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topic: Paul Tjaden (52 articles)

Apology to Lauren Tjaden

June 7, 2013, 9:40:06 EDT

Apology to Lauren Tjaden

At Quest Air

Lauren Tjaden|Paul Tjaden|Quest Air

Paul Tjaden said he would appreciate an apology from me for calling his wife the weak link at Quest Air. I apologize.

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Zach Marzec

Thu, Feb 7 2013, 3:47:58 pm PST

A tumble at very low altitude

fatality|Dragonfly|dust devil|Paul Tjaden|Quest Air|video|weather|Zachary "Zack" Marzec

Zachary "Zack" Marzec

Paul Tjaden from Quest Air writes:

A few days ago I promised that I would write a more complete accident report regarding the tragic hang gliding accident we recently had at Quest Air resulting in the death of our good friend, Zach Marzec. I do want to warn you in advance that there will be no great revelations from what you already know. Many times Zach flew with a video camera which could have possibly told us more but on this occasion he did not.

The weather conditions seemed quite benign. It was a typical winter day in central Florida with sunny skies, moderate temperatures and a light south west wind. It was, however, a high pressure, dry air day that sometimes creates punchy conditions with small, tight, strong thermals versus the big fat soft ones that Florida is famous for. Time of day was approximately 3:00. None of these conditions were even slightly alarming or would have caused any concern about launching.

Zach Marzec was an advanced rated pilot who was a tandem instructor for Kitty Hawk Kites where he logged a huge number of aerotow flights. He was current (flying every day) and was flying his personal glider that he was very familiar with and had towed many times. Sorry, I do not have specific numbers of hours or flights logged but experience does not appear to have been an issue.

The glider was a Moyes Xtralite. This glider was a fairly old design. I believe the last ones built were in the mid 1990’s, but it was in good, airworthy condition and rigged properly. I know of no reports that this glider is difficult to tow or has any deficiencies for aero towing but I am not an expert on it and have never flown one. The glider hit base tube first and sustained very little damage upon impact so it was easy to ascertain that the glider did not appear to have had any structural failure that would have caused the accident.

The tow aircraft was a Moyes Dragonfly with a 914 Rotax engine and was piloted by a highly experienced tow pilot. The tow line was approximately 250 feet long which is standard and Zach was using the “pro tow” method where the tow line is attached directly to a bridle on the pilot’s harness and is not attached to the glider at all. A standard 130 pound test weak link was being used.

Another pilot had launched with no issues immediately before the accident. The launch started on the main runway at the north end (2,000 feet long) and was normal until at approximately 50 feet in altitude when the tow plane hit extremely strong lift elevating it quickly and abruptly. Because of the length of the tow line, it was a few seconds later when Zach’s glider entered the same strong lift and he was at an estimated 100 to 150 feet in altitude at this time. When the lift/turbulence was encountered, the weak link on the tow line broke as the nose of the glider pitched up quickly to a very high angle of attack. Apparently, the glider stalled or possibly did a short tail slide and then stalled and then nosed down and tumbled. Eye witnesses said the glider tumbled twice and then struck the ground with the base tube low. Due to the extremely low altitude, there was no time for the pilot to deploy his reserve parachute.

Zach was conscious immediately after the accident but died in route to the hospital.

Beyond these facts anything else would be pure speculation. I have personally had numerous weak link breaks on tow, both low and high, after hitting turbulence and have never felt in danger of a tumble. I have witnessed countless others have weak link breaks with no serious problems. We train aero tow pilots how to handle this situation and I am certain that Zach had also encountered this situation many times before and knew how to react properly. Apparently, Zach simply hit strong low level turbulence, probably a dust devil that could not be seen due to the lack of dust in Florida, the nose went too high and he tumbled at a very low altitude.

Strong dust devils in Florida definitely do exist even though they are rare. My wife had a near miss when she encountered a severe dusty a couple years ago and I almost lost a brand new $18,000 ATOS VX when it was torn from its tie down and thrown upside down.

I wish I could shed more light on this accident but I am afraid this is all we know and probably will know. Zach was a great guy with an incredible outlook and zest for life. He will be sorely missed.

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Death at Quest Air

Sat, Feb 2 2013, 6:45:02 pm PST

Little news now

Zachary "Zack" Marzec|Facebook|Paul Tjaden|photo|Quest Air|video|weather

Zachary "Zack" Marzec

Paul Tjaden writes on Facebook: We will post more about the accident on the Quest FB page in the coming days. For now I will say that it appears to have been a fluke accident. Weather conditions were very benign with light winds and blue skies and the glider was in good airworthy condition. We are all sick about this untimely loss of our good friend, Zack.

WFTV.com

Officials: Man killed in hang gliding crash in Lake County - LAKE COUNTY, Fla.

Officials in Lake County said a man was killed in a hang gliding crash Saturday afternoon.

The crash happened on a runway at the Groveland airport around 3 p.m., officials said.

The victim, identified as 27-year-old Zachary Marzec, was piloting the hang glider when it crashed onto the runway.

Marzec was rushed to South Lake Hospital, where he was pronounced dead. Officials said Marzec is from out of state.

The sheriff's office is investigating the crash.

http://www.facebook.com/zachary.marzec?fref=ts

CFnews13.com

GROVELAND -- One person is dead after a hang gliding accident in Lake County Saturday.

The Lake County Sheriff’s Office said Zachary Marzec, 27, was taken to the hospital after his hang glider crashed on the runway at the Groveland Airport.

Marzec, who deputies said was from Illinois, later died from his injuries.

Investigators said the hang glider fell to the ground after some kind of accident during flight.

The crash is being investigated as an accident.

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=564605714817

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLTDPeB55ek

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8600' cloud base yesterday at Quest Air

April 4, 2012, 9:55:22 EDT

8600' cloud base yesterday at Quest Air

That's almost 8600' AGL

Belinda Boulter|Dean Funk|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Paul Tjaden|Quest Air|Russell "Russ" Brown|weather

Pilots got plenty high in the light wind conditions with scatter cu's yesterday. Today two women students are doing early morning tandems for instruction with Mitch Shipley and Dean Funk.

Mark Frutiger has added an invigorating new element to the management here at Quest Air joining Paul Tjaden and Mitch in providing services to an ever increasing flow of pilots from up north and was hauling up the students and their instructors this morning. Mark has a perfect background to be a hands on manager here and has a great attitude. We are happy to see his well tanned face after years of pasty white from his time living in western New York and teaching hang gliding for the Rochester Area Flyers.

Quest Air at times appears to be a Yoga Spa with a hang gliding problem as Delores Mordasini gets her student loosened up every morning at 8:30 AM (I think she is soon going to start earlier as things heat up here) next to the pool. Belinda is a very experienced student.

Russell Brown comes by about every day as he works on the planes and the tractors. The professional tractor mechanic just showed up next to the Oz Report World headquarters to get the PTO working. I think that he is going to spilt the tractor to get at the PTO clutch. The tractors are used for mowing the runways and have 10' and 15' mowing decks respectively.

The weather forecast calls for continued good weather for the next week at least. The conditions are marvelous and pilots are wearing themselves out flying.

Come on down and enjoy central Florida flying weather.

National Hang Gliding and Paragliding Day Celebration

May 14, 2010, 8:56:03 EDT

National Hang Gliding and Paragliding Day Celebration

At Quest Air

Dustin Martin|Lauren Tjaden|Paul Tjaden|PG|Quest Air|USHPA

Lauren Tjaden writes:

Soar into fun with Quest Air Hang Gliding as we celebrate the inaugural National Hang Gliding and Paragliding Day from 9 a.m.—5 p.m. on May 29, 2010 at Quest Air Hang Gliding, 6548 Groveland Airport Road, Groveland, FL 34736.

The interactive event welcomes the public into the world of free flying, and will feature flying demonstrations (including a thrilling aerobatic flight demonstration by U.S. Hang Gliding National Team Member and Quest Air instructor Dustin Martin), lectures, games, and discounted tandem Discovery Flights. Admission is free.

This colorful event is perfect for those on a “staycation” looking for something adventurous to do on Memorial Day around the Groveland and Orlando areas. It will be a nationwide celebration and membership drive, and provides a great way to have fun while watching, learning about, and participating in the exciting world of free flight.

“This is a great opportunity for people who are not familiar with hang gliding and paragliding to experience what makes them so great, through the eyes of dedicated chapter pilots. These people are some of the best pilots in the world, and they are thrilled at the opportunity to share their sports with the public,” said Paul Montville, Executive Director of USHPA.

Tandem flights may be made available to the press, providing writers and photographers with the chance to experience this very colorful sport. Please contact Paul Tjaden at Quest Air Hang Gliding at 352-429-0213 or <info> to coordinate, as space may be limited.

National Hang Gliding and Paragliding Day was established by the United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association (USHPA), a non-profit organization whose purpose is to promote the growth of sport flying in foot-launchable soaring aircraft.

USHPA develops, standardizes, and administers programs that foster and promote practices for safe flying. USHPA maintains a working relationship with the FAA, and other regulatory organizations, to insure continued access to airspace. The organization also maintains relationships with public and private entities to promote the procurement and maintenance of flying sites. USHPA is headquartered in Colorado Springs, Colorado. For more information on hang gliding and paragliding go to www.ushpa.org (non-pilot) or www.ushpa.aero (pilot member).

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Dealing with the press

May 12, 2010, 9:06:37 EDT

Dealing with the press

Yes, I know that you don't like the fact that they show up when accidents occur

Adam Parer|Dragonfly|Dustin Martin|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Mitch Shipley|Paul Tjaden|Quest Air|video

Last Sunday we had Dan Criswell (camera man) and Drew Petrimoulx (reporter) from WFTV in Orlando show up at Quest Air after the accident. They came from Orlando so they arrived long after everyone had left, the hang glider pilot in a medical helicopter. There was nothing to see by that time. Dan and Drew had been listening on the scanner and we were the most interesting thing on it. Apparently that was true for most of the day as they spent a couple of hours with us.

Both Dan and Drew were personable, friendly and interested in what was going on at Quest Air in general. I went over and talked to them after I saw that their van was here. I saw Dan doing a bit of filming, but what was there to see?

I spoke on camera about the accident and about hang gliding at Quest and in general. Later Mitch Shipley did a longer interview in the control frame of the tandem glider (hey, with his shirt off). Since WFTV didn't put the video of Drew's report up on their web site, I have no idea of what Dan presented on camera or whether they used any of the video that I sent to them. Lauren and Paul Tjaden got to see it and Paul told me that basically it was very positive.

I got the bright idea of offering Dan a tandem flight or taking a flight up in a Dragonfly to get a bird's eye view of Quest Air. Dan called his production manager who said that he couldn't go. Something about insurance. Dan was up for it.

Mitch was at first reluctant to be interviewed or speak with Dan and Drew but then saw it as an opportunity to get some good news out. We both later agreed that what are you going to do, they are here, there is going to be a story about the accident, how could you make it any worse?

I see the presence of the TV press (and newspaper people, if they exist any more) as an opportunity. They are likely not coming out to visit when not much is happening (say, just a competition). So get over the fact that they are out there now and see this as an opportunity (if the press is friendly and open).

It is not going to help our cause if you act resentful and unhelpful. Your feelings are not the fault of the press people who are there now. You are not dealing with an institution, you are dealing with the people in front of you. Treat them in the manner that you would wish to be treated. Maybe you'll be surprised.

The press is every where these days. There are millions of "citizen reporters." If you don't get the story right, they'll get it wrong. For example, http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php?t=17092 . This story was almost completely false.

The story reported (in text) here: http://www.wftv.com/news/23501281/detail.html was also incorrect (even after we spoke over a two hour period), but because I had a bit a rapport with the reporters, and their business cards with their email addresses, I was able to quickly get the report rewritten and corrected. Drew wrote to me that he didn't report the incorrect information on air.

I also had a video file from the pilot's helmet cam (GoPro Hero HD) view of her flight. It would have shown what she saw as the accident happened, confirming what the witnesses saw. It would not show the pilot, of course. Unfortunately, the camera turned off when the helmet hit the ground (I presume). This causes corruption of the file and I was not able to view it.

Dan, who has a GoPro and is a big fan of the camera, offered to use his software to try to recover the file. He stated that if I gave him the file, he would not use it unless he got explicit permission from the pilot's family (again, the video wouldn't show the pilot, or their injury) so I trusted him and gave him the video. He was not able to recover it. He received permission from the pilot's husband to use the video, but again, he was not able to recover it.

I spoke with Scare, and he said that it would be possible to recover some of the file, but not the last bits of it, which really were the only interesting parts. So at the moment I am not working on it.

I hope to see Dan and Drew back at Quest Air for a tandem flight from Mitch or Dustin.

It is the policy of the Oz Report (well, it's my approach) to report accidents as soon as possible. Accidents make up a very small part of the "news" as reported in the Oz Report. I'm not out there listening to the scanner.

I am not interested in reporting the pilot's name. The pilot's name is only reported if it is germane (say Adam Parer's reports on his tuck and tumble). I am only interested in making a report that helps the hang gliding community by reporting on the reasons for the accident, so that pilots can learn from others' mistakes. I'm not here to gloat over others' mistakes.

In this case we were able to quickly determine the cause of the accident because we had very experienced eye witnesses. The cause of the accident was something that pilots have total control over and have the opportunity to deal with.

The Oz Report is the premier hang gliding press. I have been reporting on hang gliding for fourteen years now. I do a lot of thinking about my responsibilities and take them very seriously. Everyone should be aware by now of the fact that the press landscape has changed greatly over the last fifteen years. I am aware that many people haven't figured that out yet.

There is now a lot of self reporting in blogs. I link to them so that you can have easy access to many different points of view. I hope that the Oz Report will continue to evolve as technology and society changes.

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Flying in Florida - it's like Zapata

Tue, May 11 2010, 8:21:57 pm EDT

Stayin' alive

Belinda Boulter|Paul Tjaden|Quest Air|record|Steve Kroop

Belinda Boulter|Flytec 6030|Paul Tjaden|Quest Air|record|Steve Kroop

I don't have a track log as for the first time I have had a problem with my Flytec 6030 and the positions didn't appear to be recorded (although the altitudes did but the time markers were wrong). I will send it in in the morning to Steve Kroop http://flytec.com for repairs (board replacement, I assume).

The NAM, GFS and RUC forecasts looked moderately good for an attempt at the East Coast record (283 miles) with east southeast wind turning to south east or maybe even south southeast as one went further north.


It looked like a good day to go up Interstate 75 into Georgia. I had the glider already set up so I was ready to go early in the morning. There were plenty of good looking cu's at 9 AM, but the wind was awfully east and strong which wasn't that encouraging.

I went out onto the runway and measured only 5 or 6 mph, so I figured that the blowing trees were just some illusion. Paul Tjaden towed me up at 10:30 AM as it looked like the cu's would stick this time. I let him pull me to cloud base at about 3,100'. The tow was super smooth and we didn't find any lift to speak of.

There wasn't any lift at the first cloud so I headed downwind to Groveland as there were cu's every where and they were also streeting up. I found light lift and stayed with it to cloud base. The wind was 17 to 18 mph out of the southeast. Ah, I remember this, this is just like Zapata, circle and circle and circle in the light lift and let the wind send you down the course line.

The cu's at 10:30 AM.

And that is how it went as I did little to no actual gliding, but circling and searching and feeling out the air under cu's to find any lift at all. I often thermalled in much less than 100 fpm, but the point was to stay up or get high enough to get over the next barrier (forest, suburb, whatever). I did jump a few streets to get further north, but found lift as soon as I got to the next street. The wind was too east at first.

The wind turned to south southeast fairly quickly and I would head north if I could to get to the next cloud as opposed to northwest or north northwest. Then I would drift further west in the thermal.

It took about an hour to get up to the Turnpike and Wildwood where Interstate 75 intersects the Turnpike.

The cu's at 11:30 AM.

There were plenty of cu's ahead and I could see bits of cloud streets. I did get down below 2,000' a few times and have to search about and work weak lift, but I was staying up and working to get high enough to get over the approaching forest and houses.

I worked west of the Ocala airport over open fields as I didn't want to have any distractions (like thinking about a place to land) so that I could just work the light lift in comfort and do my best to enjoy the pleasant air. But the air wasn't all that pleasant even though the lift was weak I kept getting tossed about.

The cu's at 12:30 PM. The streets are visible.

I was headed toward Williston up highway 27 west of Interstate 75. We had just had a task to Williston from Quest in the Flytec Race and Rally and as I've flown in this area many times I was very familiar with it.

For the first time, as I approached Williston, I wasn't able to climb back to cloud base. I headed over a forest to get under a dark cloud but I was losing height quickly.

The cu's as 1:30 PM.

Down to 1,000', at the north end of the forest over a tall radio tower and looking at the fields just beyond for a landing stop I lucked into a thermal, in fact the best thermal of the day and took it back to cloud base, over 4,000'. Previously the thermals were weak and/or broken. This was the first thermal that actually provided 200+ fpm throughout each turn. As I climbed up it increased in strength.

As I headed north from Williston toward Archer I was continually checking the streets and cu's. I had been flying the cu's during the whole flight and they were working for me. I was willing to follow the streets wherever they lead.

Belinda mentioned on the radio that it was quiet, hot and muggy in Williston. At Quest the air had been dry and it was cooler. I could see all the moisture in the air especially to the west toward the Gulf. The visibility was much reduced and I could barely see Gainesville to the east. The wind had decreased from 16 mph down to six to eight mph in the air and less on the ground. This was forecasted, and I attributed it to convergence from the west coast.

Also the sunny ground was disappearing. Previously I had lots of sun on the ground and I would choose sunny spots on the windward side of clouds as likely sources of lift, or I would go right under the darkest part of the cloud over the shaded ground and find lift. Now the sky was turning grey, mottled from cu's that seem to have spread out and have less form.

I could still see cloud streets, but now there was just grey between them and the streets were less well defined.

The cu's at 2:30 PM.

As I headed north from Archer I saw that all the ground was shaded ahead. I was at cloud base and headed for the next cu in the street, but all the clouds were now mushed together. I was in that white blob area that you see in the satellite photo above.

I got down a ways from cloud base and all I could see was shaded ground and grey sky above. The cloud streets were almost indistinguishable from the flotsam and jetsam of left over clouds. I came in low over Newberry, didn't find anything then headed north for the big fields hoping for a last minute reprieve which didn't come. I landed 91 miles out from Quest Air next to highway 27 at about 2:40 PM.

Half an hour after I landed, the sky began to open up again, at least near me.

The cu's and 3:30 PM.

And, of course as we headed south, it was all open with lovely cu's every where.

The cu's at 4:30 PM.

The cu's lasted up into Georgia for four hours after I landed.

This is a fun way to fly, flying in really light lift and just feeling out the air and working for each thermal. It's great to start early and go as far as possible. Sometimes it all comes together and sometimes there is a blob in the way.

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Flying without Joe Bostik

March 10, 2010, 8:15:21 pm EST

Flying without Joe Bostik

It wasn't as much fun

Joe Bostik|Paul Tjaden|PG|Quest Air|USHPA

Flying with others is what makes hang gliding a lot more fun (which is why I like competition). Unfortunately, Joe had to go fly a big airplane later today, so he didn't get to fly although he came by Quest Air thinking that he would be flying a hang glider.

I took off at 12:05 with a few thin little cues around Quest Air. Paul Tjaden hauled me over to one, I pinned off a little early, but then went over to it to find 600-800 fpm,  to 4,700', and so smooth. The wind was 15 mph out of the south southeast and I had been worrying about it being rough, but the tow out of the field was super smooth and the thermal was even smoother. This was going to be a day that I liked flying.

