Flytec
Wills Wing

Oz Report

topic: Wilotree Park Nationals 2022 (14 articles)

A few comments on JD's analysis

Fri, May 20 2022, 6:42:47 pm MDT

Why did he take the time to look at this issue?

cloud flying|Daniel Vélez Bravo|FAI Sporting Code|J.D. Guillemette|Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

JD writes:

The thing is I first reviewed the track logs from day one to see if my perception was correct. Turned out, I was wrong.

So then I looked at day 3 expecting to see Velez way above everyone by 1200' and cloud flying, that was the rumor. Instead, I saw him just a bit higher than others and presumably by himself in the blue. After reviewing the replay it changed my mind of what happened and felt I needed to point it out and squash the rumors.

Like JD I also looked at the pilot's track logs. I used SeeYou, which normalized the data, so that all the pilots altitudes were comparable. I was the pilot A in JD's map. I found cloud base to be 5,100'. I found that at his highest Daniel was at 5,236'. I also found that Daniel was over 4,000' to the east of pilots C/D, away from the cloud.

Should the 200 point penalty that Daniel received be rescinded and he be given the 10 point penalty as per CIVIL Section 7A rules?

Discuss "A few comments on JD's analysis" at the Oz Report forum   link»   »

Cloud Flying »

Fri, May 20 2022, 6:40:21 pm MDT

A careful look at the data

cloud flying|Daniel Vélez Bravo|FAI Sporting Code|FS|J.D. Guillemette|Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

JD Guillemette writes:

My take on the Daniel Velez incident on Task 3 of the Wilotree National.

Daniel Velez was penalized 200 point on Task 3 for cloud flying and/or being too high above cloud base. Some estimates were that he had taken 1200ft unfair altitude advantage and he had an unfair advantage all the way to the 1st turn point.

I want to first say that I do not condone cloud flying, it’s dangerous, in violation of Federal Aviation Regulations and unsportsmanlike.

I have reviewed the replay of the pilot's track log IGC files from Airtribune and all the altitudes are the raw data as reported by the trackers and was the data used for scoring. Because the altitudes are not normalize , i.e. every pilot's launch altitude it not set to the actual GPS altitude which was the same for all pilots, there will be discrepancy if the same data is normalized with SeeYou, FS, or other programs due to altitude correction at launch.

To start the analysis we need to estimate cloud base. There were two clouds of interest that pilots were thermaling under. One cloud was near the edge of the start cylinder with Pilots A and B (among other) and another cloud to the Northwest with Pilots C and D (among others), please refer to the location map.

It’s difficult to determine the actual lateral boundaries of the clouds, but the center to center distance between the two thermaling groups is about 2.6km. Between time –00:08:04 (8 minutes before the start gate at 2 PM) and –00:06:28 pilot’s A and B maximum altitude was 1591m (5220’) and 1587m (5207’), we will assume that they were not cloud flying and this is the approximation of cloud A/B base. Between time –00:04:37 and –00:03:50 pilot’s C and D maximum altitude was 1535m (5036’) and 1543m (5062’), again assuming they were not cloud flying, we can assume this is the base of cloud C/D. There is already some degree of uncertainty of the cloud bases as they varied, but for sake of argument cloud base is between 1535m (5036’) and 1591m (5220’).

At time -00:01:25, Velez reached a max altitude of 1669m (5476’) at the location show on the map. He was right about equidistant between the two thermaling groups, and by his own admission higher than cloud base and not in the cloud with the cloud wall to his West. But how far to his West? Without knowledge of the actual lateral boundaries of the two clouds we don’t know for sure, but assuming a cloud diameters of 1km centered over the two thermaling groups, it’s mathematically possible that Velez was at least 2000’ laterally from either cloud. If so he may not have violated the Federal Aviation Regulation (FAR) of 500’ under and 2000’ to side of a cloud.

At time -00:01:00 Velez stopped circling and proceeded to the edge of the start cylinder about 1km away. He crossed the start cylinder at Time +00:00:05 at 1595m (5233’) altitude. If we use the higher estimate of cloud A/B base (which was the cloud closer to the start cylinder) of 1591m (5220’), Velez started the race at 5 seconds past the first start gate at cloud base altitude, a near perfect start!

