a few months ago - and I don’t regret it. I hope to get it as soon as possible.

Hansjoerg Truttmann, Switzerland, mail: <hansjoerg.truttmann@vd.zg.ch>.

From this report and others that I’ve received (and from some e-mail that I haven’t received) I can conclude that the ATOS is still in the pre-production phase. It is very unlikely that we expectant ATOS pilots will be able to fly any real ATOSes at the upcoming Florida competitions. This is, of course, a huge disappointment.

Felix is expected to bring two prototype ATOS gliders to the Wallaby Open (April 18th) and perhaps the Nationals. Dave Sharp, the factory sponsored pilot, will be flying one of the prototypes in the meets. Felix will be letting other pilots demo the other prototype. It is very unclear when the ATOS will be out of the research and development phase, and in the certification and production phase.

It looks like Jim Zeiset will be flying the only new rigid wing that has a chance of being DHV certified before the Wallaby Open – the E-7. Good going Jim and Joseph Guggenmos. Jim is also expected to fly the Ghostbuster at the Nationals the following week. We doubt that it will be DHV-certified by then., but we would like to be proved wrong.

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Getting ready to come to ⁢Wallaby »

Sun, Apr 4 1999, 6:00:00 pm EDT

Mike Barber|record|Wallaby Open 1999|Wallaby Ranch

John "Ole" Olson|Mike Barber|record|Wallaby Open 1999|Wallaby Ranch

(?-i)John "Ole" Olson|Mike Barber|record|Wallaby Open 1999|Wallaby Ranch

John "Ole" Olson|Mike Barber|Patty Cameron|record|Wallaby Open 1999|Wallaby Ranch

John "Ole" Olson|Mike Barber|Patty Cameron|record|Wallaby Open 1999|Wallaby Ranch

If you are coming to the Wallaby Open on April 18th, or just to the Ranch in general, you should be prepared to really enjoy your time here. The Ranch is a bit big and its great to have a bicycle to get around from the pole barn/kitchen to the hangers and over to your trailer or tent. If you have a bicycle, bring it with you.

One custom mod that will make life just that much better, is to equip your bicycle (for the time you are here) with comfort pedals. Comfort pedals let you bicycle in the nude (at least as far as your feet are concerned).

Here’s a shot of the feet on comfort pedals, and the pedals themselves. Just $6.95 a pair.

There is a full-scale kitchen and restaurant (pole barn) at the Ranch now. Currently two meals a day are served, but there will be three meals served each day during the Wallaby Open (hopefully pilots will miss lunch).

Jeremy, the Ranch chef, now has two assistants, in order to handle the big load coming up. Meals are by donation. It is hoped and expected that you will like the meals enough to pay $5.00 per person per meal. You can pay any time and will be asked when you check out what you think that you owe for meals.

This arrangement is extraordinary, and it relies on people appreciating the food (which is great, by the way) and pitching in to pay for it. The kitchen is handling up to 40 meals a day now and will be doing more soon. Jeremy goes out and buys food in $500 chunks.

I sometimes get the feeling that Malcolm is not running the Ranch as a business and that he just enjoys feeding people and making sure that they have a good time. Please help out if you want to eat here.

Those of us on site are practicing for the upcoming meets by flying proposed triangles and out and return tasks (unless it looks like a record day). Today Patty Cameron had her best flight ever, a 50 mile triangle from Wallaby to Clermont, Quest and back. Here’s a shot of Mike Barber up close as we head back for the Ranch after making it to Gator, Quest and back.

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Wallaby Open turnpoints – the list

Sun, Apr 4 1999, 5:00:05 am GMT

Wallaby Open 1999|waypoints

You can cut and paste the following lines (starting with Datum) into a text file on your computer and use Waypoint+ to open and read the file and then upload it into your Garmin.

