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Taking proper precautions at the Nationals

Sun, Apr 17 2022, 5:12:46 pm MDT

There is no need to spread COVID-19 around

Taking proper precautions

COVID|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2022

Pilots should take care to keep from getting infected and infecting others. Because this is a hang gliding competitions you will have ample opportunities to stay outside and away from others which will significantly reduce your chances of triggering a super spreader event. The recent Green Swamp Sport Klassic was a super spreader event because pilots and others did not act in a rational manner when confronting an ongoing pandemic with a new super infectious variant of the virus, B.A.2 (and sub variants).

It is so easy to keep yourself healthy with just a few behaviors.

  • Stay outside and away from people.
  • If you have to go indoors, wear a N95 or equivalent mask.
  • Get boosted with the latest round of vaccinations
  • Take a home-based test for COVID-19 if you feel ill.
  • If you test positive isolate yourself.

Could these practices not be more obvious?

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Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2022 »

Mon, Apr 11 2022, 12:17:35 pm MDT

Unofficial last day on Sunday?

Armand Acchione|COVID|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2022|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Wallaby Ranch|Wilotree Park

There were two days of early morning landing clinics and then on Sunday with light winds pilots flew with four or five making it to Wallaby Ranch. Pilots are flying on Monday with east-southeast winds 5-10 mph. Krys Grzyb is here from Chicago. Armand is here with his Swift from Toronto.

The Klassic was a super spreader event, the first time COVID-19 has shown up at Wilotree Park, with at least six cases, none requiring hospitalization. Sort of like the Gridiron dinner: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/67-attendees-test-positive-covid-high-profile-dc-dinner-rcna23763

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Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2022 »

Fri, Apr 8 2022, 6:36:53 pm MDT

Only two days of flying?

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2022|weather

We only flew on Sunday and Monday due to weather/rain/wind issues. Likely will not fly Saturday. On Sunday the flyable weather returns and it looks like a good week ahead.

Pilots had great learning opportunities to try to make up for the lack of flying.

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Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2022 »

Wed, Apr 6 2022, 7:52:12 pm MDT

Day 4

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2022|Jim Prahl|Wilotree Park

Here is the forecast for Wednesday:

Morning Soaring Forecast for Wednesday, April 6th, 2022 at Wilotree Park:

NWS, Today:

A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly between 2pm and 5pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 90°F. Southwest wind 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.

Hourly afternoon forecast: south west surface wind 16 mph gusting to 21-22 mph trending toward west-southwest, cloud cover 50% decreasing to 30%, 25% chance of rain after 2 PM

No front nearby (which means that launching to the southwest should be possible)

NAM 12 (this model and NAM 3 come the closest to the NWS surface temperature at 3 pm), 1 PM:

Surface wind: south-southwest 11 mph (15 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 560 fpm
TOL: 5,400'
CU: 3,100'
B/S: 4.4

NAM12, 4 PM:

Surface wind: west-southwest 15 mph (19 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 500 fpm
TOL: 4,300'
Cu: 3,300'
B/S: 3.1

Suggested Task:

Launch 1 PM

Quest 3 km
Midflo 1 km

41 km

Winds were reported by Jim Prahl to be 25 knots at 500'. The day was cancelled.

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Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2022 »

Tue, Apr 5 2022, 5:28:27 pm MDT

Day 3

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2022|weather|Wilotree Park

Here is the forecast for Tuesday:

Morning Soaring Forecast for Tuesday, April 5th, 2022 at Wilotree Park:

NWS, Today:

A slight chance of showers between 11am and 2pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 89. South-southwest wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Hourly afternoon forecast: south surface wind 14 mph gusting to 18 mph trending toward southwest, cloud cover 27% increasing to 37%, 30% chance of rain after 2 PM. No front nearby.

RAP (this model comes the closest to the NWS surface temperature at 1 pm, NAM 12 closest at 5 PM), 1 PM:

Surface wind: south 14 mph (22 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity:440 fpm (NAM 12: 660 fpm)
TOL: 3,300' (NAM 12: 4,100')
CU: 0' (NAM 12: 3,800')
B/S: 1.9 (NAM 12: 3.8)

RAP, 4 PM:

Surface wind: southwest 15 mph (23 mph 2,000') (NAM 12: 15 mph south-southwest, 20 at 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 500 fpm (NAM 12: 660 fpm)
TOL: 4,300' (NAM 12: 6,700')
Cu: 0' (NAM 12: 4,900')
B/S: 2.5 (NAM 12: 5.5)

Here is what it looked like at 2:30 PM:

Here at 6:06 PM:

Yes, there was rain northeast of Gainesville and Ocala with an approaching front in Georgia and the Florida panhandle at 5:10 through 6:05 PM with strong southwest winds.

Leesburg airport showed south 13 mph winds from 1 PM to 2 PM, which would have been our launch time. We were measuring earlier 10 mph gusting to 15 mph, south. It would have been possible to launch pilots and have them be reasonably safe, but this is a Sport Class mentored competition and the safety director was not willing to take that chance. A couple of mph less wind and it not trending south-southwest and all would have been fine.

Unfortunately, we expect even worse conditions for the next two days, at least.

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Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2022 »

Mon, Apr 4 2022, 8:58:59 pm MDT

Results

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2022

https://airtribune.com/2022-green-swamp-sport-klassic/results

Day 1:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Mike Pattishall Icaro Laminar 18.11 511.7
2 Willie Vaughn Moyes Gecko 155 18.07 510.8
3 Ephi Blanshey Wills Wing U2 145 15.74 456.2
4 David Pendzick Wills Wing U2 14.37 424.0
5 Javier Figueras Moyes Gecko 155 13.48 403.4
6 Charles Cassady Wills Wing Sport 2 155 12.97 389.3
7 Artiom Markelov Wills Wing Sport 3 155 12.94 388.4
8 Kate West Airwave Pulse 9 11.63 344.5
9 William "Goat" Modzelewski Wills Wing Sport 2 155 9.89 288.0
10 Carl Jacobsen Wills Wing Sport 3 Race 155 9.29 274.2

Day 2:

# Name Glider ES Distance Total
1 Mike Pattishall Icaro Laminar 15:38:08 38.79 1000.0
2 Monty Monta Avian Puma 38.53 787.0
3 Javier Figueras Moyes Gecko 155 37.59 773.9
4 Juan Orphee Wills Wing Sport 3 155 34.68 722.7
5 David Pendzick Wills Wing U2 27.94 586.3
6 Carolina Orphee Wills Wing Sport3 135 26.80 566.3
7 Willie Vaughn Moyes Gecko 155 26.80 566.2
8 Andrew Vanis Moyes Litespeed 4 24.70 517.0
9 Carl Jacobsen Wills Wing Sport 3 Race 155 18.27 357.0
10 William "Goat" Modzelewski Wills Wing Sport 2 155 11.44 248.4

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Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2022 »

Mon, Apr 4 2022, 8:23:30 pm MDT

Day 2

Artiom "Alex" Markelov|Belinda Boulter|Bobby Bailey|Flytec 6030|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2022|William "Goat" Modzelewski|Wilotree Park

Here is the forecast for Monday:

Morning Soaring Forecast for Monday, April 4th, 2022 at Wilotree Park:

NWS, Today:

Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 85. Light east wind becoming east-southeast 5 to 10 mph in the morning.

Hourly afternoon forecast: east surface wind 7 mph trending toward southeast, cloud cover 25% increasing to 40%, 18% chance of rain after 4 PM.

NAM 3 (this model comes the closest to the NWS surface temperature), 1 PM

Surface wind: East-southeast 11 mph (13 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity:640 fpm
TOL: 4,600'
CU: 0'
B/S: 5.4

NAM 3, 3 PM:

Surface wind: southeast 9 mph (10 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 700 fpm
TOL: 5,600'
Cu: 4,300'
B/S: 9.4

Stark disagreement in the models this morning. I'm guessing 1 PM launch time. Hoping to get to goal by 3 PM.

Suggested Task:

Quest 3 km
Panolk 400 m
39 km

The cu's weren't forming right over us, but they were to the south, so we pushed back the start to 1:30 PM. The mentors are staying in their same launch order and they are rotating the mentee teams through us, so I was first to launch again, just as the cu's got to us.

I've got William "Goat" Modzelewski and Artiom "Alex" Markelov (from Belarus) as mentees. Bobby Bailey was assigned to haul up the mentors, so he pulled me up straight to the south toward the flat looking cu that hadn't quite reached us. I got off at 2,000'. I then spent four minutes in zero lift, not a great sign to my mentees who were to be pulled up next to me. Unfortunately Goat broke a weak link. I think Alex got towed up and a bit later Goat somewhere near me.

After the first few minutes I lost altitude to where I didn't find lift until I was down to 900' AGL southwest of Wilotree Park and over the edge of the swamp west of highway 33. The thermal was tight and I climbed out at 124 fpm to 2,500' drifting at 9 mph to the northwest. Unfortunately my two mentees landed and had to launch again.

Another climb a bit further northwest got me to 3,900' and that made it so I could go back up wind to hook up with my mentees, but it was unclear to me who was who. I think Goat landed again and Alex was above me at 4,200', according to what I heard on the radio. It looked to me that I had hooked up with one mentee that I would be able to help and that Goat was on the ground and I wasn't sure it he was going to launch a fourth time as Belinda told me that he was out of his harness.

Alex, I think, climbed to 4,800' and said that he was heading west. I was at 4,500' and headed in that direction also. There was a nice cu just to our west. When I got to the cloud Alex, I think, said that his vario was dead (Flytec 6030, I think). He couldn't tell me his distance to the next turnpoint. That was the last I heard from him.

I searched around that cu to see if there was better lift but found nothing so losing 1,000' I then headed north. I wasn't finding anything over the nursery, nor over the ground cleared race track so headed west for highway 469 which would have provided a good retrieval and it has proven to be a good area for lift previously as well as sporting somewhat open fields.

Down to 1,000' I found almost 200 fpm and when I looked up there must have been half a dozen gliders over me. We all got high, 4,700' drifting to the north-northwest as the wind was now 10 mph predominantly from the south.

We all (or about all) hooked up again over the mines northwest of Center Hill. There was someone else's mentee just below me (I was at the top of the gaggle), so I decided that I would just stick with these guys and then show them the next lift.

At 4,300' I headed west to get to the next turnpoint at Cheryl (a north/south grass strip) and sure enough the blue glider followed. I wasn't that much help as I only found 80 fpm and then 40 fpm to 3,200' at 11.5 km from the goal. But the pilot was doing alright next to me.

I went on glide toward the next two good looking clouds but didn't hit anything so I just kept going getting lower and lower. The wind was 11 mph out of the south, so with an L/D required of 10.3:1 it looked like I could make it. I came across the 400 meter cylinder with 600' AGL and given all the fences there at the east west air strip and the north wind I headed for the field just to the north which was huge and parallel to the highway. I was the only one to choose that humongous field.

One pilot who landed just short of goal, not at the air strip, hit a fence and broke his arm.

I had a moment to talk with Goat and that only lead to further confusion on my part. I will speak with Alex tomorrow and see what happened to him.

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Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2022 »

Sun, Apr 3 2022, 8:35:58 pm MDT

Day 1

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2022|Wilotree Park|XC

Here is the forecast for Sunday:

Morning Soaring Forecast for Sunday, April 3rd, 2022 at Wilotree Park

NWS, Today:

Areas of dense fog before 9am. Otherwise, mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 81. Light north-northwest wind becoming north 5 to 10 mph in the morning.

Hourly afternoon forecast: North surface wind 7 mph, cloud cover 45% decreasing to 20%, No chance of rain

RAP, 1 PM:

Surface wind: North-northeast 7 mph (12 mph 2,000') (NAM 12: north 8 mph surface, 10 mph at 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 280 fpm (NAM 12: 560 fpm)
TOL: 1,500' (NAM 12: 3,300')
CU: 1,000' (NAM 12: 3,100')
B/S: 1.0 (NAM 12: 4.4)

RAP, 4 PM:

Surface wind: north-northeast 6 mph (9 mph 2,000') (NAM 12: 7 mph north-northeast, 7 mph at 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 360 fpm (NAM 12: 660 fpm)
TOL: 2,800' (NAM 12: 4,100')
Cu: 2,600' (NAM 12: 0')
B/S: 2.7 (NAM 12: 9.0)

My guess is a late day, launch maybe 3 PM, open distance task right down highway 33. Or goal at DS and 33.

There are really two forecasts here. NAM 12 has a surface temperature forecast that is 6° higher than the RAP forecast and much more in line with the NWS forecast for the daily high temperature. Given how poor things look with the RAP forecast we decide to see if the NAM 12 forecast is more likely to be the case.

Each mentor has two mentees. I had Juan and Carolina (a couple) for the first day. We were also assigned first to launch. I want the tug pilots to put the mentor and the mentees together but only Juan is brought over to where I am circling to the west of Wilotree Park. Since I'm the only glider in the air I don't know why the other tug pilot didn't do what they were supposed to do, so while Juan was deposited 500' over my head, Carolina had to fly over to us and came in 200' below me.

I was climbing in 99.9 fpm (on average) lift but we figured that the day would be weak so I was happy to hold onto anything. After climbing to 3,100' with Juan nearby, but Carolina lower I suggested that we head a little bit to the southwest where Larry had chased his one mentee (the other had left lift and gone back to relaunch, which surprised Larry). They were quite a bit lower but climbing well.

At 80 fpm we climbed to 3,400'. It was a lot of fun flying in these weak conditions and you just had to be patient. After hanging in zero for four minutes Larry headed out chasing his mentee to the southeast toward Erie Lake. I followed suggesting to Juan and Carolina that we should follow Larry in order to stay with other pilots which would give us the best chance to stay up in the blue conditions.

In front of and below us the mentee and Larry started turning so there was some lift on the west side of Erie Lake. For the next eight minutes I gained and lost 200' at 2,400'. This did not go well for Juan and Carolina who lost more altitude and were forced to land. If we had found better lift at first then they would have been able to get up and continue south toward goal at Dean Still and 33.

Finally Larry and I found 100 fpm a bit further south while Larry's mentee found even better lift further east and got up higher than we did. Larry should have flown over to join his mentee, and because he didn't he soon lost him. Turns out Larry was not able to actually communicate with any of his mentees.

I headed south-southwest toward some scraggly cu's that had started forming this late in the day (after all we didn't launch until 3 PM) while Larry went south-southeast trying to find his n=mentee. The cu's didn't work and I had to keep going south coming over a do not land field (where I had landed before) at 1,500'.

I found lift at 167 fpm on average and was soon joined by Larry and a sailplane. We were just northwest of the Seminole Glider port. We climbed just on top of the sailplane to 3,500' then followed it o the next cloud to the south-southeast climbing under that cu at 166 fpm (average) to 3,800'. Larry said he got to 4,000'. My Blade said that I had goal on glide.

Heading south we came back to highway 33, after being way west of it the whole time given the north-northeast wind. I found a spot where I had found lift a number of times before and Larry and I worked 86 fpm back to 3,200', which was more than enough to make it to Dean Still and 33.

I picked out a super big (1,000 acre) field that was especially long in the north/south direction and looked some what dry as all the fields around it looked completely soaked from the heavy rains yesterday. After we landed and walked our gliders to the fence line on Dean Still the land owners came up and were greatly excited to see us and had lots of questions. They stayed the whole time while we broke down.

Our driver, Sharon, was right there as we landed and had been following us on Live360 in a special group that we setup just for our truck. The landowners let her drive in through three gates that they opened up for us.

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2022 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

Fri, Oct 15 2021, 7:05:31 pm MDT

The Airtribune web site is up

Airtribune|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2022

Check out the great stories from the previous Green Swamp Sport Klassics. (Also, right here.)

https://airtribune.com/2022-green-swamp-sport-klassic/blog

Registration appears to be open now.

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Every Day Since the Competition Ended

May 5, 2021, 12:48:43 pm EDT

Every Day Since the Competition Ended

Maybe it will rain tomorrow

Wilotree Park Nationals 2021

This is what the sky has looked like every day since the Wilotree Park Nationals ended on April 25th:

The cu's started forming at 9:30 AM.

2021 Wilotree Park Nationals »

April 25, 2021, 10:14:20 pm EDT

2021 Wilotree Park Nationals

Task 4, the last day

Attila Plasch|Bobby Bailey|Butch Peachy|competition|Davis Straub|Derrick Turner|John Simon|Konrad Heilmann|Leonardo Ortiz|Moyes Litespeed RX|PG|Robin Hamilton|Tim Delaney|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo|Wilotree Park Nationals 2021|Zac Majors

The Replay: https://airtribune.com/play/5021/2d

It was a difficult day to end a meet that proved to have difficult days. The day started with a little bit of rain as a thin line of thunderstorms brushed by, then dark skies for a few hours which made the prospects of staying up seem remote, then after 2 PM the sky started to open up, the clouds went away and we had a blue day. The wind was out of the west but not nearly as strong as all the models as well as the National Weather Service predicted with not so strong gust factors either.

Yes, Derrick, Willy Dydo, and Alan Arcos took off and only Derrick was able to stay up for a good while before landing. The task committee then changed the task to an open window. Pilots were very reluctant to get going while there were start gates because they feared getting blown out of the 5 km start cylinder with weak lift and strong winds (those were forecast at least).

Pilots kept hesitating which is why we changed to task to make it so there would not be a penalty for leaving the start cylinder, but finally they started launching after 3:30 PM, and I was able to get pulled up by Bobby Bailey at 4:06 PM. It was the best tow I've every had from him as I insisted that he tow me straight up wind and do not do any turns. With the wind still seeming to be strong I wanted to get upwind as far as possible and he took me as far as Osborn field.

We had been in lift it seemed and I found 300 fpm right off tow. I was all alone and could not see any other pilots so I was completely happy to be turning at a radius that maximized my climb rate without having to look after other pilot's circling. That did not last long. Bruce immediately came over to me, just above me and JD just below so at least they were not a bother. Then Zac and Robin, but again Robin was below and Zac up with Bruce, but it was starting to get crowded. At least no one else was at my altitude. Bruce was 60 feet above me.

The wind was only 12 mph out of the west, so all the scary forecasts about 22 mph at 2,000' were not the case and I wondered why the pilots who had gone up earlier reported strong winds and kept us on the ground.

Alan Arcos, Derrick Turner and John Simon joined the thermal and things got very choppy. You can see the result of going in and out of the core on the SeeYou altitude graph. We quit going up for a few minutes then slowly climbed to 3,600'.

Following Zac we all headed southwest into a 17 mph west wind. We found it a bit to everyone else's east and nine pilots came together to bother each other in another weak thermal (100 fpm). I was only able to climb to 2,700' before JD and John Simon lead out and headed southwest again.

They found weak lift just west of highway 33 at 1,400' I came in at 700' and wasn't willing to stay under them for more than one turn not finding anything. There was a very inviting field to the north a little and I landed there followed soon by Alan Arcos and Butch Peachy.

After that it was only six pilots left in the air and slowly Robin, Zac and Bruce had them drop out below them. Zac and Robin were able to make it a total of 30 kilometers down the course line landing near the mines north of Wallaby Ranch.

https://airtribune.com/2021-wilotree-park-nationals/results

Task 4:

# Name Glider Distance (km) Total
1 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 29.76 112.8
2 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 29.66 112.6
3 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 25.89 100.7
4 Willy Dydo Wills Wing T3 136 15.92 77.4
5 Derreck Turner Moyes RX 4 14.24 72.3
6 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 13.86 71.2
7 JD Guillemette Moyes RX3.5 11.30 61.5
8 Mick Howard Moyes RX 3.5 9.40 53.8
9 Tavo Gutierrez Wills Wing T3 154 8.72 51.1
10 Alan Arcos Icaro Laminar 13.7 7.96 48.0
11 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 7.55 46.3

Finals:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 T 4 Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 661.2 781.1 864.1 112.6 2419
2 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 674.4 832.1 639.6 29.9 2176
3 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 310.2 805.3 916.8 112.8 2145
4 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 421.7 710.5 880.4 100.7 2113
5 Derreck Turner Moyes RX 4 633.1 856.0 439.9 72.3 2001
6 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 408.7 796.3 735.4 29.9 1970
7 Alan Arcos Icaro Laminar 13.7 379.3 750.8 720.6 48.0 1899
8 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 133.3 742.6 752.9 71.2 1700
9 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 220.0 814.5 629.6 0.0 1664
10 Konrad Heilmann Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 Technora 447.3 706.7 463.6 38.6 1656

Sport Class Final Results (they didn't fly on the last day):

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 T 4 Total
1 Leonardo Ortiz Moyes Litesport 4 308.3 673.5 514.7 0.0 1497
2 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 213.4 787.2 408.2 0.0 1409
3 Rick Warner Wills Wing Sport 2 155 102.7 635.2 567.7 0.0 1306
4 Jordan Stratton Moyes Gecko 155 133.8 748.1 368.9 0.0 1251
5 L.J. Omara Wills Wing Sport 3 155 151.0 726.4 353.8 0.0 1231
6 Attila Plasch WillsWing U2 209.2 852.9 161.0 0.0 1223
7 Bill Snyder Wills Wing U2 145 150.5 538.8 410.4 0.0 1100
8 Bill Monghaloe Bautek Fizz 0.0 742.2 350.7 0.0 1093
9 Kelly Myrkle Moyes Gecko 118.5 657.2 277.5 0.0 1053
10 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 147.3 504.4 380.5 0.0 1032

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2771828

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/25.4.2021/20:06

2021 Wilotree Park Nationals - Midair During Task 3 »

Sat, Apr 24 2021, 7:40:01 pm EDT

Pedro and Tyler collide while thermaling

CIVL|collision|Wilotree Park Nationals 2021

Below you will see frames of the period just before and at the time of the collision taken every two seconds from their track log files. You can make your own interpretation of who should have done what to avoid this incident. Tyler is the red glider (978) and Pedro the blue one (969). I have left the pictures at their original size as taken on my computer.

Be aware that at launch Pedro's instrument measured 140' and Tyler's measured 120' of elevation (GPS altitude). Therefore the altitudes displayed in these frames could easily be off from each other by 20' (or more) or not at all.

You can make your own interpretation of what you see here. Note the different climb rates between the two gliders. Both gliders were flying after the collision and both pilots followed the CIVL section 7 rule: "A competitor involved in a collision in the air must not continue the flight if the structural integrity of his glider is in doubt."

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2021 Wilotree Park Nationals »

April 24, 2021, 7:11:15 pm EDT

2021 Wilotree Park Nationals

We don't go that great up wind when it is windy

Dragonfly|Larry Bunner|PG|Wilotree Park Nationals 2021

Dragonfly|Larry Bunner|Naviter Blade|PG|Wilotree Park Nationals 2021

Replay of the task: https://airtribune.com/play/5020/2d

On Friday, after a delay to move the start box to the west side of the east/west runway we had the first start window at 3 PM. Launch went smoothly for the open class, but there were further delays for the Sport Class.

I had a galloping tow behind Mick Howard in his 582 2-cycle powered (under powered) Dragonfly and when the rope went completely slack at 1,600' and we both went sideways, him to the right, me to the left, I pulled the release, but the weaklink (200 lbs.) broke at the same time and the bridle went for an unexpected flight into a small pond. We had just been in 400 fpm so it was easy to turn around and start climbing.

Half a dozen pilots were soon at cloud base which was over 4,000'. There were plenty of cu's and they were all working and you just had to be careful about the 11 mph southeast wind and not let it blow you too far outside the 5 km start cylinder. I was able to start at 3:04 PM as I watched the count down on the Naviter Blade and listen to its messages about when to get to the edge of the start window. It seemed to know exactly when to go.

With a strong southeast wind we were racing over the ground at almost 50 mph. There were multiple cu's ahead so little worry about finding lift. The first turnpoint was downwind to Center Hill.

With everyone in the first thermal along the course line we were going up at 400 fpm on average to 4,900'. After touching the turnpoint at Center Hill we headed north toward the 15 km turnpoint cylinder around Dallas, a waypoint at the northwest corner of the Villages. The waypoint had been expanded to account for the delay at launch.

It was 12 km to the next thermal from the previous one with a 17:1 glide ratio. A 300 fpm climb rate and then the next thermal just northwest of the prisons and south of the Turnpike at 400+ fpm to 4,900' before heading for and tagging the Dallas turnpoint just on the south edge of the Villages.

Now we had to turn into the wind and things did not go as well. The lift miraculously got much weaker with a climb of 100 fpm and then a little less than 200 fpm over a lake on the north side of the Turnpike with a 13 mph east southeast wind. About a dozen pilots were all in the lead gaggle just north of the Turnpike.

I left the thermal at 3,800'. We were getting to almost 5,000' just a few minutes earlier. Now we weren't getting as high as we would like heading into the east southeast wind. The half dozen gliders above me headed a little more southerly as I headed right down the Turnpike trying to get upwind of the course line back to Wilotree Park. Zac was heading that way also as there were good looking clouds in that direction and a lot fewer clouds south of the Turnpike.