There were only two cu's around and after I got up I went on glide into the blue. There would not be another cu to get under during the flight.

It was  15 km to the next thermal and I was down to 1000'. Unlike the first thermal under the cu it was 150 fpm, but I figured this was the way it was going to be on this blue day with a defined inversion. I was drifting down wind fast, and that was the direction I was headed anyway, so I might as well just hang with it. It was very pleasant air to be up in. I was paralleling the Turnpike.

As I approached the prison and then Coleman I had to be sure to get high even to get over the forests ahead. I wasn't getting over 3,000' so I took my time hanging in very light lift, well under 100 fpm. I figured that I could just stay in the lift as I drifted over the forests if I had to.

I was high enough to jump over the Turnpike southwest of Wildwood and picked up a thermal at 1,000' as I was just keeping an eye on what fields away from the high tension lines I could land in if necessary. This thermal was almost 300 fpm to almost 5,000'.

Freed from my pre-occupation with reasonable landing zones I zoomed with the strong tail wind at 55 mph right up Interstate 75 toward Ocala. I was able to pick up the next thermal at 200 fpm at 1,700', so this was beginning to set up a pattern for me. From 4,600' I headed toward the southwest end of the runway at Ocala airfield.

Down to 1,400' I joined a young eagle (the birds had been very helpful all day) and climbed again to 4,600'. I was thinking that I should just keep this up, glide fast until I got down to near 2,000', then search around for the next one.

I picked a weak one up at 2,200' but lost it at 2,600' and oops, I didn't find another one as the territory below up highway 27 turned in to well fenced small horse farms. I saw a big field near highway 27 with a large horse show going on. I could land in the field well away from the horses, so I did. It was this show here.

After I landed I looked up and there were in fact cu's forming over the field. I had just barely missed them. Maybe they were there when I headed for the field, but maybe they were there just after I landed. They were the first cu's I saw after leaving Quest.

The flight:

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?flightId=1250584086

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/10.3.2010/17:04

http://xc.dhv.de/xc/modules/leonardo/index.php?name=leonardo&op=show_flight&flightID=128177

http://paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/304327

A nice little cross country flight before my cross country flight to the USHPA BOD meeting.

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Cleaning out the containers

January 27, 2010, 9:29:45 AEDT

Cleaning out the containers

Left over gliders at Quest Air

Paul Tjaden|Quest Air

Paul Tjaden <tjadenhors> writes:

We have several gliders stored here at Quest that have been left with us for quite some time and which we no longer have current contact information for the owners. Some of them are not even identified as to who owns them. If any Oz Report readers believe that they own a glider stored here and you have not been contacted by us within the last few months, please get in touch with us at 352-429-0213 or <info>. Any glider left unclaimed by March 1st, 2010 will be considered abandoned and become the property of Quest Air.

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High Over ⁢Quest Air »

Tue, Nov 24 2009, 8:11:27 am PST

A shuttle and some praise

Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Mitch Shipley|Paul Tjaden|Quest Air|weather

Paul Tjaden, Manager, Quest Air Hang Gliding 352-429-0213, «Tjadenhors» wrote:

Our good friend, Nick Brown, took this photo of the STS-129 launch on Monday from one of our tow planes. I was taking Lacy Barnett (Nick's girlfriend) on a tandem flight in the hang glider.

Bob Butemeyer «Bob Butemeyer» writes:

With the weather getting nasty, I would like to put a plug in for Quest Air in Florida. Paul Tjaden, the manager there, really made things happen for me when I was having trouble getting airtime at Wallaby. Even though most of the staff was out of the country competing, Paul was able to set me up with an instructor, Mitch Shipley, for six straight mornings of aerotow instruction. (I went to aerotow because I figured it was safer to learn how to fly the glider before I had to land it!)

Paul flew the tug and his wife Lauren (a world class pilot!) worked as ground crew. Mitch did a great job preparing me for my first solo. It was really fun, and as stress free as a first solo aerotow could be!

The last two day were devoted to solo flights, six in all. To top it all off, they really made my earth-bound wife feel at home on the airfield. It was an all around great time! I think everyone should make the trip at least once!

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Tandem Clinic at Quest Air

August 20, 2009, 8:43:02 CDT

Tandem Clinic at Quest Air

A few open spots

Paul Tjaden|Paul Voight|Quest Air

Paul Tjaden writes:

We have had a couple of last minute cancellations for our Tandem/Instructor clinic at Quest Air taking place Sept. 11th through the 14th with Paul Voight. We can keep the costs very reasonable so if you have ever thought it would be fun to fly with your friends, contact me at <info> or call me at 703-727-3423.

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Tandem instructor clinic at Quest Air

July 16, 2009, 7:35:03 CDT

Tandem instructor clinic at Quest Air

Paul Voight is coming south

Paul Tjaden|Paul Voight|Quest Air

Paul Tjaden <Tjadenhors> writes:

We are organizing a tandem / instructor clinic to be held at Quest Air in Florida August 17th thru August 20th. Tandem administrator extraordinaire, Paul Voight will be instructing. Only very qualified pilots will be considered. If you are interested, please contact me.

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Quest Air under new management

Mon, Jun 29 2009, 1:43:13 pm EDT

Quest Air under new management

Their local flight park

Dustin Martin|Paul Tjaden|Quest Air

Paul Tjaden writes:

Rumors of our demise have been greatly exaggerated: Quest Soaring Center is alive and kickin’ like a springtime thermal. Lauren and Paul Tjaden are the new managers of the renowned hang gliding operation, located just south of Groveland, Florida (about an hour west of Orlando), and are focused on catering to the needs of both new and experienced pilots.

Whether you want to learn to fly, learn to aerotow, brush up on your cross country skills or just get a taste of some soft, Sunshine State sky, make sure to check us out.

Quest also features camping, a clubhouse that is complete with kitchen, showers and several bedrooms, a lake where you can swim or canoe, a volleyball court, a swimming pool, horseshoes, and a picnic area with an available grill – so, you’ll have lots of activities to keep you occupied and happy even when you’re on the ground.

Here’s a link to the Quest Soaring Center website: http://questairforce.com. Feel free to email us at or call us at 352-429-0213.

Paul and Lauren live near Quest in Groveland and have been involved in running the flight park for a number of years. It is great that they have decided to step forward and take fuller charge of the operation.

If you appreciate a flight park with fluid operations and a sense of fun without dominating personalities, then Quest Air is the place for you.

There is lots of instruction going on at Quest with new local students learning from Dustin and Mitch.

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Team Competition at the Rob Kells Memorial

Tue, Apr 28 2009, 8:59:32 pm EDT

Lots of money on the line

André Wolfe|Ben Dunn|Charles Allen|Chris Zimmerman|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|Evgeniya "Zhenya" Laritskaya|Glen Volk|Greg Chastain|Jamie Shelden|Jeff Chipman|Jeff O'Brien|Jeff Shapiro|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Lucas Ridley|Moyes Litespeed RX|Ollie Gregory|Patrick Kruse|Paul Tjaden|Phill Bloom|Rob Kells|Steve Kroop|Tom Lanning|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

The Florida Ridge has put aside $500 for the winner of the team competition ($100/team member). John Harris at Kitty Hawk Kites will match it if the US National Team wins. Glen Volk, Ollie Gregory, Steve Kroop (Flytec USA) and Jamie Shelden each pledged $200 to the US National team if they win the Rob Kells Memorial. The competition is very tough. Here are the teams:

Pilot Team Glider
Davis Straub Usa Wills Wing T2C - 144
Jeff Shapiro Usa Wills Wing T2C - 144
Dustin Martin Usa Wills Wing T2C - 144
Zac Majors Usa Wills Wing T2C 144
Jeff O'brien Usa Wills Wing T2C - 144
Andre Wolf Dream Moyes Litespeed Rs 4
Chris Zimmerman Dream Wills Wing T2C - 144
Carl Wallbank Dream Moyes Litespeed Rs 3.5
Jonny Durand Dream Moyes Litespeed Rs 3.5
Glen Volk Dream Moyes Litespeed Rs 4
Derreck Turner Big And Tall Moyes Litespeed S5
Paul Tjaden Big And Tall Aeros Combat L 15
Larry Bunner Big And Tall Wills Wing T2C-144
Tom Lanning Big And Tall Wills Wing T2C - 144
Patrick Kruse Big And Tall Wills Wing T2C-144
Konrad Heilman Blind Squirrels Moyes Litespeed Rs 3.5
Mark Frutiger Blind Squirrels Wills Wing T2C 154
Phill Bloom Blind Squirrels Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5
Linda Salamone Blind Squirrels Moyes Litespeed S3
Ben Dunn Blind Squirrels Moyes Litespeed Rs 4
Eric Donaldson Wills Wing T2-144
Jeff Chipman Moyes Litespeed S4
Greg Chastain Moyes Litespeed S 5
Miguel Molina Moyes Litespeed S 4.5
Evgeniya Laritskaya Aeros Combat L 12
Lucas Ridley Moyes Litespeed S3
Charles Allen Icaro

Day 1:

  • Dream 3385
  • USA 3322
  • Blind Squirrels 2511
  • Big and Tall 2007

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Quest Air, let's do a triangle »

March 10, 2009, 7:07:18 pm EDT

Quest Air, let's do a triangle

A subset of the US National team does a task

Dustin Martin|Paul Tjaden|Quest Air

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?flightId=-225096668

Dustin, Paul Tjaden, and I did a 75 km triangle to the south mixing it up with the US Senior Nationals (Gliding) at Seminole. A few cu's, but mostly blue. Light winds, dry. Good lift.

You can view both flights on a map or the individual IGC files: http://ozreport.com/data/93AB4F31.igc, http://ozreport.com/data/93AB4F32.igc

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2008 WRE »

July 17, 2008, 6:12:04 pm CDT

WRE

We're here and ready to go

André Wolfe|Dustin Martin|Kent Robinson|Lauren Tjaden|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Paul Tjaden|Pete Lehmann|Quest Air|record|Robin Hamilton|Russell "Russ" Brown|sailplane|weather|World Record Encampment 2008

Russell Brown had the tug all set up on Wednesday for any pilots ready to go. The winds were out of the southeast consistently (the direction that we love here) but the overall weather pattern to the north in Texas wasn't favorable for a record attempt on that day. Lauren Tjaden and Pete Lehmann flew and got used to the area.

The weather patterns this year are the best that we seen in many years with the daily forecast for southeast winds every day, so far. The high pressure is centered just where we want it south of New Orleans. There are mid level clouds this morning and light winds so it doesn't look like we'll make an attempt today.

In spite of the widespread mid level clouds blocking all the sunlight out, the "over running" is here (low level cumulus streets racing up from the southeast).  Relatively cool moist air coming up from the Gulf running over the warm desert and being uplifted by the slowly rising terrain.

Andre Wolfe is here from Brazil with his driver. Dustin is here with his driver and a Quest Air tandem glider in addition to his Wills Wing T2. Kent Robinson wants to come down for the upcoming weekend with another pilot. Paul Tjaden is driving for Lauren but has his glider set up also. Robin Hamilton is in Houston looking at the weather and will come down if it looks like a record weekend.

Everyone is excited about the possibilities. From the forecast last night it looked like the WRE might be over in one day with records set today, but the conditions this morning are not right. Gary says tomorrow or the weekend.

Gary is here with his little Woodstock, trying to beat the light sailplane records in a lower performance light weight sailplane.

In spite of the plentiful mid level clouds the overrunning was thick and dark, at about 1,500' AGL. By 11 AM the mid level clouds were gone and the streets had lined up in a perfect direction and Dustin and Gary were flying. From a look at the radar at 11:30, the streets didn't go more than 100 miles, but we'll see later if they developed to the north.

The streets do indeed develop along the route to the north. Dustin, Gary, and Lauren fly in the local area and land at the airport after late launches. Pete and Paul continued north. Paul launching after 3 PM. We hear over the radio Paul go down 21 miles out, so not a great spot for retrieval. Lauren was lackadaisically chasing him so that should prove interesting. Pete was north of Laredo last I heard.

No record attempts today. Everything started three hours too late after the midlevels cut out the sun. But Zapata is back to where we love it. The wind forecasts are showing more easterly than we are actually experiencing, so the upcoming forecasts look great.

East Coast Championships, day 7 »

Sat, Jun 7 2008, 7:39:04 pm EDT

ECC

Dustin Martin wins the day and the meet

Ben Dunn|Charles Allen|Davis Straub|Dustin Martin|East Coast Championships 2008|Highland Aerosports Flight Park|Jamie Shelden|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Konrad Heilmann|Paul Tjaden|Tom Lanning|Wills Wing T2C

Open flex wing results, Rigid wing results, Sport Class

Blogs from here: Jonny Durand, Jamie Shelden, Tom Lanning, Ben Dunn, and Linda Salamone

7:27 PM: Dustin Martin upset the World Number 1 flex wing pilot, Jonny Durand, beating him decisively, on the last day, as well as on day 2, 3, and 4. Jonny won the first day and Dustin was second, far behind him (1:17) on that day. Dustin, Jonny, Sunny and I flew together (more on that later), and Dustin beat Jonny into goal by five minutes. He was already leading going into the last day.

10:10 PM: The forecast was for 96° on the ground with a heat index (due to the humidity) of 101. The winds were supposed to be 6 to 9 mph out of the west, with a little bit of north in it. We chose a 36 mile task to the east southeast for the rigid wing and open flex wing classes and a fifteen miler for the sport class in the same direction.

I got off second in the open class after Jim Prahl. One sport class pilot had launched but he landed. There was a wind dummy that was no dummy and had circled up from very low. I launched a half hour after the launch window opened at 1:45 PM. The first window would be 2:30 PM and the last start window at 3 PM.

The sky was milky white. Visibility was about two miles. There had been one cu overhead for about two minutes. But, Jim was sticking, so why not get out of the heat and get up.

I held on to 1,750' and pinned off when there seemed to be some lift. There was and it was enough to hold on to. A few other pilots launched but basically I had the air to myself as Jim was low below me. I could only climb five hundred feet or so before the lift petered out. The wind was light so it was easy to stay near the air strip.

After half an hour Konrad and Charles Allen joined me and we drifted down wind a ways getting to 2,600', but decided not to go on the course as it would have been just Konrad and I. Also, there were now two small cu's formed a mile back toward the air strip so we went back to them. The lift continued to work and the top of the lift continued to rise. Now I was still on top of everyone and at 2,800'.

I saw Jonny below me heading out for a cloud at the edge of the start circle. We still had almost fifteen minutes to go before the last start window but the lift had stopped where we were so it was time to get under the clouds.

I kept my eye on Jonny and Dustin as we climbed up to 3,200', the highest so far and waited for the start clock. We were able to stay up at this height and get the clock in good position.

I headed out with Dustin, Sunny, Jonny and Tom Lanning. We found a good thermal just outside the start circle and we were all hanging together. When it slowed down I decided to run out in front in an attempt to leave these guys behind (the visibility was poor, so maybe I could lose them). There were plenty of clouds in front of me to mark the lift and these were the guys I needed to beat to move up in the contest ranking.

In five miles I found a good thermal at 1,700' and spun up to 3,700', but when I looked up there were my boys hanging out with me as always. They had gone out of their way to find me and now they were above me.

I got high and raced out in front again, going for nine miles this time and down to 1,500' but when I looked up there were Sunny, Dustin and Jonny just above me. I climbed to 3,200' but this time they were able to stay 300' above me and now they headed out first. I had to trail them.

They found a couple of thermals to the east southeast by Milford and that kept us going. After the second one Jonny headed southeast while Dustin, then Sunny, then I headed east to a nice cloud over the parkway.

We all climbed to over 4,000' while Jonny glided down to 600'. We were in a convergence zone looking at the coast line a few miles to our east. When we left this thermal, one after another, we had lots of lift going to goal. Jonny was down below struggling to get back up.

Jonny had made a move to get past Dustin but it didn't work out for him.

The last day:

1. Dustin Martin Usa Wills Wing T2C 144 01:13:57 959
2. Sunny Venesky Usa Aeros Combat L 15 01:18:16 876
3. Jonny Durand Aus Moyes Litespeed Rs 3.5 01:19:23 861
4. Davis Straub Usa Wills Wing T2C 144 01:20:12 850
5. Tom Lanning Usa Moyes Litespeed S4 01:27:28 768
6. Paul Tjaden Usa Aeros Combat L 15 01:31:23 730
7. Ric Niehaus Usa Wills Wing T2 154 01:32:48 717
8. Kevin Carter Usa Wills Wing T2 154 01:38:45 667
9. Konrad Heilmann Bra Moyes Litespeed Rs 3.5 01:39:19 663
10. Charles Allen Usa Icaro Z8 12.9 01:45:41 615
11. Jim Prahl Usa Moyes Litespeed S 4 01:49:53 586
12. Peter Kelley Usa Moyes Litespeed S3 02:00:11 524

The over all results for open flex wing class:

1. Dustin Martin Usa Wills Wing T2C 144 2560
2. Jonny Durand Aus Moyes Litespeed Rs 3.5 2407
3. Sunny Venesky Usa Aeros Combat L 15 2139
4. Tom Lanning Usa Moyes Litespeed S4 2022
5. Kevin Carter Usa Wills Wing T2 154 1979
6. Paul Tjaden Usa Aeros Combat L 15 1937
7. Davis Straub Usa Wills Wing T2C 144 1925
8. Konrad Heilmann Bra Moyes Litespeed Rs 3.5 1803
9. Peter Kelley Usa Moyes Litespeed S3 1562
10. Ric Niehaus Usa Wills Wing T2 154 1556

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East Coast Championships, day two »

Mon, Jun 2 2008, 11:27:16 pm EDT

ECC

A day for racing and getting to goal quickly

Ben Dunn|Dustin Martin|East Coast Championships 2008|Highland Aerosports Flight Park|Jamie Shelden|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Paul Tjaden|Pete Lehmann|Tom Lanning|Wills Wing T2C

Open flex wing results, Rigid wing results, Sport Class

Blogs from here: Jonny Durand, Jamie Shelden, Tom Lanning, Ben Dunn, and Linda Salamone

After the difficulties yesterday getting many pilots to goal, the task committee, me, Jonny, and Pete Lehmann, call a shorter task, even though yesterday's goal looks like the ticket, given the northwest winds. We decided to go forty miles to just at the edge of the Salisbury airspace.

The forecast was for good lift, but so had been the forecast for the day before. But now we could go down wind and wouldn't have to fight the cross wind component. It looked like there might not be any clouds, but perhaps a few wispies to mark the active thermals.

The cu's did start forming as we launched a little after 1 PM. I was off about fifth and once again I hit strong lift at 700' at the end of the runway. The tug pilot was not turning even though my vario was reading 1,700 fpm. I can't just hang on and get out of this lift with the tug pilot. I pinned off once again low and climbed out.

I was early so I just stayed in the lift and drifted waiting to get high so that I could go back up wind and stay in the start circle until a later start time and start with other pilots. It wasn't long before I hooked up with Kevin, Dustin, Jonny, Sunny, Paul, Greg, Konrad, James Stinnet (the only rigid wing), and others. We were hanging out at about 4,200' and just waiting for everyone to get together and go.

I noticed right from the get go that while the thermal were large diameter, there were multiple cores and the cores were much stronger than the surrounding lift and very small. In order to climb well it was important to really put the glider tip up and turn tight. I must say that this was very easy to do with the Wills Wing T2C 144.