Datum,WGS84,WGS84,0,0,0,0,0
WP,DM,LEEWAR, 29.050640108, -82.0193299942,03/21/1999,13:04:51,DAVIS
WP,DM,COLEMA, 28.486730014, -82.0391101122,03/21/1999,13:04:51,DAVIS
WP,DM,471-50, 28.333120054, -82.0328300215,03/21/1999,13:04:51,DAVIS
WP,DM,17-92 , 28.063740003, -81.3868000746,03/21/1999,13:04:51,RYAN
WP,DM,27-192, 28.208361578, -81.4044029262,03/21/1999,13:04:51,14-FEB-99 18:30
WP,DM,27-474, 28.222172809, -81.4103059318,03/21/1999,13:04:51,14-FEB-99 18:39
WP,DM,27-544, 28.048497629, -81.3898224380,03/21/1999,13:04:51,19-FEB-99 20:18
WP,DM,27-547, 28.094685268, -81.3840256479,03/21/1999,13:04:51,19-FEB-99 20:46
WP,DM,27-I4 , 28.140158367, -81.3903921392,03/21/1999,13:04:51,19-FEB-99 20:57
WP,DM,33-474, 28.225761604, -81.4940069463,03/21/1999,13:04:51,14-FEB-99 18:55
WP,DM,33-DS , 28.155086470, -81.4949950721,03/21/1999,13:04:51,14-FEB-99 19:54
WP,DM,471-98, 28.148938847, -82.0334356811,03/21/1999,13:04:51,19-FEB-99 17:55
WP,DM,557-I4, 28.109400940, -81.4464867856,03/21/1999,13:04:51,19-FEB-99 17:14
WP,DM,AVON , 27.354959893, -81.3165884759,03/21/1999,13:04:51,30-DEC-97 04:4!
WP,DM,BOK , 27.561079978, -81.3467200264,03/21/1999,13:04:51,RYAN
WP,DM,CEDARK, 29.080698586, -83.0288120534,03/21/1999,13:04:51,30-DEC-97 05:01
WP,DM,CHALET, 27.570429254, -81.3597795513,03/21/1999,13:04:51,30/DEC-97 04:40
WP,DM,CHERYL, 28.402861428, -82.0523098495,03/21/1999,13:04:51,29-DEC)97 23:26
WP,DM,CRYSTL, 28.520921540, -82.3445311572,03/21/1999,13:04:51,30-DEC-97 04:56
WP,DM,DS-ROK, 28.155504894, -81.5751298215,03/21/1999,13:04:51,14-FEB-99 20:17
WP,DM,DUNELN, 29.038028932, -82.2263583925,03/21/1999,13:04:51,30-DEC-97 04:58
WP,DM,FANTA , 28.100665522, -81.4843799617,03/21/1999,13:04:51,14-FEB-99 20:58
WP,DM,GATOR , 28.375461054, -81.4817986038,03/21/1999,13:04:51,18-MAR-98 00:52
WP,DM,INVERS, 28.485332918, -82.1878504541,03/21/1999,13:04:51,30-DEC-97 04:59
WP,DM,OCALA , 29.102150893, -82.1335485961,03/21/1999,13:04:51,17-MAR-18 03:22
WP,DM,PLACID, 27.151109862, -81.2479797151,03/21/1999,13:04:51,17-MAR-98 03:12
WP,DM,QUEST , 28.321120572, -81.5076314952,03/21/1999,13:04:51,14-FEB-99 19:23
WP,DM,RANCH , 28.151906443, -81.4108852889,03/21/1999,13:04:51,14-FEB-99 16:45
WP,DM,RIVER , 27.462981033, -81.1153294589,03/21/1999,13:04:51,31-MAR-98 17:09
WP,DM,ROK-98, 28.115831804, -82.0006859090,03/21/1999,13:04:51,14-FEB-99 20:26
WP,DM,WAUCLU, 27.308318424, -81.5292286422,03/21/1999,13:04:51,17-MAR-98 03:10
WP,DM,WILARP, 29.212811327, -82.2836793449,03/21/1999,13:04:51,30-DEC-97 04:35
WP,DM,WIMAMA, 27.395675826, -82.2622045066,03/21/1999,13:04:51,08-SEP-97 21:49
WP,DM,ZHILLA, 28.134559977, -82.0954499796,03/21/1999,13:07:04,MIKE
WP,DM,ZHILLC, 28.131619991, -82.0917100079,03/21/1999,13:08:41,MIKE
WP,DM,98-301, 28.194630009, -82.1125699833,03/21/1999,13:09:22,MIKE
WP,DM,75-50 , 28.314010019, -82.1423999865,03/21/1999,13:10:10,MIKE
WP,DM,TWOJJS, 28.271189994, -82.1246800061,03/21/1999,13:12:48,MIKE
WP,DM,SG4 , 28.170720010, -81.4039999913,03/21/1999,13:17:17,RYAN
WP,DM,SG3 , 28.155480000, -81.4585599951,03/21/1999,13:16:39,RYAN
WP,DM,SG2 , 28.130469977, -81.4337200072,03/21/1999,13:16:00,RYAN
WP,DM,SG1 , 28.155969989, -81.4338400025,03/21/1999,13:14:31,RYAN
WP,DM,UMATIL, 28.553909995, -81.3910199773,04/01/1999,14:39:14,RYAN
WP,DM,MIDFLA, 28.507880020, -81.3780599792,04/01/1999,14:39:53,RYAN
WP,DM,AGRO , 27.396320009, -82.1734999988,04/01/1999,14:40:25,RYAN