Between times +00:01:02 and +00:01:32 a large gaggle of pilots including pilots from cloud C/D crossed the start cylinder at altitudes ranging from 1231m (4039’) to 1325m (4347’). Velez was 900’ to 1200’ higher crossing the start cylinder than the following gaggle. This was the perceived “unfair advantage” Velez had taken.

However, Velez had an excellent start, right at the assumed cloud base altitude and 5 seconds after the 1st start gate, this was not an unfair start and any other pilot could have fairly started from the same position. The following gaggle had a bad start, headed for the start line from over 2km within the start circle, over a minute late, and giving up as much as 300m (984’) from their previous altitude. It wasn’t that Velez was too high, it was that they were low! If any pilots in that gaggle felt they had a poor start, they could have returned for the second start gate and tried for a better start. After all, isn’t that why there are more than one start gate, to try to get the best start you can?

It was also said that Velez took an unfair advantage prior to start by climbing to 1669m (5476’) which was between 134m and 78m (439’ to 256’) above the two cloud bases. But from the altitudes reported by pilots A/B and C/D trackers there was a variation in cloud bases and these two locations were over 1.3km from Velez’s position. Who is to say which cloud base altitude he was to reference? What if there a third developing cloud right above his location and he was under that base, would he now be below cloud base? Furthermore, the race starts at the start line, at the start time, Velez had timed it perfect and had no unfair altitude advantage since he was at cloud base altitude when he crossed the start line.

With regards to having an unfair advantage all the way to 1st turn point, at about time +00:23:53 and about half way to the 1st turn point Velez was with other pilots in a gaggle and no higher than anyone else. The author (Guillemette) and Velez left this climb at cloud base together at about the same altitude and were not the front runners. Additionally Velez was 3rd to reach the 1st turn point and at an altitude less than the two pilots in front of him and the two other pilots that made the turn point the same time he did. So any perceived unfair advantage he had to the 1st turn was a false claim.

FAI Sporting Code, Section 7A - 1st May 2022 (see 6.3) was also cited as the reason for the penalty. The key element cited from the rule is:

“Since it is against the law to climb up the side of a cloud above the transition level, this may not be an acceptable excuse for being higher than other pilots in the case of a complaint”.

But just what is the interpretation of this new rule? If we as pilots were crossing a “blue hole” and the nearest cloud is 10km away, is it saying we can not climb above the base of that cloud? Certainly not! What if the nearest cloud was 5km away or 1km (3000’)?

The text of the rule is “…climb up the side of a cloud…”, this implies that the pilot is in close proximity of the side of the cloud. If we look at the FAR, climbing up the side of a cloud would also be a violation. But what if the pilot is more than 2000’ from the side of the cloud as required by FAR? IMO, this new rule is moot in the USA since the FAR will not allow us to be more than 2000’ from the side of the cloud. We don’t know for sure since we don’t know the lateral boundaries of the cloud at that time, but Velez says he was 800m from the side of the cloud. As mentioned before, based upon the location of the two thermaling groups relative to Velez’s position, this supports Velez’s claim.

Furthermore, the cloud flying 1st offence penalty is 10 points (no warning). Although 10 points seems too small, keep in mind there is no warning, IMO the points are assigned to remove all doubt the pilot had a 1st offence. 2nd and 3rd offences are much stricter to strongly discourage cloud flying.

My point is there is very little hard evidence Velez did anything wrong or deliberately took an unfair advantage and in my opinion the 200 point penalty was excessive and could not be supported by fact or rule.

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

2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

Thu, May 12 2022, 9:00:34 pm MDT

Daniel Velez Bravo's analysis

Daniel Vélez Bravo|Davis Straub|Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

https://danielvelezbravo.wordpress.com/

Translated into English:

https://danielvelezbravo-wordpress-com.translate.goog/?_x_tr_sl=es&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp

Until the start of the championship and until the night I was sanctioned, we were aware that flying in a cloud consisted of completely disappearing inside a cloud, from the view of another pilot who was just below. Strictly speaking, it is what pilots call “white out” and it is that everything turns white in all directions, so there is no relationship with the ground or the sky. Under this criteria, I take it very seriously when I am in championships, to never fly in the clouds, and always make sure I am below or next to them, obviously getting as close as possible to gain the greatest advantage without losing sight of the ground or of the horizon. On day 3, 8 minutes before the start, I got much closer than expected to the base in a strong ascent and I had to retreat 800 meters to the side of the cloud, to make sure you don't get caught inside it. And just before the start, where I took the highest altitude and the best position, I was flying with the wall of a cloud to my west, but with more than 180° of open sky, down, up and east completely open and clear.