Of course, when there were lots of pilots around this was a little more difficult as no one else seemed to think that tight circle were the ticket. I just found the little cores off by myself as much as possible and climbed higher. In some cases I would just turn in front of other pilots that were making big circles, but far enough away from them to not cause a safety problem.

At 2:15 Kevin and Dustin and a few others who were a bit higher headed out and a bunch of us followed. I was at 4,500' so I figured it was time to go. Larry Bunner thought he would outsmart us and take the next start time. He landed in the start circle.

When a bunch of good pilots leave its a good idea to go with them. You can use them to help you find the lift. And the better the pilots, the better the chance of finding good lift.

There was a pilot circling 3.5 miles out just past Denton. We raced to get there and found lift that averaged over 500 fpm to over 4,800'. There were about ten of us in this lead gaggle.

We were right on the course line and when we topped out a few pilots headed out to the right of the course line toward a forming cloud. I didn't want to go in this direction but I didn't want to go off on my own after the first thermal along the course line so I followed along. Still I didn't like the idea opf going there.

I took one turn under the cloud and then followed James Stinnet on the Aeros Phantom who was heading out along the course line. I found some weak lift at 2,700' and worked it pretty much on my own until I saw some pilot who got around me heading toward a forested area with a small cu forming over head. I raced ahead and found 300+ fpm to 4,700' with about ten pilots. Including the Bobsy twins, Sunny and Paul Tjaden on the line green Aeros Combat L 15's.

It was a real race now. I left the thermals whenever the lift backed off. We were crossing rivers and sloughs with little cu's ahead and lots of farm land around. Coming up to a big rover I got under some nice clouds and found a small thermal that I had to competition for, at least at first. Dustin was just out ahead. Kevin and Jonny had not gone to the clouds after the first thermal and had stayed along the course line. They were just out ahead.

The thermal was good but I left it soon and raced to the cu's on the south side of the river. There I came in under Jonny about 100' below him. The lift was good, but the goal was close. Still with lift averaging 500 fpm it was hard to leave.

At 4,100', seven miles out I pulled in and I flew as fast as possible given all the lift I found along the way. With ground speeds over 70 mph, I was quickly to goal, coming in fourth.

Konrad was just below me, but I could pull in and fly faster as I had more altitude. Jonny, Dustin and Kevin were now just boating around launch as we came in.

The goal filled up with even Jamie on her Moyes Lightsport making goal. All the rigids wings made it in, with Jamie Stinnet the first one in. Twenty pilots made goal.

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East Coast Championships »

Wed, Jun 6 2007, 10:36:32 pm EDT

ECC

A race to the beach

http://ozreport.com/2007ecc.php

An exciting day at Ridgely with the pilots heading down wind in a twenty to thirty kmh wind to a grass strip eighty seven kms away.

The forecast was for fifteen knot northwest winds, so I called a task to the southeast about as far as we could go without landing at the beach. We could have gone further south (with a turnpoint), but after only getting at most twenty one km on the first day I was reluctant to send all the pilots further. Tomorrow is another day.

Larry Bunner was off first and then I got hauled up. Adam took me straight into the sink all the way and waved me off in it. I searched around but go back to land at the airport, where I found lift at three hundred feet and circled up as I drifted quickly down wind. There were cu's every where.

After climbing up a few times I hooked up with Paul Kelley, Paul Tjaden, and Larry Bunner, getting on top of them. As we worked the lift inside the start circle, Kraig Coomber was not far off, but lower as we approached the edge getting high.

At 2 PM I was on top and near cloud base so I took the start at four seconds after 2 and kept circling for another minute to get to cloud base before heading out with Paul in tow. I quickly left him behind and was on my own making cloud base quickly with each climb. Kraig was following from behind and lower.

The cu's were every where and the lift was good. I was still being careful although flying fast, just in case things changed.

Half way out I spotted Jamie Shelden in a LiteSport who had started 20 minutes before me. The thermals weren't quite as strong. Jamie found a good one way out in front of me and we climbed to over 4000'. She was searching around under a dark cloud which marked the next thermal when I came in over her and stuck with it while she wandered on, got low and landed.

I left when the lift got weak, but not before I got to cloud base. I should have stuck with it. Kraig had caught a glimpse of us. Paul Kelley was three or more kilometers behind and Larry was another thermal behind.

There were good clouds ahead and that was what Jamie was heading for. I was much higher than her and headed for them also. Unfortunately, there was no lift under the clouds for me or for Jamie. And we went under a lot of clouds. Kraig was now with Paul Kelley, but he missed some lift and was heading in my direction.

I got down to 700 feet and started circling in the gusts coming off the trees in the high winds. That got me four kilometers as I fell slower. Kraig landed nearby.

Sunny Venesky was able to make goal by a few inches. Flying the tree line to stay up long enough to just get in the goal cylinder, landing under a power line.

See the results above.

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Record flight at Highland Aerosports

May 30, 2007, 3:54:11 pm EDT

Highland

John Simon goes 109 miles

Highland Aerosports Flight Park|Jim Rooney|John Simon|Paul Tjaden|record

http://www.chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?t=2508

Jim Rooney writes:

John Simon, Paul Tjaden and Sunny Venesky were out getting a little practice in last week for the East Coast Championships here at Ridgely (June 3-9). Apparently, their idea of "practice" is breaking records. The part I like is how he breaks the record, then turns around so he can land at a golf course ("there's bound to be beer!").

The 2007 US Nationals, Day Two

April 8, 2007, 10:59:48 pm EDT

US Nats

Blue day with light winds, cool temperatures and plenty of thermals

Blue Sky|Dr. John "Jack" Glendening|Paul Tjaden|PG|US Nationals|US Nationals 2007|weather

The flight and task

Dr. Jack's version of the RUC calls for 15 knots north wind. The FSL version calls for 5 knots. The local forecast (NAM) calls for 6 to 8 mph. Dr. Jack's NAM displays call for light north winds. We come up with two tasks, one for the RUC forecast (Dr. Jack's version) and one for the NAM and FSL version of RUC.

We are hoping for light winds of course, and call an out and return, west, south, north and east, of 45 miles. The forecasts also disagree on the height of the lift, Dr. Jack calling for 3,200' and the FSL says we will get to 5,200'. So we don't call a task that is too long for weak conditions.

The winds don't appear to pick up in the field here at the Florida Ridge so we call the out and return task. Three pilots get off first into the blue sky and hang on for a good long time, before two land. They don't get that high so there is no hurry to get into the air (although there should be). Finally Kevin wants to get going and I line up behind him and Campbell. Everyone else scoots quickly into line.

The lift is good right away, much different that what we saw from the three earlier pilots. The last start time is 2:45 PM, and I launched right after 2 PM. Some folks are not going to get into the air until late.

I work a bunch with Paris as we move our way slowly west toward the edge of the 8 km start circle and the first turnpoint at La Belle. Everyone leaves at 2:45.

We get a good thermal that averages over 500 fpm, the best so far, by far, to the highest yet (4,300') just a mile into the course and this sets my feeling about the day a little too early. Five miles later I'm working less than 200 fpm from 1,500' while the guys behind me slow down for lift that's better than 200 but not as good at 500 fpm. They are able to catch the three guys in the lead gaggle at the turnpoint at La Belle while Paul Tjaden and I work out of our self dug hole. This puts us in the continual position of chasing the lead gaggle, which now has about ten pilots.

After slogging our way out we head for the airport at La Belle and head south, again not finding lift until I'm down to 1,500' just south of the orange juice factory where I spot the birds which are the main thermal indicators on such a day. We're getting low but finding good thermals. I hear later that Paris who is out with the lead gaggle will get down to 900' three times.

The net glide is 6 plus miles around the southern turn point. The lead gaggle goes under us (and we aren't that high) as we approach the turnpoint. I work light stuff down to 1,100' when Paul calls me to the east to find his 200 fpm. I find the core and it goes 600+ fpm. I'm thinking that maybe we can catch these guys now.

It is not to be as I come in low to the airport after a six mile glide and have to scrape it out from 1000'. Paul stays back, finds a better spot to the west of the airport and gets 600 fpm while I work 200 fpm. Anything to get up and keep going.

The lead gaggle is now a few miles to the east and heading toward goal. I get up and head to Steve Larsen who is high in his Exxtacy and see a bunch of birds low in tight spirals over a cul-de-sac. They are in 600 fpm. I join them to 4,400'. I'm nine miles out and I go on glide. Paul says that he is hitting lift 6 miles out from goal so I just keep gliding and arrive with 1,200'.

Most of the pilots make goal on this short task, with better lift then we expected. There should be clouds from now on, but it has been great flying on blue days.

I've been doing the weather, the Task Committee and the Scoring, as well as writing the Oz Report. I'm using SeeYou for down loading the GPSes and getting the start and finish times, as well as the distances. I would have the scoring done in SeeYou also, but I haven't got OzGAP 2005 working quite right in SeeYou (one line in the program as a wrong value). So I'm adding an hour a day to the work load to use Race (with OzGAP 2005) to score the meet (with input from values determined by SeeYou). Maybe I will be able to fix this bug soon.

You can find the results (in Race output format) here: http://ozreport.com/2007usnats.php.

The 2007 US Nationals

April 7, 2007, 10:48:49 pm EDT

US Nats

A short task on a blue windy day

cart|Jim Yocom|Paul Tjaden|photo|Rich Lovelace|Scott Trueblood|US Nationals

The flight and task

The photos from the Florida Ridge today from Scott Trueblood.

The forecast was for 15 knot northwest winds. Neil took the tug up early and reported 25 mph out of the northwest. It was breezy on the ground, but not too strong.

It was also supposed to be blue with a 3,200' foot top of the lift at 2 PM going to 4,000' at 5 PM. Lift at 400-500 fpm (minus your sink rate) on average. It looked like a tough day.

We don't have that many spots to the south or southeast as there is a lot of swamp down that way, so we chose a zig zag short course with the wind quarter tailing. We sent the sport class guys (nine in all) straight down wind to the same goal, an intersection to our south southeast. Our task was 33 miles, theirs was 24 miles.

The launch window opened at 1:00 PM, but I was the first one to launch at 1:30 PM. My weaklink broke in a thermal at 700' and I climbed out to 1,200' but lost it as I fiddled with my harness. I was back in the air again after another weaklink break on the cart at 2 PM, as the start window opened.

Given the forecast for strong winds, blue and low top of lift, we call for an open start. Your start time starts when you cross the 8km start circle. There is a lot less chance of a start clock game when it is windy. I didn't see any start game playing happen.

The wind is not as strong as forecast. I read 10 mph, not 15 knots. And it is out of the west northwest, so a bit more west in it that predicted, but pretty much what we saw on the ground. I'm behind the front gaggle, but there are a few pilots around and I'll have a chance to catch folks.

I head off pretty much on my own, and pretty soon I'm down to 700' after trying to work some little lift that was not enough. I hold onto the lift that I find low and climb out drifting toward the first turnpoint over forested areas. It is nice to have the first turnpoint downwind.

I catch up to some pilots who started ahead of me at the first turnpoint and get high enough to head cross wind to the southwest toward the next intersection. Paul Tjaden has started out fifteen minutes ahead of me and I keep hearing his reports of good lift.

There are eight pilots circling up at the second turnpoint with the last (third) leg six miles directed a bit more into the wind. It's great to be able to catch up with all these earlier starting pilots. Paul has gotten ahead of them and is first into goal.

The eight of us will get there a few minutes later, pretty much all as a group.

The fastest pilots will be the later pilots who use the pilots in front of them to mark the thermals. Jim Yocom will do that on the ATOS and Rich Lovelace will do that on his Aeros winning the day.

Flex wing preliminary results here: http://ozreport.com/docs/2007usnats/748_flexnats.htm

Sport class: http://ozreport.com/docs/2007usnats/748_sportnats.htm

Rigids: http://ozreport.com/docs/2007usnats/748_rigidnats.htm

Discuss US Nats at the Oz Report forum

Quest Air, Sunday »

April 2, 2007, 0:42:04 EDT

Quest Air

Finally the day arrives

Belinda Boulter|Dr. John "Jack" Glendening|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Mitch Shipley|Paul Tjaden|Quest Air|record|Tom Lanning

The flight.

We've been waiting for this day since February. Two days ago it showed up on the NAM forecast as displayed by Dr. Jack. This morning the forecasts were still good. It looked like a go. But, there were bits of cirrus around which is never inviting, and the winds were stronger than the forecast, and the clouds weren't forming as we normally expect at 9 or 10 AM on a south southeast day. Maybe something was wrong.

A bunch of us were here, Paris, Tom Lanning, Mitch Shipley, Paul Tjaden, all ready to go, but the sky wasn't so inviting. It looked like the day before. Maybe it would be rough. The winds on the ground were a bit strong, but for the first time in a very long time, they were out of the south.

We waited. We looked. The cu's began to form. The winds slowed down a little. I went out and measured the winds at only 10 km/h gusting to 16 km/h. It was time to go, even with the thin scattered wisps for cu's.

I was the first off at 12:24 and a minute and a half later I was thermaling up just on the south end of the field after seeing 1,300 fpm on my 15 second averager while on tow. The lift was big and smooth for 3,000' to 4,500' and cloud base.

With a fourteen mph wind out of the south southeast, I drifted quickly to the north northwest over Mascotte and up the west side of highway 33. I was nine miles out as the guys who launched after me were getting up over Quest Air.

The clouds were thin and well separated as I approached the Florida Turnpike. I basically would fly from wisp to wisp trying generally to go north. I would have to make a decision whether to go north northwest along Interstate 75 or north along highway 301 and I kept looking to the north to see if there were any cu's ahead, where were they, and whether they were streeted up. There weren't many.

I was splitting the difference between I75 and 301 to Bellevue. To the east the Ocala National Forest was coming up. The cu's had stopped at Wildwood and now it was almost all blue, with only the faintest of wisps. Running to them I found myself right over downtown Ocala and decided to head north toward Hawthorne, the east side of Orange Lake up highway 301. I was in the lead and setting the course for the four pilots behind me (Paris, Paul, Mitch and Tom) who had never flown up in this direction or area previously.

The lift was averaging 200 to 300 fpm to a little over 4,000'. Not great but the drift was wonderful. I headed over Greystone airport and caught a thermal off John Travolta's house. I could see ahead starting at the south end of Orange Lake a sky full of cu's and I only had to get there to assure myself of better lift and faster glides.

The cu's delivered on their promise and just as I got to the first one Paris came in 1000' under me. He also came in under me at the next thermal just before Hawthorne on the northeast side of Orange lake. Taking a better line to the east Paris passed me overhead as I struggled past Hawthorne. I could hear the other pilots 10 miles behind.

We were now following 301 in a convergence line of sorts. There was plenty of lift and sink in spots though. I was running for a dark cloud south of Stark when I heard Paris was in 900 fpm. I was in 1000 fpm down but I knew that meant when I hit the lift it would be strong. I didn't anticipate that it would hit 1,100 fpm on the averager though and have it try to kick me out and flip me sideways. Once I was in it it was smooth but I was going up so fast.

By the time I got to Stark I was over Paris and ahead of him heading northwest toward the prison to stay far away from the Jacksonville airspace that covers 301 26 miles to the north northeast of Stark. I wanted to go up into Georgia in the notch which is straight north from Stark, but there is not a straight north road going to it.

I headed off to the north northwest and found some weak lift over Mount Trashmore north of the prisons, and then better lift to the northwest of that. Paris and I went on glide together and I got to see just how much having 30 pounds on him helps in glide. We all got weighed the other day and Paris was surprised to see that he weighed 145 pounds. It was a five mile glide so it was pretty revealing.

I found lift near and then over a small fire and climbed fast averaging over 500 fpm. Paris didn't quite get it as well as I did. So I pinched him off and headed north northeast to get back over the highway that goes into Georgia.

I should have actually waited for him like I did near Starke, as at this point I started having trouble with my radio. I could no longer transmit as the battery was too low, even though I could hear everyone.

We were crossing into Georgia and an area that could be without cell service and I wasn't able to communicate with Belinda who I knew was under us now. We were responsible for Paris and now Mitch as Paul had landed by Mount Trashmore for his first 100+ mile flight on a flex wing.

I was concerned about being able to round everyone up and get them home at a reasonable hour. It was almost five o'clock, the cu's filled the sky. It seemed like we were in convergence. It was easy staying up. I headed northeast to get over the highway that goes up through the notch and not into the Okeefanochee Swamp.

I decided to go out to the northeast back into Florida on the north east side of the notch into farm lands that I could see and contact Belinda. I landed at 5:30, with probably an hour or hour and a half worth of soaring left in the day. I had lead these guys out here, but I could no longer communicate with them, and I didn't want to lose someone in a no cell phone area, including myself.

I landed at a great little field and after working it out with everyone, got Paris, Mitch and Tom to land there also. It was a great scene in the field as we enjoyed the end of the day in the mellow evening temperatures.

Paul and Lauren showed up to pick up Tom and Mitch and we all headed to Stark for barbeque (and vegies for Paris).

139 miles. At least 180 was possible, maybe a new Florida flex wing record (212 miles) especially if someone had started an hour earlier. It was Mitch's second longest flight. His longest was in the Owens Valley in California.

Discuss Quest Air at the Oz Report forum

Tin Cup, a more better cup

March 25, 2007, 10:39:24 pm EDT

Tin Cup

Fixes to upgrades to the Oz Report

Davis Straub|donations|Paul Tjaden|Quest Air|US Nationals


See the response to reader input above. Gerry responds quickly to readers and changes his upgrade to the Oz Report.

Looking for maps of airspace and turnpoints for the Worlds (more to come for the Flytec meets and US nationals)? See above.

You can send $20 or more for a yearly subscription/donation. To pay for your subscription with your credit card or PayPal account:

If you’d rather just send a check for $20 (US Dollars, only please) or more, please feel free to do so. The mail gets forwarded to me wherever I’m at.

Payable to:

Davis Straub (Not to the Oz Report)
PMB 1889 PO Box 2430
Pensacola, FL 32513

These are our supporters (if you are not on the list and have donated to the Oz Report, email me and I'll make sure that you are recognized): http://ozreport.com/supporters.php. Some of you who I've missed in the past did write to me and made sure I knew just how important the Oz Report was to them. If I've missed you, please do tell me.

Thanks for the extra help from Lauren and Paul Tjaden.

Quest Air Monday flying

March 13, 2007, 0:04:25 EDT

Quest Air

10 mph east northeast wind, cu's show up late.

Paul Tjaden|Quest Air

http://xc.dhv.de/xc/modules.php?name=leonardo&op=show_flight&flightID=1866 

The flying is so pleasant here at Quest Air. The forecast was for an east northeast wind at maybe 10 mph (which you would think wouldn't be so great, but it turned out to be perfect). The cu's were slow to form near us so we waited until around 2 PM (EDT - 1 PM sun time) to get going. There were cu's in the general area and they nicely populated the surrounding areas, especially to the south, so we had decided on an out and return to Wallaby Ranch (they are still open), the milk run. It's about a 40 mile flight.

I pinned off a little too early and had to go back for another tow. Lo and behold I found good lift again early at less than 1000' AGL, but having just pinned off too early I held on until it was ridiculous at 1,600', with the lift continuing, so I pinned off an climbed out in a 10 mph north east wind, with Paul Tjaden hanging out at cloud base waiting for me to get going.

Cloud base was 6,000' but I wasn't getting that high, just 4,000' and I kept getting down to 1,500' as I drifted west in the thermals and headed south along highway 33 toward Wallaby. It wasn't until I was south of highway 474 and down to 1,200' that I caught a good one and got to cloud base. Things were different there.