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Netcasting the Wallaby Open

Sun, Apr 4 1999, 5:00:04 am GMT

Duncan McBride|Kevin Frost|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Mark "Gibbo" Gibson|Russell "Russ" Brown|Wallaby Open 1999

Over the last few days the Automated Pilot Tracking System (Oz Reports # 19 and #20) has been put to good use as Albo has been tracking right under us. Using one minute intervals works well, and now we’ll try two minutes. The system has been so successful that Albo is ready to buy one to track Mark (Gibson) at the Worlds in Italy

There is a small possibility that the Wallaby Open, and/or the Nationals will be Netcast with pilots using APTS to report their positions to a central computer at headquarters. We’ll see how far this effort gets.

Russ Brown has a few thoughts on these type of systems:

Maybe you guys will help me brainstorm a little thing that's been bopping around in my head. I mentioned it to Duncan McBride a couple months ago and now Ken Rosenberger has asked about it. We've got this capability in APRS to have our position picked up by any nearby digipeater that is "Igate" (internet gate) equipped. Then your icon is displayed on a US map atwww.aprs.net. If you zoom in on an area, thewww.aprs.netmaps are served from Mapblast.com. Other technical details onwww.aprs.netcan be found by searching the APRSSIG archives atwww.tapr.org.

Anyway, say we get our infrastructure all set up. Say every HG site in the country had an Igated digipeater (actually that would come in very handy if it were also hooked into the site's wind talker, but that's another subject) and everybody could log onto the internet on Sat night to view the log file of their favorite mailing list personality, sort of like what Davis has posted athttps://OzReport.com/Ozv3n17.htm.

To get fancy, you could use a product like Delorme 3D Explorer to deliver say, a real-time pilot's view of Pete Lawrence flying up the Owens Valley. Or you could see if Kevin Frost lands in the bomb range. You could go over the back of Frisco with David Taylor and second guess all his flight decisions. Hmm… I guess we'd need a cloud cover overlay from the weather service to second-guess all his flying decisions.

But now for the brainstorming part… If all these disparate, digitally-equipped pilots would want to compete against each other in a "Saturday Cyber League" of sorts, what would the handicap rules be? I was thinking maybe to get soundings from weather service sources nearest each competitor and then handicapping each flight as to thermal tops/cloudbase, tailwinds, strength of lift, etc. Also type of glider could be handicapped. These standings could be calculated instantly and the leader would have bragging rights for a week.

Whaddya think? I think Florida would be the ideal place to kick off a Cyber League since the state is already blanketed with Igated digipeaters and has at least one glider-mounted TH-D7A. The consistent topography in Florida would also make scoring easier, maybe start off with just a glider handicap. Maybe Kenwood could sponsor this and make it really cool.