The back and forth had begun. I found 230 fpm 4 km to the east and climbed to 4,300', then went east again and climbed to 4,500' at 150fpm with Larry Bunner. Heading toward the better looking clouds north of the Turnpike I was able to gain a total of 8 km to the east and get upwind of the course line but I was now down to 2,700' and not finding anything.

I saw Larry turning back behind me and turned around to see if I could get up in that thermal. That cost me half the distance I had gained and I found only weak lift that I'm able to use to climb to 2,500'. Larry got to 4,000' and flew to the south southeast landing soon there after.

I hooked up with Maria Garcia in the light lift and after topping out we headed south east toward the east west road for a safe landing with good retrieval. Down to 900' AGL we found a little spot of lift and started turning in an extremely pleasant climb. We climbed at 80 fpm and then I noticed Tavo Gutierrez circling below us just south of the highway and went over to him to find almost 200 fpm. I climbed to 3,800' over the prisons losing 4 km.

Topping out I headed east down the highway toward highway 48 and along the Turnpike toward a good looking cloud but found a net pf no gain at 1,000'. I should have just kept going, but I turned around and landed in a friendly field to the west. The lift was negative on the upwind side of the cloud. Retrieval from the Turnpike was not as easy as from the surface roads, but it was possible.

Pilots were scattered about in this area except for Bruce, Zac and Robin who while also had to do back and forths were able to get further south and a lot closer to Wilotree Park.

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/23.4.2021/18:23

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2768418

Discuss "2021 Wilotree Park Nationals" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2021 Wilotree Park Nationals »

April 24, 2021, 9:16:41 EDT

2021 Wilotree Park Nationals

Results from Task 3

competition|Davis Straub|Gary Anderson|John Simon|Konrad Heilmann|Larry Bunner|Moyes Litespeed RX|Raul Guerra|Robin Hamilton|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Wilotree Park Nationals 2021|Zac Majors

Replay of the task: https://airtribune.com/play/5020/2d

Results: https://airtribune.com/2021-wilotree-park-nationals/results

Task 3:

# Name Glider Distance (km) Total
1 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 75.84 916.8
2 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 71.22 880.3
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 69.74 863.9
4 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 58.18 752.1
5 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T3 144 Team 57.76 744.5
6 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 56.55 734.5
7 Alan Arcos Icaro Laminar 13.7 55.36 719.6
8 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 54.59 706.8
9 Gary Anderson Wills Wing T3 144 53.99 697.3
10 Raul Guerra ICARO Laminar 14,1 52.77 674.1

Cumulative:

Name Glider Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 2306
2 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 2146
3 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 2032
4 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 2013
5 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 1940
6 Derreck Turner Moyes RX 4 1929
7 Alan Arcos Icaro Laminar 13.7 1851
8 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 1664
9 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 1629
10 Konrad Heilmann Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 Technora 1618

2021 Wilotree Park Nationals »

Thu, Apr 22 2021, 9:45:15 pm EDT

Results from Task 2

competition|Davis Straub|John Simon|Konrad Heilmann|Moyes Litespeed RX|Robin Hamilton|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo|Wilotree Park Nationals 2021|Zac Majors

The forecast for the day:

How is Thursday different from Wednesday?

The wind shifts from northwest to northeast.

Day starts off sunny.

Be aware of the lake effect where Lake Apopka suppresses the lift just to our east and over us.

Winds are lighter at 4 PM (about half the wind speeds on Wednesday).

There will be a high pressure centered on the Florida/Georgia border.

Six degree lower surface temperatures and lower high temperature for the day, 79 vs. 84.

NWS:

Thursday

Sunny, with a high near 80. Northeast wind 5 to 10 mph.

Hourly forecast for the afternoon: Northeast surface winds at 9 mph decreasing to 7 mph, cloud cover 7% dropping to 4% by 4 PM.

https://www.wunderground.com/maps/surface-analysis/24hr

Shows cold front in Miami at 2 PM tomorrow, clear skies to the north.

HRRR

1 PM:

Northeast surface wind at 1 PM: 9 mph, 2000' 11 mph

TOL at 1 PM: 3,300'

Updraft Velocity at 1 pm: 440 fpm

CB at 1 PM: 3,300'

B/S at 1 PM: 3.4

Cloud cover 7%

4 PM

Northeast surface wind at 4 PM: 7 mph, 2000' 9 mph

TOL at 4 PM: 3,800'

Updraft Velocity at 4 PM: 460 fpm

CB at 4 PM: 0'

B/S at 4 PM: 5.6

Cloud cover 9%

Skew-T:

1 PM:

TOL: 3,200'

Temperature: 56 degrees at TOL (73 on the surface)

https://airtribune.com/2021-wilotree-park-nationals/results

Task 2:

# Name Glider SS ES Time Speed (km/h) Total
1 Derreck Turner Moyes RX 4 15:15:00 16:38:39 01:23:39 32.2 856.0
2 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 15:15:00 16:40:26 01:25:26 31.5 832.1
3 Pedro L. garcia Wills Wing T3 144 15:15:00 16:42:06 01:27:06 30.9 814.5
4 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 15:15:00 16:42:13 01:27:13 30.9 805.3
5 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 15:15:00 16:42:43 01:27:43 30.7 796.3
6 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 15:30:00 16:51:20 01:21:20 33.1 783.8
7 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 15:15:00 16:44:19 01:29:19 30.2 781.1
8 Alan Arcos Icaro Laminar 13.7 15:15:00 16:47:53 01:32:53 29.0 750.8
9 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 15:15:00 16:48:09 01:33:09 28.9 742.6
10 Willy Dydo Wills Wing T3 136 15:15:00 16:50:43 01:35:43 28.1 718.8

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 1507
2 Derreck Turner Moyes RX 4 1489
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 1442
4 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 1205
5 Konrad Heilmann Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 Technora 1154
6 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 1132
7 Alan Arcos Icaro Laminar 13.7 1130
8 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 1116
9 Pedro L. garcia Wills Wing T3 144 1035
10 Austin Marshall Wills Wing T3 154 1012

Eleven Sport Class pilots made goal with Attila winning the day and he is first overall afater two tasks. See results at link above.

2021 Wilotree Park Nationals »

April 21, 2021, 9:35:24 pm EDT

2021 Wilotree Park Nationals

Results from Task 2

Butch Peachy|competition|Konrad Heilmann|Moyes Litespeed RX|Robin Hamilton|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Wilotree Park Nationals 2021|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2021-wilotree-park-nationals/results

Task 1:

Name Glider Time Distance (km) Total
1 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:17:35 73.84 674.4
2 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 02:18:00 73.84 661.2
3 Derreck Turner Moyes RX 4 02:34:19 73.84 633.1
4 Thaisio Feliz Moyes RX5 Technora 66.74 476.6
5 Konrad Heilmann Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 Technora 60.60 447.3
6 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 56.17 421.7
7 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T2C 52.49 408.7
8 Alan Arcos Icaro Laminar 13.7 55.57 379.3
9 Butch Peachy Moyes RX 3.5 49.54 328.6
10 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 40.43 310.2

2021 Wilotree Park Nationals »

April 21, 2021, 4:16:36 pm EDT

2021 Wilotree Park Nationals

Rain on day two, but blue on day three

Task 1:

Zac and Tyler way far in the lead.

Tyler and then Zac first and second for the day. All other pilots who are in the air are 40 km behind.

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2021 Wilotree Park Nationals »

April 19, 2021, 8:50:04 pm EDT

2021 Wilotree Park Nationals

Rain

It cleared up around 3 PM, but didn't show much prospects of lift then. We went for a bike ride, https://www.strava.com/activities/5156726742.

Good chance of rain on Tuesday then things clear up on Wednesday.

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2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 7 »

April 17, 2021, 5:54:36 pm EDT

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 7

Cancelled

The southwest wind was too strong. If the wind direction had been south, southeast, south southeast, west, east, northeast, northwest, or north, the speed would have been fine. The results at the end of day 6 are the final results.

Discuss "2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 7" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 6 »

April 16, 2021, 8:30:48 pm EDT

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 6

Results

competition|Davis Straub|Filippo Oppici|Konrad Heilmann|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|Phill Bloom|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results

# Id Name Glider Time Distance (km) Total
1 948 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 02:56:52 57.74 342.0
2 973 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:57:35 57.74 334.7
3 979 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T3 144 02:57:36 57.74 332.4
4 978 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:58:22 57.74 329.8
5 974 Konrad Heilmann Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 Technora 23.20 168.4
6 985 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 19.23 152.8
7 957 Willy Dydo Wills Wing T3 136 12.96 132.0
8 969 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 12.90 131.8
9 946 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat C 13.5 12.68 130.8
10 967 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.11 127.9

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 6 »

April 16, 2021, 7:43:02 pm EDT

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 6

Blue Sky|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|PG|Wallaby Ranch

You know, every now and then
I think you might like to hear something from us
Nice and easy but there's just one thing
You see, we never ever do nothing nice and easy
We always do it nice and rough

The forecast:

NWS:

Today

A slight chance of showers, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 8am. Partly sunny, with a high near 82. West wind around 5 mph. Chance of precipitation is 40%.

Hourly in the afternoon: 6 mph west wind at 1 pm increasing to 8 mph west northwest by 4 PM, cloud cover 64%. Hourly and daily forecast do not agree on high temperature with hourly displaying 78 degrees.

RAP

1 PM:

Southwest surface wind at 1 PM: 6 mph, 2000' 8 mph , 4,000' 14 mph

TOL at 1 PM: 5,100'

Updraft Velocity at 1 pm: 600 fpm

CB at 1 PM: 4,000'

B/S at 1 PM: 8.0

4 PM:

West southwest surface wind at 4 PM: 10 mph, 2,000' 14 mh, 4,000' 14 mph

TOL at 4 PM: 6,100'

Updraft Velocity at 4 PM: 620 fpm

CB at 4 PM: 5,100'

B/S at 4 PM: 7.0

This is what it looks like most of the day:

Every once in a while it will open up and there will be sunshine on the ground., Cu's form under the high level clouds and there are spots of rain here and there.

We've got a hell of a task:

Wilotree Park to Gore and then back to Wallaby Ranch.

There is some reluctance to launch given how dark the sky looks at times. They delay the launch by 40 minutes so it's not until 1:20 that pilots start launching. Kasey pulls me up at 1:40 above everyone else but two pilots at 2,100' (2,000' AGL). I'm right under those two pilots that are off by themselves and under a weak looking cu. Everything looks weak under the high level clouds.

I climb to 2,800' but fifteen minutes after I pinned off I'm back down to where I started. Despite unrelenting circling and joisting with one pilot after another, half an hour after I launched I'm down to 800' AGL at the south end of the field. I climb at 6.6 fpm until I find 160 fpm west of Wilotree Park and climb to 2,200'. I was previously very concerned about how all of us would land at the same time at the park, which it looked like we were going to do. There were many relights.

After a few different thermals and lift at around 130 fpm I'm able to climb to 3,200'. I'm only 2.5 kilometers from Wilotree, but hanging with four or five other pilots downwind to the east.

I follow the pilots I'm near to the southeast to where just outside the 5 km start cylinder they find 144 fpm and I join in. Pilots are landing every where behind us.

It is all dark and shaded to the south along our course line. We get to 2,900' and then the six of us head south into the darkness. For over 6 km we glide and it looks like we are going to land (as two pilots already did) just north of the mines. Down to 900' AGL I spot Zac below us just north of the mines and to our east when he begins to turn. We come over him and start turning in lift that averages 134 fpm. I'm on top of him for at least 5 minutes when I lose my focus for a second and suddenly I'm on the bottom and out of contact. I see the five pilots I was with climb up faster and get away from me.

I head southeast to get under where they have stopped for lift but it takes me nine minutes to get back up to 3,000' and I can no longer see the other pilots.

I'm just east of the mines but in an area where retrieval will not be easy unless I drop straight down. I've got to go south following where they went to get south of highway 474. I head for the best looking patch of cumulus cloud but there is no lift there. I'm down to 1,400' at 474.

South of this east west road there are very limited access possibilities for quite a ways. I feel that I need 3,000' to chance going out south of the highway. I can see to the south that there is blue sky and lots of cumulus clouds that look so much better than anything that we have been flying in., but they are too far away for a pilot who is as low as I am.

I search around near the highway but not finding any lift land in a field just to the north of the road.

The pilots I was with are able to make it to the cu's and then complete the task.

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/16.4.2021/17:40

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2763323

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2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 5 »

April 15, 2021, 7:55:32 pm EDT

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 5

Very windy and overcast

Bobby Bailey|competition|Davis Straub|Filippo Oppici|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Konrad Heilmann|Moyes Litespeed RX|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|PG|Raul Guerra|Robin Hamilton|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

Replay: https://airtribune.com/play/5009/2d

Forecast:

There is a large mass of clouds moving from west to east in the northern Gulf. We saw a bit of this on Wednesday in the morning before the clouds to the north and west disappeared.

NWS:

Thursday

Increasing clouds, with a high near 87. South wind 5 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph.

Hourly in the afternoon: 11 mph southwest wind at noon increasing to 15 mph by 5 PM and turning west, cloud cover going from 19% to 50% then 71% at 5 PM

HRRR

1 PM:

Southwest surface wind at 1 PM: 14 mph, 2000' 21 mph, 4000' 22 mph

TOL at 1 PM: 4,800'

Updraft Velocity at 1 pm: 500 fpm

CB at 1 PM: 4600'

B/S at 1 PM: 4.3

4 PM:

West southwest surface wind at 4 PM: 13 mph, 4,000' 21 mph

TOL at 4 PM: 3,900'

Updraft Velocity at 4 PM: 400 fpm

CB at 4 PM: 0'

B/S at 4 PM: 1.4

So we expect a windy and gusty day with the upper level clouds coming completely over us, but letting in filter sunlight. With the southwest direction we first look at a task to the northeast but conclude that with the high winds the safety factor finding landable areas would be very narrow. I propose a cross wind task to the north hoping that we will get lighter winds and it will be soarable.

Results: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results

Task 4: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results/task5009/day/open-class

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 JD Guillemette Moyes RX3.5 26.72 192.0
2 Raul Guerra Icaro Laminar 14.7 23.65 177.4
3 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T3 144 23.67 177.3
4 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 23.59 176.8
5 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 23.54 176.2
6 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat C 13.5 23.12 173.4
7 Konrad Heilmann Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 Technora 22.75 169.0
8 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 22.40 165.1
9 Austin Marshall Wills Wing T3 154 18.32 122.0
10 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 18.07 120.7

Cumulative: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results/task5009/comp/open-class

# Name Glider Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 2972
2 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T3 144 2936
3 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 2916
4 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat C 13.5 2845
5 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 2844
6 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 2599
6 Raul Guerra Icaro Laminar 14.7 2599
8 Kevin Carter Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 2541
9 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 2283
10 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 2220

There was no Sport Class task today given the high winds forecasted.

The winds at launch were within our pre assigned parameters (20 mph south and 10 mph west - so 15 mph southwest). The safety and meet director were monitoring the winds at launch and their criteria was 10 - 15 mph with no gusts over 5 mph. That's what they got.

The high level clouds from the north came near us but there were plenty of cu's underneath them. When I got pulled up after not choosing to go in the first round I pinned off in lift at 1,500' behind Bobby Bailey. I quickly climbed to 5,200' at 335 fpm despite all the upper level clouds. I was drifting at 12 mph out of the west southwest. I wanted to get to the west side of the 5 km start cylinder, which was not all that easy to do.

Heading west and then climbing back to 5,000' it was time to go to get the first start clock.

After the task opened we all raced to the northwest and found lift west of Groveland again back to 5,000'. I followed three pilots ahead and over me and found 350 fpm to 4,500' behind them and they had to come back to me.

As we went further north under the upper level clouds, but still toward cumulus clouds, the lift deteriorated. As we came over Grass Root airfield at a little less than 3,000' we spotted Zac Majors circling low on the north side. We climbed at 140 fpm to 3,300'. Zac headed off to the northwest low and we all lost track of him, except maybe Austin.

I'm only able to climb to 2,800' in the next thermal at 124 fpm. Others get higher. We are all being pushed to the east northeast and there is a small gaggle northeast of the Turnpike. I don't find any lift under them at 2,600' and head west toward the open fields on the south side of the Turnpike and near highway33. I note that the wind is 22 mph out of the west.

Making very slow progress against the head wind, down to 1,200', and not being able to make it to my preferred field to the west I turn east to be able to land near highway 27. There is a huge field there and I come in at 500' and stay prone and on the base tube all the way to the ground not wanting to get turned. My ground speed is less than 5 mph when I land in a nice soft field. It is very turbulent.

Kevin Carter measures 30 mph when he is coming in to land, hits 1,500 fpm low, and just keeps heading into the wind and landing. J.D. gets out ahead of everyone and wins the day.

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/15.4.2021/17:34

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2762660

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 4 »

April 14, 2021, 10:24:21 pm EDT

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 4

Task 3, more blue then a few cu's

Attila Plasch|competition|Filippo Oppici|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|Phill Bloom|Raul Guerra|Robin Hamilton|Tim Delaney|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo|Zac Majors

The forecast:

NWS:

Wednesday

Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, mostly sunny, with a high near 88. Light southeast wind becoming south southeast 5 to 10 mph in the morning.

Hourly in the afternoon: 7 mph south southeast wind , 38% decreasing to 23% cloud cover

RAP

1 PM:

South surface wind at 1 PM: 6 mph, 2000' 7 mph, 4000' south southeast 6 mph

TOL at 1 PM: 4,400'

Updraft Velocity at 1 pm: 580 fpm

CB at 1 PM: none (with south southeast there is almost always cu's)

B/S at 1 PM: 9.7

4 PM:

South surface wind at 4 PM: 6 mph, 6,000' 6 mph

TOL at 4 PM: 7,700'

Updraft Velocity at 4 PM: 720 fpm

CB at 4 PM: 7,500'

B/S at 4 PM: 10.0

The Task:

Quest 3 km
Turn33 3 km (Intersection of the Florida Turnpike and highway 33)
T33D 3 km (Intersection of Dean Still Road and highway 33)
Quest 400 m

Results for Open and Sport classes: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results

Task 3 Open: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results/task5007/day/open-class

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:24:22 991.2
2 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T3 144 02:24:24 981.9
3 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 02:24:32 973.1
4 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 02:25:03 963.5
5 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 02:25:27 958.0
6 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:26:24 931.8
7 Kevin Carter Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:27:05 920.9
8 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat C 13.5 02:30:02 900.3
9 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 02:30:47 898.2
10 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 02:39:58 838.2

Cumulative:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 928.2 980.4 898.2 2807
2 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T3 144 822.3 954.9 981.9 2759
3 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 806.6 941.6 991.2 2739
4 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 815.0 945.7 973.1 2734
5 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat C 13.5 779.4 991.7 900.3 2671
6 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 650.1 961.5 963.5 2575
7 Kevin Carter Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 655.4 865.4 920.9 2442
8 Raul Guerra Icaro Laminar 14.7 754.7 832.7 834.4 2422
9 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 634.3 580.8 958.0 2173
10 Willy Dydo Wills Wing T3 136 787.1 503.1 804.5 2095

Sport Cumulative:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 828.3 954.8 504.2 2287
2 Ken Millard Moyes Gecko 155 624.4 598.6 986.6 2210
3 Douglas Hale Moyes Gecko 328.3 581.1 772.6 1682
4 Ric Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 137.6 989.3 475.5 1602
5 Abishek Sethi Wills Wing U2 145 563.4 547.4 462.5 1573
6 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 624.4 533.6 411.9 1570
7 Attila Plasch WillsWing U2 285.5 479.2 704.7 1469
8 Soham Mehta Wills Wing U2 145 327.7 581.6 524.1 1433
9 Richard Sibley WW T2 144 450.6 361.3 350.6 1163
10 David Hayner Wills Wing Sport 3 155 247.0 438.6 475.1 1161

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 3 »

April 13, 2021, 10:16:54 pm EDT

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 3

Task 2, in the blue

competition|Filippo Oppici|Gary Anderson|John Simon|Kevin Carter|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|Raul Guerra|Robin Hamilton|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

Live and Replay Open task: https://airtribune.com/play/5004/2d

Results for Open and Sport classes:

https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results

Task 2 Open: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results/task5004/day/open-class

# Name Glider Time Distance (km) Total
1 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat C 13.5 02:55:37 90.70 991.7
2 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 02:56:25 90.70 980.4
3 Robin Hamilton Aeros Combat 13 02:56:36 90.70 961.5
4 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T3 144 02:56:48 90.70 954.9
5 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 02:56:55 90.70 945.7
6 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:56:58 90.70 941.6
7 Kevin Carter Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 03:15:26 90.70 865.4
8 Raul Guerra Icaro Laminar 14.7 03:22:46 90.70 832.7
9 Gary Anderson Wills Wing T3 144 85.53 591.0
10 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 82.16 586.8

A blue day with a north wind and a mixed forecast that made us unsure if we would have a lot of lift or just a little. Later the day turned out very well with climbs to 6,000' and sustained 500 fpm.

The Sky Wants Us to Return

Mon, Apr 12 2021, 11:10:54 pm EDT

The forecast was an utter failure

competition|Davis Straub|Filippo Oppici|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|PG|Phill Bloom|Tyler Borradaile|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo|Zac Majors

We were confronted with a forecast that said we were going to get to only 3,000' and have really light lift. None of that was true but it made life difficult for the task committee. None the less with Larry Bunner's guidance we called a great task that took advantage of the superb conditions and got most of us back to Wilotree Park.

Now we have to be concerned about why the forecast was so wrong and how to deal with the fact that the forecast for Tuesday is similar. Likely we'll just grab another forecast from our set of models and also go with whatever Skew-T brews up for us.

Given our great uncertainty about the forecast we called for an elapsed task with no leading or arrival points. We were concerned that it would be difficult for pilots to hang around for an hour in poor conditions. As it turned out there was no reason for that.

I was about the third pilot to get hauled up as a few pilots in front of me backed out and went to the end. Phill Bloom was first off and I was hauled up right under him. We climbed right to cloud base at 4,100' and then sampled nearby clouds wondering who would go first. Raul left early.

Larry and I left a gaggle of about half a dozen of the top pilots to go to the next cloud just outside the start cylinder and got up back to cloud base. When they came to join us in the lift we headed back and got a later start time by about three minutes. We then caught back up with them.

The task was a bit complex:

There were cu's around and we just hopped from cu to cu, which is why we didn't follow straight along the course lines:

There was plenty of lift under most of the cu's and at one point it averaged 500 fpm for 3,500'.

The results can be found here: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results/task5003/day/open-class

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 01:46:52 981.2
2 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat C 13.5 02:04:54 804.8
3 Willy Dydo Wills Wing T3 136 02:05:27 800.3
4 Pedro L. garcia Wills Wing T3 144 02:06:40 790.5
5 Filippo Oppici Wills Wing T3 144 02:06:47 789.6
6 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:06:48 789.4
7 Austin Marshall Wills Wing T3 154 02:08:55 772.6
8 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T3 144 02:11:43 750.8
9 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 02:13:13 739.2
10 Kevin Carter Tbd 02:15:57 718.5

Sport Class results here: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/results/task5002/day/sport-class

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/12.4.2021/17:08

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

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

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2761334

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/league/world/2021/brand:all,cat:2,class:all,xctype:all,club:all

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20210405&gliderclass=hg1

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 1 »

April 11, 2021, 12:17:08 pm EDT

2021 Paradise Airsports Nationals - day 1

We have crushed the drought

Belinda Boulter|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|video

It's hard to believe that it will only be from one to two inches of rain today (Sunday).

We have not had anything like this in the five months that Belinda and I have been here:

Those folks staying in tents will be most unhappy. Looks like a warm day tomorrow, sunny, with a north wind.

The Sandhill Cranes can eat and drink at the same time:

https://vimeo.com/535653182 by Randee Azzar.

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Pilot Entry Fee Goes Up March 10th

March 7, 2021, 8:08:17 EST

Pilot Entry Fee Goes Up March 10th

$100 per competition

Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021

https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/info/details__info

https://airtribune.com/2021-wilotree-park-nationals/info/details__info

Discuss "Pilot Entry Fee Goes Up March 10th" at the Oz Report forum   link»

A Near Cyber Death Experience

Wed, Mar 3 2021, 8:23:21 am EST

We almost lost it

COVID|Facebook|Oz Report|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|Wilotree Park|Wilotree Park Nationals 2021

You might have noticed that it's been a tough year for most of us. Hang gliding continued without many competitions which would have lead to gatherings which were either frowned upon or completely forbidden by the authorities. Here in Florida we continued life outside where it is is 19 times safer (https://bestlifeonline.com/coronavirus-indoors/). Due to travel restrictions we canceled the Sport Class, Rigid Wing and Women's Worlds as well as all the Nationals competitions. Same for Big Spring.

Now a year later we are planning for the 2021 Paradise Airsports and Wilotree Park Nationals in April to be run under COVID protocols with continued international travel restrictions: https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/info and https://airtribune.com/2021-wilotree-park-nationals/info.