The air was so nice, the thermals so smooth, the cu's bottoms so dark looking. Paul was off to my east and I was trying to get over that way and now that I was high I just flew under the cu's and slowed down in the lift.

There was a dark cu's two miles north of Wallaby with its shadow surrounded by sunlit ground. It looked perfect and it was. Paul was behind me as he hadn't heard when I left to head south so I decided to take the turnpoint south of I4 to give him a chance to catch up. There was a blue area by Wallaby and south but dark cu's over highway 27 when I got back to the east side of the Ranch. 600 fpm up.

Now here I made a error that had consequences. Paul was getting up fast to 6,000' under that dark cloud that I left just north of Wallaby. It was now northwest. I should have stayed in my 600 fpm and driven north on the upwind side of the course line back to Quest Air, but I was feeling invincible (as though I created the lift), and headed over to get under Paul. By now the ground was shaded not sunlit and while Paul was climbing fast, I at 4,500' didn't find the lift.

Now I had to run down wind to the west to find something to save me from 2,000'. I had given up my position of power upwind and climbing because I felt I could find lift any where. This happens so often.

I climbed out but again made a mistake, taking it only to 5,000' as it was "only" 300 fpm. I should have held on for a few more minutes to 6,000'. There were clouds ahead, so again I was invincible.

I headed north toward the clouds and even though Paul had gotten lift under them just before me, I didn't find it. I had a choice to head northeast a bit earlier, away to the right of the course line but it would have given me additional chances at clouds. I went for the one cloud that was my only chance if I went to it. Stupid.

The clouds to the north of 474 had dried up and there was no lift to the north. Paul got high enough at 474 to get back to Quest just barely. I didn't make it.

Still a completely lovely day of Florida flying. Nice thermals, nice cu's. Great fields to land in.

Quest Air Saturday flying

March 10, 2007, 8:05:49 pm EST

Quest Air

Chance of OD, with light winds

Paul Tjaden|Quest Air

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/10.3.2007/17:15

On Saturday, the cu's pop up abruptly while I'm out riding so when I get back 11:30 AM I figure it's time to get going before it over develops (30% chance). Paul Tjaden wants to do a bigger triangle so we decide to go to a spot north of the intersection of the Florida Turnpike and highway 19, then to the west to Center Hill and back south east to Quest, 50 KM. There are cu's over head and to the west and north west and it looks like it's going to OD.

I pin off at 850' at the first sign of lift over the swamp on the east side of Quest and am rewarded with a thermal that while it starts slow down low averages 134 fpm to 4,000'. Yes, a weak day under all those fuzzy, small, gray clouds.

Paul and I headed north northwest toward Groveland but it wasn't until I was down to 1,500' AGL north of Mascote that I found the next bit of lift which fortunately was marked by the swirls on the small lake below. The clouds to the north and northeast in the direction of our first turnpoint were much sparser than in this direction, so it looked like we might be heading for Center Hill as our first turnpoint.

There are black looking clouds heading off toward Center Hill so I decide on that route, but don't communicate well enough with Paul and he heads north toward the Turnpike and highway 33. There is a small fire ahead and I see some birds turning low a few miles before it so I join them. The lift continues to be weak, but we're not getting very high, so anything is good.

Climbing to 4,400' I race out, get the turnpoint and glide right back to where I got up on the way to Center Hill. There is a bit of lift just downwind of that spot and this gets me back to cloud base. Paul has made his turnpoint and is now heading for Center Hill not finding any lift. He'll get down to 650' before he finds something after making the turnpoint at Center Hill that will get him up and back to Quest.

As I head east toward the second turnpoint that area of the sky is still mostly clear of cu's. I stop on the way to take 82 fpm up to 3,300', which is enough to think seriously about venturing out into the blue to find something under the isolated cu's. My chances are good enough from this altitude and I find 300 fpm at 1,100' AGL just before the turnpoint under a nice cu.

Just south of the turnpoint there is a small black cloud and after I make the turnpoint I head for it to find a solid 250 fpm and a south wind of 9 mph. I climb out again to 4,500' and this is more than enough for a ten mile final glide to Quest under blue skies.

Just another thoroughly pleasant day of flying in paradise. The worm has turned here in central Florida and those who have been here all winter are really loving the great conditions.

Discuss Quest Air at the Oz Report forum

ATOS in the USA

Jim Lamb brings us up to date.

ATOS

November 14, 2006, 8:40:44 PST

A.I.R. ATOS VR|James Lamb|Jim Lamb|Paul Tjaden

James Lamb «jlamb» writes:

I sold a used ATOS VX in New York at Marty B’s (Paul Tjaden's) and have at least  three guys around the US who would like to have used VX’s. I also have Russell’s used ATOS VR and your’s for sale. The used VR’s I’ve sold have been in the $12-13,000 range. My inventory includes a new VR and a new VX so that we can deliver gliders with no wait! There are various people around considering rigids, but I suspect it will be spring before we see much activity.

Matt Tabor has committed to becoming a dealer and having a VX demo available, as has Malcolm. I went to Tennessee for Matt’s 30 year celebration. It was very well attended and he was wonderfully gracious. His new radial ramp is a tremendous addition to the park.

My recovery is complete with just a little remaining stiffness in my neck that is slowly working out. You might not even notice.

Lauren's 50th

August 1, 2006, 2:43:14 pm CDT

Lauren

Come to the party

David Glover|Lauren Tjaden|Paul Tjaden

Paul Tjaden «Tjadenhors» writes:

Lauren is having her 50th birthday tomorrow and I had hoped to organize a great party for her complete with black balloons, etc. Problem is nearly all of our friends are in Texas.

Due to Dave Glover thoughtlessly scheduling the Pre Worlds in Texas during the same time frame as Lauren Tjaden's birthday. Celebration of said birthday is hereby postponed until further notice. Be ready to party when you guys return to Florida and good luck in Texas.

Signed: Official Birthday Party Organizer, Paul Tjaden

Lessons, there to be learned, part 2

Wed, May 3 2006, 3:16:49 pm EDT

Lessons

Relax and stop for the lift.

Jacques Bott|Larry Bunner|Paul Tjaden|Quest Air

The first lesson is to hang on in weak lift no matter what. We are all together at the start and the first glide is a disaster, but when Johann finds weak lift many of us join him and just hang in there for ten minutes at 28 fpm. We've got to survive if we want to fly the task. Finally we find a good core together and climb to cloud base.

What is real important to me in this flight is communication. I talk with Jim Lamb and Larry Bunner. Jim gives me good advice and Larry tells me where a thermal is.

One issue that came up was stay up wind or stay up. Larry and I got six or seven miles downwind of the course line because we had to after we got low and because I felt that the lift would be better over the drier and higher areas near 27. This turned out to be the much better place to go. So it seems to me that you can't over emphasize getting upwind of the course line at the detriment of your climb rates.

We fly a task around the swamp on the fifth day. I'm in the lead gaggle with Johann and Paul Tjaden ten miles out from the last turnpoint at Coleman. The convergence cloud that we've been flying under for the twenty miles has ended and the clouds are a lot sparser ahead. We are on glide.

Three miles out from the turnpoint I'm at 3,000' showing that I'll make the turnpoint at 1,600' AGL. There are clouds near the turnpoint but it is not clear exactly where and we've been going down steadily for the last seven miles. Paul is heading straight for the turnpoint and Johann is holding back a little but following.

It seems to me that it is a big gamble to head straight to the turnpoint but I'm with the fastest two pilots on this day. I spot a small cu' off to my left and go for it instead. Paul and Johann make the turnpoint and very quickly find good lift and get up. I take an additional twenty minutes to complete the course.

It's hard for me to come up with a lesson here. Perhaps just to trust the other guys a bit more and stay with them as that means I've got two other guys looking for lift with me.

Earlier in the flight I took a better line along the course line and caught Jacques Bott who was out ahead. But I was so proud of myself for taking the better line and leaving behind all the pilots I was flying with, that I didn't stop when I came upon Jacques as I didn't immediately find the lift that he was in. It would have been a much better idea to stop and climb with him. We could have then been in the lead and helped each other out.

Discuss "Lessons, there to be learned, part 2" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Bo goes 120 miles in Aeros Target

March 31, 2006, 7:23:50 pm EST

Bo

Bo sets the new Florida state (and we think East Coast) single surface record

Aeros Target|Belinda Boulter|Bo Hagewood|Campbell Bowen|dust devil|Lauren Tjaden|Paul Tjaden|Quest Air|record|Tom Lanning

Bo Hagewood flew 120 miles today to the north northwest in an east southeast wind, winning the $1,000 from Campbell Bowen for the first single surface flight over 100 miles out of Quest Air (or any where in Florida for that matter). Bo previously had the state record 78 miles, and, of course, he owns the single surface World Record at 178.6 miles.

I'll have Bo's flight up tomorrow. He's currently getting retrieved up by Lake City. We'll get him to write up his story.

Campbell Bowen on hearing of Bo's feat, opened a new contest for $1,500 for the first single surface flight of 130 miles out of Quest Air. Will Bo be back in the saddle tomorrow? It actually looks like a good day for a triangle flight.

I flew 80 miles in the Wills Wing Falcon 170 setting the new state record before Bo broke it. I landed at 4:00 PM finally finding a cloud that didn't have any lift associated with it. The lift had been consistent for me all day and I was able to find it without any problem just keeping an eye on the clouds.

So until Bo's flight, here's mine on the HOLC and here on Google Earth.

While we wait for Bo's story, here's how the day went. The forecast was for east south east winds 10-13 mph, but turning south up by the west coast to our north. We figured that if we could just get far enough north to begin with, that we could get in the south flow and go far.

Bo was first off before noon while I had to wait a few minutes for my harness to get back with Belinda. I had forgotten and left it in the truck. Paul Tjaden, Greg Dinnaur, and Tom Lanning launched then me, followed by Lauren Tjaden, Tom again, four times, and Dave Cameron.

The cu's started forming around 9:30 AM and while the wind forecast wasn't great the lift forecast was for 500 fpm. Cu's were expected but just barely, but as has been the case this spring, the cu's were there in full force when the forecast is for barely, and there a bit when there is no chance at all for cu's, unless the wind is out of the north.

Bo got off low and worked his way out to the northwest. Tom landed just before I took out to the east, and in spite of Tom's bad example, I also pinned off early at 1,100' and worked my way west northwest, just trying to stay up in the light lift.

It apparently was a struggle for everyone or they just liked following me as I was out ahead and low drifting over highway fifty where it intersects the Green Swamp seven miles to the west northwest of Quest Air. It was a very slow climb but I finally got over 4,000' and the four topless gliders that were with me headed to the northwest toward Center Hill, while after I got up said no way and headed north northeast in an attempt to set myself to get around Lake Panasoftkee about thirty miles out.

Jumping streets, but being careful, I was able to go cross wind to get to Coleman, and cut across the top of the swamp northeast of Panasoftkee and find a good thermal at 1,200' AGL in the first dry fields of the flight just to the north of highway 47 and west of interstate 75..

The lift started to improve and now that I was free of the first obstacle I could go downwind as long as I stayed east of the Withlacoochie River and then east of a mangrove swamp to the northwest. With lots of open cultivated field below it was easy flying.

I was west of the Ocala Airport and west of Williston, two turnpoints that we use in our meets in Florida. I was headed for the Panhandle.

Just before 4 PM I topped out at 4.900' and seeing another swamp to my west headed north to get under some black clouds. Unfortunately, they were the first clouds that I had run into that weren't working. There was a dust devil a few miles to the north, but over an unlandable area. I headed due west to get under some forming clouds, but it was too late.

I landed next to a kindergarten and got to tell the kids all about flying.

One thing that was very cool about today's flying for me was feeling out the lift and flying upwind to find the better cores. I really had a good feel for where the lift was and when I'd get near it I'd really focus on how the wings felt and where they were telling me to find the lift. Worked almost every time.

The flights today on the HOLC

Florida Fun Flying

March 29, 2006, 6:44:16 pm EST

Florida

A little 50 mile triangle in preparation for the upcoming meets

Lauren Tjaden|Paul Tjaden|Ron Gleason|Tom Lanning

We decided on a 50 mile triangle given the forecast for light winds and good lift with just the possible hint of cu's.

The task and flight as shown on the HOLC

The task and flight as shown on Google Earth

The thermals proved to be by far the best that we've had all spring, if lack of turbulence is your criteria. I was pulled up last and got off low (800') at due to a release "failure," see below as I was way behind Paul Tjaden, Lauren Tjaden, Ron Gleason, Tom Lanning, and Greg Dinnaur. Everyone here is practicing for the upcoming meets.

After I got up I could see the gaggle three or four miles out and I noticed that they were just slowly going up and hanging together. I raced ahead and got under the gaggle at about half way to the first turnpoint at the Baron airstrip just north of the Florida Turnpike.

At the turnpike Paul and I went looking for lift while the others hung back in bubbling sink. We find it over some fields at the intersection of highway 401 and the Turnpike. This gets me on top of the rest of the pilots when I find the best core and I head off early to get the turnpoint and head southwest to Cheryl.

There is a few miles of swamp along the way but the first thin cu's that we can get to are to be found right over the swamp and I climb out to 6,500' with Ron on an AIR ATOS V a few thousand feet below. I don't see the flex wings after the first turnpoint.

Gliding five miles to the Cheryl airstrip turnpoint, I make it back to the swamp for the next cloud which is just forming and this gets me back to 6,500' at 700 fpm (smooth lift). I go on final glide at the top of this thermal at 6,500' fifteen miles out.

The flight averages 27 mph. Not great speed, but a nice warm up. Everyone is able to make it around the course.

Discuss Florida at the Oz Report forum

Incident report

March 12, 2006, 11:01:33 pm EST

Incident

Why doesn't the left wing want to fly?

cart|Paul Tjaden|Quest Air|USHGA

http://www.ushga.org/emailacc.asp

Accident Description: Actually three incidents.

First:

I was launching from the northwest corner of the Quest Air field next to the road. The wind was 5-7 mph out of the south southeast. The wing runner was on the east side, my left side, of the glider with the job of holding down the wing that would normally want to rise.

With a light wind I was doing a bit of a cross wind launch. After the tug started, the wing runner took a few steps and the left wing went down and not up. I felt the left wing being behind. I came off the cart, got ten feet in the air and the weaklink broke. Normal landing.

Second:

I went back to launch again from the same spot. The wind was a little more southerly. The wing runner went to the same side. The tug started and after a few steps, the left wing went down again, and stayed down.

I came off the cart with the right wing and went skidding across the grass. Scrapped right knee, the right tube weaklink in the down tube bend, the glider turtled and the nose cone suffered skid marks. No other damage to the glider or pilot.

No one understands why the left wing refused to fly.

Third:

An hour later Paul Tjaden in a Wills Wing T2 launched from the same site had a large dip in his left wing while at 10 feet off the ground. Swift that launched near there had rocky launch. Others launching there didn't experience problems.

Were there rotors coming off the buildings to the east? No one has a good explanation. Something similar happened twice to Jim Zeiset at Wallaby Ranch a few years ago.

CIVL screws US pilots

March 6, 2006, 9:09:39 EST

CIVL

Long, slow, and uncomfortable

CIVL|John Aldridge|Lauren Tjaden|Paula Howitt|Paul Tjaden|Quest Air|record|USHGA|weather

The World Championships are coming to Quest Air in May. We're (the royal we) very excited about holding the Worlds here and would be even more excited if we didn't have to deal with CIVL. It's one horror story after another. I don't think it's bad people, but there sure seems to be a bad system.

Last year in August at the prize giving party after the Big Spring Open I told Lauren Tjaden, that as the 6th ranked by NTSS points US female pilot she was a member of the US National team and eligible to fly in the 2006 Worlds (http://ozreport.com/9.170#0). Her husband, Paul Tjaden, ranked 10th in rigid wings in the US would be eligible to fly on the "second team" at the Worlds.

There was only one problem. The CIVL Sporting Code requires that pilots finish in the top two thirds of a CIVL sanctioned category 2 meet in order to be eligible to fly in the Worlds. Neither Paul nor Lauren had flown in the 2005 Flytec Meet in April, the only CIVL sanctioned category 2 competition in the US in 2005. 

Paul had finished fourth in the South Florida International, first in the East Coast Championships, and seventh in the Big Spring Open, but the meet organizers didn't attempt to obtain and pay for CIVL category 2 sanctioning for these meets. And the USHGA does not require it, as we feel that it puts too great a financial burden on meet organizers and all pilots for the benefit of only a few pilots.

Lauren had won that Sport Class at the South Florida International, was thirteenth in the East Coast Championships, and fifty fourth in the Big Spring Open.

Paul and Lauren live near Quest Air. They fly there all the time. Lauren has been an active equestrian competitor. The Worlds meet organizer, meet director, and USHGA Competition Committee chairman (that's me) all felt that they would be both safe and competitive at the Worlds, and we wanted them to fly there.

Let me state this important point once again. It was our judgment as officials that Paul and Lauren had the skills, experience and expertise to safely and competitively fly in the 2006 World Championships. This was the SUBSTANTIVE point.

The option was to apply for exceptions from CIVL which are provided for in the CIVL Sporting Code. Here is the rule:

"2. 12.2 Guideline for approval

Exceptions will not normally be granted in Class 1 (except for Women's Worlds). Exceptions in other classes will not normally be granted unless there is clear evidence of a lack of opportunity to qualify."

We felt that Lauren qualified on the basis that this is for the Women's Worlds and her standing in the US ranking system, and her experience and safety record. We felt that Paul qualified in Class 5 because clearly due to USHGA policy (and through no fault of their own) that there had been a relative lack of opportunity for him (and Lauren) to qualify. We were wrong in both cases as both were turned down by the CIVL Bureau.

But then Paula Howitt from CIVL suggested a way around this problem. Hold a meet with at least fifteen flex wing pilots with valid FAI Sporting Licenses, get it CIVL sanctioned as a Category 2 meet, finish in the top two thirds and all according to the rules you are now qualified and eligible to fly in the Worlds.

Let me state this point again. This was a way to use the rules to formally qualify Paul and Lauren. We felt that they were already qualified in a substantive sense but CIVL (in the person of Paula Howitt) felt that this was a way to get them qualified in a FORMAL sense. Just play by the rules and it will all work out.

So Paul and Lauren organized not one but two meets that were sanctioned by the CIVL Bureau as Category 2 meets. The first meet was canceled due to bad weather but the second one was held in early February at Quest Air. Seventeen pilots entered. Sixteen, as it turned out later, had valid FAI Sporting Licenses. Paul won the meet and Lauren was third.

End of story, right? Nope.

Now let me make one more serious point here. My approach is if you are going to argue a point with CIVL you argue it based on the facts and on the rules. This is the approach that I took with John Aldridge the CIVL Jury President at the 2005 Hay Worlds and that proved to my satisfaction that no matter what else, arguments would be decided based on the rules, just as John stated that they would. You may not like it but at least you know exactly where they are coming from. Well, or so I thought.

The CIVL Bureau has invalidated the meet. They state that there were not fifteen competitors. Now things get interesting. Were there fifteen competitors or not?

It turns out that there is no explicit definition of the word "competitor" in the CIVL Sporting Code (which, by the way, John Aldridge is responsible for). What is the rule we are discussing here?

"3. 3.1 Minimum Numbers

The minimum number of competitors required to validate a Second Category event shall be stated in the regulations for that event and shall not be less than 15."

So how is "competitor" defined in the Sporting Code? It isn't defined, but can we infer a definition from the use of the word in the Sporting Code. Perhaps. I would suggest that the word competitor as used in the Sporting Code is equivalent to ENTRANT. A competitor is someone who has registered for the meet and been accepted to fly in the meet.