And:

I plan on flying this Saturday but probably won't go XC since I haven't flown since Xmas (I re-injured a muscle below my scapula). I'll set my TH-D7A to 144.390 (call sign KB6LUD), set my SSID to "small aircraft" and set my path to RELAY,WIDE. I should easily hit one of the 2 IGated digipeaters in the LA Basin. Hey, I've got a 5000 foot antenna :-)

According tohttp://www.aprs.net/aprserve.dcc.htmlthe data is not purged for 12 hours so we should be able to race home and see our last position. The "Client connection" paragraph onhttp://www.aprs.net/aprserve.dcc.htmlprobably holds the key to gathering nationwide data that the Cyber League could use for scoring purposes. Know any programmers? Steve Dimse is a great guy, he would probably offer tech help.

Then, he reconsiders:

WARNING… Don't tune into 144.390 with your glider's GPS unless you want all your waypoints overwritten!! You can disable the NMEA input from the GPS to prevent this.

I think he means NMEA input to the GPS.

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Wallaby Open turnpoints

Sun, Apr 4 1999, 5:00:03 am GMT

Wallaby Open 1999|waypoints

I’ve put up the official list of Wallaby Open turnpoints/goals on my web site. You’ll find it at http://www.davisstraub.com/Glide/wallabyopenturnpoints.zip. Just click this link to download it to your computer.

You’ll need to unzip it (http://www.winzip.com). It is in Waypoint+ (http://www.tapr.org/~kh2z/Waypoint/) format. If you download Waypoint+ (which is a terrific piece of freeware), you can upload the turnpoints into your Garmin 12 or III or whatever. You’ll need a Garmin/serial cable (http://www.blue-hills-innovations.com/products.htm#data).

I’ve also included a text version of the turnpoints below.

The turnpoint checking software to be used at the Wallaby Open and the Nationals will download your track log and your waypoints, including any that you created with Mark, and Enter during the flight. This is an example of what your flight will look like to the person viewing it on the computer:

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Short Takes »

Sun, Mar 28 1999, 5:00:01 am GMT

Alejandro Gonzalez|Avron Tal|Brian Porter|G.W. Meadows|Stewart Midwinter|Worlds 1999

Avron Tal sends in the web addresses for the 1999 Hang Gliding World Championships:http://www.fivl.it/mondiali/cucco99.html and the European championship ishttp://www.hanggliding.at/home.htm, July 10th - 18th 1999, just before the worlds at Mt. Cucco.

Alejandro. Gonzalez writes:

Davis, I know you are not exactly an Aeros fan, but perhaps it would be worth mentioning that the last day Oleg was 7 points from Manfred and had a camera problem.(This at the Brazilian Open).

Thanks Alejandro. I thought that I’ve been giving Aeros and G.W. lots of play here in the Oz Report, so I wonder if your statement is really fair. The record, as they say, speaks for itself, and, it is all available, on my web site (https://OzReport.com)

Bright Star has announced their new Utopia, a bigger and better Millenium (for more bucks). You’ll find out more about it at Stewart Midwinter’s Rigid Wing site at: http://www.globalserve.net/~midtoad/RigidWings/Millennium.html#Utopia.

We’ve heard that despite what it says here, that the span is 4 feet longer than the Millenium. The cage is quite a bit closer to the wing, than the Millenium (does that make it even harder to see around you?), and that there will be a fairing for the cage. We expect Brian Porter to show up here at Wallaby with one for the Wallaby Open. Will the ATOSes be able to match its performance?

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US Nationals »

Wed, Mar 17 1999, 5:00:02 am GMT

G.W. Meadows|Quest Air|Wallaby Open 1999|US Nationals 1999

G.W. is going to be putting on quite a show up at Quest Air, right after the Wallaby Open. If you are thinking about flying in these meets, you had better sign up very soon. Because these are tow meets, there will definitely be a limit to the number of participants. Just because you sign up for one, doesn’t mean you will necessarily be able to go to the other.