During the year of crises mode we also decided to move to a new web server to reduce our costs. This transition has not been without numerous glitches as the Oz Report is a complex web site. For example, yesterday the host automatically updated PHP which caused all sorts of problems for Scare. Hopefully over time the situation will stabilize.

At one point we considered just going strictly on Facebook which would relieve us of all the web hosting issues (the high cost being the primary concern). We also were getting most of our content via Facebook posts, so it made sense to go to our Facebook version of the Oz Report.

This would mean that we would drop our email push of Oz Report issues. Also, those who find Facebook objectionable would no longer get to see our content. After a few disappointing experiments we decided to leave well enough alone. There is a Facebook version of the Oz Report and a stand-alone version. Sometimes content from the Facebook version comes over to the stand-alone version.

You can just go to the Oz Report on Facebook and ignore your news feed: https://www.facebook.com/ozreport

We don't know where things stand with our readers. We've decided not to publish every weekday unless there is news every weekday. Before it was publish or perish five days a week for 24 years. Now we are taking a bit more relaxed attitude and publishing when something interesting is happening, and hopefully with a new year and good changes to our pandemic situation coming, there will be more interesting things happening.

Thanks to all the Oz Report readers for their support over the years.

Discuss "A Near Cyber Death Experience" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

The Florida 2021 Spring Competitions

January 19, 2021, 9:09:03 pm EST

The Florida 2021 Spring Competitions

They are happening

Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021

https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/info/details__info

April 10th through the 17th.

Competition flying 11th through the 17th.

https://airtribune.com/2021-wilotree-park-nationals/info/details__info

April 18th through the 25th.

Competition flying April 19th through the 25th.

There will be plenty of social distancing and everything will take place outside.

Discuss "The Florida 2021 Spring Competitions" at the Oz Report forum   link»

The Florida Competitions in 2021

November 27, 2020, 10:35:06 EST

The Florida Competitions in 2021

The new meet organizer

Belinda Boulter|Ben Dunn|COVID|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2021|Risk Retention Group|USHPA|Wilotree Park

Stephan Mentler <team> writes:

To my fellow competition pilots, the Florida based hang gliding competitions - in April of next year - are moving forward pending official USHPA re-sanctioning.  This includes the Paradise Airports Nationals, Wilotree Park Nationals, and the 2nd FAI Sport Class World Championship.  The respective competition dates along with registration process is provided on the Airtribune sites.  

https://airtribune.com/2021-wilotree-park-nationals/info

https://airtribune.com/2021-sport-world-championships/info

https://airtribune.com/2021-paradise-airsports-nationals/info

The competition organization understands that there will remain many unknowns regarding COVID-19, even with the development and distribution of a vaccine.  Pilots who sign-up for a competition and submit payment will be entitled to a full refund of entry fees minus $3.00 (three dollars) or the foreign equivalent if they are unable to attend due to impacts of COVID-19.  This includes government-imposed travel restrictions, government-imposed restrictions on sporting events, surges in cases, pilot illness, pilot family member illness, etc.  The $3.00 (three dollars) is retained to pay for anticipated non-refundable Organizer competition expenses.
 
There are a couple of changes - other than the impacts of COVID-19 – from previous years of Florida hang gliding competitions.  The first and most impactful is the retirement of Davis and Belinda from official Organizing and Meet Directing duties.  As competition pilots, we owe them an enormous debt of gratitude for their personal sacrifice and doing what can be a thankless job.  Without their commitment to organizing the Spring Florida competitions from the Green Swamp Klassic to the Nationals series, I suspect that the Florida and Big Spring competitions would have died-out a long time ago.  Thankfully, they have volunteered to help the new organization team, as needed to get things going for next year.  
 
This gets us to our second change.  In my role as the primary Organizer for next year’s Florida competitions and also considering the long-term prospects for U.S. based race-to-goal competitions – I along with two other competition pilots founded a hang gliding competition specific non-profit organization - the Hang Glider Racing Association Corp (HGRAC), a registered Florida non-profit corporation.  This was done upon the advice of past and potentially future organizers and several attorneys.  
 
A little background - some of the requirements enacted by the Risk Retention Group (RRG), for a competition to be insured, transfers a substantial level of risk to competition organizers.  This includes the potential for the RRG to refuse coverage for incidents that would be beyond the control of the organizer.  Without the creation of a competition specific organization as an additional protection for organizers, it is unlikely that anyone would have stepped in to organize another hang gliding race-to-goal competition in the U.S.  To be fair, the RRG has been made aware of the concerns and their leadership is working to resolve them – but in the interim - the HGRAC will be the entity under which I along with one or two other potential hang gliding competition organizers will organize U.S. based race-to-goal hang gliding competitions.
 
The HGRAC is currently composed of a president and two Directors.  The two Directors are Ben Dunn and Cory Barnwell.  Ben is a former multi-year Open Class U.S. National Team member and Cory is an experienced Open and Sport Class competition pilot.  We will be looking to appoint additional Directors if and as the HGRAC evolves.   

The comp organization email address is <team>.

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2020 US Nationals Beginning to Fill Up

December 16, 2019, 7:53:24 EST

2020 US Nationals Beginning to Fill Up

Paradise Airports and Wilotree Nationals

US Nationals 2019|US Nationals 2020|Wilotree Park

We've already had 69 pilots sign up for the 2020 World Championships being held in April and that means it's going to be a successful competition with this number of pilots. We say the maximum that we can handle is 125, but we've never expected that many to show up. Pilots need to sign up by January 19th (you don't have to be on a National team to be in the Worlds) so the window is closing quickly on who are going to be coming to the Worlds.

https://airtribune.com/2020-world-championships/info/details__info

We're also putting on two Class 1 Open competitions in April at Wilotree Parks, one the week before the Worlds and one during it. (The Worlds are the combined Women's Worlds, Sport Class, Class 2 and Class 5 Worlds).

Once again last year these Spring open class competitions at Wilotree Park were very popular. Pilots love coming to fly in Florida in April enjoying the marvelous lifting thermals in pleasant air with mild temperatures, puffy little clouds, light winds and open fields. Pilots are signing up now for these competitions, despite the fact that they are not under the same tight time constraints that pilots who are signing up for the Worlds.

We are always under resource constraints (mainly the number of tugs that we can round up to get every one in the air), so it is always a good idea to register as early as possible and become confirmed as early as possible so that you can be assured that you are in the competition. There will be additional resource constraints during the Worlds for the Wilotree Nationals dictated by the fact they the Worlds ahs first claim on the resources and we can fit in open class pilots only after their needs are taken into account. The World's pilots launch first, for example.

At the moment, we can handle all six competitions and we'll see what the future holds. We hope to be able to accommodate open class pilots in both the Paradise Airsports Nationals and the Wilotree Nationals. For sure there is no issue with the Paradise Airsports. It is a bit iffier for the Wilotree Nationals, so you might want to sign up early to reserve your spot (need to be confirmed). We'll keep you informed.

https://airtribune.com/2020-paradise-airsports-nationals/info/details__info

https://airtribune.com/2020-wilotree-nationals/info/details__info

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

November 5, 2019, 8:16:32 PST

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

First 100 kilometer cross country flight

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|PG|record|USHPA

https://issuu.com/us_hang_gliding_paragliding/docs/ushpapilot1904_issu_68d23770c1b65a/52

On March 24, 2019 I flew my first 100-kilometer XC flight. It was a big day for me as a developing pilot, with personal records set and many lessons learned. Fortunately, none of the lessons were the kind that lead to unwanted landings in strange fields or send you to Urgent Care. It was a very good day.

I began entering competitions in 2018, starting In March with the Green Swamp Sport Klassic. The Green Swamp is a sport-class competition that matches intermediate pilots with mentors who coach them through a week of cross-country flying in a competition environment. As an Oregon Hang-3 pilot flying some fairly tricky local sites, I was at the frustrating cusp where I didn’t have the thermaling skills to get high enough and far enough to find more thermals and improve my thermaling and XC skills. The Green Swamp looked like the perfect crucible to move my game up a notch.

Green Swamp 2018 was great. I had my first out-landings (disregarding landing on the wrong beach in 2006). I flew 40 km on my best day. I never made goal. With the encouragement of other pilots and bolstered by great experiences, I proceeded to compete in sport-class competitions in Texas, Arizona, and Mexico. “Compete” is a strong word, as I never made goal and always finished in the bottom 25%. With my intermediate XC skills, I thought of myself as more of a “participant.”

March of 2019 found me back in Florida for my second Green Swamp. Not wanting to ship my glider across the country again, I purchased a new Moyes Gecko to fly and store in Florida. Saturday I took two short test flights on my new glider, which went very smoothly.

Discuss "2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Tue, Aug 20 2019, 6:16:31 am MDT

Personal bests

cart|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Mitch Shipley|US Nationals 2019

"Eduardo Fonseca" «fonseca414» writes:

Here is a quick summary of the comp after my last goal on task 3:

Task 4: Did not fly, too gusty for my comfort level
Task 5: Good tow, but didn’t get to leave the start cylinder
Task 6: Could have been a better tow, got just outside the start cylinder
Task 7: Great tow, great climbs, made goal.

Now, here are the details:

Task 4:
It was gusty, beyond my comfort level. I decided not to fly that day. Perhaps a good decision given that the treachery of the wind that day cause pilots to have two broken downtubes and a carbon speedbar. Most people didn’t make goal, and I feel I made the right decision.

Task 5:
Had the best tow to date. After so much mentoring and feedback I wanted to stick in the cart longer. As Mitch Shipley had mentioned, during Big Spring air pilots need to stick to the cart longer. There is the tendency to leave the cart once we are “lifted” by the prop wash, but there is not enough airspeed at that time to properly maneuver the glider. Thus, pilots need to ride out the prop wash, and then hold on to the hoses to the point that the keel of the glider lifts off the cart. So I did, and the takeoff was so much better. Mick had also given recommendation on how to move the body, relax the knees, and control the glider. This tow was so great thanks to being able to apply all the teachings we had received during the comp. During flight it was not easy to find lift and ended short of leaving the start cylinder. Great approach and landing, which seem to come more naturally now. However, I cannot let my guard down (stay tuned for task 7).

Task 6:
It is important to be consistent, which I did not fully apply on takeoff. After the prop wash I left too early, with just enough airspeed to leave the cart. However, I felt the harness graze the cart. Thus, not the best takeoff and need to stay in the cart even longer. The task was a 110 km flight, but just like the prior day, could not find good lift. This flight taught me the importance of always looking for a landing field, and how easy one can end up getting in trouble. Trying to find lift kept me moving towards a not-so-easy-to-land area and going to an open field was out of the question due to distance. There were two options, freak out or stay calm and deal with the situation. Thankfully, I have experience dealing with stressful and difficult situations that require quick action, so the same methodology from work was applied to the landing strategy. Given the wind direction and landing limitations, I was able to land the glider on a pipeline path that was in very similar direction as the wind. Good landing and not very difficult drive for the retrieval team.

Task 7:
Last day of the competition. 38 km NE downwind. I kept telling myself that just being able to fly is great. But how great it would be to make goal once again. We just have to wait and feel the air.

Another great tow, this time staying as long as I could on the cart. Plenty of speed for control and contingencies. Being towed by Mick, I just felt so confident staying in line and dealing with the bumpy air. Just a great tow.

Waved off in nice smooth lift. I was not sure if it just was weak lift or I lacked thermaling skills, but I could see Mynor from Guatemala just a few miles upwind going up like a rocket. I could try to fly that direction, or stay where I was. I decided to stay with my current little climb (at least I was going up). The only way I could even possibly make goal in my opinion was to capitalize on any lift I could find. Thus, I kept working the lift. I took the time to refine my thermaling skills. As I circled, I thought of the direction of the wind, the path of the glider, and how to adjust the turning radius upwind and downwind to make the climb as efficient as possible.

After 6500 ft MSL I did not look at the vario at all, I just managed the turns and listened to the beeps. After a while, I looked again and for the first time in my life I was above 10,000 ft. It didn’t really feel like it, but there I was. “I might have a chance,” I thought. I did not care if I arrived last, I just wanted to get there.

I got as high as 10,900 ft, and when I could not climb anymore, I set the VG full and went on course. Getting lower again at 6000 ft, I reduced speed and little VG in case another thermal showed up. And there it was.

Climbing once again, I prepared myself for the final stretch, taking note of distance to goal, required glide ratio (compared with current glide ratio), as well as time left on the task. It was 5:15 pm and the task would be stopped at 6:00 pm. Thus, it was time to leave the climb, set full VG, stretch my body and tuck my arms in to minimize pressure drag, and stuff the bar in.

After a couple of minutes, I was at goal. I got to goal at around 6000 ft. So happy to make goal once again.

I felt I could have gone for another 60 km, but the day had to end early due to clos9ng ceremonies. So it was time to land. Thankfully at 6000 ft there are so many options, and I picked a field in which two other pilots had landed (Pete and Max).

What’s funny about this moment for me is that as I tried to go down, lift was happening… where have you been all my life. So I stuffed the bar in, and eventually got low enough to make the final approach. Max and Pete gave me the wind direction. As I went down, I could see Max gesturing to add speed, and I was trying (he would later tell me to just keep a hand of the upright and another on the speedbar). Essentially, need to increase my airspeed, period.

Ground effect coming in, and then time to flare. There was more wind than what I had experienced the other days of the comp, so when time to flare came, up the glider went. Not so much, but it is one of those moments in which some people might think of pulling in, but instead I stretched my arms even more and waited for physics to happen. Landed on my feet, safe on the ground and with a great smile.

This was a great way to end an amazing week of hang gliding. I had dreamed of flying in Big Spring since the the Oz Report started talking about it back in 2002. Now, I have become a part of it.

As Mick has mentioned in prior occasions, the experience gained in competition flying substantially surpasses recreational flying. Not for the competitiveness, but for the learning potential. Here are some of my statistics to show you how valuable competitions can be for pilot development:

- Number of flights: 7
- Max altitude: 10,900 ft
- Max thermal climb: 5055 ft
- Number of tasks flown: 6 out of 7
- Number of tasks completed (reached goal): 2 out of 6
- Total flight time: 7 hours 14 minutes
- Longest flight: 2 hours 18 minutes
- Total distance: 131.6 km
- Max distance in a single flight: 41.8 km

Being in Big Spring has been a tremendous learning experience that far exceeded my expectations and made me a better pilot. Of course there is room for improvement, and I hope that the 2020 Big Spring comp is just as exciting and educational.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

August 19, 2019, 7:04:44 pm CDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

The podiums

competition|Facebook|photo|US Nationals 2019

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Open Class:

Sport Class:

2019 Big Spring Nationals

August 18, 2019, 6:39:56 pm CDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Seven days, seven tasks

Belinda Boulter|CIVL|competition|Davis Straub|dust devil|Erick Salgado|Facebook|Gary Anderson|Kevin Carter|Mike Degtoff|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo

The pilots made it clear that they wanted the awards ceremony and meal on Saturday night, the last day of the competition and not on Sunday morning at brunch. That meant we had to have a shorter task or a task that brought us back to Big Spring on Saturday. With a 12 mph forecasted southwest wind, that meant a small triangle for the open class and a short downwind task for the sport class.

Today's task and flight:

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Task 7:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Rodolfo Gotes MEX Wills Wing T3 144 01:58:23 764
2 Willy Dydo USA Wills Wing T2C 136 02:25:16 724
3 Nathan Wreyford USA Wills Wing T2C 144 02:10:32 666
4 Erick Salgado MEX Moyes RX 5 Pro 02:13:51 663
5 Davis Straub USA Wills Wing T3 144 02:18:10 649
6 Bruce Barmakian USA Aeros Combat 12.7 02:29:35 58

Final Results:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Rodolfo Gotes MEX Wills Wing T3 144 5301
2 Erick Salgado MEX Moyes RX 5 Pro 5200
3 Bruce Barmakian USA Aeros Combat 12.7 4690
4 Willy Dydo USA Wills Wing T2C 136 4258
5 Davis Straub USA Wills Wing T3 144 4068
6 Kevin Carter USA Wills Wing T3 3919
7 Vic Hare AUS Wills Wing T3 144 3889
8 Nathan Wreyford USA Wills Wing T2C 144 3705
9 Rich Reinauer USA Wills Wing T2C 144 2510
10 Gary Anderson USA Wills Wing T2C 144 2409

Sport Class:

Erick R. Lopez won the last task with Ric Caylor second and Anibal Lemus third. Eight pilots made goal with the winner there in 33 minutes (it was a short task).

Jose Sandoval only went eight kilometers, but that didn't stop him from winning overall. Four Guatemalans in the top five.

Swift Class:

Chris won the task again by three minutes and won the meet overall.

The sky was still blue at 1 PM. The temperatures here were about 10 degrees warmer than what we have experienced in the past (104 Vs. 95). The sky has been blue instead of full of cu's reliably appearing at 1 PM. We've also not had good lift conditions until around 2 PM. There has been at least a slight inversion at 1 PM this year.

Three pilots launched at about 1:15 PM and two stayed up but didn't get high. I launched right after we saw them thermaling, and climbed to 5,200' but no higher and then lost the thermal and landed as did Willie Dydo, one of the three The wind was seventeen mph out of the south.

After a new bottle of water I went again at about 2:20 PM and now the lift was there and sustained. I went right up after the Swifts and circled with them over the airport. I circled up to about 8,000' drifting just outside the start cylinder and then went back and tagged it for the fourth start time at 2:45 PM. I was averaging a little over 200 fpm.

I almost took the 2:30 PM clock but decided to stay near or inside the start cylinder by heading back upwind against the seventeen mph wind, to just get the fourth start clock. The Swifts went with me. About six minutes later Erick and Bruce left the start cylinder late, but I was basically on my own. Rudy would take the 3 PM clock.

Five kilometers out I found almost 500 fpm to 8,300' which told me that the day was truly on. There were no cu's in the vicinity though. This can also be a sign that you'd better be careful if you think that all the lift is going to be this good.

That thermal got me to the turnpoint at a little over 7,000' Turning to the southwest, my tail wind turned into a cross head wind of ten mph. I flew almost six kilometers before I found lift down at 4,200'.

I was low and the lift was weak at 220 fpm and I could only climb to 5,800' losing distance all along drifting to the north. I pushed to the south directly into the wind getting south of the course line before once again starting from 4,200' I climbed at 300 fpm to 7,900' but north and east (downwind of the course line and back up the course line) so I had to cover the same ground again.

Heading southwest then south passing under the first cu's, which when they did not have any lift that, I continued to another cu to the south where I found 150 fpm and was heading backwards once again. I moved east a kilometer from 5,400' and worked slightly better lift until I was seeing 1000 fpm on the twenty second averager. I climbed at 400 fpm on average to 9,700'.

There was a large area of uncultivated flat lands to my southwest and toward the second turnpoint. The wind was between eleven and eighteen mph out of the south. A cu formed over me as I climbed and there were now scattered cu's out in front. I was high enough to get over the less friendly area and flew thirteen kilometers to get to the next lift three kilometers from the turnpoint. As I flew toward the turnpoint, I kept seeing wisps of cu's forming to my southwest but they disappeared before I could get to them.

When I found that thermal it took me to 8,000' at over 400 fpm. It was easy to get the turnpoint despite the 13 mph south wind.

Turning east south east twenty two kilometers from goal it looked like there were cu's ahead. Then I spotted Eric and Rudy turning and flew the four kilometers past the turnpoint to them getting down to 4,500'.

The lift was very strong, sometimes at 700 fpm and averaged 540 fpm. Though Erick and Rudy started out about 3,000' over my head I quickly gain most of that altitude up to them flying in the same thermal which was much stronger down below them. I climbed to 9,500' which gave me a 10:1 glide ratio to goal. Rudy and Erick took off about 500' above me and I went with them.

There was a ten mph cross wind going to goal. At first I was all going well and I wasn't losing much altitude, then things changed and I was losing consistently 800 fpm. My required glide was down to 7.5:1 but I was getting 6.5:1. I stopped for a dust devil and a cu above it at seven kilometers out to be sure that I had enough altitude to make it. I came in five minutes behind Rudy and Erick.

It was an incredible competition with great conditions, just what we expect from Big Spring. We held it a week later than normal, and they had rain after four months of no rain. Next year we go back to the first week of August. The only reason we held it when we did was because we wanted to have two weeks between the Worlds and our meet. That was a useless gesture which we won't ever repeat.

The task and safety committees performed brilliantly and made the competitions with their great calls. Mitch was the best CIVL meet steward we have ever experienced, by far. Belinda was a fantastic meet director and very much in charge and worked well with Mitch. Kate Griffin was a fantastic scorekeeper and tracker wrangler. She is very experienced now (Brett Janaway keeps updating the procedures so it is a task just to know what is going on.) Thor was a very calming presence as the launch director and Mike Degtoff was a great second in command at the launch. The tug pilots, Mick, Bobby, and Jim were spot on and their little cooperative of tug pilots is working great.

Thanks so much for all the help from the Big Spring Community. We could not pull this off without their tremendous support - water and free ice cream included. Thanks to all the sponsors for their prizes.

Photo by Mike Degtoff.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

August 16, 2019, 10:58:53 pm CDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Another incredible call from the Safety Committee

Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|Erick Salgado|Gary Anderson|Kevin Carter|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Tom McGowan|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo

Today's task and flight:

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Big Spring to Lamesa to Town, 145 kilometers.

Task 6:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Erick Salgado MEX Moyes RX 5 Pro 02:31:00 776
2 Rodolfo Gotes MEX Wills Wing T3 144 02:25:57 765
3 Kevin Carter USA Wills Wing T3 02:33:31 684
4 Davis Straub USA Wills Wing T3 144 02:34:23 671
5 Vic Hare AUS Wills Wing T3 144 02:38:30 642
6 Willy Dydo USA Wills Wing T2C 136 02:39:37 625

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Erick Salgado MEX Moyes RX 5 Pro 4537
1 Rodolfo Gotes MEX Wills Wing T3 144 4537
3 Bruce Barmakian USA Aeros Combat 12.7 4103
4 Vic Hare AUS Wills Wing T3 144 3609
5 Kevin Carter USA Wills Wing T3 144 3542
6 Willy Dydo USA Wills Wing T2C 136 3534
7 Davis Straub USA Wills Wing T3 144 3419
8 Nathan Wreyford USA Wills Wing T2C 144 3039
9 Rich Reinauer USA Wills Wing T2C 144 2225
10 Gary Anderson USA Wills Wing T2C 144 2191

Open class:

The open class task was stopped at 5:46 PM and scored stopped at 5:31 PM. Seven pilots had already made goal. (Tom McGowan also made goal right after me but was scored incorrectly.)

Sport class:

Stopped at 5:40 PM and scored at 5:25 PM, Jose Sandoval was in the lead when the task was stopped. No one made goal. There was over-development to the west which got close to or came over the course line.

Swift Class:

Chris Zimmerman won the day.

With a forecast for strong lift, cu's, cloud base at 13,500' and 10-13 mph southwest winds we called cross wind tasks to the north. But when we launched at 1 PM it was not happening at all and almost everyone landed and went for a reflight.

When I relaunched at about 2 PM things were much different and I climbed up to 8,500'. I've been adding more layers each day after only two layers on Wednesday (which was very comfortable) with four moderate layers today with the forecast for 37 degrees at 13,500' cloud base later in the day. I don't recall us ever getting that high here before.

There were plenty of cu's after 2 PM as there had been none at 1 PM. I took the last start clock at 2:30 PM, which was the popular start time as almost everyone had to launch late for the second time.

I headed for a fat cu to the north northwest fourteen kilometers and found little lift there. It was all blue ahead so I wanted to get up from 2,200' AGL and I left 160 fpm at 6,000' heading into the blue after a disappointing climb.

Of course, there was good lift right out in the blue and I found 300 fpm to 7,900' and then 400 fpm to 8,900'. It wasn't 13,500' but it was getting up there. The wind had started out at 10 mph out of the south southeast and was now 10 mph out of the south.

I had enough altitude to find the next bit of reasonable lift at twenty two kilometers to the north northwest. I was heading for the ten kilometer cylinder around Lamesa. I headed for an isolated small cu over the canyon area that looked like it was feeding off the gullies. The sink increased dramatically as I approached the spot that I thought looked like the origin of the thermal, and that assured me that there was a good thermal there. I took 250 fpm to 7,200' from 4,500'.

With more cu's ahead I was able to climb to 8,200' at 430 fpm just before the turnpoint cylinder edge. I pushed to the west to get the cylinder and get myself lined up for a cloud street to the north. The wind was averaging thirteen mph out of the south southeast.

The cloud street was working and I was able to climb at 300 fpm and then 330 fpm and then flying straight and climbing to 9,200'. I still had not climbed high and felt the icy cold winds. Speaking of winds, the winds were now eighteen mph out of the south southwest.

For the first time I noticed the over-development and shading from the west. There was rain about fifteen miles away. I wanted to go fast to get north of the rain if possible.

Twenty seven kilometers north of the turnpoint at Lamesa I found a strong thermal at 7,600' It averaged over 500 fpm and I took it to 12,400'. It was cool up there. I was forty three kilometers from goal and had goal at 14:1 with a seventeen mph tail wind. I went on final glide.