You can find the Sporting Code using the word competitor with this meaning (ENTRANT) here: Sections 2.4.3, 2.4.4, 2.4.6.3, 2.5.1, 2.7.1, 2.9.2, 2.9.4, 2.9.5, 2.11, 2.13.1, 2.17, 2.18, 2.20.10.2, 2.21, 2.27.1, 2.27.2, 2.27.3, 3.1.2, 3.1.4, 3.1.5, 3.2.4, 6.1, 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 7.2, 10, 12, 13.1. This would suggest that the use of the term competitor in section 3.31 is entirely consistent with this meaning of the term.

I would suggest that because there were sixteen competitors in the sense of ENTRANTS participating in the meet that CIVL should declare the meet valid. This is a FORMAL argument only, not a SUBSTANTIVE one. I'm not arguing about the actual meaning of the word competitor, only how the CIVL Sporting Code uses the word.

The CIVL Bureau has argued that there were only thirteen "competitors" on one day. That is only fourteen competitors flew at all on any of the tasks. They are using a different meaning of the word competitor than that found in the Sporting Code.

There was indeed poor weather. One task was attempted on the third day and two pilots flew but the task was subsequently cancelled. Thirteen  pilots with valid FAI licenses flew on the last day when two tasks were held. A total of fourteen pilots with FAI Sporting licenses actually flew in the meet.

So did CIVL play by the rules? I don't think that they used their own definition of competitor in section 3.31 of their own Sporting Code. I suggest that they played fast and loose with the rules (using the SUBSTANTIVE meaning of the word competitor, when the FORMAL meaning was called for) when, as John and the Jury did in Hay, we should have expected them to play by the rules as written.

Now, finally, let me state that this article is entirely my responsibility as the editor and publisher of the Oz Report and has nothing to do with my official function as USHGA Competition Committee Chairman. Neither Paul or Lauren approve of this article or were aware that I was writing it and completely disassociate themselves from it and asked me not to publish it.

And really finally, thanks to all those who have sincerely attempted to do the right thing here including Jim Zesiet, the USHGA CIVL Representative, and Paula Howitt with CIVL.

2006 World Championships - Registration »

Thu, Feb 16 2006, 8:00:00 am PST

Worlds

Make sure you are qualified and correctly registered

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Angelo Crapanzano|Christian Ciech|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davis Straub|Flavio Tebaldi|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|Gil Souviron|Jacques Bott|Jamie Shelden|Jim Yocom|Johann Posch|Judy Hildebrand|Lauren Tjaden|Manfred Ruhmer|Michael Huppert|Mike Stephens|Oliver Schmidt|Ollie Gregory|Paul Tjaden|Primoz Gricar|Quest Air|Robert Reisinger|Vincent Endter|World Championships 2006

Lisa at Quest Air «questair»writes:

We have a list of pilots that have pre-registered for the 2006 Class 2/5/Women's Worlds now available on flytec.com: http://flytec.com/Events/2006/2_5_w_worlds/pilotlist.htm.

Competitors, this is important: You must register through your national aero club and submit a Pre-Registration Form here: http://flytec.com/Events/2006/2_5_w_worlds/entry_form.htm. If you have not done both, please do so immediately to avoid any last-minute disappointments. If you are not on our list, we don't know you are coming. If you have any questions or problems, please email «questair»or call 1-877-FLY-QUEST. See you on May 18th at Quest!

ClassCountryName
WAustraliaLisa Miller
2AustriaManfred Ruhmer
5AustriaArnold Nadlinger
5AustriaAlexander Schreiner
5AustriaManfred Trimmel
5AustriaGuenther Tschurnig
5AustriaRobert Reisinger
WAustriaMichaela Lindorfer
5FranceJacques Bott
5FrancePatrick Chopard Lallier
5FrancePascal Lanser
5FranceThierry Parcellier
5FranceGil Souviron
5FranceDavid Chaumet
TlFranceDidier Mathurin
WFranceFrancoise Dieuzeide-Banet
5GermanyToni Bender
5GermanyJuergen Bummer
5GermanyJethro Gerstner
5GermanyTim Grabowski
5GermanyAndrea Hetzel
5GermanyAlfred Huber
5GermanyNorbert Kirchner
5GermanyChristoph Lohrmann
5GermanyOliver Schmidt
5GermanyKurt Schumann
TlGermanyRudl Buerger
WGermanySybille Baeumer-Fischer
WGermanyRosi Brams
WGermanyRegina Glas
WGermanyCorinna Schwiegershausen
WGermanyMonique Werner
5ItalyElio Cataldi
5ItalyChristian Ciech
5ItalyAngelo Crapanzano
5ItalyFranco Laverdino
5ItalyGraziano Maffi
5ItalyAlessandro Ploner
TlItalyGorio Mandozzi
TlItalyFlavio Tebaldi
5JapanSakai Takafumi
5JapanMasakazu Kobayashi
5JapanTsuyoshi Yamamoto
5SloveniaPrimoz Gricar
5SpainCarlos Punet
2SwitzerlandSteve Cox
5SwitzerlandAndreas Beutler
5SwitzerlandMichael Huppert
5SwitzerlandRene Leiser
5SwitzerlandJurg Ris
5SwitzerlandRolf Schmid
5SwitzerlandMatthias Trussel
TlSwitzerlandDolores Mordasini
WSwitzerlandCarole Tobler
5UkJason Prior
5UkMike Stephens
5UsaVincent Endter
5UsaRonald Gleason
5UsaOllie Gregory
5UsaJohann Posch
5UsaDavis Straub
5UsaPaul Tjaden
5UsaJim Yocom
WUsaJudy Hildebrand
WUsaRaean Permenter
WUsaLinda Salamone
WUsaJamie Shelden
WUsaLauren Tjaden
WUsaClaire Vassort

Florida Meet

Thu, Nov 17 2005, 6:00:05 am EST

In December. CIVL Category 2 sanctioned

CIVL|Lauren Tjaden|Paul Tjaden|USHGA

Paul and Lauren Tjaden send:

Just received an email message stating that the Category 2 CIVL event I have been working on has just gotten approval from the FAI! It will be held this Dec 17-18. Many thanks to Jim Zeiset for giving quick USHGA approval, and to Nancy at the NAA (our NAC) for doing likewise, and to Paula at the FAI.

1 - National Aero Club - NAA, United States
2 - Title of Event - First Annual Ultimate Xtravaganza
3 - Discipline: HG
4 - Task style: Cross country
5 - Dates: December 17-18, 2005
6 - Country and Location: United States
7 - Organizer: Paul Tjaden
8 - Contact name(s): Paul Tjaden
9 - Address: 209 Hidden View Drive, Groveland, Florida, 34736, USA
10 - Phone: 703-727-3423 Fax
11 - E-mail: «tjadenhors»
12 - Website address: www.flytec.com
13 - Sanction fee: $50.00 USD

Discuss CIVL at the Oz Report forum

2005 Big Spring Open »

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Big Spring Open 2005|Blue Sky|Bubba Goodman|Campbell Bowen|Chris Zimmerman|David Glover|Davis Straub|Dr. John "Jack" Glendening|Dustin Martin|Glen Volk|Greg Kendall|James Lamb|Johann Posch|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kraig Coomber|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Mike Barber|Paul Tjaden|Phill Bloom|photo|Robin Hamilton|Ron Gleason|Russell "Russ" Brown|Vince Endter

Sat, Aug 20 2005, 4:00:00 am EDT

A soft day with cu-nimbs under the blue sky.

The scores

The photos

The flight

More on the flex wings: http://jonnydurand.blogspot.com/ http://skyout.blogspot.com http://kagelites.blogspot.com, and http://xckevin.blogspot.com.

We woke up Saturday to a very dark day. There was a thick middle layer of clouds with plenty of low lying cumulus scud whipping by at 30 mph. It sure didn't look like we would be flying, and the RUC along with Dr. Jack indicated that we wouldn't have any lift at 4 PM.

None the less we went out to the airport and the day was slightly improving with a bit of sunlight filtering through the multiple layers of clouds. The RUC is updated around 9 AM CDT, and the lift forecast improves markedly to 500 FPM at 4 PM with a good chance of over development, due to the sunlight hitting the ground and creating the lift.

The task committee had to come up with a task given the forecasted conditions, in spite of how un inspiring it looked at 10 in the morning. We called a 46 mile down wind to La Mesa given the 20 mph average winds at 10 that are supposed to drop off to 12 mph at 4 PM.

We called for a late start at 1:30 PM given the satellite photos showing blue to our south coming our way. Around noon we began to see the blue as the upper level clouds open up to our south, but cu-nims started to develop under the blue. At the airport it was still dark and overcast. We postponed the launched a half hour.

At the last minute we postponed the launch 15 minutes as Kraig Coomber reported no lift and then took off in the dark with the sunshine five miles to our south and the cu-nimbs ten miles to our southeast.

I was second off behind Vince. Drug to 3,000 AGL 2.5 miles out, I continued on for another 4.5 miles to the south against a seven mph head wind to get to a cloud and see if I can find any lift. There was zero sink there so I glided down wind back to just south of the airport to hook up with Russell over a bit of a landfill and climbed from 900' AGL to 1,500' AGL. At least we were still in the air. It was dark all around.

After not finding any lift under a cloud to the west, we spent the next ten minutes climbing at 15 fpm. Russell and Paul Tjaden landed and I spent another ten minutes climbing at 100 fpm. Russell was towed to the thermal next to me and we finally got to 5,300' at 200 fpm. It was time to get on course, half an hour after the last start time.

Campbell Bowen had already gone down having gone north and not made it out of the start circle. Danny Mallet and Vince Endter had given up and landed back at the air field to break down. The cu-nimb to the east had closed down the launch, but there were ten flex wings in the air with us and we were finally feeling good.

The sky was blue to the north and over us with a few cu's just to give us something to shoot for. We got on our way and we were ready for a great flight leaving the vast majority of the flex wings behind, but flying with the best ones.

After all that work (and it was great fun) we then heard on the radio that David Glover had called the day for both classes. It was confusing given that the conditions on course were great, and all he had to do was keep the launch closed as all the folks in the air were happy to be there and happy to be going on course. Dustin Martin didn't hear that the task was called and flew to La Mesa in an hour.

David needs to be more disciplined regarding these kinds of decisions or let someone else make them. The rules for the Worlds don't allow the meet director (only the safety director) to make this decision and only for conditions on the course line. The launch director/safety director can close the launch (which was already done).

We all landed safely back at the airport and had broken down in time to avoid the rain. The towns folks got to see us land, at least.

The task committee worked hard to get a task that was workable given the forecast. We chose a perfect task that could be done within the very narrow time window. Flex wing pilots chose not to launch when conditions were weak, but this did not stop rigid wing pilots from going up and working the lift that was available. There was plenty of time for most of the flex wings to get off and up in the air before the cu-nimb came close.

All our good work and hard thinking came to naught when the tasks were called erroneously. There certainly was no need to call the rigid wing task. When I asked David about this, he just said he made a bad call.

On Sunday it rains hard all day. West Texas is becoming Wet Texas.

The Results:

Rigids on the last day:

Place Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 STRAUB Davis AIR Atos VR 03:40:09 151.3 1000
2 BOWEN Campbell AIR ATOS VX   147.0 752
3 LAMB James AIR Atos VR   146.8 751
4 BROWN Russell AIR Atos VR   141.7 728
5 BUNNER Larry AIR Atos VR   134.3 686

Finals for Rigids:

Place Name Glider Total
1 STRAUB Davis AIR Atos VR 5033
2 POSCH Johann AIR Atos VR 4268
3 BROWN Russell AIR Atos VR 4061
4 LAMB James AIR Atos VR 3713
5 BUNNER Larry AIR Atos VR 3563
6 ENDTER Vincent AIR Ato VR s 3345
7 TJADEN Paul AIR Atos VX 3313
8 BOWEN Campbell AIR ATOS VX 3177
9 GLEASON Ron AIR Atos V 2761
10 MALLETT Denny AIR Atos VX 2744

Last day for Flex Wings:

Place Name Glider Time Total
1 DURAND Jonny Moyes Litespeed S4 02:57:13 1000
2 BLOOM Phill Moyes Litespeed S4 03:02:22 948
3 BARBER Mike Moyes Litespeed S4 03:08:39 911
4 OLSSON Andreas Wills Wing T2 154 03:10:44 896
5 VOLK Glen Moyes Litespeed S4 03:05:36 890
6 ZIMMERMAN Chris Wills Wing T2 144 03:20:32 856
7 GOODMAN Bubba Wills Wing T2 144 03:19:32 837
8 HAMILTON Robin Moyes Litespeed S4 04:07:30 724
9 KENDALL Greg Moyes Litespeed S4 04:09:10 720
10 LEHMANN Pete Wills Wing Talon 150  128.0 643

Totals for Flex Wings:

Place Name Glider Total
1 DURAND Jonny Moyes Litespeed S4 4600
2 BARBER Mike Moyes Litespeed S4 4441
3 VOLK Glen Moyes Litespeed S4 4300
4 HAMILTON Robin Moyes Litespeed S4 4128
5 MARTIN Dustin Moyes Litespeed S4 4027
6 COOMBER Kraig Moyes Litespeed S4 3585
7 OLSSON Andreas Wills Wing T2 154 3539
8 GOODMAN Bubba Wills Wing T2 144 3313
9 BURICK Carl Moyes Litespeed S4 3282
10 ZIMMERMAN Chris Wills Wing T2 144 3272

Controversy at Big Spring

Wed, Aug 17 2005, 5:00:01 pm EDT

On the second day something was said and something else was heard.

David Glover|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand jnr|Paul Tjaden|Vince Endter|weather

On Monday August Eighth, the flex wing task at the Big Spring Open was cancelled (not stopped) when David Glover, listening to the radio transmissions of all the pilots, determined that there was a cu-nimb at the first  turnpoint that posed too big a threat to safety. The rigid wing pilots had already passed this turnpoint and we out in the clear air to the west. David was aware that the rigid wing pilots didn't have any concerns as they didn't express any over the radio.

David recruited Fred Permenter to work right next to him calling all the radio frequencies (not filtering out the rigid wing pilot only ones) to tell the pilots on each frequency that the day had been cancelled for flex wing pilots only. The rules say that it is the meet director's responsibility to make the announcement on the radio. Pilots are asked to, "Listen for the voice of the Meet Director as notification of cancellation or stoppage."

Obviously with Fred helping he was not the meet director and pilots couldn't hear the voice of the meet director as they were told to do. But, Fred was careful to say that the task was cancelled for "flex wings only."

Vince Endter didn't hear the "flex wings only" part of Fred's announcement. He then followed the rules (except the part about hearing the meet director's voice) and signaled to Johann that the rigid wing task was called by following this rule, "Pilots are requested to communicate to other pilots that the task has been cancelled/called off by unzipping their harness and hanging their legs out while flying."

Vince and Johann were scored to only their furthest point along the course line before they turned and headed back toward the cu-nimb to the south. They filed a complaint with the meet director. It was denied. Vince filed a protest, and the protest committee denied the protest and left the day as scored originally. I was not involved in any part of the affair. The process was run as per the rules.

Thanks to the fact that Tim Meaney published all the track logs here we can go back and see if it made any difference.

At the time Vince and Johann thought they were in the lead. In fact, they were eleven miles behind. When Vince got the call from Fred, Paul Tjaden, Larry Bunner and I were climbing fast in our last thermal before going on final glide to goal. Vince and Johann were still 7.5 miles from the last turnpoint. Paul, Larry and I all made goal fifteen minutes later within one minute and nine seconds of each other. Russell and Denny came in a few minutes later (but Denny mysteriously missed the last turnpoint).

If Vince and Johann had not turned back and instead gone on toward the turnpoint and then successfully climbed up and made it to goal, they would likely have come in about twenty two minutes behind the first four pilots into goal (they were averaging 30 mph).

If they had made goal under these circumstances they would have scored 600 or 700 points instead of the 315 points that they received.  These extra points would have not changed Johann's overall position, second, and Vince would have moved up from sixth to fourth overall.

On the last day, the tasks were cancelled prematurely and incorrectly (according to the rules), when there was no weather condition on our course that was cause for concern. The launch was closed due to a cu-nimb to the east of launch that was disrupting launch conditions, but those of us in the air were as happy as clams.

The only rigid wing pilots still flying were Johann, Russell and I. Campbell had already landed inside the start circle. Vince, Paul and Denny had landed back at the airport. The other pilots didn't set up.

The three of us could easily have made it to goal in La Mesa, as the conditions looked great ahead. The three of us were the top finishing three rigid wing pilots at the meet, and given that the task would have been worth only few points (100-300), completing the task would have been unlikely to change anything (I was almost 800 points ahead of Johann).

There were half a dozen flex wing pilots in the air, but not Jonny Durand. Again, there may not have been enough points available on that day to make any difference in the standings. But you are supposed to let the GAP system sort things out.

Discuss at the Oz Report forum

AIR ATOS VR »

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Jim Lamb|Paul Tjaden|weather

Tue, Aug 16 2005, 4:00:01 pm EDT

Getting to know you.

Last year I flew the AIR ATOS VX and it was love at first sight. The thing was just a wonder to behold. I couldn't have been more happy with it especially after it won all the competitions that it was entered into.

I sold it in September and Tony Deleo has been having a great time with it ever since (see here). I then looked forward to a new VX in the spring.

But in the winter I heard that the VR was the new glider from AIR, and reluctantly I decided to go with this new glider, hoping that it would be as strong as the VX with as low a sink rate. How could the VR be any better than my beloved VX?

I got to fly the VR the day before the Flytec Championships and it wasn't the same as my familiar VX feeling (which I hadn't felt in a long time, so it was hard to say, really). I had been flying flex wings for the previous six months, so that definitely added to my lack of feel for the new glider.

During the Flytec Championships we found that I was gliding side by side with Neville on an AIR ATOS V and I noticed that Paul Tjaden had a slightly better sink rate in his AIR ATOS VX. Still I liked the glider and I just had to get used to.

I finally got used to the glider flying 190 miles in Kansas and 365 miles in Texas. I took those lessons and feel of the glider to the Big Spring Open. Whenever the lift got light or I got low, I just went into Zapata mode.

One of the problems I had with the VR, the one that really bothered me, was the fact that the sail didn't fit on the winglets. Then Felix told me to cut 7mm off the aluminum tubes and that helped. Cutting another 7 mm off each tube at Big Spring (thanks to importer Jim Lamb and his tube cutter) and finally got the sail to fight snug against the ridge on the winglets.

It appears that the weather conditions in the US are just that different from the ones in Europe. Cutting our tubes down and making a few Velcro and tip strut adjustments, solved our problems.

Flying the VR at Big Spring was a joy and it really responded well in thermals allowing me to climb much better than previously when I wasn't aware of how to fly it. The winglets keep the air flowing over the top of the wing near the spoilerons and make for easy turning. It is the only ATOS I have been willing to push out and slow down.

I love turning tight in it. I love slowing it down. The tail flutters if you go too slow, so you have plenty of warning. There is little bar pressure at high speeds (Russell's VR has too much bar pressure at high speeds and needs to be adjusted) so it is very easy to fly at 55 to 60 mph. I saw 75 mph over the ground the other day.

Now that the winglet problem is fixed and I'm used to the glider I'm very happy with it. I look forward to doing even more with it and getting better at flying it.

2005 Big Spring Open »

Mon, Aug 8 2005, 6:00:00 pm EDT

Gust fronts and a big cell at the first turnpoint.