You can sign up for the Nationals at http://www.justfly.com, and for the Wallaby Open, go to http://www.wallaby.com (there is no on-line sign up capability there).

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Class II at the Worlds

Mon, Mar 8 1999, 11:00:06 pm GMT

Hans Bausenwein|Worlds 1999

I wrote previously that it wasn't going to happen, but maybe they will prove me wrong. If there is enough of a movement in Europe by the rigid wing manufacturers, it could happen. I asked Hans Bausenwein about this and this is what he had to say:

It did not seem to me, that there will be great effort by the organizers to get many class II participants. But I expect that pilots and manufacturers will push to be there. Apart from a full team of 4 pilots from the US, where the move into rigid wing flying seems to be strongest, I expect strong interest by some good German, Swiss, Italian and French pilots. The class II glider manufacturers will certainly make additional effort to have the best possible pilots fly their wings at the worlds.

Will there be American rigid wing pilots willing to go to Europe with their wings not knowing if there will be enough participants to make a valid rigid wing world championships? We'll see. They could at least hope for a greater effort on the part of the meet organizers to keep them informed about the possibility of other countries coming to Italy with Exxtacies, Swifts, etc. I'm doing my best to keep everyone up to date.

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Is competition hang gliding out of control?

Sun, Mar 7 1999, 11:00:00 pm GMT

Bob Baier|competition|Corinna Schwiegershausen|G.W. "GeeDub" Meadows|Gerolf Heinrichs|Guido Gehrmann|Hans Bausenwein|Jos Guggenmos

Han Bausenwein, my European correspondent, has sent in a report on the CIVL meeting held over the weekend in Copenhagen. I also hope to be able to publish something soon from G.W. about his experiences at the meeting.

I have just come back from the 1999 CIVL meeting in Kopenhagen last night. The meeting was from 5.3.-7.3. I was there as the chairman of the Austrian/German working group on new technical standards for competition hang gliders. This working group was founded during the October 1998 League meeting and celebration party for our two World Champions Guido Gehrmann and Corinna Schwiegershausen.

Gerolf Heinrichs was at this League meeting as well and gave a speech, which had more or less the same contents as his article, that was published in Fly and Glide 12/98. This speech was the start of the Austrian/German working group on new standards for competition hang gliders.

At the CIVL meeting the proposal of the Austrian/German working group was welcomed unanimously and a CIVL working group was founded to refine and complete the proposal. The new standards will also be backed by manufacturers and with a bit of luck, if there is agreement from all sides, be even valid for the 1999 World Championships.

Another thing, that will be of interest for the competition orientated part of the hang gliding community and the readers of Oz Report is:

The local regulations for the 1999 Monte Cucco World Championships state, there will be a maximum of 10 participants from each country, out of which 6 can be class 1 and 4 class 2. The competition for class 2 will be held if there are at least 8 participants from at least 4 different countries.

To me it is obvious: If this news is spread wide enough and soon enough, we will have to celebrate a class 2 World Champion as well. As it stands at the moment I will be on the German team for class 1. It is possible, that Jos Guggenmos will compete on his new rigid wing. I have not yet deceided, if I will be flying my new Laminar in class 1 or on the ATOS in class 2. I still have not flown the ATOS yet, but hope, that I will receive one from Felix Rühle soon.

I am also planning to come over to the US (Bob Baier is coming as well) to compete in the US Nationals. Bob Baier only was flying a Bullet in the 1997/98 competitions in Australia including the Worlds. After that he started flying a Laminar and still flies for Icaro this year. In the 1998/99 Forbes Flatlands he flew on a CSX 5, that he borrowed from Moyes.

There is one change in Sporting Code Section 7, that has been made on the weekend, that might be also applied to paricipants of class two hang gliding in the 99 worlds.