During the final glide it showed I had about 2,300' above best glide. That value changed very little no matter how fast I flew nor how much sink or lift I encountered. I was racing the storm to the west which was producing more rain but wasn't effecting goal as yet. Mitch Shipley was at goal and he was saying it was level 1. Tom McGowan and I on the Safety Committee were flying near each other and agreed.

As I got within five kilometers of goal I no longer was losing any altitude even with the bar stuffed.

When I go to goal it was shaded as was the last five kilometers and I found nothing but lift. I had to fly to the east five kilometers to finally find some sink and get down. I assume that it was being affected by the over-development to the west.

The over-development affected the Sport Class goal much more strongly as it built to the south of our goal. Their task was stopped a few minutes earlier than ours was.

The task committee had originally set a task to Levelland to the west of the Town goal. That would have put us right through the over-development. The safety committee moved the task based on the forecast.

So far three days in a row affected by thunderstorms. The task and safety committees have been brilliant in task calling, keeping us safe but with fun tasks. The conditions here have been excellent as well as exciting. All the pilots are enjoying themselves immensely. It was great getting so high today. It was great flying the last forty three kilometers in less than half an hour.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

August 15, 2019, 7:46:27 pm CDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Setting the best task that the weather forecast allows

Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|dust devil|Erick Salgado|Flytec 6030|Gary Anderson|Kevin Carter|Roger Irby|US Nationals 2019|weather|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo

Today's task and flight:

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Task 5:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 01:55:47 960
2 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 01:55:57 882
3 Erick Salgado Moyes RX 5 Pro 02:13:02 841
4 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 02:00:22 821
5 Willy Dydo Wills Wing T2C 136 02:08:10 746
6 Nathan Wreyford Wills Wing T2C 144 02:24:56 667
7 Rich Reinauer Wills Wing T2C 144 02:47:42 589
8 Vic Hare Wills Wing T3 144 02:34:51 559
9 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 144 02:37:59 544
10 Gary Anderson Wills Wing T2C 144 02:44:33 533

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 3904
2 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 3772
3 Erick Salgado Moyes RX 5 Pro 3761
4 Vic Hare Wills Wing T3 144 2967
5 Willy Dydo Wills Wing T2C 136 2909
6 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 2858
7 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 2748
8 Nathan Wreyford Wills Wing T2C 144 2617
9 Roger Irby Wills Wing T2C 154 2041
10 Gary Anderson Wills Wing T2C 144 1882

Sport Class:

Five pilots made it back to Big Spring with Peter Wall winning the day. Jose Sandoval is in the lead over all.

Swift Class:

They made a task to the south. Chris Zimmerman won the day and leads overall.

The weather forecast was for over development in all directions after 4 PM. So we decided on short tasks with early starts.

There were cu's to the west and east of the airport very early and there were too many cu's to the north with cu-nimbs to the west and north at Lamesa which almost stopped the task at 12:30PM (we launched at 12:15). Mitch was on the radio to the safety committee and we said level 2 and 2.5. We were south of the airfield and in good conditions climbing to 7,400', so we said it was level 1 where we were. We were just concerned about the conditions to the north.

As we were six or seven kilometers from the top of the five kilometer start cylinder I flew up to the north at four minutes before the first start time but found weak lift down to 4,500'. I hung in it with a couple of other pilots trying just to stay up.

We stayed in the poor lift for almost half an hour until, just before the last (third) start time, the lift we were in finally turned on and we were able to climb up to 6,000' before going on glide and finding a good thermal to 7.400', nine kilometers to the north. There were no cu's near us.

The winds were light which is why we called a triangle task for the open class and an out and return task for the sport class. The towering cu's to the north dissipated and there was plenty of sun shine on the ground. It no longer was a level 2.

I was leading out in front of the other two pilots which seemed easy to do. We found 200 - 300 fpm average climbs and hooked up with Rudy for a few climbs south the the first turnpoint. The lift was improving as the day went on. We had taken the last clock at 1:45 PM.

I found a nice dust devil just before the first turnpoint where I had seen Rudy turning a bit earlier under a cu and I climbed to 7,700'. There was a much bigger dusty to the east by the second turnpoint which Rudy got into. Before I got to that dust devil I found a thermal under a small cu that averaged 425 fpm so I took it to almost 9,000'.

As I headed south on my own I could see the over development further to the west. The rest of the sky was inviting. I found a forming cu out in the blue and climbed at 380 fpm average to 9,300'. The 6030 said I had goal but it was 12:1 to get there from twenty five kilometers out so I didn't exactly believe that.

The outflow from the top of the over development was partially shading the ground between me and goal. I could see a nice little cu about half way to goal, but off the course line a couple of kilometers. I felt that there was a good chance of finding lift just going down the course line in spite of the partially shaded ground.

At thirteen kilometers from goal I found 440 fpm and took it to 7,500' with an 8:1 required glide.

I came into goal with 600' AGL and landed. The wind was light out of the west toward the over development.

The over development continued to grow and come toward us but all the pilots who made goal made it in with incident. It was just shaded and there were no thunderstorms near us.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

August 14, 2019, 9:21:51 pm MDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

East northeast wind with low top of lift

competition|Davis Straub|Erick Salgado|Gary Anderson|Kevin Carter|Roger Irby|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo

Today's task and flight:

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Task 4:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 03:26:40 118.09 534
2 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 03:52:45 118.09 458
3 Erick Salgado Moyes RX 5 Pro 03:57:58 118.09 418
4 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144   44.46 235
5 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3   29.02 188
6 Willy Dydo Wills Wing T2C 136   15.77 132

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Erick Salgado Moyes RX 5 Pro 2860
2 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 2844
3 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 2816
4 Vic Hare Wills Wing T3 144 2421
5 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 2297
6 Willy Dydo Wills Wing T2C 136 2153
7 Nathan Wreyford Wills Wing T2C 144 1963
8 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 1904
9 Roger Irby Wills Wing T2C 154 1749
10 Gary Anderson Wills Wing T2C 144 1362

Sport Class:

Jose Sandoval Sandoval was the only one to make goal at 48T. He continues to lead the sport class.

Swift Class:

Didn't fly.

The forecast was for an east northeast wind, lighter than the previous day. With a huge downpour and flash flooding around Big Spring on Tuesday night we figured the lift around the airport to be very poor. That proved to be the case.

The wind was sixteen mph northeast just south west of the airport so that made things even worse. Our task was to the west northwest given the forecast for lighter and east northeast winds.

I was circling with Bruce and Kevin as we climbed at 170 fpm. That thermal got us to the edge of the start cylinder just in time for the first clock at 3 PM. We joined up with Roger Irby and Rudy Gotes and climbed to 6,800' just outside the start cylinder.

After a short weak climb we headed north northwest to try to get on the upwind side of some shallow lakes. Roger Irby landed and Bruce and Kevin thermaled downwind of the lakes. I pushed further up wind and found better lift at 345 fpm and after a while they came and joined me. We lost track of Rudy.

We climbed back to 6,800' and headed again to the north northwest cross wind in order to go toward the turnpoint at 48T. We stayed above 5,600' climbing to almost 6,000' and hooked up with Rudy. I was able to find lift by pushing up wind to the northeast when after I felt any lift.

The lift gave out for a while and down to 800' I found lift near a very strong gas flare. Rudy came back to join me and Kevin landed. Bruce was behind us and climbing. We were only able to get to 5,600'.

There were now little cu's popping along our cross wind course line so we could fly to them. I found the next thermal and Rudy joined me but it was only 100 fpm. We had lost Bruce who was high and behind us. We only climbed to 5,700'.

Rudy stayed back as I raced to get under the next thin cu, but got low and had to work it back up to 5,300'. The lift was broken up near the top so I went for a cu just forming up wind of us. It didn't work and I soon landed.

Rudy and Bruce were able to make it around to goal with Erick coming later.

I should have been more conservative and not tried to chase cu's. The lift down low was broken and ratty.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

August 13, 2019, 11:54:10 pm CDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Dealing with the forecast for no lift later to the south

Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|dust devil|Erick Salgado|Gary Anderson|Greg Chastain|Kevin Carter|Roger Irby|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo

Today's task and flight:

Today's forecast for lift at 5 PM:

The task committee set a task with a eighteen kilometer radius around the airfield at Rankin so that we didn't have to go over a territory full of pump jacks (oil wells) to get to the airfield. It also helped that it kept us away from the likely over development.

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Task 3:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 01:41:50 874
2 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 02:05:34 777
3 Vic Hare Wills Wing T3 144 02:05:22 776
4 Erick Salgado Moyes RX 5 Pro 02:07:18 742
5 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 144 02:03:44 631
6 Rich Reinauer Wills Wing T2C 144 02:11:01 628
7 Roger Irby Wills Wing T2C 154 02:23:03 624
8 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 02:32:55 566
9 Gary Anderson Wills Wing T2C 144 02:36:34 544
10 David Proctor Wills Wing T2C 154 02:40:47 481

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Erick Salgado Moyes RX 5 Pro 2442
2 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 2358
3 Vic Hare Wills Wing T3 144 2335
4 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 2310
5 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 2109
6 Willy Dydo Wills Wing T2C 136 2021
7 Nathan Wreyford Wills Wing T2C 144 1877
8 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 1669
9 Roger Irby Wills Wing T2C 154 1663
10 Gary Anderson Wills Wing T2C 144 1276

Sport Class:

Six pilots in goal with Jose Sandoval winning the day. Jose is now back in first place overall.

Swift Class:

Greg Chastain landed short and now Chris Zimmerman is in first place after making it back to the airport.

With an unusual north northeast wind at launch we launched from the south part of the taxi way. There were no cu's around at first at 1:30 PM. There was good lift just southwest of the airport and I was able to get to 7,400' with half a dozen other pilots. When that lift ran out twenty three minutes before the start window opened I headed back toward the airport and then north to a cu when I didn't see anyone climbing near the airport.

The cu quickly disappeared and I chased a remnant of a dust devil further west to hook up with what remained of it after it disappeared also. That set me up alone north of the course line at a little less than 7,000' for the 2:30 PM start.

To the south the area of forecasted zero lift was already filling up with cu's. There were a few wispies along our course line. The forecast said that we wouldn't get too high, maybe to 8,000'.

I found a couple of good climbs but twenty kilometers out from the edge of the twelve kilometer start cylinder I was down to about 1,000' AGL. I was able to work 250 fpm back to over 6,000'.

There had started to be a few scattered good looking cu's about so it was easier to find the lift. Lots of cu's starting and disappearing quickly.

I kept an eye on the vast area to the south where the thick cu's were forming. They were far enough away that I couldn't see their shadows. They did not look dangerous. There seemed to be a limit on how high they went.

I found a nice set of cu's and was able to climb to 9,200' under the dark bottoms. They were still pretty small. I continued to stay northwest of the course line.

The wind changed from lighter northeast to stronger east northeast. This pushed me further to the west of the course line. I also was following the cu's which were more to the west of the line.

There was a mix of possible landing areas and lots of areas with not such great landing opportunities below. I had already been low so I didn't want to do that again.

Twenty kilometers out from the goal cylinder I chased after some little forming cu's and when those didn't work I flew to the area where I had seen a dust devil when I was a few kilometers to the north. Down to 900' AGL I found that there was good lift under some forming cu's that got me back to 6,000' which was enough to get over a large patch of unlandable area and to goal over a super big cultivated field.

I landed with the areas in shade further to the south but plenty of sunshine where I was. It looks like the task committee called a good task given the conditions.

The thunderstorm did hit Big Spring around 8:30 PM with flash flooding.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

August 12, 2019, 11:37:18 pm CDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Air sick

Bobby Bailey|Tom McGowan|US Nationals 2019

We take a bit later launch than originally planned as the pilot meeting drags on a bit so the launch is at 1:30 PM (half an hour before Sunday) and the start window at 2:30 PM. After all the relights on Sunday pilots are a bit reluctant to go right away, but we see the first few sticking so the open class pilots are all off in half an hour.

The cu's do start late with a few at 1:30 but more at 2 PM. Bobby Bailey tows me up and before we get to the end of the taxi way to the south he's bank up and I hang on as best I can. I  go around with him twice and then pin off at 1,700' AGL. I work that thermal with lots of pilots coming over to join me to over 10,000'.

It's still a few minutes before the start window so we mush around in light sink before heading out at 2:30 PM at about 9,400'. The wind is averaging 7 mph out of the south west. Our turnpoint is to the northeast. There is a big turnpoint radius around Fish at eighteen kilometers and then the course goes north to Jayton airfield.

About eight of us start off together high and head up the highway toward Snyder to the east north east. The optimized course line will take us right over town and right over the sport class goal. We climb to 10,600' nineteen kilometers from the edge of the start cylinder at almost 600 fpm.

After that I struggle with weak lift and not getting high for the next fifty kilometers as the wind turns from southwest to south at 16 - 18 mph.. Down to 5,000' I get too hot (too much clothing) and get nauseous. I check to see if it is heat stroke or air sickness, but I'm still sweating so it's air sickness. I keep flying as it is not overwhelming as it has been two other times.

I climb to 9,400' just before Snyder over the airfield that is the sport class goal. East of Snyder the land mass changes from open fields to canyon lands. I have to go cross wind to get to the turnpoint eighteen kilometers from Fish. I find another thermal twenty two kilometers out from Snyder at 400 fpm to 8,500' but then it all gets worse as I continue to fight with the air sickness.

I'm six kilometers north of the optimized course line and  work my way south southeast to get back toward the optimized waypoint on the eighteen kilometer radius turnpoint. I'm soon down to 2,000' AGL working weak lift and drifting to the north away from the optimized turnpoint. I go back south and back up the course line to try again and it doesn't get  any better. I'm over the canyon lands low with a few landing options that present difficult retrieves.

I was three kilometers from the turnpoint but low and not willing to go cross wind across unlandable area to go further east to get the cylinder. Taking lift I climb to over 6,000', still relatively low but now six kilometers from the turnpoint and it's upwind. All the lift I find under the fast moving cu's is weak.

I push again upwind to get under the best looking cu and there is nothing there. I'm drifting away from the turnpoint. There is no reason to continue and I'm ready to land as I feel pretty ill.

I land near a paved road and fortunately I can contact Tom McGowan who has landed near Snyder and is in the retrieve vehicle not far away. I curl up on the ground under my glider not having moved it since I landed and go to sleep. I can't stand up. Tom and Dave Proctor break down the glider for me as I rest in the air conditioned truck.

The field is full of stickers and our shoes are covered with them.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

August 12, 2019, 10:51:26 pm CDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Down and cross wind almost 100 miles

Chris Zimmerman|competition|Davis Straub|Erick Salgado|Gary Anderson|Greg Chastain|Kevin Carter|Roger Irby|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Task 2:

  Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Erick Salgado MEX Moyes RX 5 Pro 02:39:00 974
2 Nathan Wreyford USA Wills Wing T2C 144 02:38:26 935
3 Rodolfo Gotes MEX Wills Wing T3 144 02:44:49 917
4 Willy Dydo USA Wills Wing T2C 136 02:44:17 901
5 Vic Hare AUS Wills Wing T3 144 03:00:00 783
6 Bruce Barmakian USA Aeros Combat 12.7 03:00:11 779
7 Kevin Carter USA Wills Wing T3 144 03:36:29 599

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Willy Dydo USA Wills Wing T2C 136 1824
2 Erick Salgado MEX Moyes RX 5 Pro 1700
3 Rodolfo Gotes MEX Wills Wing T3 144 1581
4 Vic Hare AUS Wills Wing T3 144 1559
5 Nathan Wreyford USA Wills Wing T2C 144 1525
6 Kevin Carter USA Wills Wing T3 1478
7 Bruce Barmakian USA Aeros Combat 12.7 1436
8 Davis Straub USA Wills Wing T3 144 1103
9 Roger Irby USA Wills Wing T2C 154 1039
10 Gary Anderson USA Wills Wing T2C 144 732

Sport Class:

Twelve out of fourteen made goal at 75.6 km with Max Conde winning the day.

Max Conde is in the lead overall with Jose Sandoval in second. Two Guatemalans.

Swift Class:

Chris Zimmerman and Greg Chastain. They are doing out and return tasks as they don't have a driver.

Greg has won both days.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Mon, Aug 12 2019, 6:23:37 am MDT

Sport Class to La Mesa

competition|US Nationals 2019

Four out of fourteen pilots made it in Sport Class seventy kilometers to the goal at the La Mesa airfield.

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

Jose Sandoval, Ric Caylor, Max Conde, and John Irlbeck.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

August 12, 2019, 6:19:07 MDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

We glide on up to Brownfield

Blue Sky|competition|Davis Straub|dust devil|Erick Salgado|Kevin Carter|Roger Irby|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Willy Dydo

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/results/task4325/day/open-class

Task 1:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Willy Dydo Wills Wing T2C 136 02:33:51 921
2 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 02:26:25 877
3 Vic Hare Wills Wing T3 144 02:35:14 772
4 Erick Salgado Moyes RX 5 Pro 02:56:44 721
5 Roger Irby Wills Wing T2C 154 02:49:29 682
6 Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 03:03:35 662
7 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 03:07:10 659
8 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 03:08:43 651
9 Nathan Wreyford Wills Wing T2C 144 03:09:12 583

14 to 18 mph south southeast wind. A few cu's. The dry line was clearly visible to the west. Top of lift/cloudbase around 11,000'. A 2 PM launch and 3 PM start to get the better part of the day.

Mick Howard towed me three kilometers south toward the nearest cu due south of the taxi way. The area to the west of launch has proven to be a poor area for lift so I was happy to avoid it. The cu's had been popping since about 1:30 PM (half an hour before launch) on our east side, but we are restricted from going there because it crosses the main runway.

After I pinned off it was a continuous climb from about 4,000' (1,700' AGL) to almost 9,000' drifting seven kilometers to the north northwest in a 15 mph south southeast wind. The start cylinder had a six kilometer radius so given that Mick had towed me way to the south I had no issues staying inside it for the second start time.

North of the airport the cu's were mostly off to the east of the course line about ten kilometers and the first turnpoint was at the La Mesa airfield to the north northwest. While it was all blue ahead I headed in the direction of the turnpoint about five kilometers east of the optimized course line. The start cylinder is centered on a point five kilometers west of the Big Spring airport.

Despite the blue sky there was lift where there were no cu's. I even took a thermal over a gas flare of which there are many (not like years ago north of Big Spring). I was able to hook up with a sweet dust devil north of Ackerly averaging 460 fpm and called Dave Proctor over to join me.

There were towering cu's off to the west quite far aways, but just little wisps along our route. There were some haze domes north of La Mesa which marked 400 fpm lift and I could see ahead a large area of green cotton fields that indicated weaker lift.

I had to search around just south of the cotton fields to find 270 fpm. Bruce, Erick, and Dave came in under me as we all had the idea to get high here before venturing out into the less promising area. I couldn't get any one to go so I headed off by myself (which had been ture for all the flight so far) and it was thirteen kilometers before I found 200 fpm at less than 2,000' AGL (the land elevation was rising).

Kevin and Erick came in under me and we climbed back to 8,000' (5,000' AGL). Kevin had taken the clock after me and Erick the one before me. I couldn't get Kevin to leave so again I headed out on my own as we drifted close to the turnpoint at T-Bar.

There were cu's to the northwest which I had decided to go to before the turnpoint. It was all blue and cross wind to the goal to the west northwest at Brownfield airfield.

I misjudged the distance to the cu's and that took me north and downwind of the course line. Then, when I got to the cu's, they didn't work so I had to go hunting for lift in the blue anyway. I ended up twelve kilometers downwind of the course line working lift to get as high as possible to give me a chance to beat back upwind.

I worked to over 9,600' at 280 fpm and headed southwest knowing that it would take a bit more lift to make it in. Fortunately it was there eight kilometers out and I was able to make it in with plenty of altitude despite the 18 mph head wind.

Kevin went into the blue after the T-bar turnpoint and found lift along the course line going into goal. Willy Dydo took the first clock and grabbed all the extra points getting to goal twenty three minutes before Kevin.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

August 10, 2019, 11:00:10 pm CDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

The Welcome Dinner

Gary Osoba|US Nationals 2019

Photo by Gary Osoba.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

August 5, 2019, 5:13:50 pm MDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

It begins this weekend

US Nationals 2019

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/blog

https://www.livetrack360.com/livetracking/

https://lt.flymaster.net/

Get ready for following the 2019 Big Spring Nationals.

We'll put up the link to Flymaster Live Tracking this weekend when we set things up.

2019 Big Spring Nationals is on

Tue, Jul 2 2019, 6:57:01 am MDT

We've got enough pilots to keep the loses under control

Belinda Boulter|CIVL|US Nationals 2019

The tee-shirts are going to be donated. Belinda has come up with trophies. The CIVL costs will not be as high as we thought. We still will suffer substantial losses.

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/pilots

We look forward to having a great competition in Big Spring.

2019 Big Spring Nationals

June 20, 2019, 10:22:39 MDT

2019 Big Spring Nationals

Get confirmed by July 1st

Gregg "Kim" Ludwig|US Nationals 2019|Wilotree Park

I wrote to pilots:

We are very much looking forward to the Big Spring Nationals in August. We trust that you are also. It’s great that this year it will also be the test competition for the 2020 Pan-American Championships.

As you know we have to bring everything to Big Spring to run a championship. This includes the Dragonflies from Wilotree Park. Gregg Ludwig will already have his trike in Texas, even though he now lives in Florida.

As you can no doubt see from the aerotow fee, this is an expensive proposition and we need to know well in advance of the competition how many pilots are coming this year. As we have informed almost all of you previously, your status in the pilot registration needs to be marked “confirmed” in order for you to reserve a spot in the competition. The number of pilots with “confirmed” status will determine the number of tugs that we will have at Big Spring.

For example, if we have 50 “confirmed” pilots we will have a total of 5 tugs at Big Spring. We currently have 53 pilots registered and 13 “confirmed” pilots. You can see the pilot list here: https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/pilots.

The number of spots reserved on July 1st will determine how many tugs we will have at Big Spring. If we have only 13 pilots “confirmed,” as is the case now, Gregg might be the only tug pilot there.

So to make this competition a success we need your cooperation. If you are coming to the 2019 Big Spring Nationals you need to take the steps necessary to become “confirmed.” They are as follows, and as found here: https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/info/details__info:

1) Pay $250 entry fee here: http://ozreport.com/2019BigSpringpay.php

2) Sign waivers and medical information form: http://ozreport.com/onlinewaivers.php or: http://ozreport.com/waivers.php

Pilots not confirmed by July 1st will be so noted and only if there are spots available will they be allowed to enter the competition. Again, the number of spots available will be determined by the number of tugs that we have available at Big Spring and therefore by the number of pilots “confirmed” on July 1st..

If you are registered, but not coming to Big Spring we would very much appreciate hearing from you also so that we can delete your entry from the pilot list. In this case please email Davis at <davis> saying that you won’t be coming.

If everything goes to hell in a hand basket (i.e. the meet is canceled), you will receive a 100% refund.

Again, looking forward to having a great time as always in Big Spring. Hope to see you there.

2019 Nationals - week 1 long task

Mon, May 13 2019, 7:24:37 am MDT

Replay is now working.

US Nationals 2019

https://airtribune.com/play/3982/2d

https://OzReport.com/23.94#0

The cloud street is to the left (west) of the course line. Andrew Hollidge has found a wisp along the course line marking lift and keeping him on track to make the last turnpoint.

Carter and Gotes also stay along the course line and get high enough to make it into goal.

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-1/blog__day_5

2019 Big Spring Nationals and pre-Pan-Americans

Fri, May 3 2019, 8:04:56 am EDT

Get ready for the big fat air

Pre-Pan-Americans 2019|US Nationals 2019

https://airtribune.com/2019-big-spring-nationals/info/details__info

This is a unique opportunity. This is the test event for the first Pan-American Championships (Class 1 open class). We are looking for pilots from Central and South American to join us and get a taste of that Big Spring air.