Belinda Boulter|Big Spring Open 2005|Campbell Bowen|David Glover|Denny Mallet|Jim Lamb|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Paul Tjaden|Ron Gleason|Russell "Russ" Brown

The flight and task

The scores.

More on the flex wings: http://www.jonnydurand.blogspot.com/

The forecast called for the cloud base to lower between 1 PM and 4 PM along with reduced surface temperatures. The wind was supposed to increase and the cloud cover increase also. There was a very low chance of overdevelopment near us, but there were plenty of clouds to the east, left over from the storm the night before, it seemed.

It appeared that the increased cloud cover would explain the lower surface temperature, but forecasted lift was only forecasted to drop from 500 fpm to 400 fpm. It was quite confusing. We decided to get going early just in case there was overdevelopment.

The rigids got off at 12:30 PM and the flex wings started launching less than a half hour later. Our first start gate was at 1:15 and every rigid wing pilot took the first start time given the high chance for over development.

While circling in the start circle Ron Gleason and I waited back while others went out to the edge of the start circle. It seemed to me with the 10 mph south wind that it would be good to hold back and get high. It also appeared that the pilots had to go outside the small start circle to find lift, so that they would have to come back against the wind to get the start time.

Given the strong winds and the first turnpoint to the north, it would be easy to race to get the start time and that a better idea would be to find better lift and get higher with a margin of safety before the edge of the start circle. Ron and I did this and got a great start while other pilots had to struggle to get back to the start circle.

Ron and I headed down a cloud street just to the east of the course line to the first turnpoint fourteen miles to the north northwest. It was a thick cloud street but up ahead there are even thicker clouds just to the east of the first turnpoint. It was looking dark and rainy to the east.

I spotted Campbell Bowen  turning just past the first turnpoint at an intersection on highway 87 and came in over him to climb to 6,800'. It was a nine mile run to the west northwest toward the next turnpoint 27 mile away before Larry Bunner and I would find the next lift.

There was a dark cloud to the north west and Larry and I attempted to stay to the south and out of the overdevelopment. There were plenty of cu's and lots of sunlight to the west northwest. The wind was 10 mph out of the south.

Larry and I followed the clouds and it looked like there was no or little lift near the turnpoint as there was a big area of blue to the south and east of it. We followed the clouds on the east side of the blue hole hoping to get close enough to the turnpoint and then jump over and knick it before racing to the clouds to the northeast toward the goal at La Mesa.

With the cell building behind us to the south east, and the flex wings required to make the same first turnpoint, we heard from David Glover (via Belinda) that the flex wing's task had been cancelled. Most flex wing pilots went back to the airport and some landed in the gust front for some exciting action. Maybe Jonny will write it up on his blog.

I could see Vince just ahead of me as I got to within six miles of the turnpoint. He went out into the blue and got quite low heading for Johann who was much lower and turning two and a half miles to the east northeast of the turnpoint. Vince caught good lift and I raced to join them from 6,800'.

Just as I was about to come in under Vince at 6,300' and over Johann, I saw that the turnpoint was just to the west and as I was quite high I decided to just run for it and then go on course to goal toward good looking clouds.

Apparently at this point or soon after Vince heard on his radio frequency from someone that he apparently doesn't know, that the day had been cancelled. He signaled to Johann by pulling out his legs and bicycling that the task was called and they both headed south.

I headed for the turnpoint and made it easily with Paul Tjaden just above me and Larry Bunner just behind me. We headed northeast to the good looking clouds and found very smooth 550 fpm to 7,100'.

Paul got a head start being a little higher to begin with and Larry and I raced after him for 11 miles on glide into goal. Denny Mallet and Russell Brown came in a few minutes later.

Ron Gleason, Jim Lamb and Campbell Bowen landed about four or five miles short.

Big Spring Open

Sat, Aug 6 2005, 8:00:00 am EDT

The sky dome is covered with mid level scud.

Dragonfly|Jim Lamb|Mike Barber|Paris Williams|Paul Tjaden|Robin Hamilton|Ron Gleason|Russell "Russ" Brown|weather

No results posted yet.

The flight and task

The first day of the Big Spring Open was a resounding success. The weather was iffy at first, before we started launching, but it looks like the weather will improve every day.

Last week it rained four inch here, after a long spell of dry weather. This week we've had a few more inches of rain, so the fields and pasture are pretty soft out there. The soil moisture content has gone from purple to yellow.

The BLIPMAP called for 550-600 fpm lift to 6,500' to 7,500' MSL (ground level is 2,500' MSL at the Big Spring airport). The wind was forecasted to be 8-10 mph out of the south and it looked like there was a better chance for over development just to our east or southeast.

The task committee wanted a shorter task for the day, so we picked a 60 mile triangle for the flex wings and a 75 miler for the rigid wings (and a 40 mile out and return for Sport Class) to the west. The flex wing task was the same task as on the last day of the meet last year. On that day, after it rained all night, the lift was too weak for anyone to make it around. Not true today.

We waited all morning for the middle level clouds to burn off, and started to launch the rigids at 1 PM as it did burn off and the cu's formed underneath. The flex wings launched at 1:30 PM, with a last start time at 3:00 PM.

Bobby pulled me up behind his new Dragonfly with the rebuilt engine. It's the lower power two stroke, so I just got off in the first lift as otherwise it takes forever to catch up to the other guys.

We all climbed in light lift to cloud base at 6,200' and headed out to the west northwest to the edge of the 5 KM start circle. Four of us (Johann, Ron, Vince, and I) waited for the second start time while the others went ahead. The flex wings would start at least a half hour behind us. Ron timed the run and climb under a cloud closer to the start point perfectly and we got to our highest altitude yet just as the second start window was opening.

The first leg was a cross wind task twenty miles to the west northwest with an eleven mph south wind . There were plenty of cu's and it was no problem racing along together (Ron, Johann and I). We even found a thermal that got us to 7,000' just before the turnpoint, so we could be high heading into the wind to the south for 30 miles. We caught most if not all of the pilots who left earlier at the turnpoint.

The lift was smooth with no hard edges and would continue to be so throughout the flight. With recent rains the ground below was green and the thermals responded by being marshmallows (or is that marshmellows).

I headed back a bit to the east to get under what looked like the best lift line heading south, but eight miles out had to run way to the west to find better clouds and better lift to stay up. The upwind leg would provide plenty of opportunities for many of us  to go to the left and right to find lift and stay alive. It took a couple of tries to get up high enough to get by the Stanton airport. Ron Gleason got low there and landed just north of Stanton as I was working up way to his west.

Paul Tjaden hooked up with me and we headed for Stanton and I headed for the better clouds to the east. Paul took a more westerly line and didn't come over to me when I found lift. He soon landed a few miles south of Stanton. Again, I was doing my best to find the best looking clouds and going way off course line if necessary to get to them.

South of Stanton I came in under Johann and Russell Brown under much thicker clouds. It was raining at our turnpoint fifteen miles to the south. Hopefully the rain would stop or we could get around it to the west by the time we got there.

Again I had to go way to the west flying well below the leading edge of a cloud along the leading edge (ninety degrees to the course line) to find lift and get back from 2,200' AGL. The clouds were too thick along the course line and I needed to get out in the sun to find the lift.

Fortunately we (Johann and I)  found good lift were able to get to 7,200' MSL which made the six mile run to the turnpoint doable. The rain had stopped, but, of course, there were no cu's around the turnpoint, but thankfully the sink was light and once we got around it we could drift with the wind to find a thermal away from the turnpoint.

Johann was just a bit ahead and a little higher and headed directly toward the goal. I followed behind and lower over territory with locked gated roads below (you can tell because they go to gas or oil well heads) and no cu's ahead. I found weak lift that I had to take while Johann glided ahead, and it drifted me back to the northwest toward an open road and away from goal.

The lift was getting quite weak as it was approaching five o'clock, and I took any lift I could find. I would spot a puff of a cumulus cloud and go for it and there would be weak lift, but at least I was still in the air. I had lost track of Johann.

After a couple of climbs I spotted four flex wings turning five miles to the north. They had made their turnpoint which was ten miles north of ours and I figured I would just join up with them and we'd all get to goal together.

When I got to the flex wings and spotted Craig Coomber I discovered that they were just surviving and in the worst lift that I had experienced all day. After losing six hundred feet messing around with them I headed downwind for the wispy cu's to the north to try to get in under something useful.

Three miles later down to 500' AGL, I found a bit of lift and hung with it as I drifted to the north northwest, again away from the goal hoping just to stay alive for another chance. That thermal took me back to almost 6,000' and I was in the game again.

Now the goal was almost due east and I faced an 11 mph south southeast wind. But the nice part about this was that while course line was blue there were clouds between me and the airport. I found good lift under them and in spite of a bit of a head wind, I was able to glide in from ten miles out from 3,700' AGL (6,200' MSL).

Johann made it in a half hour before I did. Craig got there just before I came in. Mike Barber came in soon after that, then Robin Hamilton. Paris Williams squeaked in, followed by Jim Lamb and finally Jon Durand just making it as the goal cylinder radius was 800 meters. Five flex wings and three rigid wings at goal.

Perhaps we'll try a less difficult task tomorrow. It took Johann 3:30 hours to go 75 miles. It took Craig Coomber about that long to go 60 miles. Our little two hour task, a short one for the first day, turned out to be a bit harder than we anticipated.

East Coast Hang Gliding Championship

Wed, Jun 8 2005, 5:00:00 pm EDT

Day 4, cloud base is forecasted to drop 2,600' by 5 PM.

Bubba Goodman|Dennis Pagen|Dr. John "Jack" Glendening|Highland Aerosports Flight Park|Paris Williams|Paul Tjaden|Russell "Russ" Brown|Tom Lanning|weather

The scores

http://highlandaero.blogspot.com/

The Flight and Task

Weather forecasting here on the DelMarVa peninsula is proving to be quite interesting. The local NWS forecast calls for a high of 87, while the RUC/Dr. Jack call for 92.1. The local forecast says no chance of showers, but the BLIPSOT for Ridgely calls for cloud base to come down from 6,000' at 1 PM  to 3,400' at 5 PM, and for the lift to slow down dramatically. There is a good chance for convergence, and the afternoon wind go from 5 mph east in the morning to 14 mph southwest by 5 PM. It sure looks like a sea breeze from the west and convergence to me.

Given this possibility we can for an early launch at noon and start at 1 PM. The cu's show up right on time at noon and soon thereafter I followed Rich Cizauskas into the air. The cu's were forming at the southeast end of the runway and Tom Lanning, Russell Brown, Paris Williams and I climbed up to cloud base at 5,200'.

We stayed high and as we were at cloud base at 1 PM, there was no need to wait for the second start time. I headed back to get inside the two mile start circle with Paris, Ollie, Russell, and Tom following behind. Paul Tajden soon came after us also.

Paris and I were in the lead to the first turn point, which was only 4.5 miles from the edge of the start circle to the northeast. We found a little lift on the way, but not much worth staying with. The clouds which were sparse at 12:30 were now getting quite thick and high.

Paris found lift to my right two miles from the first turnpoint as we headed for the second turnpoint 10 miles to the northwest and I joined him and Ollie. Soon at cloud base in 500 fpm lift at 5,500' I headed out  back in front again with Russell just behind off to my left. There were thick cu's everywhere ahead of us.

I had to go around the next turnpoint and go two more miles before finding light lift at 2,500'. Paris and Russell came and joined me as we climbed about 1,000' before Paris and I headed out for the next cloud. Paris found a lift bit of lift to my left, but I headed further on on the upwind side of the cloud looking for better lift. I found it and climbed at 500 fpm to 5,700'. Dr. Jack's forecast was looking pretty good.

Twelve miles out from the third turnpoint to the northwest, I went on glide at cloudbase leaving Paris, Paul Tjaden, Russell, Tom , and a few other flex wings thousands of feet below. I was on my own in the lead and no one around for assistance. There was a dark cloud street heading toward the turnpoint.

Three miles out from the turnpoint I could see the edge of the clouds as the sea breeze from the east side of the peninsula made itself felt. I turned a bit to the north of course line to get under the best looking cloud only to find weak lift that got me up 1,000' to 4,200'. I definitely should have stayed with this climb, but as I was drifting away from the turnpoint, I decided to run east under a thick cloud street to find better lift and to get the turnpoint.

It turned out that there was no lift that I could find under that street and there were no clouds at the turnpoint, so I had to run from the street back to the south for a mile to get the turnpoint and then run northwest toward goal 10 miles away.

I didn't find any but the lightest lift and landed five miles short. Bubba landed about twenty minutes later just to my northeast. Russell Brown, Ollie Gregory, Paul Tjaden made goal. Paris Williams, Tom Lanning, and Dennis Pagen also made goal.

As I was breaking down, the convergence formed on the east side of the peninsula over us. The sky cleared to the west in Maryland, but it was raining in Delaware.

We get ready to get towed up at Highland Aerosports.

East Coast Hang Gliding Championship

Tue, Jun 7 2005, 5:00:00 pm EDT

Day 3, "You guys are hosed."

Bubba Goodman|Dr. John "Jack" Glendening|Paris Williams|Paul Tjaden|Russell "Russ" Brown|Tom Lanning

The scores

http://highlandaero.blogspot.com/

The Flight and Task

Today was an amazing, blessed day of flying competition. A day on which you would not have flown if you had not been in a competition. It's one of the things that makes competition so great.

The forecasts were at odds with each other. The RUC that Dr. Jack uses was predicting 83 degrees at 1 PM and 4 PM. The local forecast was for a high of 90 degrees. Dr. Jack was calling for a top of lift at 1,200' and weak climb rates. It had rained hard last night, so we expected the ground to be saturated and for the thermals to be weak.

The FSL-RUC T-skew charts also showed a weak low inversion and climbs to about 1,500' if the temperature at ground level was only 83 degrees, but climbs to 4,000' if it got to 90 degrees. I don't know what the NWS uses for a model to predict the local temperatures, but I was willing to go with it, as otherwise we wouldn't be flying.

The wind was predicted to be out of the west northwest at 7 to 10 mph, so we chose a 18 mile down wind task for the Sport class to the nearest private grass air strip, and an additional cross wind leg of 5.4 miles for the rigids and flex wings to the only other private airstrip that we could get to. With reasonably strong winds, light lift, and perhaps very low top of the lift (and maybe no cu's) we wanted to give pilots the best chance of making it.

With a 1 PM launch and a 2 PM start window I launched first at 1:30 to test out the air. No one else was interested. There was plenty of cirrus and maybe that was going to keep the temperature down in the RUC forecast. After towing to 2,200', I didn't find any lift until I got down to 1,000'. I was able to stay up for half an hour working the sometimes 200 fpm. It only got me back to 1,200'

The nice thing though was that there wasn't any sink. The air was smooth as could be. There was also an obvious inversion at about 1,500', so it was clear why there were no clouds, and no sink (convective cells couldn't set up with so low a top of lift).

We moved our start times to 3:15 and 3:30 and I took off after Paris Williams (in Dennis' Aeros Combat that Paris was adjusting)  and Daniel Spier (in an ATOS). Paris was just going to make a test flight (should have done that earlier) and land.

Dan found some lift to the west southwest of the field at 1,000' and we started climbing slowly with Paris joining us (he saw that the line was forming and didn't want to land in spite of the turn in the glider). The wind drifted us back to the east toward our goal, so we just held on. Besides the start window hadn't opened yet, but out first priority was to stay in the air.

We joined up with Bubba Goodman, and Russell Brown and a couple of flex wing pilots, and continued just circling and drifting, less than a mile away from the airport.  Finally Paris at 2,200' headed toward the start circle twelve minutes before the second start time. We were still mainly concerned with staying up, not playing the start clock game. I headed off with Paris to his left, but 500' higher. I was on top of the gaggle. Paul Tjaden and Ollie were two miles back west of the airport slowly getting up.

Four miles out we were all spread out searching for lift. Paris was below 800' AGL. It took a bunch of us to find the lift, starting climbing and watching the clock and our distance out as we approached the second start time. Ollie and Paul came in to join the gaggle and I was on top pushed out and trying to stay as high as possible.

We climbed through the start circle a few minutes after the second start time but no one was interested in going out on their own. We were huddling together in this light lift. The thermals were smooth and great fun to fly in. Paris headed out again, and I headed out with him to his right to help the search for lift, but 800' over him at 3,700'. Paris will later exclaim that the flexies just couldn't climb up as high, hitting some kind of glass ceiling.

Three miles later and we got our first thermal on the course since we thermaled over the start circle. After climbing to 3,300' I left with Paris as we headed for some very wispy cu's a mile away. This time no one came with us. I shaded Paris to his left, still 800' over him. I found the lift and stopped to turn while Paris continued on to another cloud.

Ollie spotted me and came over. Paul Tjaden, being conservative, stayed back in the lift that we had left. I figured that this was a good time to take advantage of his conservatism (but it was a risk). Back to 3,700' I went on glide with Ollie following.  With Paris low and everyone else behind it was just Ollie and me going to goal. No more help from the gaggle.

Twelve miles out from the goal, my 5030 said I'd get the turnpoint at 2,066' and the goal at 700' as long as the lift and sink equaled out. I remembered that the sink had been pretty minimal so far.

Ollie didn't know that we could make goal if it all worked out. He found some very light lift to take two circles in off to me left, but after a couple myself I pushed on. The eight mph wind was at our back and we were averaging glides of 27:1. We made the turnpoint with 2003' of altitude, but when I turned and headed for goal with the cross wind, it showed I had it with 350' not 700'. Oh, well.

Ollie pulled out in front to my right down the highway. I knew that the goal was to the left of the highway so stayed more on a line to goal. Ollie was pulled in more than I was because it looked like a squeaker to me.

Ollie finally realized where goal was and headed for it, did an three sixty and landed. I came in with 250'. Paul was another twenty seconds behind.

Bubba won the day for the flex wings, getting around the turnpoint. Tom Lanning was just short of Bubba and Paris was two miles back not finding any more lift after missing it under the clouds. He had turned around to see Ollie and I turning under the one cloud he didn't go to, but we were so high he decided not to try to join us.

 Discuss ECHGC at the Oz Report forum

East Coast Hang Gliding Championship

Mon, Jun 6 2005, 2:00:00 pm EDT

 Day 2, a straight shot to the north

Bubba Goodman|Dr. John "Jack" Glendening|Highland Aerosports Flight Park|John Simon|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Paul Tjaden|Pete Lehmann|Russell "Russ" Brown

The scores

http://highlandaero.blogspot.com/

The Flight and Task

The forecast was for winds 10 mph out of the south southwest all the way up to 4,000' at cloud base. On Dr. Jack and the FSL T-Skew the lift looked reasonable, not great, with lots of cu's and no cu nimbs (in spite of a local forecast for 20% chance of rain after 4 PM). The big factor was the wind, giving us no chance to get back to a goal at Ridgely.

We called a 39 mile task to Summit airport to the north just south of the canal on highway 301. The Sport class task was 15 miles to a private airport to the north northeast. The private airport owners wanted us to land at his place.

We kept the start circle at two miles, which was going to make it interesting with a 10 mph wind. I got down to 800' off of tow, found 100 fpm downwind of the airport at Highland Aerosports and slowly climbed out as I drifted out of the start circle. Paris and Bubba joined me as we slowly climbed out.

The ATOSes climbed to cloud base, but the flex wings never made it that high, except for one. The lift was weak and broken, but you'd think the flexies and the rigids would get about as high as we struggled to stay within the start circle.

I took off south back to the airport and found lift half a mile to the south and climbed back to cloudbase. The first start time came and Russell Brown, Paris, Bubba and Dennis among others headed off toward goal. They had to come back to get the start cylinder.