It is: " if a pilot wants to enter a CIVL category 1 event, i.e. a World Championships or Continental Championships, this pilot does have to be placed within the top ⅔ of a CIVL category 2 event, i.e. National Championships or other, that have been open to international participation and that have been sanctioned by CIVL as category 2 events within the last 3 years".

If this rule is applied to class 2 hang gliders as well and used for the paticipation of pilots with a class 1 hang glider, not very many pilots are able to enter class 2 in the Worlds. You and I would be able.

Regards

Hans

Hans Bausenwein Thann 22 D-83098 Brannenburg
home: fone **49-(0)8034-309386 fax **49(0)8034-309387
email <hans@aerosport.de>
business: fone **49-(0)8034-1034 fax **49(0)8034-3384
email <info@aerosport.de>web http://www.aerosport.de

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The 1999 USHGA Membership Meeting in Knoxville

Thu, Mar 4 1999, 11:00:00 pm GMT

Bill Bryden|Chris Wills|Dan Johnson|John Stokes|Paul Klemond|Russ Locke

Don't worry, I'm not going to bore you with a bunch of details about committee meetings. I'm constitutionally unable to sit in meetings and therefore never find out what happens in them.

I did sit in on the competition committee meeting for a few minutes, just long enough to see Paul Klemond in action (although I missed much of the show). He's sort of in charge of calculating the paraglider pilot rankings. I'm now using his basic spreadsheets to calculate hang glider pilot rankings.

Paraglider pilot rankings are a quagmire because there is no agreed upon way to rank foreign pilots (no PIRS points). Therefore there is an arbitrary system which gives these pilots some sort of ranking. Well, as you can imagine, not everyone is in sync on what the final ranking should be. I'll just bet that it will be cleared up soon.

You'll find hang glider pilot rankings at http://www.davisstraub.com. Russ Locke, the competition committee chairman, and I met, to iron out any differences that we had. I assume that I will hear back from him soon.

There was indeed a general membership meeting in conjunction with the USHGA BOD meeting. It consisted of a morning meeting with a couple of fun presentations (to distract us all), a very small amount of business, and series of talks on Friday and Saturday for our own edification and enlightenment.

Black Vultures

I had written colloquially and mistakenly in an earlier Oz Report about following "turkey buzzards" along a line of lift here at Wallaby Ranch. I had also stated that the Exxtacy seemed to have about the same sink rate as these birds.

First, I heard from one pilot at the USHGA meeting that the Exxtacies in his area didn't seem to be able to climb with the turkey vultures. I began to wonder if I was overselling the Exxtacy sink rate.

Then, John Stokes brought in his birds to the general membership meeting. The first bird to fly repeatedly about the room for us was a black vulture.

Imagine a mid-sized conference room with 50-100 people sitting and standing, and then imagine a black vulture flying low right through everyone. We were enthralled. The bird was beautiful, graceful and fearless. It eats botulism from breakfast and projectile vomits on intruders.

Not only that, but we found out that the black vulture has white areas near the wing tips, just like those birds near Wallaby that we follow around. It weighs as much as a turkey vulture (4 pounds), but has a smaller wing span (4 ½ feet as opposed to 6 feet), and consequentially a higher sink rate. It all began to make sense.

Right after the black vulture, John brought in a red tail hawk. This bird was even more amazing, because it flew even closer, between the heads of sitting USHGA members. It never flinched as it just floated in between 20 people in a 30-foot flight. And not just one flight, but a bunch.

John and his partner also brought in a golden eagle (which didn't fly for us), and Osceola, a bald eagle with one wing that you may have seen as a passenger with John on John's hang glider. The video has been shown everywhere.

When the old farts were young

Chris Wills gave the second presentation during the general membership meeting, and I was prepared to be bored by a story about how it was in the old days of hang gliding. I'm easily bored, and I've run into so many old time pilots with all their war stories, that it gets to me after a while.

In fact, what we got was a fascinating video produced from old 8 millimeter movies taken of Chris and his friends building pre hang gliders starting in the late 1960's, and learning from ground zero (but up a high hill side) how to fly.