2019 Nationals

April 30, 2019, 9:38:36 EDT

2019 Nationals

Some of those who came to help run the competition

Facebook|US Nationals 2019

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 28, 2019, 3:25:20 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

Results for day 7, task 6

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davis Straub|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Phill Bloom|Raul Guerra|Tim Delaney|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-2/results

Task 6:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 03:00:56 993
2 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 03:00:36 989
3 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 03:01:12 987
4 Nene Rotor Wills Wing T3 144 03:01:13 985
5 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 03:02:08 971
6 Akira Nagusa Wills Wing T23144 03:01:58 970
7 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 03:02:28 969
8 Corinna Schwiegershausen Moyes RX 3 Pro 03:04:59 945
9 Giovani Tagliari Wills Wing T2C 154 03:05:28 943
10 Raul Guerra Aeros Combat C 12.7 03:47:06 758

Final:

# Name Glider Total
1 Nene Rotor Wills Wing T3 144 5614
2 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 5426
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 5266
4 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 5153
5 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 5005
6 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 4827
7 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 4635
8 Akira Nagusa Wills Wing T23144 4620
9 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 4430
10 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 4242
11 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 3956
12 Corinna Schwiegershausen Moyes RX 3 Pro 3911
13 Guilherme Sandoli WillsWing T2C 136 3875
14 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T3 144 3770
15 Raul Guerra Aeros Combat C 12.7 3747

Sport Task 6:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Knut Ryerson Aeros Discus C 48.36 900
2 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 44.29 847
3 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 42.30 813
4 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 26.41 528
5 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 22.35 475
6 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 19.75 431
7 Attila Plasch Moyes Litesport 4 16.77 369
8 Danilo Lohse De Stefani Wills Wing U2 160 5.00 116
8 Phil Siscoe Wills Wing U2 5.00 116
8 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 5.00 116

Final:

# Name Glider Total
1 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 4531
2 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 4217
3 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 3462
4 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 3063
5 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 2987
6 Knut Ryerson Aeros Discus C 2716
7 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 2226
8 Ken Millard Moyes Gecko 155 1541
9 Danilo Lohse De Stefani Wills Wing U2 160 1490
10 Attila Plasch Moyes Litesport 4 1287
11 Phil Siscoe Wills Wing U2 625

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 28, 2019, 3:23:51 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

The last day

Jeff Chipman|PG|US Nationals 2019|weather|Wilotree Park

The forecast:

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Saturday

Sunny, with a high near 85. North wind 5 to 10 mph becoming east in the afternoon.
Surface winds 8 mph decreasing to 5 mph east northeast.

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 600 fpm
TOL: 5,000’
Wind TOUL: 8 mph, east northeast
B/S: 9.8
Surface winds 5 mph east northeast
Cu’s unlikely.

The task:

No Leg Dist. Id Radius
1 0.0 km QUEST 400 m
2 SS 4.6 km QUEST 5000 m
3 35.1 km GROSS 3000 m
4 53.4 km CENTER 400 m
5 68.1 km CENTER 15000 m
6 82.7 km CENTER 400 m
7 ES 101.9 km QUEST 400 m

A 15 kilometer exit circle around Center Hill.

The flight on-line: https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/27.4.2019/17:30

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

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2257915

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190428&gliderclass=hg1

The narrative:

The idea is that we would fly west to get away from the lake effect with the northeast wind to the 3 km turnpoint around the Gross airfield. Then back east to Center Hill against the east wind. There is a 15 km exit cylinder around Center Hill so you have to get anywhere outside it to get this next waypoint, then back to Center Hill before heading back to Wilotree Park.

Again pilots were reluctant to launch until they saw a few pilots in the air, and some of the pilots did launch in their original order. When the launch organizer when around again calling upon us to launch, we all launched in our order.

The lift was indeed suppressed by the lake effect and I didn't find anything at first. Then I drifted down wind to the Mickey Mouse lake and with the help of the "locals" skimming over the lake, I found 200 fpm that took me to over 4,300'. And then after every one joined me we went over and found another thermal to 4,300', but this was 8 minutes before the start window opened and with a 7 mph east southeast wind.

Unfortunately I lost a bunch of altitude when this thermal gave out and was down to 2,800' at the start which put me in a bit of a deficit. Others had managed to stay near 4,000'.

Managed to find 200 fpm over Mascotte and was soon back to 4,200'. I could see the lead gaggle ahead and we found reasonable lift going west toward the Gross airfield, at one point averaging over 300 fpm, and getting to over 4,000' so even though I was behind things looked good.

Three kilometers from the Gross turnpoint I came over the lead gaggle. I found the better lift and they all came in under me. I was back in the game.

As I was on top I lead out to the turnpoint, but instead of heading to the east north east headed back toward where we were previously climbing. This turned out to be an error as the guys that were below me were now above me climbing up over a small fire that was now to my north. I quickly got over there but now I was on the bottom instead of on the top. It took a while to center the smoke thermal from 1,800' but I was finally in the 300 fpm core to 3,900'.

South of Bushnell I climbed to 3,800' but only at a little over 200 fpm. I hadn't caught up with the lead guys yet. I saw a few pilots further north higher and turning but didn't go to them thinking that I would find lift to the east toward Center Hill That was my second mistake.

The lift along the east/west highway going to Center Hill was very weak. The first three thermals: 140 fpm, then 50 fpm, then minus 22 fpm. Leaving the last non-lift at 1,600' I thought for sure that we were going down. At 600' AGL as I looked at fields to the north for landing opportunities as we were over intensively farmed nurseries, we found 225 fpm that took us to 3,800' drifting back at 5 mph.

This made it possible to find lift to 3,100' at 284 fpm just before Center Hill. I headed northeast and found 100 fpm then 180 fpm over a very small fire which got me to 3,600' over the forested area on its southeast corner. A kilometer further north Jeff Chipman and I had the help of two bald eagles as we climbed to 4,300' at 250 fpm.

I went further north past the Florida Turnpike to get past the edge of the 15 kilometer exit cylinder. The wind was 5 mph due east. Coming back from outside the cylinder around Center Hill I started at 2,400'.

Down to 1,700' I found 240 fpm just east of the prison. As I drifted over the prison I climbed to 3,900'. I hoped that they didn't think that I was going to drop anything.

Heading south directly across the center of the forest I found a couple of thermals to get me to the south side, north of Center Hill. There I found 190 fpm to 3,900' at 5:49 PM. After that it was a 12:1 glide for 11 kilometers into a 6 mph head wind to one of the most beautiful and friendly landing fields near us, but 4 kilometers short of the chicken coops where I hoped to get back up.

Raul would land at goal about 5 minutes after as the last one to make goal.

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 26, 2019, 10:14:14 EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

Rain day, winds later

US Nationals 2019

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 25, 2019, 11:07:51 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

We don't go down wind

Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|PG|US Nationals 2019|weather

The forecast:

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Thursday

Mostly sunny, with a high near 88. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph in the morning.
Surface wind 5 mph, southeast

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 680 fpm
TOL: 6,000’
Wind TOUL: 10 mph, south southwest
B/S: 10
Surface winds 3 mph south southeast
A good chance of cu’s.

The task:

No Leg Dist. Id Radius
1 0.0 km QUEST 400 m
2 SS 4.6 km QUEST 5000 m
3 10.7 km GATORS 400 m
4 31.7 km BARON 4000 m
5 47.5 km PANOLK 3000 m
6 63.4 km KOKEE 3000 m
7 ES 91.5 km QUEST 400 m

The flight on-line: https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/25.4.2019/17:27

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

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2255949

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190426&gliderclass=hg1

The narrative:

There are no cu's in the nearby area so the first pilots (including me at number 3) naturally decline to launch and go to the end of the queue. About half the pilots do this, so we quickly start the second round. We find plenty of lift and climb out slowly while drifting to the north toward the first turnpoint at Gator field.

Our drift in the 12 mph south wind and climb rate (weak) are perfectly timed so that we reach the edge of the start cylinder at our highest altitude (4,500') just as the window opens for the first start at 2PM. Jonny and Jon Simon start with us, but go back later. Kevin Dutt is with us. Nine pilots take the first clock.

Gator field is a short distance away so we quickly get there then head northwest up the Florida Turnpike. I get south of the Turnpike to get to the wispy cu's and climb out at over 200 fpm to 4,800'. I saw Kevin, Patrick and Konstantin higher and in front of me further down wind to the north (the wind is now 13 mph out of the south), but I feel that I can catch them by getting to the cu's and climbing faster.

I keep finding good lift under the cu's along the turnpike and sure enough I run into those pilots ahead of me at the turnpoint at Baron and we climb out fast to cloudbase at 5,800'. We let Chippy and Kevin go out in front.

I wanted to get as high as possible because the next leg looks difficult. It's a straight cross wind leg. It's unclear where we are going to find the lift despite the presence of cu's. Sure enough I get down to 1,900' before I find a little something west of the prisons.

Patrick goes a bit further west and finds better lift. I come over him and climb out to 4,300' while he loses the lift for a while. He fortunately comes back down wind to find it again but I leave him low by the turnpike. The 7 mph wind out of the south southwest pushes us way to the north.

The pilots who took the second clock have almost caught up with us and they are further upwind having found lift near the prisons, which we did not find.

It's an up and back struggle to take the next turnpoint at the grass air strip southwest of Lake Panasofkee and to get away from it to head south southwest to the turnpoint at Kokee. There are plenty of cu's ahead and as soon as I get away from the lake I find strong lift, at one point averaging almost 500 fpm to 5,000'.

That height gets me to 2,500' 3 kilometers north northeast of he turnpoint. I circle there a few times with Jonny in negative 110 and then leave as I can't figure out why we are doing this. I head for the turnpoint while Glen turns back upwind to get up at Bushnell.

I get lucky. Down to 1,100' AGL I tag the turnpoint and then find a thermal which at 250 fpm takes me to 4,400'. This puts me ahead of all the nearby pilots. I head out with Larry Bunner, who took the second clock, nearby.

After an 8 kilometer glide and down to 2,100' I decide to turn back to get under a better looking cu. Larry comes in under me. I climb to 3,800' at almost 200 fpm with Larry right below me. Five or six pilots who were just behind us come in under us as we climb up.

We lead out and find three more thermals for the following pilots, being their guiding lights ahead. The last one just south of the nursery on highway 50 takes me to 3,600'with a 9.5 kilometer glide to goal. With a 4 mph cross wind it is an easy final glide as I lead them all into goal.

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 25, 2019, 10:20:58 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

Preliminary Results for day 5, task 5 (Kevin Dutt not scored yet)

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davis Straub|Glen Volk|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Phill Bloom|Raul Guerra|Tim Delaney|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-2/results

Task 5:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 02:28:56 987
2 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 02:29:51 968
3 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 02:30:59 953
4 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 02:43:59 845
5 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 02:44:41 839
6 Akira Nagusa Wills Wing T23144 02:51:41 798
7 Raul Guerra Aeros Combat C 12.7 03:09:40 709
8 Corinna Schwiegershausen Moyes RX 3 Pro 03:21:44 647
9 Wolfgang Siess Wills Wing T3 154 03:23:50 641
10 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T2C144 03:20:34 636
11 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 03:39:55 631

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 4634
2 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 4445
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 4283
4 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 4121
5 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 4042
6 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 3978
7 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 3861
8 Akira Nagusa Wills Wing T23144 3655
9 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 3641
10 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 3631
11 Guilherme Sandoli WillsWing T2C 136 3415
12 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 3393
13 Glen Volk Moyes RX 3.5 3364
14 Philippe Michaud Wills Wing T2C 144 3236
15 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T3 144 3227

Sport task:

Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 02:23:18 51.30 1000
2 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 31.46 615
3 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 28.50 584
4 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 26.15 552
5 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 24.28 522
6 Knut Ryerson Aeros Discus C 19.19 422
7 Attila Plasch Moyes Litesport 4 17.67 388
8 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 17.38 381
9 Danilo Lohse De Stefani Wills Wing U2 160 7.53 155
10 Phil Siscoe Wills Wing U2 5.00 105
10 Ken Millard Moyes Gecko 155 5.00 105

Sport cumulative:

Name Glider Total
1 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 3718
2 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 3689
3 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 2987
4 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 2632
5 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 2140
6 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 2110
7 Knut Ryerson Aeros Discus C 1816
8 Ken Millard Moyes Gecko 155 1541
9 Danilo Lohse De Stefani Wills Wing U2 160 1374
10 Attila Plasch Moyes Litesport 4 918
11 Phil Siscoe Wills Wing U2 509

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 25, 2019, 7:58:08 EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

Results for day 4, task 4

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Jeff Chipman|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Phill Bloom|Tim Delaney|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-2/results

Task 4:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 02:43:32 987
2 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 02:47:40 922
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 02:51:00 917
4 Philippe Michaud Wills Wing T2C 144 02:47:56 915
5 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 02:51:18 912
6 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 02:51:02 882
7 Jeff Chipman Moyes RX 3.5 02:53:35 863
8 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 02:56:40 847
9 Wolfgang Siess Wills Wing T3 154 03:03:09 804
10 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 03:11:24 801

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 3666
2 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 3647
3 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 3631
4 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 3600
5 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 3360
6 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 3296
7 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 3276
8 Guilherme Sandoli WillsWing T2C 136 3207
9 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 3203
10 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 2908

Sport task 4:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 01:34:28 38.23 1000
2 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 01:35:11 38.23 979
3 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 01:38:31 38.23 934
4 Ken Millard Moyes Gecko 155 35.24 518
5 Knut Ryerson Aeros Discus C 27.66 441
6 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 26.35 424
7 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 25.02 402
8 Danilo Lohse De Stefani Wills Wing U2 160 11.06 156
9 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 5.38 87
10 Attila Plasch Moyes Litesport 4 5.00 83

Sport Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 3074
2 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 2718
3 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 2606
4 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 2080
5 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 1588
6 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 1556
7 Ken Millard Moyes Gecko 155 1436
8 Knut Ryerson Aeros Discus C 1394
9 Danilo Lohse De Stefani Wills Wing U2 160 1219
10 Attila Plasch Moyes Litesport 4 530

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 25, 2019, 0:20:37 EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

Counter clockwise around the Green Swamp

Belinda Boulter|Bruce Barmakian|PG|Steven "Steve" Pearson|US Nationals 2019|weather|Wilotree Park|Zac Majors

The forecast:

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Wednesday

Sunny, with a high near 87. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph in the afternoon.
Surface wind 5 mph, southeast

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 660 fpm
TOL: 5,600’
Wind TOUL: 6 mph, east
B/S: 10
Surface winds 2 mph south
A chance of cu’s.

The task:

No Leg Dist. Id Radius
1 0.0 km QUEST 400 m
2 SS 4.6 km QUEST 5000 m
3 11.7 km T50469 1000 m
4 28.2 km KOKEE 3000 m
5 45.7 km DIARIA 5000 m
6 67.3 km T98471 1000 m
7 78.6 km FAMISH 2000 m
8 93.5 km T47433 1000 m
9 ES 110.1 km QUEST 400 m

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

The flight on-line: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2255169

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190417&gliderclass=hg1

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/24.4.2019/17:39

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

The narrative:

Steve Pearson, Zac Majors and Wolfgang Seiss let me borrow the Wills Wing TIII that is here at Wilotree Park and in Wills inventory. So I'm back on the TIII.

After the pilot meeting I go over across the runway to setup the glider. This keeps me from hearing that the task has changed slightly. A waypoint is added at Famish. The meet director, Belinda, forgets to call another pilot meeting at the launch site, forgets to tell the volunteers working the line to mention the task change to pilots, and doesn't have the safety committee review the task change that was made because of pilot input for safety reasons (which were bogus).

She does call a pilot meeting at the normal location but at least three of us are far away near launch and don't hear the whistle. She brings over the amended task board to the launch, but we don't see it. She doesn't even mention it to me. The small blank task board is not used to highlight the task change in the line.

Many of the pilots skip their launch spot given what happened the day before with so many relaunches. There are no cu's in the sky, but Larry thinks that they will show up (he's right).

We go through the list again and with evidence of good lift we all get pulled up. Numerous gaggles form with the lift working and soon a bunch of us head to the edge of the start cylinder as it's only a few minutes before the first start time. We hang in weak lift near the top of the lift at 4,000'.

Ten or so of us head out but don't go very far before turning in more weak lift. I can tell right away that this group is going to turn back and take the next start gate. We come back from 2 km out with 5 minutes to spare and take the 2:20 PM clock.

We're racing west along the north edge of the Green Swamp. The lift varies from 85 fpm to 300 fpm. Mostly it is less than 200 fpm. Pilots are jumping from gaggle to gaggle.

We've got a 3 km turnpoint cylinder at the northwestern edge of the Green Swamp. After finding 300 fpm on the northeastern edge we again find 300 fpm on the northwestern side and climb to 4,400'. It's after 3 PM. We find the first cu's, which then populate the western edge of the Green Swamp.

The lift gets good. We head south and find 300 fpm, 300 fpm, 400 fpm, 300 fpm and 450 fpm in the next thermals to over 5,500', not quite cloudbase. Larry Bunner and I are working with each other to make sure that we find the best lift.

Larry and I head south to the cu's west of the turnpoint at the bottom of the Green Swamp. Those pilots who took the more direct route are down below us as we get nearer the turnpoint at 471 and 98.

Larry and I climb out at 350 fpm to 5,400' under the sweet looking cu's that we come to expect when we do the Green Swamp task. There are more in front of us and we are able to take advantage of them.

I'm cruising along at 5,500' over the Green Swamp when Larry comes back at me from the south and asks if I got the turnpoint at Famish. This is the first I've hear of it. He had just gone to the south to get the turnpoint. I'm quickly fiddling with my instruments to see how far away the two kilometer cylinder around Famish is. I get within less than a kilometer of Famish itself before turning back to parallel the course line.

I head out over the pasture lands, not the forest land toward little wisps. Down to 2,600' I work 190 fpm to 4,400' and then scoot back over the forest to get to 5,000' under some wisps. Based on the latest transmission from Larry who is near the turnpoint 8 kilometers away I should be able to find lift there and can leave at 5,000' to get to it.

Sure enough there is plenty of lift just north the 474 to 5,000' and that makes the glide into goal easy.

Controversy erupts when Belinda comes up with a way to score the day with a bonus for those pilots who made the Famish turnpoint. Only Bruce Barmakian and Kevin Dutt didn't.

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 23, 2019, 10:49:16 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

A funny shaped task at 90 km

Flytec 6030|PG|Rob Clarkson|US Nationals 2019|Volirium P1|weather|Wilotree Park

The forecast:

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Tuesday

Sunny, with a high near 87. Calm wind becoming east around 5 mph in the morning.
Surface wind 6 – 8 mph, east

HRRR 3, 2 PM:
Updraft velocity: 640 fpm
TOL: 5,000’
Wind TOUL: 11 mph, northeast
B/S: 7.2
Surface winds 5 mph east
A slight chance of cu’s.

The task:

  Leg Dist. Id Radius
1 0.0 km QUEST 400 m
2 SS 4.6 km QUEST 5000 m
3 17.0 km T47433 400 m
4 31.5 km WALABY 5000 m
5 53.5 km DSROK 400 m
6 71.5 km T47433 400 m
7 ES 88.4 km QUEST 400 m

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

The flight on-line: http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2254486

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190417&gliderclass=hg1

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/23.4.2019/19:09

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

The narrative:

The wind is out of the east and we're back in the slot at the west end. There are no cu's and with the brisk enough we are probably getting some suppression of the lift from Lake Apopka. But we are not aware of it at first.

I'm 17th to launch and we've already had one pilot land. Tim takes me to the south of the field and I find strong lift, 400 fpm to 4,300'. When it peters out I head north east then east looking for the next thermal.  I don't find anything even in the smoke from the fire to the east. Kevin Dutt is right below me and he turns to go back to Wilotree Park for a landing just as I do.

Unfortunately I take out a down tube on landing, but fortunately David Lopez and Alex Skyride operate as a pit crew and get me back in line for another tow. It's probably been three years since I took out a down tube.

I get back in line but it's time for the sport class launch. Everyone has to wait for them. There is a fifteen minute interval after the end of the open class launch for relights, then pilots have to wait for the sport class to launch. The top three pilots have to wait as they all had to relaunch. There were many relaunches.

It's a long wait, but when we get up we find good lift to the southwest away from Wilotree Park. I climb to 3,800' at 240 fpm and take the fourth clock (out of four) at 3:24 PM (last clock is at 3:15 PM), more than an hour after the first clock. No one is able to take the first clock at 2:15 PM.

I glide 8 kilometers from the edge of the start cylinder down to 900' AGL just north of the Seminole Glider Port where I spot hang glider pilots turning. I climb out at 240 fpm to 4,900'. This makes it easy to get the first turnpoint at the intersection of highway 474 and highway 33.

There are a few pilots around and it is five thermals to get to the Wallaby 5 km turnpoint to the southeast. The first thermal is reasonable strong at 340 fpm to 4,300', but the rest of them are weak, under 300 fpm.

I turn around at the turnpoint to head west to the intersection of Dean Still and Rockridge and find 364 fpm to 4,300' drifting to the west. I can see pilots climbing in the distance and after a 10 kilometer glide get under them and it's 250 fpm to 3,500'.  A little over a kilometer further west I find 280 fpm to 4,500'.

I've got two flight instruments the Flytec 6030 and the Volirium P1. I'm noticing a significant different in the indicated distance to the turnpoint. Finally I figure out that I've put the turnpoint at the intersection of Rockridge and highway 98 in the 6030, but the P1 has DSROK. I know that that is the right  turnpoint and this hasn't caused any delays in my flight. I take the turnpoint at DSROK and manually select the next turnpoint on the 6030.

As I make the turnpoint I head into the headwind. The first thermal averages minus 35 fpm. After eight minutes of waiting to see if it will turn on I head out toward public roads to the east so that I can land with a manageable retrieve.

Down to 600' AGL I spot a pilot turning at just above my altitude a short distance to the north. I come in under him and climb out at 134 fpm drifting back to the west. I top out at 2,400'.

I spot Peter Kelley and Rob Clarkson to my north over edge of the Green Swamp. I race toward them and find lift before I get there. It's 180 fpm to 3,200'. They join me.

We move to the east a couple of kilometers to find 190 fpm to 4,400'. Leaving this lift it's a nine kilometer glide to the turnpoint at 474 and 33. My 6030 user fields go blank so I can't see my glide ratio over the ground among other bits information. It states that the wind direction is south west which is a bit confusing. The actual wind is about 5 mph out of the east.

There was a forecast for a sea breeze from the west late and it is definitely late, eight minutes after 6 PM. The user fields return as I get to the turnpoint. They show a north wind component of 3 mph.

I'm down to 1,400' at the turnpoint and head north along highway 33. There are plenty of open field to land in if needed and it appears to be needed. Peter and Rob are just behind me.

I pick out a huge field that I am familiar with just east of the Seminole glider port. I look around and there appears to be no wind in the field. I come in low at the north end assuming a southwest wind, but I am mistaken. It is in fact north east if light. Suddenly I realize that I'm going to eat up the whole field.

Just before I smack into the fence at the southwest corner I turn but hit the fence on the western side. I'm unhurt but there is enough damage to the glider that I won't be flying that one on Wednesday. First time in over 5,000 flights that I've hit a fence.

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 23, 2019, 9:25:33 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

The preliminary results for day 3, task 3

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davis Straub|Fabiano Nahoum|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Konstantin Lukyanov|Phill Bloom|Raul Guerra|Roger Irby|Tim Delaney|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-2/results

Task 3:

# Name Glider SS Time Distance Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 14:35:00 02:40:29 88.43 958
2 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 14:35:00 02:40:45 88.43 944
2 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 14:35:00 02:40:46 88.43 944
4 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 15:15:00 02:35:04 88.43 901
5 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 14:35:00 02:56:35 88.43 862
6 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 14:35:00 02:58:54 88.43 852
7 Corinna Schwiegershausen Moyes RX 3 Pro 14:35:00 02:59:28 88.43 846
8 Guilherme Sandoli WillsWing T2C 136 14:35:00 03:15:02 88.43 782
9 Roger Irby Wills Wing T2C 154 14:15:00 03:29:18 88.43 778
10 Konstantin Lukyanov Moyes RX 3.5 14:15:00 81.69 622

Cumulative:

Name Glider Total
1 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 2836
2 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 2827
3 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 2758
4 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 2669
5 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 2654
6 Guilherme Sandoli WillsWing T2C 136 2422
7 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 2416
8 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 2382
9 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 2301
10 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T3 144 2297
11 Akira Nagusa Wills Wing T23144 2175
12 Konstantin Lukyanov Moyes RX 3.5 2137
13 Fabiano Nahoum Icaro Laminar 14.1 2119
14 Raul Guerra Aeros Combat C 12.7 2118
15 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 2047

Sport Task 3:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 19.58 257
2 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 15.34 219
3 Ken Millard Moyes Gecko 155 6.77 145
4 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 5.00 129
4 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 5.00 129
4 Attila Plasch Moyes Litesport 4 5.00 129
4 Knut Ryerson Aeros Discus C 5.00 129
4 Danilo Lohse De Stefani Wills Wing U2 160 5.00 129
4 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 5.00 129
4 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 5.00 129

Sport Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 1853
2 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 1660
3 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 1614
4 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 1564
5 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 1375
6 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 1144
7 Danilo Lohse De Stefani Wills Wing U2 160 1021
8 Knut Ryerson Aeros Discus C 911
9 Ken Millard Moyes Gecko 155 869
10 Attila Plasch Moyes Litesport 4 405
11 Phil Siscoe Wills Wing U2 404

2019 Nationals (week 2)

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

2019 Nationals (week 2)

100 km, FAI triangle

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

The forecast:

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Monday

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

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

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

The task:

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

The Replay:

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

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

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

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

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

The narrative:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 22, 2019, 10:18:12 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

The preliminary results for day 2, task 2

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Fabiano Nahoum|Glen Volk|Jeff Chipman|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Phill Bloom|Tim Delaney|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-2/results

Task 2:

# Name Glider SS ES Time Total
1 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 14:30:00 17:44:36 03:14:36 947
2 Glen Volk Moyes RX 3.5 14:50:00 17:59:14 03:09:14 926
3 Jeff Chipman Moyes RX 3.5 14:50:00 17:59:23 03:09:23 918
4 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 14:30:00 17:49:30 03:19:30 905
5 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 14:30:00 17:49:50 03:19:50 896
6 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 14:30:00 17:49:55 03:19:55 886
7 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 14:50:00 18:04:05 03:14:05 864
8 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 14:30:00 17:55:56 03:25:56 861
9 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 14:50:00 18:05:51 03:15:51 857
10 Fabiano Nahoum Icaro Laminar 14.1 14:50:00 18:06:43 03:16:43 845

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 1935
2 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 1883
3 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 1843
4 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 1818
5 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 1814
6 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 1807
7 Phill Bloom Moyes RX 3.5 1802
8 Akira Nagusa Wills Wing T23144 1800
9 Glen Volk Moyes RX 3.5 1771
10 Patrick Pannese Wills Wing T3 144 1748

Sport task 2:

# Name Glider Distance Total
1 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 27.06 900
2 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 22.70 803
3 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 20.80 749
4 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 20.11 726
5 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 20.07 724
6 Danilo Lohse De Stefani Wills Wing U2 160 17.60 624
7 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 17.54 621
8 Knut Ryerson Aeros Discus C 16.19 553
9 Ken Millard Moyes Gecko 155 15.07 491
10 Phil Siscoe Wills Wing U2 6.59 177
11 Attila Plasch Moyes Litesport 4 5.00 142

Sport Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 1724
2 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 1485
3 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 1435
4 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 1403
5 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 1156
6 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 1015
7 Danilo Lohse De Stefani Wills Wing U2 160 892
8 Knut Ryerson Aeros Discus C 782
9 Ken Millard Moyes Gecko 155 724
10 Phil Siscoe Wills Wing U2 404
11 Attila Plasch Moyes Litesport 4 276

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 21, 2019, 10:42:08 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

We stick together

John Simon|PG|US Nationals 2019|weather

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

The forecast:

http://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Sunday

Sunny, with a high near 78. Light northwest wind increasing to 5 to 10 mph in the morning.
Surface wind 8 mph, northwest

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 700 fpm
TOL: 5,600’
Wind TOUL: 11 mph, northwest
B/S: 8.8
Surface winds 10 mph northwest
Chance of cu’s.