However, that night of the sanction, reviewing the rules of section 7 that regulates international sports aviation, we found an addendum of May 1, 2022 (that is, it began to be applied one day before the start of the championship) that it had a single strange mention that "climbing on the side of the cloud is illegal", and that mention was tied to the fact that this might not be considered an argument to be higher than the other pilots.

With this mention then, the evaluation committee reviews my situation and analyzes if I broke the rule by climbing higher than the base of the cloud, as I accepted in my interview, and they conclude that indeed, under the criteria of the FAI standard of the May 1, 2022, I did something wrong.

Now then the other part of the story appears: What is the sanction for this type of fault.

It turns out that the local regulations of the event did not have anything written about flying in clouds, so as Davis Straub noted, this gap must be filled with what section 7 says about it .

So, since I was indeed accused of flying in clouds, and I accepted that I used the side of the cloud to justify my additional height but that statement was not received, the director applied the sanction of flying in cloud, but unbelievably, and despite the fact that Davis Straub warned him, the sanction they applied of 20% of the points, which was not in the local regulations, nor was it supported by the international regulations, exceeded by 190 points the sanction for the first offense of flying in clouds, which is, as we copied above, only 10 points!

You don't have to be an expert then to see that my difference of 55 points with the first official place in the championship is nothing more than an improperly applied sanction, from a director who doesn't listen to reason or bother to sit down and talk with me, and that I was probably influenced by those who filed the cloud flight complaint(s) against me.

In summary: They applied a sanction 20 times more serious than the sanction defined for flying in clouds, and they did it without mentioning who reported me, nor being able to review or refute their reports, and despite the fact that the technical report with which they sanctioned me I was completely out of context. It was enough to have taken the time to review the animation in Ayvri, and see that I was not "thermalizing" inside the clouds as usually happens when there is really malicious flight in clouds (you see the pilot who continues to thermal in the same ascent as the others. And even if after that they wanted to insist on sanctioning me to make sure I stayed not just out of the clouds, but out of them.

Discuss "2022 Wilotree Park Nationals" at the Oz Report forum   link»   »

2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

Sat, May 7 2022, 11:29:32 am MDT

Day six, canceled

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

Morning Soaring Forecast for Saturday, May 7th, 2022 at Wilotree Park:

NWS, Today:

A 50 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 8am. Mostly cloudy, then gradually becoming sunny, with a high near 87°F. Windy, with a west wind 10 to 15 mph increasing to 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph. New rainfall amounts of less than a tenth of an inch, except higher amounts possible in thunderstorms.

The sky is clear at sunrise with the clouds having gone further south.

Hourly morning and afternoon forecast: southwest wind at 7 am, 9 mph (actually there is no wind), 14 mph west-southwest at 10 am with gusting to 18 mph, at 1 pm, 17 mph west gusting to 23 mph, at 4 pm, west 18 mph gusting to 25 mph, afternoon cloud cover 29% decreasing to 13%, afternoon chance of rain 17% decreasing to 10%.

HRRR, 1 PM:

Surface wind: west slightly southwest 17 mph (24 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 520 fpm
TOL: 5,900'
CB: none
B/S: 3.4

HRRR, 4 PM:

Surface wind: west-southwest 16 mph (22 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 380 fpm
TOL: 4,300'
CB: none
B/S: 1.9

CAPE shows high chance of over development in the morning (9 am to 10 am) decreasing in the afternoon. This is contradicted by the clear sky that we see this morning.

What the sky looked like near noon:

We are north of the big cloud. There were plenty of cu's. The wind was strong out of the west. The task was the same as the day before (see above).

The winds recorded at Leesburg airfield at 10 are 13 mph gusting to 22 mph, and at 11 are 10 mpg gusting to 23 mph.

The final results are found here:

https://OzReport.com/26.68#1

Discuss "2022 Wilotree Park Nationals" at the Oz Report forum   link»   »

2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

Fri, May 6 2022, 3:28:09 pm MDT

Day five, canceled

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

The forecast for strong gusts, tight landing areas, no cu's were causes for canceling the task.