The shots of these teenage kids hanging by their arm pits in box frames under bamboo and plastic kites made them appear quite heroic, which in fact they were. It was clear from the footage that there was a historical progression from almost uncontrolled flight to actual weight shift on Rogallo-type wings. This is what it took to learn to fly when all your training came from actual flights.

Soarablity

Gary Osaba gave three talks over the weekend at Knoxville, all to different groups within this combined meeting of the USHGA, Soaring Society, and Ultralight Association. If his talk to the USHGA is any gauge, I'll just bet that there are more then a few people wondering just what all those graphs and charts meant.

Gary packs it in when he gives a talk and if you aren't already very familiar with the issues that he is talking about, it's going to fly right by you. Briefly, he is interested in aircraft that can start soaring at 10 AM and continue on course till night fall.

How do you do that? Make them so that they can circle in small thermals, staying in the lift throughout the turn. Keep the circling sink rate low. Improve the craft's glide ratio at inter-thermal speeds to about 20 to 1 or better.

If you do this you maximize your soarability, that is your ability to stay up in the complete spectrum of the lift throughout the day. If the contest is won by the one who gets to goal the most, this strategy wins the meet.

These were the highlights for me. There were other interesting talks that I attended, especially Bill Bryden's on towing and Dan Johnson's on powered hang gliders, but you can read about what they had to say in the last few Hang Gliding Magazines.

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GPS turn point verification at the competitions »

Tue, Feb 16 1999, 4:00:04 pm GMT

GPS|Wallaby Open 1999|US Nationals 1999

We are working hard at setting up the Wallaby Open and the US Nationals for GPS use. GPS turnpoint verification will be the order of the day, but we want to make sure that it works for every one.

Previously pilots used their GPSs to tell them when they got close to the physical turnpoint. Now they will be using their eye sight (and their GPSs) to tell them when they get near the virtual turnpoint. The GPS indicated turnpoint is the turnpoint. Hopefully it will be very close to the physical turnpoint.

I suggest that pilots take every opportunity to practice making virtual turnpoints.

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Not really Class II in the Worlds this year in Italy »

Tue, Feb 16 1999, 4:00:03 pm GMT

Belinda Boulter|G.W. "GeeDub" Meadows|Worlds 1999

Basically it ain't going to happen. That's not what they are saying, but they are saying the same things that the meet organizers at the Worlds in Australia said (the standard CIVL line), and they didn't happen there.

Class II will perhaps be allowed and made official if 8 pilots from 4 countries show up (pretty much on their own). Could happen, but it isn't likely at the moment.

The problem is that meet organizers in Europe (or those connected with CIVL) are not encouraging the inclusion of Class II hang gliders in competitions. The only competitions that counted toward PIRS points in Class II were held in the US last year.

This sinks. CIVL is basically out to lunch on Class II, and the European meet organizers are in a fog. We can only hope that with the increase in the number of Class II manufacturers that we will see some action on this front.

G.W. Meadows has been a pioneer in this effort to let a number of different classes fly in the hang gliding meets, and why not. We need more people at the meets, not less. We want to be inclusive and let everyone enjoy the thrill of competition. G.W. has a single surface class this year, and Belinda's thinking about joining the Aeros Target team.

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The Wallaby Open »

Sun, Jul 5 1998, 7:56:19 pm EDT

cost|Wallaby Open 1999|weather

The Wallaby Open dates are April 18th-24th. This is the week after Sun 'n Fun (April 10-17th). JC Brown is now the meet director. Malcolm is the meet organizer. The cost is $250. See www.wallaby.com for snail mail address. E-mail is «gloverdh».

BTW, there are money prizes at the Wallaby Open. $3000, $1500, $500 for 1st, 2nd, 3rd in Class I. None for Class II, but I guess if you can afford a Class II glider, who needs money. :-) I asked Malcolm about the weather and he didn't want to talk about it because he didn't want to jinx it. It's been too good for a month now. Last year with El Nino, it rained every day in the Winter.

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