There is a strong inversion and no chance of cu's.

The task:

No Leg Dist. Id Radius
1 0.0 km QUEST 400 m
2 SS 4.6 km QUEST 5000 m
3 40.1 km Fantasy of Flight 1000 m
4 87.6 km Avon Park 22000 m
5 ES 100.0 km Lake Wales 400 m

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2252178

At one o'clock, there are no cu's and a pretty brisk wind out of the west. I'm scheduled to launch ninth, but will all the help I'm giving to the meet director I'm not ready, so opt to launch at the end of the line. John Simon has already told me that he is launching last so as to not have to wait around for an hour in the start cylinder, so that helps me make my decision to wait.

The pilots that we pulled up before us stick and we get towed up at 40 minutes after the launch window opens and twenty minutes before the start window opens. At almost 300 fpm we climb to 5,000' a few minutes before the start window opens and take it high at 4,800'. I'm not the highest pilot but high enough to not be disadvantaged by launching so late. Almost everyone takes the first start clock.

With no cu's everyone relies on everyone else. We jump from group to group and climb up in a friendly fashion not cutting each other off. We climb to 5,600' before the Fantasy of Flight our first turnpoint with lift averaging 300 and 400 fpm in the last thermals before we cross interstate 4.

We've got twenty to thirty pilots sticking together and using each other to find lift as we move over Winter Haven. The distance between thermals is less than 5 km. We are flying over built up areas with just a few landing areas but with plenty of lift we don't consider the ground below.

Lots of lakes below, of course, but not many indicators of lift with the light winds. Just south of Winter Haven we climb at 300 fpm to 5,100'. I'm near the top of the gaggle now after playing catch up the whole flight. I head off with Bruno Sandoli and one other pilot. We are soon in the lead overall.

There are mostly open fields ahead and we are 23 kilometers from the edge of the 22 km turnpoint cylinder around Avon Park to the south. We expect to find lift quickly and perhaps get away from the rest of the gaggle.

This doesn't work out. We glide for twelve kilometers without finding a bump. I see Sandoli turning to the west and down to 1,600' I go under him, but find only sink. I head further south as I don't see him head north and start rising and down to 800' AGL find 50 fpm to 1,600'. I stick with this for 15 minutes then it improves to almost 300 fpm climbing for the next ten minutes to 4,300' over possible landing areas.

I go from being in front to being behind. But it is quite exciting to be so close to landing and being able to climb in weak lift for so long.

There are a couple of gaggles just ahead hovering around the turnpoint at the cylinder edge. I'll have to work some lift to be able to get high enough to come in to goal behind them.

Thirty pilots in goal.

2019 Nationals (week 2)

April 21, 2019, 9:14:50 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (week 2)

The preliminary results

Bruce Barmakian|competition|John Simon|Roger Irby|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-2/results

Task 1:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 02:37:01 990
2 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 02:36:57 988
3 Pedro L. Garcia Wills Wing T3 144 02:36:57 987
4 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 02:37:03 981
5 Akira Nagusa Wills Wing T23144 02:37:20 972
6 Bruno Sandoli Wills Wing T2C 144 02:37:24 970
7 Bruce Barmakian Moyes LS 3.0 02:38:07 957
8 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 02:38:19 954
9 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 02:38:34 953
10 Roger Irby Wills Wing T2C 154 02:38:19 946

Sport Task 1:

Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 02:08:47 52.28 1000
2 Richard Milla Wills Wing U2 145 41.31 692
3 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 40.81 687
4 Mitch Sorby Wills Wing U2 145 30.45 542
5 Adam Smith Wills Wing U2 145 17.02 376
6 Danilo Lohse De Stefani Wills Wing U2 160 11.95 319
7 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 11.73 316
8 Ken Millard Moyes Gecko 155 9.33 275
9 Knut Ryerson Aeros Discus C 9.12 271
10 Phil Siscoe Wills Wing U2 8.99 268

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

April 20, 2019, 1:40:42 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Too windy on Saturday

US Nationals 2019|weather

At Leesburg Airport to our north:

Time
(edt)
Wind
(mph)
12:53 W 20 G 28
11:53 W 16 G 29
10:53 W 22 G 33
09:53 W 18 G 28
08:53 SW 10

The local rules state:

Wind direction and velocity determine the launch area and launch direction. South-southeast wind speeds up to 15 - 20 mph can be accommodated from the north-northwest launch area. Westerly winds up to 10 - 15 mph can be accommodated from the east and southeast launch. East winds up to 10 - 15 mph can be accommodated out of the west launch. Northerly winds 10 - 15 mph can be accommodated out of the south launch.

Variations in wind direction and gust factors below 5 mph will be evaluated to determine launch safety. For winds above 10 mph, gusting above 5 mph will keep the launch suspended or closed.

The day was cancelled by the Safety Committee and Director.

The second week starts on Sunday. The forecast is for good weather with light winds.

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

April 19, 2019, 4:00:43 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Rain day, Friday

US Nationals 2019

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

April 19, 2019, 3:48:34 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Georgia

Bobby Bailey|Christian Ciech|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|PG|Richard Lovelace|Suan Selenati|Tullio Gervasoni|US Nationals 2019|weather

The flight:

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/18.4.2019/16:37

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

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2247267

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190419&gliderclass=hg1

The Thursday forecast:

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Thursday

Sunny, with a high near 89. East southeast wind 5 to 10 mph.
Surface wind 10 mph, south southeast

RAP 13, noon:

Updraft velocity: 600 fpm
TOL: 4,300’
Wind TOUL: 19 mph, south southeast
B/S: 3.8
Surface winds 9 mph south southeast
A good chance of cu’s.

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 700 fpm
TOL: 6,000’
Wind TOUL: 20 mph, south
B/S: 5.3
Surface winds 10 mph south
A good chance of cu’s.
Strong upper level winds. Convergence over highway 301 to Vidalia, Georgia

The earlier winds make for a few timid pilots at first. David Fynn, the Safety Director measures 7 - 11 gusting to 14 mph. The report from the Leesburg Airport to the north is consistent with that with the wind decreasing from 14 mph to 10 mph by 1 PM.

The local rules state:

Wind direction and velocity determine the launch area and launch direction. South-southeast wind speeds up to 15 - 20 mph can be accommodated from the north-northwest launch area. Westerly winds up to 10 - 15 mph can be accommodated from the east and southeast launch. East winds up to 10 - 15 mph can be accommodated out of the west launch. Northerly winds 10 - 15 mph can be accommodated out of the south launch.

Variations in wind direction and gust factors below 5 mph will be evaluated to determine launch safety. For winds above 10 mph, gusting above 5 mph will keep the launch suspended or closed.

Despite the earlier whining, the pilots get in line and start to launch. It is a little rough coming out of the field, but I've launched here to the south southeast in 22 mph winds and it was fine.

Bobby Bailey takes me south to 2,000' AGL in a 14 mph south wind. He drops me in lift and I climb at 160 fpm to 4,100' and cloud base. We climbed again to cloud base just to the northwest of Groveland within the 10 kilometer start cylinder. As we get near cloudbase we head out. It's Tullio, Larry Bunner, Andrew Hollidge, Guilherme Sandoli, and I. Larry gets low by Grass Roots trying to get his radio working.

Andrew and I do a bunch of the pulling as we head northwest along the Turnpike toward the 5km turnpoint cylinder around Coleman. I keep leaving when the lift gets weak. None of the thermals average over 200 fpm until we get north of the Turnpike next to the turnpoint where we climb back to cloud base.

Northeast of Wildwood I find 300 fpm to 4,800'. Always leaving well below cloud base as the lift peters out. Tullio gets out in front and leads us up highway 301 to the north toward the next turnpoint at the state prison northwest of Starke.

I can't spot Tullio as he is too low on the west side of the Villages quite a ways east of highway 301. I leave Guilherme and Andrew and lead out on my own. I can see them, turning 5 km behind me. The lift is between 200 and 300 fpm.

I pass Tullio and head for a dark cu southeast of Leeward airfield. The thermal is almost 300 fpm as is the next one at the Leeward airfield. I climb to 4,600'. Tullio is back out in front along 301 over east Ocala, a tricky spot with few landing options. We've left everyone else behind.

Tullio gets too low in this poor area and lands.

I fly over the Ocala National Forest and the Silver Springs Conservation area east of 301 toward good looking cu's. I keep heading north northeast off the course line to stay under cu's. I've never gone this far east before on this course. I'm nine kilometers to the east of the course line but it's blue a long the course line.

Suan, Kevin Carter, and Rudy are about 10 km to 20 km behind as I come up east of Orange Lake and far from the paved highway.

Southeast of Hawthorne and ten kilometers east of Lochloosa Lake and at 5,200' I change direction heading north west toward more cu's that are now conveniently closer to the course line. I need to get around the west side of Keystone airfield to stay out of restricted airspace to the north of it.

Northeast of Hawthorne I find a thermal at almost 300 fpm and leave that at 4,800' still climbing but slowly. Southwest of Lake Santa Fe I find over 300 fpm to 4,500'. Suan has caught me from behind and is just over me. He heads out in front and I follow.

He marks strong lift 12 kilometers south of Stark next to 301. We are well west of the restricted airspace. I climb at a little over 300 fpm to 4,500'. Suan is way out in front but goes down by the turnpoint at the prison just before a huge expanse of forested lands. I work the cu's northwest of Starke and climb to 5,500' before turning north northwest toward the 2 km turnpoint cylinder around the prison.

Guilherne and Andrew are about 5 km behind near Starke. Kevin Carter, Rudy, Richard Lovelace and Christian Ciech are just behind them another 5 to 10 km.

I make the turnpoint and find 240 fpm right away to 4,800'. It's 4:45 pm. Every where I look to the north northeast I see forested lands, with patches of clear cuts and sand roads. The cu's are to the west of the course line and I head for them. There is only lift under the cu's and it is blue to the northeast. I have every desire to stay up and not land out in the middle of nowhere with bad road access.

I climb at 210 fpm southwest of Macclenney over open fields three kilometers west of the course line. To get under the next cu's I have to turn further to the north northwest to climb at 180 fpm to 4,700'. I'm now 6 km west of the course line. Guilherme comes in 2,000' below me.

Andrew has made a turn to go to the east to get back on the course line and is flying over the Saint Mary river heading north toward the turnpoint at Saint George while I follow the clouds. I wonder if he found a cu out there.

Rudy and Kevin are west of Macclenny and turning to the northeast to get toward the course line. Guilherme and I have crossed the river and are well into into Georgia and he is flying low over clear cuts and forests. I'm staying as high as possible.

I climb to 5,300' drifting a bit with the 16 mph south southwest wind, somewhat closer to the course line. Reasonable landing fields are 12 kilometers to the east. I can't really see them even when I'm at 5,300'. The only other options to my east are rough cut clear cuts.

As I get down to 2,500' I head toward pasture lands to the northwest just in case and find 200 fpm to 4,800' Guilherme is low under me and over the clear cuts. I turn northeast to leave the cu's behind but head toward the turnpoint as I'm about to be blown past it. It seems to me that I will not find any lift in that direction. I see Guilherme land in a clear cut by highway 94.

Behind me Rudy and Kevin with Jonny Durand behind them have made the leap to the northeast. I can see cu's in that direction but they seem far too far away. Maybe not. Andrew has landed after ticking the turnpoint at Saint George. I don't like the landing prospects on highway 94 (that's a mistake) and head for what looks like a farm to the east northeast.

It turns out to be nothing and I, like Guilherme, have to land in a clear cut off a sand road just slightly northwest of the turnpoint a little after 6 PM. My driver does a heroic job as we communicate over the phone navigating six miles in over slippery sand roads.

Nene, Jonny and Olav land a little to the south of me. Rudy and Kevin find lift and able able to make it into goal on a final glide from about 20 kilometers out. They are the only ones to make it.

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

April 19, 2019, 3:47:05 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Day 5, task 4, results

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davis Straub|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Konstantin Lukyanov|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|Richard Lovelace|Suan Selenati|Tim Delaney|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-1/results

Replay: https://lt.flymaster.net/bs.php?grp=2672#

Task 4:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 05:17:30 246.97 976
2 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 144 05:27:21 246.97 950
3 Andrew Hollidge Wills Wing T3 144 229.64 797
4 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T3 144 227.50 792
5 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 223.80 781
5 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 223.63 781
7 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 219.65 765
8 Guilherme Sandoli Wills Wing T2C 144 216.75 752
9 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 208.10 719
10 Konstantin Lukyanov Moyes RX 3.5 183.13 666

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 2989
2 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T3 144 2921
3 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 144 2911
4 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 2893
5 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 2768
6 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 2764
7 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 2569
8 Andrew Hollidge Wills Wing T3 144 2545
9 Suan Selenati Wills Wing T3 144 2529
10 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 2504
11 Guilherme Sandoli Wills Wing T2C 144 2341
12 Richard Lovelace Wills Wing T3 144 2306
13 Wolfgang Siess Wills Wing T2C 154 2058
14 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 2020
15 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 1987

Sport Task 4:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Erik Grabowski Moyes Gecko 155 03:41:08 148.15 984
2 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 03:45:38 148.15 958
3 L.J. Omara Wills Wing Sport 3 155 132.44 724
4 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 128.29 709
5 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 111.58 631
6 Ricky Rojas Aeros Discus 14C 72.18 505
7 James Race Wills Wing U2C 160 49.34 425
8 Bill Snyder Wills Wing U2 145 32.25 362
9 Ilya Rivkin Will Wing Sport 3 155 31.51 359
10 Nick Jones Wills Wing U2 145 30.49 353

Sport Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Erik Grabowski Moyes Gecko 155 3282
2 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 2725
3 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 2141
4 Ricky Rojas Aeros Discus 14C 2107
5 Nick Jones Wills Wing U2 145 1968
6 Lee Silver Wills Wing U2 160 1885
7 Adam Smith Wills Wing U2 145 1826
8 Pete Wall Wills Wing U2C 160 1787
9 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 1775
10 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 1757

Warnings:

Name Note
Patrick Pannese Courtesy warning for flying over Ocala Airspace.
Rodrigo Gerundo Courtesy warning for flying over Ocala Airspace.
Corinna Schwiegershausen Courtesy warning for flying over Ocala Airspace.
Larry Bunner Manually scored based on pilot tracklog.

Penalties:

Name % penalty Reason
Kevin Dutt 100% Violation of R2903A Airspace
Krzysztof Grzyb 100% Violation of R2903A airspace.

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

April 19, 2019, 1:26:47 EDT

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Day 5, task 4, preliminary results

Christian Ciech|competition|Davis Straub|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Konstantin Lukyanov|Suan Selenati|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-1/results

Task 4:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 05:17:30 246.97 997
2 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 144 05:27:21 246.97 971
3 Andrew Hollidge Wills Wing T3 144   229.64 815
4 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144   223.80 802
5 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro   223.63 801
6 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro   219.65 787
7 Guilherme Sandoli Wills Wing T2C 144   216.75 775
8 Konstantin Lukyanov Moyes RX 3.5   183.13 696
9 Suan Selenati Wills Wing T3 144   180.76 690
10 Christian Ciech Icaro 2000 Laminar 14.1   175.51 675

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 3009
2 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 144 2932
3 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 2914
4 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 2799
5 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 2786
6 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 2610
7 Andrew Hollidge Wills Wing T3 144 2563
8 Suan Selenati Wills Wing T3 144 2558
9 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 2525

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

April 17, 2019, 10:26:30 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

The milk run to Williston

Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|PG|Suan Selenati|US Nationals 2019

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/17.4.2019/17:09

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

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2246689

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190417&gliderclass=hg1

The sky is full, really full of dark cu's. Such a great promise for the day. We are excited to go to Williston, 110 kilometers to the northwest. The forecast is for an east wind at 14 mph, so it will be a cross wind task.

I'm pulled up early and pin off at 1,800' in 300+ fpm to cloud base at 4,600'. Unlike on Tuesday when we all crowded together there is lift every where and no need to get in each others way. It's perfectly pleasant to fly around and stick at cloudbase. And that's just what we all do.

The wind is blowing at least 12 if not 18 mph out of the east, so we keep tracking back up wind to not get blown out of the start cylinder. Six minutes before the 2 PM start window a bunch of us head to the northeast east of Groveland over highway 50 thinking we'll be in a good position for a start, up wind of the course line.

Only a few pilots take the 2 pm start time, not doubt one of them being Suan. The rest of us wait for the second start time at 2:20 PM and take it downwind of the course line, just east of Mascotte. Oh, well.

There are plenty of pilots, but no crowding. Finding the first lift is a bit of a core and some pilots find great lift, while many of us work 200 fpm west of Grass Roots. The field splits up. Finally Larry and I find 300 fpm to 5,000' northeast of Center Hill and race to the next thermal.

It's only 200 fpm and there are a good number of pilots out in front of us and leave with 4,300'. I'm out in front of Larry but there are half a dozen pilot heading for the 5 km turnpoint around Baron ahead of me.

Larry sees me falling fast goes left and finds 400 fpm behind me. I don't go back to him. I take the turnpoint at 2,600' and continue falling heading to the northwest along the Turnpike. I'm down to 1,100' AGL before I find the weak lift (155 fpm) over a new housing development. The wind is 13 mph from the east southeast and I'm drifting with the thermal for four kilometers getting to only 3,200'.

With lots of cu's around I head north but it's 6 kilometers before I find lift at 1,400' AGL. Again it's weak at 155 fpm on average, and I climb with a few other pilots to 3,200' once again before leaving.

I head out to the north northeast to get under some fast moving cu's over sun lit fields then spot pilots turning to my west. I join them and we go up at almost 400 fpm to 5,000'.

I head out over Marion Oaks but I'm down to 1,600' on the west side before big open fields to the west. I want to grab a thermal on the east side of the open fields as I would rather drift over them than over the treed area to the north and west. The wind is still blowing east southeast at 13 mph.

I find 300+ fpm and climb back to 5,000', cloud base. This gets me over the Florida Greenway and the populated areas to the northwest and to another nice thermal averaging 400 fpm to 5,400' again cloudbase. I'm just southeast of the optimized point on the 7 km turnpoint cylinder around the Dunnellon airfield and southwest of the Ocala airspace.

After taking the turnpoint I head north toward the next cu's and climb to 4,200', 21 km from goal. It looks like I might be able to make it. I get a 20 to 1 glide but 10 km from goal I'm down to 2,200' and it looks like it might be iffy. There is a dark cloud ahead but it is shading all the ground under and to the east of it along my course line. I'm thinking that maybe I won't find any lifting air there.

I turn upwind to the east to get over sunlit fields and find 100 fpm from 1,400' back to 2,500'. That's all I can get so I go on glide to find a nice tail wind and a 14:1 glide to goal.

Many happy pilots at goal. It was great how Suan took most of the available non distance points. Zac and Jonny tied. Mick Howard, who towed pilots up on his trike, launched his hang glider after the Sport Class launch and made it within 16 kilometers of goal.

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

April 17, 2019, 9:01:58 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Day 4, task 3, results

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Davis Straub|John Simon|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Mark Dowsett|Richard Lovelace|Suan Selenati|Tim Delaney|Tyler Borradaile|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-1/results

What a day. Suan starts early (first clock) and smokes the fields taking huge chunks of the speed, leading and arrival time points.

Task 3:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Suan Selenati Wills Wing T3 144 01:52:36 992
2 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 02:16:26 670
3 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:18:12 656
4 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 02:19:21 655
4 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 02:18:35 655
4 Wolfgang Siess Wills Wing T2C 154 02:18:31 655
7 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 144 02:19:56 649
7 Tyler Borradaile Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 02:19:46 649
9 Marcelo Alexandre Menin Wills Wing T2C 154 02:20:57 640
10 Malcolm Brown Wills Wing T3 144 02:26:38 614

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 2266
2 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 2209
3 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 2001
4 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 1989
5 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 144 1963
6 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 1920
7 Suan Selenati Wills Wing T3 144 1868
8 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 1852
9 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 1780
10 Andrew Hollidge Wills Wing T3 144 1749
11 John Simon Aeros Combat C 12.7 1736
12 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 1726
13 Richard Lovelace Wills Wing T3 144 1662
14 Guilherme Sandoli Wills Wing T2C 144 1592
15 Corinna Schwiegershausen Moyes RX 3 Pro 1526

All three women made goal. Sara made goal on her Sport 3.

Task 3 sport:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Erik Grabowski Moyes Gecko 155 00:37:56 847
2 Mark Dowsett Moyes Gecko 155 00:40:56 758
3 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 00:40:44 669
4 Pete Wall Wills Wing U2C 160 00:42:45 645
5 Ricky Rojas Aeros Discus 14C 00:49:28 610
6 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 00:45:44 608
7 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 00:51:09 565
8 Ilya Rivkin Will Wing Sport 3 155 01:04:41 539
8 Lee Silver Wills Wing U2 160 00:54:56 539
10 Nick Jones Wills Wing U2 145 00:59:32 515

Sport Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Erik Grabowski Moyes Gecko 155 2301
2 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 1724
3 Lee Silver Wills Wing U2 160 1603
4 Nick Jones Wills Wing U2 145 1599
5 Ricky Rojas Aeros Discus 14C 1583
6 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 1468
7 Mark Dowsett Moyes Gecko 155 1449
8 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 1440
9 Pete Wall Wills Wing U2C 160 1412
10 Ilya Rivkin Will Wing Sport 3 155 1272

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

April 16, 2019, 10:03:09 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Another blue day with a little more wind than forecasted

Bobby Bailey|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|PG|US Nationals 2019|weather

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2245839

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190417&gliderclass=hg1

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Tuesday

Sunny, with a high near 84. North wind 5 to 10 mph becoming east in the afternoon.
Surface wind 9 decreasing to 7 mph, east, northeast

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 560 fpm
TOL: 4,300’
Wind TOUL: 6 mph, northeast
B/S: 10.0
Surface winds 5 mph northeast
Looks like a great day with light winds and a high TOL later in the day. No cu’s.

The task committee calls a box task to the northwest. The radii of the turnpoints are chosen very carefully to make it pilot friendly with available landing areas. For example, a three kilometer cylinder around Baron:

We don't have to fly over the swamp to the east and north.

I launch nineteenth just after Larry behind Bobby Bailey. He wraps it up tight low in lift to make his little tug climb, but I hold on any way until he takes me over to the forming gaggle to the north. It's 124 fpm to 3,400'. As I top out it's a little over half an hour before the window opens.

The 5 mph east wind is pushing us toward the edge of the start cylinder, but it's too early to go over there and get trapped against the western side. We hold back in light lift biding out time. I'm on the radio with Larry.

At 1:45 we are near the edge of the cylinder and working up to 3,700'. With the light wind we are able to stay close and take the first start gate at 1PM at 3,400'. A few pilots like Jonny and Zac will take the second gate twenty minutes later.