A cloud formed at 1.5 to 2 miles north of Highland and I raced over to get under the cloud and climbed back to cloudbase. Paul Tjaden in the VX is 100 feet below me as we climbed up. AT i:45 PM, right at cloudbase, I pulled in and covered the first five miles in six minutes under clouds and finding light sink. I won;t see Paul again.

Five miles out I saw a flex wing on the ground and a ATOS ready to land. There was a large blue hole in front of me and cu's to my left. I was down to 2,400' and things looked dicey. I headed west ninety degrees to the course line to get under the clouds and started working light lift. The clouds were working and I can stay up and keep working to the northwest.  I was on my own trying to catch the guys ahead of me. Pete Lehmann also started at the second clock and was chasing the leaders, also.

I connected the dots and then 16 miles out from the goal, went on final glide. The clouds are much higher and thicker for this last part of the task. They were thin and sparse previously, but now they are bunched up. I pulled in and raced as the lift looked good. After a few miles it looked to good and the cloud base was lowering. I was flying at 62 mph with a 10 mph ten wind. The cloud base was below me and I was stuffing the bar and going up. I had to veer around the tendrils to stay out of the clouds.

In a few minutes I was over goal. Russell Brown got there first, quickly followed by Paul Tjaden who after a slow start got under a good cloud street and just flew straight to goal. Paris (Aeros Combat) and Bubba  (Wills Wing T2) then came in, but Pete (WW Talon) was right behind them and won the day having started later.

Two pilots made goal in the Sport Class: JD Guilemette and John Simon both on Aeros Discus. 

The sky began to clear soon after I reached goal and it was then clear why the cloud base had been so low near the goal. The sea breeze from the east had kicked in and  it was clearing the sky. We would not have been able to fly much further to the north as there were now no longer any clouds.

As we drove home there was vertical development to the east, but no clouds over the peninsula. As dark approached, the clouds to the east turned into cu-nimbs with gust fronts and rain after 8 PM. The ground now thoroughly soaked so it should be pretty soft tomorrow. 

East Coast Championships »

Fri, Jun 3 2005, 3:00:00 pm EDT

In beautiful Maryland on the peninsula

Bubba Goodman|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Oliver Gregory|Paul Tjaden|Pete Lehmann|Rob Kells|Russell "Russ" Brown

The task and flight

The results: Rigids, Flex, Sport

We called a 40 mile triangle task for the flexies and rigids and a 20 mile out and return for the sport class. The wind was forecast to be four mph out of the west northwest (290-300 degrees) and given that we are on a big north/south peninsula with a NASCAR race this weekend to our east, we decided to do cross wind tasks.

We launched starting at 12:45 PM and there had been soft looking cu's over our heads since 10 AM. Cloud base was 3,200', and ground level is about 50'. The lift was light, but well marked. The wind instead of 4 mph, was 8-10 mph.

I took the early start time as I was high and promptly got low with Pete Lehmann. The first leg was a bit into the wind to the north, so combining this with getting low and the pilots starting later soon caught us. Even getting low it was possible to hook a good thermal and get back to cloud base.

It took over an hour to go 14 miles to the north given the strong cross wind. Four of the five rigids bunched up and by the time we got to the first turnpoint we were higher than Paris, Pete, Bubba and Dennis in the flex wings. The second leg was downwind and Paul Tjaden (VX), Oliver Gregory (V)  and I took off and went ahead out on our own.

It took us only twenty three minutes to get to the next turnpoint, but Ollie came in low as Paul and I had found good lift earlier that he missed. Ollie started to turn after the turnpoint but I spotted a dark cloud ahead and went for it. Paul being conservative held back and searched over Ollie's head for lift. Not finding it there he found it a hundred yards later and climbed up.

Out ahead I went to the dark cloud found nothing and searched until I was down to 400' AGL. Over the field that had fed the cloud before it disappeared I found 200 fpm and with Ollie joining me we dug ourselves out of a deep hole. Russell Brown in an ATOS came high over us as we worked our way up.

The sky was now bluing up as the time approached 4 PM. The cu's were very sparse and I headed downwind of course line to get under them. Ollie headed up wind into the blue, got low and started working weak lift. Paris came in under him at about 200' AGL and joined the buzzards as they worked their way up.

Ollie foolishly left to try to stay up with me as Paris continued to climb. The rest of the flex wings were on the ground or behind Paris.

Working light lift I didn't stop in one area where in hind sight I should have. I was heading for a cloud that was the best I had seen in a while and frankly it didn't live up to its promise. I was soon on glide to land 1.5 miles short of goal. Paul had already made goal.

Ollie was soon to come join me in the field that was the last one before going over the trees by the river that separated us from the goal. After a while we saw Paris climbing low where I had tried to get up a bit earlier next to our landing field. He climbed up and raced to goal. Paris and Paul were the only ones to make goal.

Ollie and I were the closest to goal. Bubba Goodman, flying a Wills Wing T2 (with Rob Kell's Rotor harness) was the next closest flex wing. Although Russell had come over our heads he didn't make it to goal either landing 3.5 miles short. Dennis was asking Rob Kells for another T2 as Bubba was out climbing him.

There are six pilots in the Sport Class. The best pilot was able to get to the turnpoint and a little ways back. Numerous pilots in the flex class didn't get that far (both classes shared much of the first leg).

Another record attempt

Fri, May 20 2005, 2:00:02 pm EDT

Stopped by a cu-nimb

Paul Tjaden|Quest Air|record

cart|Paul Tjaden|Quest Air|record

The flight

It's been 10-15 mph out of the east with beautiful cu's every day for the last few days, but on Friday, the winds died down and we were ready of another attempt at breaking the 100 km triangle speed record (44.3 kmh). Paul Tjaden and I decided to fly together to help each other out and perhaps speed things up. The course started at Quest Air. The first turnpoint was 23 miles due west at a former grass airstrip just north of the intersection of highway 50 and Interstate 75. Then 20 miles northeast to Coleman, with 23 miles back to Quest.

The cu's started looking good at around 1 PM and I was second off. A second or two after I came off the cart I was yanked straight up in a strong thermal and the weaklink immediately broke. I have never experienced any lift that strong so close to the ground. I sure loved having that weaklink. I floated along for a nice soft slight downwind landing.

I broke the next weaklink at 1000' again in a thermal (first weaklink breaks in well over a year). Paul was already at 5,000' under a dark cloud waiting for me to climb up. This was a great start to the day.

We started together under a dark cloud right over the start point at 2:09 PM and headed west into a two mph headwind. There were plenty of cu's ahead but nothing much worth turning in. There seemed to be quite a few cu's over the Green Swamp as we pushed on. I was watching the clouds and keeping track of the ground below as we went out into the swamp. It looked like there was a dry plantation planting ahead with good clouds in the vicinity.

Paul made the mistake of losing track of me, by getting ahead and not slowing down as we got under the clouds. He also shaded to the right toward the cultivated fields as he didn't feel comfortable over the Green Swamp, although there were plenty of landable areas there. I found the lift and told Paul, but he made another mistake choosing not to come back to me. He would head further north and land after losing weak lift.

I found good lift eight miles into the leg and great cu's and headed toward the turnpoint where I found a large dark cloud that looked like it was pumping. I found the sunny edges and climbed out. I was on a record pace, and I figured that the first leg was the hardest leg.

It was much faster on the next leg as I headed toward Coleman. There were lots of cu's just to the west of the course line and I had an eight mph tail wind. But eight miles into the twenty mile leg, I saw that the rain was falling out of a cu-nimb about four or five miles to my northwest over the swamps around the Withlacoochi River. My goal was to get east around Lake Panasoffkee to Coleman to my northeast. I was thinking that I could fly fast enough to get around the rain and the cu-nimb.

Three more miles and I realized that the cu-nimb was growing too fast even though the rain was no closer and that it was cutting off the lift under the cu's to its east, the very ones that I was flying under. The cu-nimb's shadow was also rapidly expanding to the east.

Finding only weak lift, not enough to get me up high enough to make a fast run to the northeast, I decided to head southeast back toward Quest. I had to make a run for it to get far enough away from the cu-nimb to get under a cu whose lift wasn't being cut off by the growing cloud. Six miles later and down to 800 feet, I came over a large metal building to find my first good lift since the last turnpoint. Now only fifteen miles out from Quest I climbed to 5,000' and headed home into a sky that had only a few cu's. The blackness was behind me but swiftly following me.

The cu-nimb was blowing it's top sending out high clouds and within an hour after I landed the whole sky was covered with thick clouds, but no rain.

The air was great and it was fun to try to get around a cu-nimb and still make it back.

Discuss records at the Oz Report forum

HOLC »

Mon, May 16 2005, 2:00:05 pm EDT

USA

Paul Tjaden|PG

Paul Tjaden writes, "Posting flights to the HOLC is fun." See his flights here.

The membership in the HOLC in the USA has doubled in the last two weeks. Big deal, as it is now seven. Wallaby Ranch is coming through with two new pilots. Not a single paraglider pilot in the US posts their flights to the HOLC. In Germany there are 735 pilots posting to the HOLC.  Switzerland has 355.

But, there are many countries with less usage than the US. Norway, Finland, Israel, France, among many others. Australia has eleven.

You can find out how to use the HOLC here and register here. US pilots are listed here. Flex wing results for the US are found here. World wide results are found here for rigid wings and here for flex wings.

Remember there are money prizes for the US pilots.

Terry Spencer's accident (part 2)

Mon, May 16 2005, 6:00:03 pm GMT

Terry came to the Flytec Championship with a "medical condition."

Terry Spencer

Blue Sky|CIVL|fatality|Joe Gregor|Joseph Andrew "Terry" Spencer|Lisa Kain|Marc Fink|Paul Tjaden|Quest Air|Steve Kroop

Joe Gregor writes in his accident report (here):

The pilot had suffered a blow to the head during a previous launch accident a year or so ago which resulted in a loss of consciousness for approximately twenty minutes.

The pilot reportedly admitted to having a vestibular problem, resulting in spatial disorientation when moving his head while in a turn on approach. This problem had reportedly resulted in at least one hard landing including glider damage at a local mountain site. It was related that he had devised a fix to this problem by holding his head steady and scanning with his eyes only while in a turn close to the terrain. During this same incident, the pilot also reported having problems seeing the ground through his glasses. It is unknown if he was flying with the same glasses at the time of this accident.

Possible complications due to a previously demonstrated spatial disorientation problem.

The accident pilot had admitted to problems in maintaining orientation (vertigo) when moving his head while turning on approach and close to the terrain. His solution was to keep his head stationary while turning and scan using eye movement only.

This would have severely restricted his ability to clear for traffic from multiple directions.

Head movements required to adequately clear the area on-approach may have triggered/aggravated the pilot’s vestibular problem, causing spatial disorientation during the final turn(s) and inadvertent ground contact at high speed.

Last week I just happened to speak with Paul Tjaden, a pilot who flew with Terry and he mentioned that Terry had mentioned problems with spatial orientation. I asked him to write up what he told me:

About two weeks prior to Terry's accident at Quest, Terry and I spent two hours driving to Blue Sky flight park where he shared some things I had not heard before. This was a couple of years back so my memory may be a bit clouded but I'll tell you what I think I recall.

Terry had been involved in the race horse industry, first as an exercise jockey and later as a horse shoer. During this time of his life he was knocked unconscious at least once if not twice. As I recall, he told me that he had received a concussion once from a fall and again when he was kicked by a horse he was shoeing.

During this same drive, Terry asked me if I ever became disoriented while flying. When I answered no, he told me that he had a problem with this that had caused another serious whack and unconsciousness when he failed to round out on final approach to a landing at Woodstock. He said that he had solved this problem by learning to keep his head very still, especially when close to the ground, and use his peripheral vision more. I don't know if his previous injuries had brought this on or if it had been a long standing issue.

I personally flew with Terry many times and never saw him making spiral dives to the LZ. Terry actually impressed me with his piloting skills and his cautious attitude. I watched him "potato" on launch numerous times waiting for a safe cycle to launch in. In retrospect, I guess he perhaps shouldn't have been flying at all if he had the spatial orientation problems I just mentioned. But Terry lived to fly. It would have torn out his heart to give it up. Could you quit if a similar problem came up? So I guess I don't blame him, he had learned to cope well with his small handicap, but maybe the extra stress and confusion of a large competition wasn't a good idea for him.

I have also been told (but am unable to independently verify) that Terry was knocked unconscious when he launched unhooked from Woodstock. In addition, Terry was known for the skill he showed with high angle slipping turns into the Woodstock LZ.

The CIVL Sporting Code states:

2. 20.4 Fitness

A pilot may not fly unless he is fit. Any injury, drugs or medication that might affect the pilot’s performance in the air must be reported to the Director before flying.

The CIVL Sporting Code only applies to Category I competition, but CIVL asks that meet directors use it for Category II competitions also, and the Flytec Championships is a Category II competition. The Quest Air waiver, which all contestants are required to sign, states:

I certify that I have no medical, emotional and/or physical conditions, which could interfere with my safety in this activity, or else I am willing to assume and bear the cost of all risks that may be created, directly or indirectly, by any such condition.

It would appear to me that Terry did have a medical condition that had already caused him to have a bad landing and get knocked unconscious in a hang gliding accident and that he didn't report this condition to the meet director as he was required to do. I asked Steve Kroop what would have happened if someone reported a medical condition, and he said that Quest would require (and has required) a written statement from the person's doctor saying that they were fit to fly.

Notice that Terry had a method of dealing with his spatial orientation problem, but that in a difficult landing situation he may not have been able to use that solution and could have easily become disoriented.

Marc Fink «in_a_cloud» writes:

In honor of Terry's memory--please drop any further public discussion of his accident. It is a very sensitive issue with his family and friends.

Lisa Kain came up to me today at Quest Air and had nothing but praise for the first article in this series. I told her that I would be receiving email like the one above.

Discuss "Terry Spencer's accident (part 2)" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Saturday triangle record attempt

Fri, May 13 2005, 4:00:04 pm EDT

50 km FAI triangle

Dustin Martin|Paul Tjaden|record|sailplane

The flight

The forecast was for winds at 5 to 10 mph out of the east southeast. On Friday it was 21 mph at cloud base right out of the east. Dustin Martin dropped by on his way to Brazil to tell us about the winds.

On Saturday I was waiting for a better triangle day, but the earlier winds died down and with beautiful cu's everywhere the sky began calling. Then Paul Tjaden mentioned how vulnerable he thought my 50 km FAI triangle world record looked at 40.8 kmh. I went back to my desk pulled up SeeYou put in a 50 KM FAI triangle task and raced out to the launch line.

The lift was not so great at first but we finally found lift to get up to 4,880' right over Quest with a sailplane, whose pilot was hanging around taking pictures of us. I could see the flashes from the cockpit.

A 50 KM triangle is not much of a task. Paul was just recovered from his cold and from our 150 KM attempt a few days earlier.  The idea is to cover the 50 KM in an hour (say, that's 50 kmh). With this short a task you've got to come back no lower than 2% of 50 KM below your start altitude (3290'). I'd set the world speed records for the 25 KM and 50 KM FAI triangles in 2001 at Wallaby Ranch, also in the middle of May, and hadn't thought about defending them since then:

https://ozreport.com/5.091
https://ozreport.com/5.092
https://ozreport.com/5.093

Once you set a record, you figure it is someone else's job to take it away from you. But, 50 KM looked like a sweet distance for an afternoon of fun, so we were game for a try.

The first leg was only twelve miles to Center Hill. Cu's every where. Five miles out I found our first thermal. By tightening up in the better core I was able to climb in the VR to cloud base in five and a half minutes at 420 fpm. Paul was making wider circles, which he felt the VX liked more, and climbed to cloud base in 7:15 at 330 fpm. I was flying at 38 mph and Paul was flying at 30 mph. I was in 630 fpm while Paul was in 470 fpm. His sink rate was 140 fpm while mine was 210 fpm. Later we talked about him getting the VX up on a tip.

The dry fields out by Center Hill were working so it was no trick getting up from 1,500' and getting to the second turnpoint just north of the Florida Turnpike which also had dry fields nearby and black clouds over head. Getting home required that we come in at 1,200' in order to be able to meet the world record criteria. The last leg was the fastest with only one climb required to get home with 500'above the limit.

The time was an hour and fifteen minutes, for a speed of 40.24 kmh just short of matching the record. It was clear that just a few different choices (like pulling in more on the final glide), it would have been a new world record. Next time, an hour.

Discuss records at the Oz Report forum

AIR ATOS »

Thu, May 12 2005, 4:00:04 pm GMT

V, VS, VX, VR

Aeronautic Innovation Rühle & Co GmbH|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Christian Ciech|Neville Almond|Paul Tjaden|Ron Gleason|US Nationals 2005

www.a-i-r-.de

Four models of the V glider from AIR from which to choose from. Which is the coolest glider? Which is the best glider? Which is the most sensible glider? Which glider is affordable? Which one is for you?

The technical data is here.

The VS is of course the small version of the V. You can't believe everything you read on this page, for example, the VR weighs as much as the VX (105 pounds with all the bags in the d-cells). It was built with VX components.

When the VX came out last spring it was widely seen as to be superior to the V in sink rate. The specifications say that, as does the higher aspect ratio and the larger wing area. You'll find some of what I wrote about the VX here:

https://OzReport.com/8.099
https://OzReport.com/8.100
https://OzReport.com/8.101
https://OzReport.com/8.109#1
https://OzReport.com/8.112#0
https://OzReport.com/8.130#2

Alex Ploner won on the VX at the Flytec Championship. Then I won at the South Florida Championship and the US Nationals on the same VX. But, Alex flying on a VX in Greifenburg was second to Christen Ciech on a Stratos, so it wasn't so clear that the VX was all that superior to the V (or Stratos) in an area with tight cores and strong lift.

The VX does appear to have a slightly better sink rate than the V. About 10-20 fpm. I also felt very comfortable and confident in the VX. It felt like it could stay up in anything. The feeling counted for a lot.

Also having a lower sink rate gets one in a good position in the start circle, above the other guys. Having the dominant position is always a great advantage. You only need a little bit better glider to get into this position.

But the VX was built to be a tandem glider. It has a big wing, which is a lot to get through the air. It can't glide super fast (although pretty darn fast) and is not quick in reversing your roll. It's steady, but not nimble.

The VR came out this spring. The design was supposed to be an improvement on the VX with the same sink rate, but a lighter, more nimble glider. Because Felix built it using the VX components it turned out to be as heavy as the VX. But then I like the VX components from the sturdiness point of view.

I had a chance to thermal right with Paul Tjaden flying a VX in the South Florida International. We are outfitted about the same. He was just below and in front of me and we were thermaling at the same speed. It was in a large gaggle, so we kept in the same size (large) circle. He was slowly able to climb on me. So I believe that the inherent sink rate of the VX in fairly flat turns in slightly lower than the VR.

Sure this is only one test, but the VR has less wing area than the VX, even though it has a higher aspect ratio, so you would think that it has a higher sink rate. The difference was small, but it was there.

It appears as though you can slow down more on the VR than on the V or VX. It appears that you can push the VR all the way out and just begin to stall it and that the stall is mild. This may mean that you can slow the VR enough to get a lower sink rate with it than the V or VX (assuming you are not in the same gaggle and having to stay with the other guys), but I have not seen this yet.

The VR is quite a bit more nimble than the VX. It can accelerate much quicker and fly much faster. This may be wasted though as in most cases you would be flying too fast, i.e. faster than best speed to fly. Still at the end of a long final glide you may appreciate the extra speed.