Morning Soaring Forecast for Friday, May 6th, 2022 at Wilotree Park:

NWS, Today:

Sunny, with a high near 93°F. Light west-southwest wind increasing to 10 to 15 mph in the morning. Winds could gust as high as 25 mph.

Hourly afternoon forecast: southwest wind 13 mph increasing to 17 mph gusting to 24 mph, cloud cover 17%, no chance of rain.

RAP, Noon:

Surface wind: southwest 11 mph (14 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 560 fpm
TOL: 4,400'
CB: none
B/S: 4.1

RAP, 4 PM:

Surface wind: southwest 13 mph (21 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 600 fpm
TOL: 5,400'
CB: none
B/S: 4.2

CAPE shows very little chance of over development here or in the neighborhood but likely on the coasts.

SkewT shows slight chance of cu-nimb here.

58°F at CB.

The task:

Wilotree 10 km
Midflo 3 km
Zimmrr 400 m.

71 km

This is what the sky looked like this afternoon:

The winds at Leesburg Airfield:

06 15:53 SW 14 G 21
06 14:53 S 14 G 22
06 13:53 S 12

The task would have taken us over areas with few landing fields and lots of housing, trees, and wet lands. All the models showed 20-26 mph gusts along the course line with steady winds 13-15 mph all day long. If the winds had been out of the south, southeast, or north, that would likely have been doable.

Very Preliminary Soaring Forecast for Saturday, May 7th, 2022 at Wilotree Park:

NWS:

A 40 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms, mainly before 2pm. Mostly cloudy through mid morning, then gradual clearing, with a high near 87°F. Windy, with a west wind 10 to 20 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph.

Hourly morning and afternoon forecast: west-southwest wind at 10 am, 15 mph gusting to 21 mph, at 1 pm, 18 mph gusting to 25 mph, at 4 pm, 20 mph gusting to 28 mph, afternoon cloud cover 19% decreasing to 9%, afternoon chance of rain 15%.

HRRR, 1 pm (surface temperature forecasted is 2°F lower than NWS forecast at 1 pm):

Surface wind: west slightly southwest 14 mph (25 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 0 fpm
TOL: 0'
CB: none
B/S: 0.0

HRRR, 4 PM:

Surface wind: west slightly southwest 17 mph (29 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 0 fpm
TOL: 0'
CB: none
B/S: 0.0

CAPE shows high chance of over development (2,300 J/kg).

Discuss "2022 Wilotree Park Nationals" at the Oz Report forum   link»   »

2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

Thu, May 5 2022, 8:11:23 pm MDT

Day four, results

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

https://airtribune.com/2022-wilotree-park-nationals/results

Open task:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Konrad Heilmann BRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 Technora 02:05:08 910.3
2 Robin Hamilton USA Aeros Combat 01:52:14 905.8
3 John Simon USA Aeros Combat C 12.7 01:52:24 898.2
4 Daniel Velez COL Wills Wing T3 02:11:44 849.8
5 Pedro L. Garcia USA Wills Wing T3 144 02:11:54 818.0
6 James Messina USA Aeros Combat 13.5 02:21:51 678.7
7 Raul Guerra ECU Icaro Moyes RX 02:40:26 669.6
8 Fabiano Nahoum BRA Icaro Laminar 14.1 02:39:52 659.9
9 Rich Reinauer USA Wills Wing T3C 02:47:48 616.9
10 JD Guillemette USA Tbd Tbd 02:52:38 594.2

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 T 4 Total
1 Robin Hamilton USA Aeros Combat 823.1 651.3 884.0 905.8 3264
2 Daniel Velez COL Wills Wing T3 984.3 574.8 800.0 849.8 3209
3 Pedro L. Garcia USA Wills Wing T3 144 857.4 534.8 872.1 818.0 3082
4 John Simon USA Aeros Combat C 12.7 765.7 603.5 686.8 898.2 2954
5 Mick Howard USA Moyes RX 3.5 841.8 369.1 785.3 253.3 2250
6 Mike Glennon COL Moyes SX 5 710.5 650.0 643.6 229.6 2234
7 Raul Guerra ECU Icaro Moyes RX 558.4 152.3 837.4 669.6 2218
8 James Messina USA Aeros Combat 13.5 672.7 509.0 333.8 678.7 2194
9 Konrad Heilmann BRA Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 Technora 782.4 50.8 375.2 910.3 2119
10 Peter Kelley USA Icaro Laminar 13.2 408.9 469.1 827.0 409.4 2114