The thermals are very crowded and we hope to get away from other than a few pilots who we want to work as bird dogs. But for a while everyone sticks together and you are just lucky the out of control pilots, or the rude ones, don't hit you.

We are not going to get high, so it's game of of dare as we head out to the west to see if we can find the next thermal from 2,000'. It takes eight thermals to get to Kokee with a quartering tail wind from the northeast at 7 mph. We find between 100 fpm and 300 fpm climbing to 3,600'. The thermals are still full. Larry and I are working together.

The turnpoint after Kokee is off to the northeast which gives us a bit of a headwind at 6 mph. We're following about four pilots heading toward the town of Bushnell and getting lower and lower without a sign of lift. My neck is sore from all the craning around I'm doing to keep out of everyone's way.

Down to 1,400' AGL I look back to see pilots climbing a little over a kilometer behind me. Larry reports lift ahead but I'm feeling a little too low to make it there in the head wind. This is where we lose contact with each other (other than on the radio). I climb from 1,000' AGL to 3,500' along with half a dozen other pilots.

Pushing ahead I'm back down to 1,100' AGL after 7 kilometers but there are spotters out ahead finding the lift and I climb out at 300 fpm to 3,200'. The head wind continues to be a problem and it is a back and forth fight in weak lift by the landfill trying to make the next waypoint around Coleman north of the mines and west of the prisons. It takes 45 minutes to go 11 kilometers.

I tag the turnpoint at 1,500' and leave it at 2,800'. There are lots of houses in this new development to fly over but fortunately there is also a mine to the south of them. I find good lift over the mines and climbing in a 9 mph east northeast wind get to 4,200' at 250 fpm.

The next optimized turnpoint is due east. I've got some altitude to use. I'm by myself as Larry and his gaggle are ten kilometers ahead and moving slowly.

As I make it to the optimized point on the Baron cylinder five or six gliders come over me about 200 feet higher. Great, now I'll have some help. We tick the turnpoint and head south southeast. I haven't found much lift since leaving the good thermal that got me over 4,000'. We get lower and lower.

Crossing the turnpike to the southeast I see the lowest guy in front of me take one turn then head off with the others to get in a thermal on the north side of the turnpike. I'm down to 800 AGL and don't see any landing areas in that direction. I take a turn in the area where the previous pilot turned, but find just sink. But less sink than I was experiencing. I drift back and find 100 fpm at 700' AGL. I'm over huge open fields.

There is a good paved east/west road just half a kilometer to my north. I'm drifting at 10 mph to the west. There are open fields for 5 kilometers. If I stay up I know that I can get out fairly easily. I hang tight at 97 fpm.

Corinna flies right at my altitude right next to me but doesn't stop and thermal with me. She continues east and quickly lands. After a few minutes two gliders chase back to me from the group that had gone to the north of the turnpike and come in under me. I think it is Olav on a Moyes Litespeed and Hugo Rodriguez on a Combat. I get to hang with them just above them as we drift quickly west.

In twenty seven minutes we climb  to 4,000'. It's 5:15 PM. I follow Olav to the southeast where he finds a little lift. I move over to the small fire to the west but that gives only 50 fpm. I lose track of Olav and stick with Hugo as we head to the next fire. That one provides negative lift.

We head down the road that goes to Center Hill from Mascotte but soon run out of altitude and land in big fields. It looks like Olav got within one kilometer of goal.

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

April 16, 2019, 8:13:34 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Day 3, task results

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Davis Straub|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Kevin Carter|Larry Bunner|Tim Delaney|Tullio Gervasoni|US Nationals 2019|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-1/results

Task 2:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 03:03:30 973
2 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 03:04:46 962
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 03:07:21 941
4 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 03:23:36 924
5 Alvaro Figueiredo Sandoli Wills Wing T3 144 03:23:25 923
6 Guilherme Sandoli Wills Wing T2C 144 03:24:48 918
7 Tullio Gervasoni Wills Wing T3 144 03:24:44 912
8 Andrew Hollidge Wills Wing T3 144 03:25:56 908
9 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T3 144 03:27:31 898
10 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 144 03:33:22 874

All the Sandoli's (Nene and his two sons) made goal.

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 1617
2 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 1556
3 Andrew Hollidge Wills Wing T3 144 1516
4 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T3 144 1494
5 Rodolfo Gotes Wills Wing T3 144 1401
6 Kevin Dutt Aeros Combat 13.5 1382
7 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 1374
8 Kevin Carter Wills Wing T3 144 1327
9 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 1266
10 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 1234

Sport class:

Task 2:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Erik Grabowski Moyes Gecko 155 02:37:20 985
2 Lee Silver Wills Wing U2 160 02:58:54 875
3 Adam Smith Wills Wing U2 145 03:08:22 865

Cumullative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Erik Grabowski Moyes Gecko 155 1443
2 Adam Smith Wills Wing U2 145 1169
3 Rod Regier Moyes Litesport 4 1145
4 Nick Jones Wills Wing U2 145 1071
5 Lee Silver Wills Wing U2 160 1051
6 Ricky Rojas Aeros Discus 14C 961
7 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 899
8 Tim Delaney Wills Wing Sport 3 135 820
9 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 787
10 Pete Wall Wills Wing U2C 160 755

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

April 15, 2019, 10:19:36 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Day 2, task 1

Bruce Barmakian|competition|Davis Straub|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|PG|Richard Lovelace|US Nationals 2019|weather|Wills Wing T3|Zac Majors

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/15.4.2019/18:13

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

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2245019

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190416&gliderclass=hg1

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Monday

Partly sunny, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 80. Northwest wind around 10 mph.
Surface wind 10 mph northwest.

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 500 fpm
TOL: 3,300’
Wind TOUL: 20 mph, northwest
B/S: 2.2
Surface winds:11 mph northwest

That forecast was brutal. We wouldn't get high, the winds would be strong, the lift wouldn't be that good.

We felt that it just would not be a good day. Blue, no cu's in the forecast, often difficult launch conditions with the westerly component.

Still the task committee called a couple of tasks for the sport class and for the open class, and the safety committee and safety director felt that the launch conditions were good, even with the wind almost directly west.

I'm sixth to launch in the right line at 2:13 PM. April takes me up and waves me off at 2,000' AGL. I search around and find 24 fpm then 45 fpm drifting east southeast at 10 mph and climbing to 2,300', slightly above the altitude that I pinned off at. This is progress.

Push up wind with other pilots to pilots circling and from 1,100' AGL, climb back again to pin off altitude at 113 fpm. Do this a couple more times not getting quite so low and then down to 1,400' AGL hook into a reasonable thermal at 230 fpm and climb to 3,200' drifting downwind outside the start cylinder to the east southeast at 3:00 PM, so over 45 minutes in the start cylinder basically just trying to stay up. The day has fulfilled the prognosis.

I climb a little more to 3,500' and then head out to the south southwest with others. Today is a day to stay with your friends. No cu's to mark lift. You've got to be careful and use other pilots to indicate where the lift is. Also hold on to any lift. Weak lift is better than no lift or worse.

The wind is pushing us hard to the east but we are slowly working our way west toward the course line. Pilots are pretty scattered but there are a few to hang with. The next four thermals: 150 fpm, 2,800' top, 83 fpm, 2,300' top, 44 fpm, 2,400' top, 106 fpm, 2500' top. These get us to highway 474. Not getting high reduces the chances of finding the next lift, but we seem to get lucky and there is lift out there.

I hook up with Richard Lovelace, Andrew Hollidge, and Malcolm Brown, the UK contingent. We work 101 fpm, 2,600', 123 fpm, 2,200', 166 fpm, 2,800', 176 fpm, 2,800'. That's 13 kilometers from 474 to Dean Still Road. The lift is getting better. We approach the left side of the 5 km cylinder around the Fantasy of Flight and find 196 fpm to 3,000' in a 14 mph cross wind breeze.

We split up and cross Interstate 4. I follow Andrew Hollidge toward some nice looking open fields after flying over lots of forested areas. He's getting lower and lower and I'm getting skeptical. I spot buzzard heading to the northwest (as I head southeast) and turn to follow him. He looks like he's on a mission and indeed he is. He finds the lift and I find it with him.

It's 265 fpm to 3,700', the highest point of the day, the best lift of the day, and only 30 kilometers from goal.

Now the trick is to stay high enough to be able to get to one of the few landing areas as I'm now alone and over built up housing areas. Thankfully there are a few open fields that allow for a reasonable search for thermals. The best lift seems to be downwind of the small lakes. You can see all the wind on the lakes and all the thermals that interrupt the smooth flow of the wind across the lakes.

About twenty kilometers out from goal I'm joined by Bruce Barmakian and Andrew Hollidge coming in at my altitude. We work broken lift often less than 100 fpm to stay between 2,600' and 2,900'. We're right on the course line in spite of the cross wind.

Twelve kilometers out we find 196 fpm and go on glide from 2,900'. It's good all the way into goal.

This day seems totally impossible. How could we get to Lake Wales in a strong cross wind with no cu's and rarely getting over 3,000? I just can't believe that we did it. We were obviously very lucky. Andrew said it was because we were willing to hang on to the lightest lift, like they do in England.

I certainly never ventured out in front and only went off on my own when the leader looked like he was in trouble and I saw a sign of good lift.

Five of the pilots making goal were flying the new Wills Wing T3's.

https://airtribune.com/2019-quest-air-nationals-week-1/results

Task 1:

# Name Glider Time Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T3 144 01:55:40 682
2 Olav Opsanger Moyes RX 3.5 Pro 01:56:32 674
3 Bruce Barmakian Aeros Combat 12.7 02:13:26 616
4 Andrew Hollidge Wills Wing T3 144 02:14:38 613
5 Davis Straub Wills Wing T3 144 02:18:51 603
6 Richard Lovelace Wills Wing T3 144 02:19:24 602
7 Larry Bunner Wills Wing T3 144 02:19:32 601
8 Jonny Durand Moyes RX 4 Pro 02:26:00 587

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

April 14, 2019, 6:09:26 pm EDT

2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

No task on the first day of week 1

record|US Nationals 2019|weather

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Today

A slight chance of showers between 11am and 1pm, then a chance of showers and thunderstorms after 1pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 89. Windy, with a south southeast wind 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

Surface wind 15 - 18 mph south southwest gusting to 20 – 24 mph.

At 8 am wind is 8 mph, as per forecasted

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 600 fpm
TOL: 5,300’
Wind TOUL: 35 mph, south
B/S: 2.5
Surface winds: 18 mph south
Cloud base at 4,600’.

It rained a couple of times and there was some wind, but not as much as forecasted (the record from Leesburg airport):

Time
(edt)
Wind
(mph)
17:53 SW 13 G 21
16:53 S 10
15:53 S 10 G 21
14:53 S 13
13:53 S 10
12:53 S 17 G 23
11:53 S 14
10:53 S 12 G 21
09:53 S 14 G 22

The task was cancelled.

Getting ready for the ⁢2019 Nationals (pre-Worlds)

Fri, Apr 12 2019, 11:01:40 pm EDT

We fly to Keystone, 150 km.

Bruce Barmakian|Gary Anderson|Larry Bunner|PG|Tullio Gervasoni|US Nationals 2019|weather|Wilotree Park

The flight:

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/12.4.2019/16:17

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

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2243108

The forecast:

https://OzReport.com/seweather.php

Today

Sunny, with a high near 89. South wind 5 to 10 mph.
Surface wind 8 mph south southeast

HRRR 3, noon:

Updraft velocity: 500 fpm (other models show 600 fpm)
TOL: 3,600’ (other models show 4,000’ – 5,000’)
Wind TOUL: 19 mph, south southeast
B/S: 2.7
Surface winds: 8 mph south southeast

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 800 fpm
TOL: 7,000’
Wind TOUL: 11 mph, south southeast
B/S: 10.0
Surface winds: 10 mph south southeast
Cloud base at 6,300’
Convergence east of highway 301. Earlier starts preferred given southwest flows approaching course line after 3 pm.

Task:

Quest, 5000 m
Keystone, 400 m

Weather Underground showed rain at 2 PM north northeast of Ocala.

Larry Bunner launches first and I'm right behind him at 12:17 PM. Larry finds lift on the southwest corner of Wilotree Park and we climb at 200 fpm to 3,200'. That's not that great an altitude for our first jump over Groveland.

We head for a little cu that doesn't fulfill its promises and immediately turn west to get over the chicken coops and under some good looking cu's that indeed are working. We leave at near cloud base at 3,200' and find less than 100 fpm to the north under cu's. I finally chance it out further north and at 1,800' hit 600 fpm that averages 200 fpm over the climb to 4,400'. Larry joins me. We are drifting in a 10 mph south southeast wind just south of the Turnpike.

There is a series of dark cu's on a line paralleling the Turnpike to the northwest (which is where we want to go anyway), so we fly under them keeping our altitude loses in check and then find weak lift over the prisons. We continue to climb in weak lift checking all around under the sky full of cu's for better lift. We keep drifting to the north northwest just staying above 2,600' and sampling the lift that is on offer.

Finally, northwest of Wildwood, we find 300 fpm to 4,800'. Larry finds some better lift and is above me but when he leads out to the next thermal he doesn't find it at first and loses enough altitude to just get below me. I carefully milk the weak lift while he charges on ahead toward east Ocala. I'm able to stay high.

Working a couple of hundred feet per minute west of Leeward I see Larry coming back south under me to get over the sunlit fields and to get back up before going over the area of few landing spots. I'm high enough at 4,900' to head for the two fires that are burning the underbrush in the Ocala National Forest. I find 300 fpm just on the south side of the smoke plumes while Larry struggles to get up 9 km south of me.

By the time Larry gets up and to the smoke plumes, Tullio, Gary Anderson, and Mick Howard have caught up with him. I dawdle along hoping for Larry to catch up with me so that we can fly together. He can hear me on his radio, but his mic isn't working.

I fly to a dark cloud street going from the south southeast to the north northwest. It goes out over the big lakes, but for now it is a good path. I look ahead for where I can jump to the northeast to get under the cloud street to my east. I stay high. I climb to 5,300' at the end of the second cloud street.

I'm 43 km from goal and there is a blue hole in front of me with cu's far (10 km) to the east over swamp lands and the St. Johns River. It looks like the day is going to end soon. I take a 14 km glide with a bit of a turn to the northeast to get under some little wisps over landable fields east of Hawthorne. I'm down to 1,800'. I find 255 fpm under these almost cu's and climb back to 3,700', 27 kilometers from goal.

There continues to be a blue hole between me and the goal, as well as a big lake and lots of forest. I'm on my own as I can't hear from Larry, but he can hear me calling out the locations and climb rates.

I head to the northeast to try to get as near as possible to the cu's in that direction and also to get over landable fields. Down again to 1,800' I find 70 fpm and start turning in a 15 mph south southwest drift over non landable areas:

I'm only able to ride this thermal to 2,500'. The next landable field is 7 kilometers to the north, which to be sure is downwind. I don't want to chance it and head upwind to the fields just to my south.

I decide which field to land in but before I do I check out the possible lift to the south and east of the field. I can see good looking cu's overhead and a very small fire. I get there with 1,200' to find 260 fpm Climbing to 3,600' I'm confident of making the next landable field and keep searching for better lift.

I spot Gary Anderson to the north and get under him in a thermal going up at 400 fpm. This is way more than I need to get to goal.

Larry has caught me and made it in already. Garry gets there and after me Tullio and Mick. Later Bruce Barmakian who started much later and Phillip Michaud who flew from Wallaby.

The cost of getting you in the air

Mon, Apr 8 2019, 7:46:39 am EDT

At the 2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|Jim Prahl|tow

Jim Prahl «Jim Prahl

Total income. $7,677.00

Tow fees expenses. There were some fees/ accounting with Square so the numbers are slightly off on the total income. Off by $27.00

Plane Fuel $693.54
Tug Pilots(4) $2,800.00 $(700.00 each for the meet)
Tow planes (4). $4,000.00 (Tow planes usually cost $2,000.00 - $2,500.00 per meet)

For this meet tow plane owners get $1,000.00 each for the meet) Normally for up to 20 paying pilots we would have used two planes and tow to 2,000.00-2,500 feet.

So the tug owners received significantly less than what they would normally expect for a meet with actually 18 paying pilots and 11 non paying mentors. It was originally assumed that we would use three tugs and three pilots, but we turned out to need to use four even though pilots were supposed to be restricted to one tow to 4,000' only so as to not have to do continual relights for sport class pilots.

Pilot tow fee was $425.

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2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

April 1, 2019, 7:47:12 EDT

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

People told us that they had a great time

Belinda Boulter|Bob "Skydog" Grant|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019

There were 29 pilots including eleven mentors, and 29 volunteers, tug pilots, and others that contributed to the meet.

Our co-organizer and safety director for the GSSK:

Thanks to Bob Grant.

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2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

March 30, 2019, 11:54:40 pm EDT

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

Task 5

competition|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|John Alden|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|PG|weather|Wilotree Park

With this forecast we called a straight task to the Leeward Airfield to the north northwest:

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Saturday

Mostly sunny, with a high near 82. Calm wind becoming southeast around 5 mph in the morning.
Surface winds, 7 mph, southeast

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 735 fpm
TOL: 6,300’
Wind TOUL: 1 mph, south
Surface winds: 7 mph, southeast
B/S: 10
Cloudbase 6,300’, 43 degrees

The winds at 2,000' and 4,000' looked to be 9 to 10 mph out of the southeast. The TOL winds forecast appeared to be an anomaly.

The winds were 8 to 9 mph out of the southeast as we launched.

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2233298

My mentees were Richard Westmoreland and Stephan Mentler and we along with Mitch Shipley's crew climbed up at over 300 fpm to over 6,000' under a dark cu that had just formed over Wilotree Park. I pinned off early as I couldn't see the point of towing out of the lift, so I would have to climb up below my mentees who got to 6,400'.

The sky was once again full of cu's and we were once again quite high so it was time to head to the northwest following the cloud street a little west of the course line. We told pilots at the pilot meeting to go up to 9 km west of the course line for the best route (generally), but, of course, follow the clouds.

It was a 9 km glide to the nursery west northwest of Mascotte, where we climbed at 270 fpm on average together to 5,600'. I headed out in front to find the next lift and lost 2,000' in 9 km at the southeast end of the forested area south of the prisons. I was working 50 fpm when I spotted Richard twirling upwind of me coming my way. I joined him lift we averaged 600 fpm to 6,400'. Stephan came in under us but didn't find that strong core.

I headed out again toward the prisons under the cloud street. I had advised pilots to stay east of the prison and not over the forested area. We flew to the west side of the prisons and right over the forested area because that's where the clouds were. 9 km later I was back down to 3,700' on the south side of the prisons. Richard would come along three minutes later only 300' lower.

We spent over 20 minutes working cruddy lift to 5,200' for Richard and 6,100' for me. We hooked up with Mitch and Jon Irlbeck who we had passed early in the light after they launched right in front of us. Everyone was just climbing way too slowly for my comfort. Stephan came in under us but did not spend 20 minutes climbing in the cruddy lift.

I headed out with Richard behind to the north northwest toward the nearest next cloud. I found the tiniest amount of lift. Richard turned to the north northeast just before I got to the cloud. He was at 3,200'. I was at 4,600'. I headed north as he headed across the Turnpike toward the town of Wildwood to my east about a kilometer.

A three kilometer glide and I found 160 fpm at 4,000' (losing only 600') as I kept my eye on my mentee. I was soon to hear that Stephan had landed south of the Turnpike after losing patience with the awful lift.

Richard went right over the packed residential area of Wildwood at 2,500'. Over down town at 1,500' (no nearby landing areas). He was just west of the railroad tracks at 1,000'. I could see his dark shadow below him.

It looked to me viewing from the west a kilometer and climbing above 4,000' that he would land on a clearing at the edge of the railroad track. Nope, he was 400' AGL.

He went over a small field surrounded by trees and two buildings and averaged zero climb for a few turns and then dropping out of the lift, went north to a good field and landed. I frankly could not believe it. There is no way I would have gone in that direction over the town at that altitude. If he had just gone north with me he would have found wide open fields and the opportunity to climb back up again.

I spotted Mitch and Jon upwind of me and went back to help Jon. But he was climbing so slowly that I figured that Mitch could continue with him and I went off looking for other mentees as mine had both landed. I just had not been enough help for them.

I found another mentee just to the north and he was doing okay. I showed him where the good lift was but he insisted on flying upwind while the thermal drifted to the north. Okay, I see that I can't help you even though you can see me turning.

I found 300 fpm a little further north climbed up and zoomed into goal.

A whole bunch of pilots made goal, although Jon was not quite there.

We decided to score the ATOS gliders separately without a handicap. Oded and Jim Kolynich kindly agreed to that. We would have done this initially but Jim flew his Sport 3 on the first days before switching.

https://airtribune.com/2019-green-swamp-sport-klassic/results

Task 5:

# Name Nat Glider Time Distance Total
1 Richard Milla GBR Wills Wing U2 145 02:12:37 62.50 1000
2 Richard Caylor USA Moyes Gecko 170 02:19:12 62.50 921
3 Soham Mehta IND Wills Wing U2 145 02:25:46 62.50 875
4 Abhishek Sethi IND Wills Wing U2 145 02:43:30 62.50 778
5 Jon Irlbeck USA Wills Wing Sport 2 155   48.90 520

Final:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Jon Irlbeck USA Wills Wing Sport 2 155 2351
2 Abhishek Sethi IND Wills Wing U2 145 2350
3 Richard Caylor USA Moyes Gecko 170 2292
4 Richard Milla GBR Wills Wing U2 145 2094
5 Stephan Mentler USA Icaro MastR 2040
6 John Alden USA Wills Wing U2 145 2012
7 Richard Westmoreland USA Wills Wing U2 145 1978
8 Ken Millard USA Moyes Gecko 155 1916
9 Philipp Neumann GER Airwave Concept 1828
10 Soham Mehta IND Wills Wing U2 145 1754

A one point difference between first and second place.

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

March 30, 2019, 9:42:42 EDT

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

Follow the tracks from task 4 and 5

https://f0n.github.io/GSSK/GSSK2019/task4/

https://f0n.github.io/GSSK/GSSK2019/task5/

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2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

March 29, 2019, 11:20:12 pm EDT

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

Going west

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|PG

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2231658

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190330&gliderclass=hg1

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/29.3.2019/18:18

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

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2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

March 29, 2019, 10:44:58 pm EDT

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

Task 4, Lake effect

April Mackin|competition|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|John Alden|Mark Dowsett|Wilotree Park

https://airtribune.com/2019-green-swamp-sport-klassic/results

Thank goodness we are being towed to 4,000'. I hadn't taken advantage of this, but today I did because I needed the altitude to get me and Jon Irlbeck, my mentee, out and away from Wilotree Park. In a hurry.

At the Green Swamp we launch as teams. Our team, Ken Millard, Mark Dowsett, mentor, Jon Irlbeck, and me, additional floating mentor, were second to last to launch an hour after the launch window opened. For the first time in the first hours three pilots suddenly landed back at Wilotree Park just as we were getting up to the launch box. Jim Kolynich on an ATOS got really low but recovered.

There were plenty of cu's before, but now it was blue to the east. I said to those around me, "Lake Effect." This means that the big lakes to the east are cutting off the lift. The wind was out of the east at about 9 mph.

Ken and Mark were launched then after a little wait, Jon and I. April Mackin towed me up brilliantly right behind Jon and when we got near 4,000' she put me next to Jon. I pinned of at 3,900' just below Jon and upwind a bit, but before I did I told him on the radio to turn and go west, immediately, as fast as he could.

As we were towing up we passed through Mark and Ken over Wilotree Park at 2,000'. They would soon land.

Unlike most mentees, Jon immediately followed my admonition and we were soon rewarded with light lift. It wasn't great but at least we were going up and not landing back at Wilotree Park. This was the key that set the day up for Jon.

I found -15 fpm, then 65 fpm, and finally 150 fpm on my way to the first turnpoint at the intersection of highway 50 and 469, 12 km from the start point. I circled into the turnpoint at 3,800'.

Heading downwind down the course line I could see that the lumber yard, the second turnpoint, was in the middle of a large area of shade. There was a huge dark cloud centered right over it. To the north there were other cu's and lots of sunlight on the ground. I could see a very small fire with much more smoke than fire and near by a nice looking, very dark, but smallish cu. I don't have a lot of luck finding lift over fires, especially very small one, but as it was closer than the cu, I headed for it first.

Down to 2,600' I found 300 fpm over it and drifted downwind with the thermal. Drifting a little further downwind I ran into 800 fpm on my 20 second averager under the dark cu. It looked like Jim Kolynich saw that I was climbing and came in way low below me. It looked like I was getting to help two mentors. Jon could hear me on the radio calling out lift and position.

I was going to blow off the second turnpoint at the lumber yard as I had already drifted downwind and being a mentor I was not being scored, but with this big climb I saw no reason not to go back upwind and from 3 km passed the turnpoint cylinder tag it before heading for the next one. Besides, I might run into Jon or another menteee that I could help.