The VR can fly so fast that you can over speed it. That is fly over its VNE speed. You need to take care when flying the VR not to go too fast in turbulent conditions.

I flew my VR side by side with Neville Almond flying Ron Gleason's V at about 40-45 mph. We didn't notice much difference in glide ratio. My guess is that the VR is slightly better than the V in sink rate and only slightly better in glide ratio. But then AIR claims VR=20:1 Vs, V=19:1, which is a small difference. AIR doesn't publish the sink rate for the VR ,but Felix claims that it is the same as the VX.

The VR has better handling characteristics than the V or the VX. It is quicker in roll and lighter in handling. It is also very easy to land, even easier to land than these easy to land gliders. It is simple to adjust the speed of the VR just by adjusting the tail and flap setting using the flap cord. The pitch pressures are determined by your flap setting. You can make them very light.

The VX is a bit more difficult to set up than the V and the VR is a bit more difficult still. I really liked the VX setup. I liked the fact than unlike on the V, the wing tip on the sail didn't have an additional flap. The problem with the VX is getting the long carbon fiber shells at the tips installed. This problem has been solved on the VR, by having these shells slide over the d-cells when the glider is broken down. I wish this solution would work for the VX. Maybe they will retrofit the VX with this solution.

The main problem with setting up the VR is getting the Velcro on the sail to fit on the Velcro on the winglets. I have never been able to get mine to fit completely correctly. Usually I can't get it to fit completely on the bottom of the winglets. In addition, Felix seems to think that there will be a problem with the winglet Velcro later, as he gave us all another set of Velcro for the winglets. I may just need to make a few adjustments with the Velcro at the nose of the glider.

There is a tip wand that stretches the sail out to fit onto the winglets, which are held in place by the aluminum tip tube. The junction between the sail and the winglets is just not nearly as nice as one would like. Otherwise the sail fits extremely well with no wrinkles, better than it did on the V (although this may be fixed by now).

I very much like having the heavier carbon fiber keel on the VR (like the VX) and the heavy duty d-cells. Having had a C destroy itself in mid-air, I am reassured to have a stronger glider.

The nose catch on the VR is not quite the right shape to handle the increased nose angle. Hopefully this will be fixed in later models. I may just have to file mine down a bit more. Felix rotated my nose catch two rotations to bring the tips forward a bit and move the center of lift a bit more forward. This was in an attempt to slow down the VR (which was successful). I can fly it at a minimum speed of 26 - 27 mph (according to my Flytec 530 with has 110% factor on the air speed indicator). I have my hang point all the way back.

To see more of my articles on the VR go here and use Ctrl+F to search for VR.

The V is the easiest glider to setup and the lightest weight one. The VX has the lowest sink rate, is easy to set up, and has the nicest fitting sail. The VR has the best handling and the highest speeds, but takes more time to setup and isn't quite finished at the tips. They are all similar in performance, and the differences in pilot skill and courage out weigh any differences in their performance. But, I found the VX gave me an advantage and the VR may do that also over the V. We'll have to see in the upcoming meets.

World Record attempt

Tue, May 10 2005, 2:00:02 pm EDT

Too slow, but we had a great time (a little longer than we wanted)

Paul Tjaden|Quest Air|record

Paul Tjaden (flying an AIR ATOS VX) and I tried to break Martin Henry's 150 FAI triangle speed record today, and we had a great time failing to do so. The whole point of trying to set a world record is to challenge yourself and have a great time doing so. No one really cares about these records, so you had better enjoy yourself.

Unlike yesterday, when I just couldn't get in sync with the air, today was a super day. The air conditions had changed dramatically and that's what does it for me. Big soft puffy clouds appeared early (just as forecast) unlike the high thin cu's of yesterday. These soft clouds indicate soft lift and sure enough that 's what we got. Not great for setting records but great for flying in.

As I have over the past few days, I pinned off at 1,000' over the trees just to the east of Quest Air. There's been a thermal there every day and there's no good reason to make the tug pilot continue to haul me up when I can go up on my own.

I'd set the task a bit bigger than 150 km, so we could use 400 meter cylinders around the turnpoints and still complete a 150 KM triangle. That made it easy to use our Flytec 5030's set to FAI/Competition task mode and they would automatically switch to the next turnpoint when we entered the cylinder.

I got an earlier start than Paul and headed south along highway 27 with plenty of cu's ahead. The air was great and the cu's working. They were nice enough to lead right to the GATAIR turnpoint seven miles southeast of the intersection of highway 27 and I4. Unfortunately even with no head wind (unlike the day before) it took longer than an hour to do this 30 mile leg. I'd have to speed it up to get the record. Paul was just behind me.

The next turnpoint was next to the Zephyr Hills drop zone, 34 miles to the west. Still plenty of clouds, but the lift wasn't strong, but it was sweet.

Eight miles out from Zephyr Hills I headed out at 2,600' over the swamp that stood between me and Zephyr Hills. There was a small cloud out in the middle of that swamp and I was flying on a wing and prayer. At 600' I was looking was an area big enough to land between the trees. There was a sand/phosphate mine off to one side and I went over there looking to land on the tailings pile. Right at the edge of the deep water filled pit I found a thermal that later turned on and got me back to 3,000'. That was fun to be in such a tight spot and get out of it. I was loving the flying.

Getting to Zephyr Hills there was a big cloud over the turnpoint and that shut down the whole airport. At 1,500' I was too low to go off and find lift somewhere else. After I landed there, Paul came over into the shade at a much better altitude, 4,500' and was able to keep going, getting back to Quest and completing the FAI 150 KM triangle. We'll try for speed next time.

Discuss world records at the Oz Report forum

New World Record (unofficial) »

A.I.R. ATOS VR|CIVL|John Aldridge|Martin Henry|Paul Tjaden|Quest Air|record|world record

Fri, May 6 2005, 2:00:00 pm EDT

Speed around 100 km triangle.

The flight on-line.

Today I set the new world record for rigid wings (also beats the flex wing record) for speed around a 100 km FAI triangle flying my new AIR ATOS VR. The new record speed is 44.28 kmh flying from Quest Air in central Florida. The previous record, 42 kmh,  was set last year near Mansfield east of Chelan, Washington, USA by Canadian pilot Martin Henry (he also owns the flex wing 100 km world speed record at 44.1 kmh).

I had tried to set the record on the previous day when the forecast showed light winds and a few cu's. Unfortunately I raced too fast on the first leg and went down. Paul Tjaden, who was flying just behind me on an AIR ATOS VX, was able to complete the task, although not quite fast enough to set a new record.

The forecast for today was even better than yesterday. Strong lift, light winds, high cloud base, thick clouds (substantial difference between top of lift and projected cloud base). The FSL T-skew chart showed that the clouds would not get too high, with no over development, as there was an inversion starting at 6,500'. It looked like a perfect day for a record attempt. The only question was which one to fly: the 150 km or 100 km triangle. Since I didn't get the record yesterday, I decided to fly the smaller triangle (which is also a somewhat slower record). Paul has a cold and decided not to fly again.

The cu's started early, much earlier than yesterday. The clouds were also quite a bit thicker. The day was looking good, and when the sky looks that good, I have a hard time holding back. The best time to start the task would have been around 2 PM to get the heart of the thermal day (3PM) in the middle of the task. But, I just couldn't hold back and decided to launch at 12:52 PM.

When my vario, while I was on tow, showed 1,100 fpm at 1,000' I pinned off and started climbing out just east of Quest. With the light winds, it wasn't long before I was over 5,000' just north of the Quest waypoint under a dark cloud. Given that the task that I had laid out was 101.1 km, I needed to go through the FAI sector at each waypoint. I couldn't just use the 400 meter cylinder around each waypoint as 800 meters is subtracted from each leg, making my triangle just a bit too small if I used that method. I would have to go around each waypoint..

My task was an FAI triangle from Quest southeast to the intersection of Interstate 4 and highway 27, then west to the intersection of Dean Still and Rockridge, and back to Quest. These are standard turnpoints for tasks from Quest Air and Wallaby Ranch (when there is a competition there). Fortunately they were ideally placed for a 100 km FAI triangular task when combined with Quest Air.

I headed out from the Quest turnpoint point high at 1:04:34 PM with plenty of clouds lining up in front of me going toward Wallaby Ranch and the turnpoint just beyond it. The going was good as I used the cu's ahead to tell me the direction to go along the course line. After ten miles I noticed that the lift was not really all that well organized under the clouds. Few solid cores.  Mostly it seemed to be made up of little bullets of lift and searching around really didn't make it any better.

After I found a good core 10 miles out from the turnpoint (the first leg is 24 miles), I drove under a long row of clouds on the west side of highway 27 only to find minimal lift in an area that looked like it should have good lift. A couple of miles from the turnpoint I decided to try getting under some pilots turning near Wallaby. The lift was just too weak, so I ran for the turnpoint and then back to Wallaby, where I found much better lift and got back to 5,500'.

It took too long to get to the first turnpoint, 50 minutes, and I wasn't feeling too good about the chances of setting the record. Now I wanted to get back successfully, and maybe I would be able to do well also. With the wind 4 mph out of the west it was a slight headwind getting to the next turnpoint.

Winds over the whole task.

Fortunately I got high enough and there were plenty of clouds so it was a breeze getting to the intersection at the southeast end of the Green Swamp. Six miles out at 4,900' I went on glide toward the cloud over the turnpoint. There was a nice looking cloud along the course line passed the turnpoint, so it looked good to me.

Down to 3,200' at the turnpoint I followed the clouds to the northeast, but not the ones over the Green Swamp as I felt I was too low to give that direction a try. That was the best direction but I wasn't hitting any lift yet so I couldn't turn left and head over the trees. I found weak lift and watched a deliberately set swamp fire to my northeast to see if it would be a good idea to get over the smoke (I couldn't see any fire).

I worked some weak lift under a big cloud then raced for the smoke. Just beyond it I found a strong core that looked like it went as high as the semi-nasty looking cu above it. After climbing to 4,700', with a glide ratio of a little less than 15:1 over the next thirteen miles to Quest, I went on glide. There were plenty of cu's ahead but I was skeptical about being able to find lift that I could actually work. I was just hoping that I wouldn't find strong sink as I needed all the altitude I had to make it in.

I also needed to get a move on. No more thermalling. Just race toward goal and get there as fast as possible in order to have a chance at the record. I had already wasted time taking a course off the course line and I needed to make up for that.

I glided all the way and came into Quest lower than I had ever come in before (but then I am a sissy and usually come in high). It was very exciting looking at fields that I might have to land in if things got out of hand in the sink department. I was still plenty high at 300 feet.

Looking at the record after the task, I found that I had set the record. I also found something else interesting.

My climb rate averaged 390 fpm, which is quite high (I've looked at a lot of track logs). So even though I found lots of weak broken lift, I did find some strong cores and that was enough to give me a high average climb rate. In fact, every thermal that SeeYou identified as a thermal was strong (300+ fpm). So I guess I really didn't start turning unless I was in good lift.

To fly a 63 mile task I flew 72 straight miles while not thermalling (which really slowed me down). I averaged 43 mph while flying straight. Flying closer to the course line (as long as the lift was there) would have improved my speed considerably.

I flew straight 73 percent of the time, and this was a very high ratio, and why it was possible to set the record. I spent a small portion of the time on the task thermalling, and that helped considerably.

SeeYou displays the winds on each leg of the flight. This is great. They showed that I had a good head wind going south on the first leg, then a light head wind on the leg going west, then a side wind (again from the west) going north east back to Quest. I flew east at first (and felt the tail wind) after the second turnpoint and then flew north (with the side wind). I've often felt that each leg a triangle is into a head wind, and how I can see from SeeYou that in this case it was two out of three.

This was my first record flight that I've attempted to validate with just a GPS (Flytec 5030) instead of my IGC certified datalogger. I much appreciate the ease of use that this allows under the new CIVL Sporting code 7D.

None-the-less, I won't be sending my IGC file into the NAA and CIVL for homologation and to be made into an official world record. I have done this plenty of times before, in fact on my original speed around the 100 km FAI triangle record set in 2000 at the meet in Hearne, Texas. That record was set in a meet and actually was quite difficult to do at the time.

The reason I won't be sending it in, is that in the US, and in the US only, hang glider pilots are required to pay $350+ to have a record homologated (in our case by the NAA). The FAI charges a little less than $100 US, and that fee seems reasonable, but the NAA fee is a deterrent to me and others. Hang glider pilots in other countries are subsidized (slightly) by their national organizations for flight homologation. We are ripped off for outrageous fees.

The problem with world records is that few people try to set them. They are a lot of fun to set and are a great way to motivate pilots to stretch their wings. But the many steps that one has to go through with CIVL is a deterrent. It doesn't deter me, as I've set up a procedure to do it, and every one of my records has been homologated.

I would hope that the HOLC becomes that place were records are automatically homologated. We need to do a technical fix (add the task definition to the HOLC) and fix the Flytec 5030 (so it does the task definition correctly in the IGC file). I would love to have this process automated (and the costs greatly decreased). And the barriers reduced. 

BTW, the restricted (red) airspace on the right starts at 6,001'. I was well below that. I think that the HOLC checks for airspace violations in the US now.

BTW, thanks to John Aldridge and CIVL folks for the new rules which allow for GPS usage. This is a great step in the right direction. Now we need to improve upon them. Like, hook up with the HOLC.

You can download the the IGC file here and see what it looks like in SeeYou or CompeGPS.

2005 South Florida International, day five »

A.I.R. ATOS VR|Campbell Bowen|Davis Straub|James Tindle|Johann Posch|Jono Fisher|Lauren Tjaden|Oleg Bondarchuk|Paul Tjaden|record|Russell "Russ" Brown|South Florida International 2005

Sat, Apr 30 2005, 5:00:00 pm EDT

Strong winds out of the south.

The flight and the task.

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

On this last day (Saturday) we were offered an interesting bargain. A cold front was approaching from the northwest, but the winds were right (south 10-15 mph) for a record attempt. The best place to set a Florida record (or an east coast record) is the Florida Ridge on a southeast day with convergence up the state. I had already asked pilots if they wanted to go the big distance if the chances looked good for a record attempt. Half were for it.

The problem was this was the last day and it would be rude to go far and most likely not come back until way late for the closing festivities. We would have to have a really good reason to go far, but then James Tindle would love to see these records set at his flight park. It came down to looking closely at the approaching front.

Finally I decided that the chances of a record were not good enough to justify sending pilots to a 219 mile goal point at the Keystone airport. The forecast called for thunderstorms up by Lake City late in the day 200 miles out. It sure would have been my preference.

Also the winds were high in the morning at the flight park. Pilots weren't even setting up (well, I was). Oleg was watching the little low level wispies whip by pretty darn fast. I had come up with a downwind, then cross wind task to Arcadia. Oleg felt that many pilots wouldn't be able to handle the cross wind task without being blown into territory that would present retrieval problems.

Finally we decided on a barbeque task, 35 miles straight down wind to Lake Placid airport. Oleg figured that on the previous days it's been hard to get to goal and this would make a lot of pilots happier.

The wispies disappeared as we got ready to launch. I followed three rigids out to the launch area, but low and behold they were not ready to launch, so I was off first again. The winds were strong and the lift very weak, so I just hung on until it improved enough to start climbing.

We were only able to climb to 3,900' before the first start window. Most of the pilots in the air converged near each other and were stuck in very light lift at the edge of the start circle waiting to go. Oleg went first and we were all quite willing to follow him across the five miles of no man's land to the first wispy that we could get to.

Johann Posch and I stayed in this lift and climbed while Oleg and three rigids headed north and got low. With good lift we got to 4,200'.  We then flew over Oleg and the following rigids and climbed to 4,800'. Leaving at cloud base, my vario said we had the goal on glide from 20 miles out.

Oleg and Johann followed behind, but Johann with Campbell below him headed more to the right along the course line, while Oleg and I headed more to the left to go back over the spot I found the good lift that won the day yesterday. It was not there, but I stopped for light lift while Oleg went ahead and found a better thermal. Paul Tjaden, Russell Brown and I joined him and this looked like our last climb. Oleg went first followed in one turn by Paul and me one turn later. Russell took one more turn and followed.

We were  only nine miles out at 3,300' and it was a quick glide with a strong tail wind to goal. We all came in within a few seconds of each other. The task was over. Johann and Campbell came in a few minutes later. It was only a slight deviation in course that cost them these two minutes.

Soon after we landed the sky filled up with cumulus clouds and it looked like it might have been possible to go as far as Keystone, or it might have rained to our north.

Many flex wing pilots joined us at goal including Lauren Tjaden winning the sport class on her Wills Wing Sport 2. We didn't have a sport class competition at the Florida International until Lauren asked for it at the beginning of the meet. We were able to have three pilots decide to join that competition and David had no problem scoring it

The sport class became very competitive, as Lauren was in second place after the first two days. The leader was Jono Fisher who had landed  within the start circle and came back to relaunch at 5 PM. He didn't quite make it to goal, so Lauren won the day with enough points to win the meet.

Oleg won in the flex wing class every day by a large margin. No one other than the rigid wing pilots were able to compete with him. He used the rigid wings and they used him. Paul was told to follow Oleg and won the last day. Oleg is a reasonably aggressive pilot and quite willing to go out on his own out in front, and did so when he had a chance to do so. He had less chances with the rigid wings around, when the pilots were willing to use their performance to lead. Overall Oleg was third on the first two days, and only won the last day (overall).

On the last day Oleg could take it easy, but he didn't really. He took chances and went out front. On the last day I just had to cover Russell and Johann and not do anything stupid.

Rigids:

Place Name Glider Nation Total
1 STRAUB DavisAIR ATOS VRUSA 2395
2 BROWN RussellAIR ATOS VRUSA 2205
3 POSCH JohannAIR ATOS VRAUT 1867
4 TJADEN PaulAIR ATOS VXUSA 1653
5 BOWEN CampbellAIR ATOS VXUSA 1619
6 LARSON SteveFlight Design ExxatcyUSA 720

Flex:

Place Name Glider Nation Total
1 BONDARCHUK OlegAeros Combat - 13LUKR 2559
2 ANDERSSON HokanAeros Combat - 13LSWE 1907
3 BARRETT ScottAirborne ClimaxAUS 1867
4 ANDERSON AndersAeros Combat - 14LSWE 1731
5 LANNING TomMoyes Litespeed SUSA 1699
6 TURNER DerreckIcaro MRX 2001USA 1372
7 ANDERSON JohanWills Wing T2ZAF 1071
8 SALAMONE LindaMoyes LitespeedUSA 975
9 PRAHL JimMoyes Litespeed SUSA 948
10 NEIDEMAN MarkelAeros Combat - 13LSWE 894
11 FRUTIGAR MarkMoyes LitesportUSA 727
12 ISHIZAKA ShigetoLa Mouette ToplessJPN 432

Sport:

Place Name Glider Total
1 TJADEN LaurenWills Wing Sport 2 1086
2 FISHER JonoAirwave Concept 714
3 SCHMUCKER JosephWills Wing U2 228

The Florida Ridge is simply a great place to fly and to have a world class competition. South Central Florida is wide open and beautiful. The cu's are soft and fun to fly in. The landing areas are plentiful and green. The roads are straight. There is a great chance to set an east coast record. It is easy to stay up and keep going. Often there are plenty of clouds. I would love to see more and bigger competitions there.

The Florida Ridge people are very welcoming. There is a club involved also. James is putting more investment into the park, adding new facilities. On a windy day a group of pilots went to Fish Eater Creek (close by) and canoeing saw 40-50 alligators. It's wild down there.

Photo by Susan Walker