It cost me only 1,400'.  I came back downwind to get under Jim who had climbed up in the meantime. Kolynich flew off, but I was soon back to 5,500'.

Heading toward the third turnpoint at the Gross airfield I could see that there was a lot of blue on the way. There were cu's to the south of the course line, but with the 13 mph wind they were moving away from me quickly. I had to turn a bit to the north to be sure to tag the turnpoint before I blew past it (like the last one), but that sent me into the blue. I was looking to the west at the river surrounded by trees up ahead.

There was a nice looking black cu downwind of the turnpoint and a few fields that I go use for landing just before the river. Down to 1,800' I came in under the upwind side of the good looking cu and bam there was 600 fpm. The rough thermal averaged 500 fpm and I took it to 4,500', which was more than enough to get over all the trees to the west and into goal.

Oded was there when I got there, but I wasn't pleased with the field that he landed in so landed further west in a field with some random small trees that didn't provide too many obstacles. It was great to see that Jon Irlbeck made it later, for his first goal finish. Looks like a number of Mentees made it in.

Task 4:

# Name Glider Time Distance Total
1 Oded Kalir Atos VQ 01:01:19 52.48 619
2 Stephan Mentler Icaro MastR 01:35:44 52.48 611
3 Jon Irlbeck Wills Wing Sport 2 155 02:09:54 52.48 516
4 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170   34.10 401
5 James Kolynich ATOS 01:44:12 52.48 398

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Ken Millard Moyes Gecko 155 1611
2 John Alden Wills Wing U2 145 1608
3 Jon Irlbeck Wills Wing Sport 2 155 1476
4 Abhishek Sethi Wills Wing U2 145 1440
5 Oded Kalir Atos VQ 1422
6 Richard Westmoreland Wills Wing U2 145 1357
7 Philipp Neumann Airwave Concept 1339
8 Stephan Mentler Icaro MastR 1274
9 Richard Caylor Moyes Gecko 170 1217
10 Rick Maddy Wills Wing U2 160 1030

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

March 28, 2019, 9:25:26 pm EDT

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

Again strong winds

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|weather

competition|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|weather

competition|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|weather

https://airtribune.com/2019-green-swamp-sport-klassic/results

Forecast in the morning:

https://ozreport.com/seweather.php

Thursday

Mostly sunny, with a high near 78. Northeast wind 10 to 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph.

Surface winds 17 mph gusting to 24 mph northeast

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 775 fpm
TOL: 6,600’
Wind TOUL: 24 mph, northeast
Surface winds: 14 mph, northeast
B/S: 5.8

Cloudbase 6,000’, 40 degrees

The winds at the Leesburg airfield during the day:

Time Wind
5 PM E 13 G 23
4 PM NE 18 G 23
3 PM NE 21 G 26
2 PM NE 17 G 23
1 PM NE 16 G 21
Noon NE 17 G 23

We decided to wait until Friday and Saturday to continue the competition. The forecast on Thursday night:

Friday

Sunny, with a high near 81. East wind 5 to 10 mph.

Surface winds 8 - 9 mph east northeast

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 755 fpm
TOL: 7,000’
Wind TOUL: 10 mph, east northeast
Surface winds: 9 mph, east northeast
B/S: 10
Cloudbase 6,600’

Saturday

Mostly sunny, with a high near 84. Calm wind becoming east around 5 mph in the morning.

Surface winds 6 mph east southeast decreasing to 3 mph

NAM 12, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 675 fpm
TOL: 6,000’
Wind TOUL: 3 mph, south southwest
Surface winds: 2 mph, southeast
B/S: 10
Cloudbase, 5,300’

Still a possible around the Green Swamp day.

We look forward to the forecasted great conditions.

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2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

March 27, 2019, 9:27:40 pm EDT

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

Practice day video

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|video

https://youtu.be/2D-qk22oKgE

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2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

March 27, 2019, 2:08:44 pm EDT

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

Follow the tracks from day 3

Main Page: https://f0n.github.io/GSSK/

https://f0n.github.io/GSSK/GSSK2019/task3/

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2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

March 27, 2019, 9:22:10 EDT

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

Rain and high winds

competition|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019

https://airtribune.com/2019-green-swamp-sport-klassic/results

The day is canceled early due to rain and forecast for high winds. The high winds and gusts are already being reported just to our north at the Leesburg airport.

The pilots flying down to Wallaby Ranch on Tuesday.

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

March 26, 2019, 10:09:10 pm EDT

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

Day three results

competition|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|John Alden|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|USHPA|Wilotree Park

First of all thanks so much to our sponsors who are providing the day prizes for the sport pilots: Flytec, Moyes, Wills Wing, the USHPA, Stephan Mentler, and the Flying Gypsies. Also thanks to all our volunteers, as many as their are pilots (not including the mentors) and thanks to all our volunteer mentors, who are doing the work of getting their pilots to goal.

Here was "my" forecast for the day:

Mostly sunny, with a high near 81. West northwest wind 5 to 10 mph.
Surface winds 10 mph at 2 pm, west northwest from noon until 7 PM

HRRR 3, 2 PM:

Updraft velocity: 800 fpm
TOL: 7,300’
Wind TOUL: 20 mph, west
Surface winds: 11 mph, west northwest
B/S: 7.6

Skew-T: Cloudbase: 5,500’, 49 degrees

With strong west winds it can be turbulent getting out of the field heading west from the east launch. Fortunately the winds were more in the range of 6 mph on the ground. Some pilots had turbulent tows, others, like me, had very smooth tows.

Tim took me right up a line of lift, registering 900 fpm on a tug that can only climb at 400 fpm. I pinned off a little above two thousand feet less than a kilometer on the upwind side of Wilotree Park and starting circling in about 200 fpm lift while drifting quickly to the southeast.  Other pilots, who were being towed to four thousand feet, were being towed far to the west past Osborn field to get them upwind.

The cu's were lined up and there was lots of vertical development which leads to black cloud bottoms. We haven't seen such development so far this year.

My radio battery was on the fritz, so I couldn't track my mentees.  I watched the pilots out to the west struggle as I climbed to 3,300' near cloudbase.

The wind was about 8 mph out of the west northwest. I pushed upwind to work weak lift, less than or about 100 fpm, staying above 3,000' and working my way up a few hundred feet in each thermal before proceeding again south and west to the next good looking cu.

I spotted Mitch Shipley with a mentee or maybe two (one was very low) a little further to the southwest. This was my chance to get into the game of helping a mentee or two. I found lift before I got to them and climbed to 3,900' with them just below me.

I headed up under a dark cloud street to get upwind as far as possible and to stay high as I watched them climb downwind of me. I waited until they got high and both came toward me.

I flew back to them but only spotted the mentee. I headed out and he followed. It was a mistake to not find Mitch, but perhaps he went back to his mentee who was low, but soon landed.

The mentee followed me to his doom. I headed for the next dark cloud but unlike in the first part of the flight it was too far away. He pealed off as I got down to 1,500' on the east side of the Green Swamp under broken clouds with the dark cloud more upwind.

As I watched him land I headed back down wind and not finding anything landed near highway 33 in a huge field with no noticeable wind at all (and none during the whole time I took to break down).

Mitch stayed up and was able to make it to goal at Wallaby (there was a 5 km turnpoint cylinder around the intersection of highways 474 and 33). A couple of the mentees also made it to goal, with Richard Milla winning the day and Oded Kalir in second.

We were originally quite concerned that the west winds would lead to too much turbulence coming out of the field, but that was not the case in general. The strong lift did cause turbulence on tow to a few pilots.

https://airtribune.com/2019-green-swamp-sport-klassic/results

Task 3:

# Name Nat Glider Time Distance Total
1 Richard Milla GBR Wills Wing U2 145 01:11:47 33.08 329
2 Oded Kalir USA Atos VQ 01:17:25 33.08 217
3 Abhishek Sethi IND Wills Wing U2 145   17.27 177
4 Richard Caylor USA Moyes Gecko 170   15.13 166
5 Philipp Neumann GER Airwave Concept   7.30 119
5 Rick Maddy USA Wills Wing U2 160   7.22 119
7 Soham Mehta IND Wills Wing U2 145   7.00 118
8 Ken Millard USA Moyes Gecko 155   6.50 114

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Ken Millard USA Moyes Gecko 155 1278
2 John Alden USA Wills Wing U2 145 1121
3 Bent Kaaber USA Wills Wing U2 899
4 Abhishek Sethi IND Wills Wing U2 145 867
5 Philipp Neumann GER Airwave Concept 838
6 Jon Irlbeck USA Wills Wing Sport 2 155 793
7 Richard Westmoreland USA Wills Wing U2 145 786
8 Richard Milla GBR Wills Wing U2 145 713
9 Oded Kalir USA Atos VQ 695
10 Stephan Mentler USA Icaro MastR 578

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

March 26, 2019, 9:44:22 EDT

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

The tracks reviewed

Task 1 and 2 maps have been posted:

Main Page: https://f0n.github.io/GSSK/

Task 1: https://f0n.github.io/GSSK/GSSK2019/task1/

Task 2: https://f0n.github.io/GSSK/GSSK2019/task2/

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2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

March 26, 2019, 7:53:42 EDT

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

Day two

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|John Alden|Larry Bunner

Bobby Bailey|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|John Alden|Larry Bunner

We had a forecast of southwest winds turning west as the day wore on. Less than 10 mph on the ground, but up to almost 20 mph west up above near cloudbase. The forecast also called for good lift and cu's and cloudbase around 5,000', so a good day. But we were perplexed as to where to launch from.

Bobby Bailey said launch from the northeast corner as the wind kept coming much more from the south than the southwest or west and that is what we did. We got off all the competitors before the wind went strong from the west and launched everyone else from the east end of the east/west runway.

It's still taking a long time to launch everyone and drag them to 4,000'. Most of the mentors get off early and climb up. I took two flights as after climbing up to 2,400' on the first flight. I then went up wind and didn't find anything.

A good number of pilots got up and out. A number landed back at Wilotree. The lift was broken and often not that strong in the wind. I only experienced at 9 mph out of the west in the air.

The task was to go north to a turnpoint at the Turnpike and highway 33 and Larry Bunner mentioned that as he headed north he had a tail wind, which then became a quartering tail wind from the south west and then was a cross wind from the west as the day proceeded. The second leg was to the south east to Gator field. A short task but we can hardly go east at all given the Orlando airspace.

None of the mentees made it to goal although Mitch and Fabiano did. Larry who almost made goal said that he saw Mick over goal but he hadn't made the turnpoint yet. The wind was much more west later in the day and Mick launched almost last.

John Alden won the day with Mitch hanging with him most of the way.

The lift was pretty broken up and weak, both times I flew. Mitch had to dig himself back out from not finding lift after getting over 5,000' over Wilotree Park and then heading upwind into nothing (which is what I did also, but from a lot lower). Larry Bunner reported 700 fpm early in his flight. The changing wind direction no doubt was a factor in the changing climb rates.

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2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

March 26, 2019, 7:53:17 EDT

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

Results from the first two days

competition|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|John Alden

https://airtribune.com/2019-green-swamp-sport-klassic/results

Task 2:

# Name Nat Glider Distance Total
1 John Alden USA Wills Wing U2 145 23.19 356
2 Philipp Neumann GER Airwave Concept 22.70 351
3 Richard Westmoreland USA Wills Wing U2 145 21.55 336
4 Soham Mehta IND Wills Wing U2 145 15.44 254
5 Richard Caylor USA Moyes Gecko 170 11.67 216
6 Jon Irlbeck USA Wills Wing Sport 2 155 10.76 204
7 Ken Millard USA Moyes Gecko 155 8.99 180
8 Abhishek Sethi IND Wills Wing U2 145 7.66 160
9 Richard Milla GBR Wills Wing U2 145 5.22 119
10 Attila Plasch USA Moyes Litesport 4 5.00 115

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider Total
1 Ken Millard USA Moyes Gecko 155 1180
2 John Alden USA Wills Wing U2 145 1064
3 Bent Kaaber USA Wills Wing U2 799
4 Philipp Neumann GER Airwave Concept 760
5 Richard Westmoreland USA Wills Wing U2 145 726
6 Abhishek Sethi IND Wills Wing U2 145 702
7 Jon Irlbeck USA Wills Wing Sport 2 155 692
8 Oded Kalir USA Atos VQ 475
9 Stephan Mentler USA Icaro MastR 473
10 Rick Maddy USA Wills Wing U2 160 425

Yes, John Alden was second on the first day.

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

March 25, 2019, 7:24:37 pm EDT

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

Just before the start

Belinda Boulter|Bob "Skydog" Grant|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019

The bonfire, goes every night, thanks to Flying Gypies:

Photo by Belinda Boulter, the Safety Director for the Green Swamp Sport Klassic.

The practice day, photo by Bob Grant.

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2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

March 25, 2019, 6:19:04 pm EDT

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

First day preliminary results

competition|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|John Alden

https://airtribune.com/2019-green-swamp-sport-klassic/results

# Name Nat Glider Time Distance Total
1 Ken Millard USA Moyes Gecko 155 03:12:36 103.25 1000
2 Bent Kaaber USA Wills Wing U2   73.26 686
3 Abhishek Sethi IND Wills Wing U2 145   55.44 562
4 Jon Irlbeck USA Wills Wing Sport 2 155   42.01 507
5 Oded Kalir USA Atos VQ   72.43 477
6 Philipp Neumann GER Airwave Concept   35.70 434
7 Richard Westmoreland USA Wills Wing U2 145   33.38 416
8 Rick Maddy USA Wills Wing U2 160   25.25 346
9 James Kolynich USA Wills Wing Sport 3 135   23.14 338
10 Attila Plasch USA Moyes Litesport 4   21.05 301

John Alden hasn't sent in his track log yet and was probably second or third.

Flying to Williston

Mon, Mar 25 2019, 9:23:16 am EDT

The first task for the 2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

John Alden|Mitchell "Mitch" Shipley|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2226062

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20190325&gliderclass=hg1

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/24.3.2019/18:11

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

We got one sport class pilot to goal, Ken Millard on a Gecko, a number of others close.

I joined the team with Mitch Shipley as the mentor, John Alden and Rick Maddy.

I was off at the front of the team. I should have launched after the others because although I got off way early at 1,300', I circled up to over 5,000' at cloud base and drifted far to the northwest. Mitch made it up with me and then went back to join the mentees over Wilotree Park. They were let off of tow at 4,000'. I drifted out ahead and reported back the lift values and top of lift. The wind was 10 to 13 mph out of the southeast.

Pilots were scattered due to the amount of time taken to get each team up to 4,000'. The sky was full of good looking cu's and it was easy to connect up with the lift. as I headed northwest over open lands toward the prisons. After climbing up at the Okahumpka service plaza on the Florida Turnpike I headed west northwest to get under darker looking clouds by Coleman. There are fewer landing areas there but the clouds looked good.

The lift was less than 50 fpm. I was down to 3,200' and headed north after some fruitless turning. The mentees were just south of the prisons. It looked like I could make a landing field just east of the intersection of interstate 75 and the Turnpike. When I got there there was a little lift which quickly disappeared.

Down to 1,400' and dropping at over 400 fpm I headed toward more open fields that promised easy landing. At 600' with a 12 mph southeast wind I noticed a bit of lift over two sets of high tension power lines. I turned. For the first minute there was no gain in altitude, but I had quit falling at 400 fpm. Slowly I began to climb and drift toward additional open fields.

Behind me Rick was going down near the prisons. Mitch was climbing out from less than 1000' after going out in front of the mentees to find lift.

The lift slowly improved and I was able to climb to 3,500' before shifting over to the west a bit and then climbing to 5,400'. I was south of Marion Oaks and Mitch was just 5 kilometers behind with John Alden.

Down to 3,100' within the south side of Marion Oaks with possible landing fields far away I found more lift and soon was flying between 5,200' and 6,200' as cloud base was rising. It was easy to get over the trees and housing developments to get the turnpoint 7 kilometers around Dunellon. John Alden would land near the optimized waypoint around Dunellon not much later.

The sea breeze was beginning to influence the air and the cu's. I was right on the edge of it so the air turned a little bit turbulent. Soon after the turnpoint I climbed to 5,800' and went on glide to goal. Mitch wasn't too far behind. A bunch of mentors made it to goal and one mentee, Ken Millard on his new Moyes Gecko.

We rushed out of the goal field to go get John Alden. Unfortunately, he had landed two miles behind a locked gate. We walked quickly west into the sunset with my kayak carrier wheels and Mitch and I ran back with the glider and harness. John, with his bad knees, took longer to get through the four gates, and it was pitch black before we were on the road again. We picked up Stephane Mentler after he waited 4 hours a little closer to Wilotree Park. Got home at 10:30 PM.

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Prepping for the 2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

Mon, Feb 11 2019, 8:44:46 am EST

Checking out the tracks from 2018

Eduardo Fonseca|Airtribune|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|IGC

Fonseca, Eduardo «eduardo.fonseca-1

In prep for the GSSK comp I built this map views with the IGC tracks for the top 5 pilots from the 2018 GSSK edition. Airtribune tracking/map features just doesn’t work for me at all, so I built my own (more portable than Google Earth and mobile-friendly). Hopefully Live Tracking some day.

https://f0n.github.io/GSSK/

We'll have an approximation of live tracking for the GSSK.

https://airtribune.com/2019-green-swamp-sport-klassic/info/details__info

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Sport 3 and Gecko Pilots

Mon, Feb 11 2019, 8:44:12 am EST

Come fly in Sport Class

Quest Air|USHPA|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019

The Sport Class is getting very popular. Pilots love flying the king posted gliders with their easy handling and landing characteristics. Many pilots are turning to these gliders to make flying more fun.

If you are a Gecko or Sport 3 pilot (or you fly any other king posted glider) you might think about flying in Sport Class Competitions. There are plenty of them, not just here in the US, but world wide. Sport Class competition builds camaraderie and all the pilots appear to love doing it.

Check out the Green Swamp Sport Klassic: https://airtribune.com/2019-green-swamp-sport-klassic/info/details__info as well as the other comps linked to here: https://OzReport.com/Ourcompetitions.php. There will also be sport class competitions in the US here: https://airtribune.com/east-coast-championship-2019/info/details__info and https://airtribune.com/santa-cruz-flats-race-mark-knight-memorial-2019/info/details__info.

Sport Class rules for our competitions:

Pilot qualification: Pilots must meet the requirements of minimum hang 3 rating; as well as aerotow (AT), turbulence (TURB) and cross country (XC) sign offs. Aerotow rating or evidence of extensive aerotowing experience. USHPA membership will be required (temporary 30-day memberships will be available at minimal cost on site).

Pilots must not have been listed in the top twenty US pilots since January 2008 for entry into sport class. Pilots must not have finished in the top ⅔rd's of a non-Sport Class Category 1 competition held since January 2014, for entry into sport class.

The Sport Class competitions at the Quest Air Nationals are the pre-Worlds for the 2020 Sport Class Worlds.

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2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

January 30, 2019, 9:20:37 EST

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

The tee-shirt

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Our competitions »

Wed, Dec 19 2018, 10:01:45 am EST

Listed

Facebook|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|Pan-Americans 2020|Pre-Pan-Americans 2019|Pre-Worlds 2019|Quest Air Nationals 2019|US Nationals 2019|Wilotree Park XC 2019|Worlds 2020|XC 101 Clinic 2019

On Airtribune (where you register):

2019 Wilotree Park Cross Country

2019 Cross Country 101 Clinic details

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic details

2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 1) (pre-Worlds) details

2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 2) details

2019 Big Spring Nationals (Pre-Pan-Americans) details

2020 World Championships details

1st Pan-American Championships and 2020 Pan-Americans details

On Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pg/ozreport/events/

2019 Cross Country Clinic Wilotree Park
Mar 16, 2019 - Mar 23, 2019 · 5 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic Wilotree Park
Mar 23, 2019 - Mar 30, 2019 · 8 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
2019 Pre-Worlds And Quest Air Nationals (week 1) Wilotree Park
Apr 13, 2019 - Apr 20, 2019 · 5 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 2) Wilotree Park
Apr 20, 2019 - Apr 27, 2019 · 4 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
PRE-PAN-AMERICANS And 2019 Big Spring Nationals BIG Spring Mcmahon–wrinkle Airport
Aug 10, 2019 - Aug 17, 2019 · 2 Friends Are Going Big Spring, Tx
2020 World Hang Gliding Championships Wilotree Park
Apr 19, 2020 - May 1, 2020 · By Oz Report Groveland, Fl
2020 Pan-American Championships BIG Spring Mcmahon–wrinkle Airport
Aug 2, 2020 - Aug 14, 2020 · By Oz Report Big Spring, Tx

Our competitions »

Tue, Dec 18 2018, 1:48:25 pm EST

Listed in every issue

Facebook|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|Pan-Americans 2020|Pre-Pan-Americans 2019|Pre-Worlds 2019|Quest Air Nationals 2019|US Nationals 2019|Wilotree Park XC 2019|Worlds 2020|XC 101 Clinic 2019

2019 Wilotree Park Cross Country

2019 Cross Country 101 Clinic details

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassicdetails

2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 1) (pre-Worlds) details

2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 2) details

2019 Big Spring Nationals (pre-Pan-Americans) details

2020 World Championships details

1st Pan-American Championships and 2020 Pan-Americans details

Oz Report events on Facebook

2019 Cross Country Clinic Wilotree Park
Mar 16, 2019 - Mar 23, 2019 · 5 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic Wilotree Park
Mar 23, 2019 - Mar 30, 2019 · 8 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
2019 Pre-Worlds And Quest Air Nationals (week 1) Wilotree Park
Apr 13, 2019 - Apr 20, 2019 · 5 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 2) Wilotree Park
Apr 20, 2019 - Apr 27, 2019 · 4 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
PRE-PAN-AMERICANS And 2019 Big Spring Nationals BIG Spring Mcmahon–wrinkle Airport
Aug 10, 2019 - Aug 17, 2019 · 2 Friends Are Going Big Spring, Tx
2020 World Hang Gliding Championships Wilotree Park
Apr 19, 2020 - May 1, 2020 · By Oz Report Groveland, Fl
2020 Pan-American Championships BIG Spring Mcmahon–wrinkle Airport
Aug 2, 2020 - Aug 14, 2020 · By Oz Report Big Spring, Tx

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

December 17, 2018, 8:14:04 EST

2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

Mentored competition, 23 - 30 Mar, 2019

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|weather|Wilotree Park

https://airtribune.com/2019-green-swamp-sport-klassic/info/details__info

The weather turns soarable in February/March in Florida and Wilotree Park is a great place for cross country flying.

This is a Sport Class only event. There will be advanced pilot mentors to help with small groups of pilots.

Hang 3 rating (or hang 2 with instructor recommendation) with aerotow sign off is a requirement . Aerotow practice and sign off is available before the competition. Tows outside the competition days are paid for separately.

Live tracking with Flymaster trackers provided.

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2019 Cross Country 101 Clinic »

Fri, Nov 30 2018, 7:16:59 am PST

Get ready to go cross country

Facebook|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|weather|Wilotree Park|XC 101 Clinic 2019

https://airtribune.com/2019-cross-country-101-clinic/info

https://www.facebook.com/events/1388675041268923

The weather turns soarable in February/March in Florida and Wilotree Park is a great place for cross country flying. This is a perfect opportunity to learn cross country skills and stretch your cross country experience. It is a great warm up to the 2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic, happening the week after this clinic.

There will be advanced pilot mentors to help with each small groups of pilots. Evening get togethers to go over the day's experience and lessons in using flight instruments and forecasting the weather.

Hang 2 rating with aerotow sign off. Aerotow practice and sign off is available before and during the event.

Events

Wed, Nov 28 2018, 9:11:08 am PST

As listed on Facebook

Facebook|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2019|Pre-Pan-Americans 2019|Pre-Worlds 2019|Quest Air Nationals 2019|US Nationals 2019|Worlds 2020|XC 101 Clinic 2019

https://www.facebook.com/pg/ozreport/events/

2019 Cross Country Clinic Wilotree Park
Mar 16, 2019 - Mar 23, 2019 · 5 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
2019 Green Swamp Sport Klassic Wilotree Park
Mar 23, 2019 - Mar 30, 2019 · 8 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
2019 Pre-Worlds And Quest Air Nationals (week 1) Wilotree Park
Apr 13, 2019 - Apr 20, 2019 · 5 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
2019 Quest Air Nationals (week 2) Wilotree Park
Apr 20, 2019 - Apr 27, 2019 · 4 Friends Are Going Groveland, Fl
PRE-PAN-AMERICANS And 2019 Big Spring Nationals BIG Spring Mcmahon–wrinkle Airport
Aug 10, 2019 - Aug 17, 2019 · 2 Friends Are Going Big Spring, Tx
2020 World Hang Gliding Championships Wilotree Park
Apr 19, 2020 - May 1, 2020 · By Oz Report Groveland, Fl
2020 Pan-American Championships BIG Spring Mcmahon–wrinkle Airport
Aug 2, 2020 - Aug 14, 2020 · By Oz Report Big Spring, Tx