Sport task:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Dean Funk M USA Moyes Gecko Pro 02:36:14 929.3
1 Tim Delaney M USA Wills Wing Sport 3 135 02:49:30 929.3
3 Thaise Caroline Galvan F BRA Moyes Gecko 03:41:30 653.0
4 Jon Irlbeck M USA Wills Wing U2 160 03:51:59 609.0

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 T 4 Total
1 Tim Delaney M USA Wills Wing Sport 3 135 933.1 48.8 377.7 929.3 2289
2 Thaise Caroline Galvan F BRA Moyes Gecko 704.3 30.2 879.2 653.0 2267
3 Dean Funk M USA Moyes Gecko Pro 550.2 59.1 559.9 929.3 2099
4 Leonardo Ortiz M COL Aeros Discus 996.9 59.2 634.3 272.6 1963
5 John Maloney M USA Wills Wing Sport 3 155 831.4 30.1 559.1 215.4 1636

Discuss "2022 Wilotree Park Nationals" at the Oz Report forum   link»   »

2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

Thu, May 5 2022, 8:10:20 pm MDT

Day four, light winds and cu's

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

Morning Soaring Forecast for Thursday, May 8th, 2022 at Wilotree Park:

NWS, Today:

Patchy fog before 8am. Otherwise, sunny, with a high near 94°F. Calm wind becoming west around 5 mph.

Hourly afternoon forecast: northwest wind 2 mph, cloud cover 19% increasing to 27% by 4 pm, 20% chance of rain after 5 pm

RAP, 1 PM:

Surface wind: west-southwest 3 mph (3 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 620 fpm
TOL: 6,200'
CB: 5,700'
B/S: 10.0 (all models shows 10.0)

RAP, 4 PM:

Surface wind: 4 mph west-southwest (5 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 660 fpm
TOL: 6,400'
CB: none (all the other models show cu's)
B/S: 10.0 (all models shows 10.0)

CAPE shows little chance of over development here or in the neighborhood.

SkewT show reduced chance of cu-nimb here.

53°F at CB.

The task:

Wilotree 8 km
Cheryl 1 km
Panolk 3 km
Cheryl 5 km
Baron 8 km
Wilotree 400m

78.7 km

We launched at 1 PM and I was off fourth behind a 583 powered tug with April at the controls. We are launching from the southeast corner with a west wind at about 3 to 5 mph. The first part of the launch went well and I came off the cart at the right speed and get right behind her without any issues. Then as we passed the slot for the east west runway I was thrown hard and up to the right. I was now way high on her as I got the hang glider back level. Thankfully she didn't release me and I was able to let her climbed up to me. The rest of the tow was without incident.

I was able to climb to 5,100' at cloud base before heading to the northwest with a dozen other pilots. I like being able to go over to Mascotte and stay inside the start cylinder, which gives us plenty of area to find lift. None the less we crowded up right against the edge of the start cylinder.

Pedro and I took off first from a light thermal just outside the start cylinder and headed into the blue hole going to the west-northwest toward Center Hill. Just north of the northwest corner of the nursery I found 15 fpm and Pedro joined me along with a few others that caught up with us for a few turns.

Finding this thermal to be ridiculous I made the decision to head for the cu to the southwest, west of the nursery. At almost the same time Pedro decided to head west. I don't know what he saw over there, but it looked blue to me.

I entered the thermal at 2,700' and climbed at an average of 99 fpm. I saw the pilots who instead of heading west-northwest headed west and they were about 2,000' over me just under the cu. Konrado, who would win the day, was among them. Plateauing at 3,200' I lost patience and headed north toward some small cu's.

Pedro was still gliding and soon was down to 700' AGL when he found a 245 fpm climb to 3,200' before heading on to the next thermal.

I came in under cu after cu but did not find enough lift to sustain a climb throughout a single turn. There were a couple of better looking cu's a bit to my west that I likely should have tried, but they were over a treed area and I was down to 2,000'. Finally I had to land just east of Center Hill.

I thought that I made the rational choice to head for the cu but it didn't work out. Pedro found the good lift from low.

Discuss "2022 Wilotree Park Nationals" at the Oz Report forum   link»   »

2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

Wed, May 4 2022, 7:53:40 pm MDT

Day three, looks like a much better day

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

The forecast:

Morning Soaring Forecast for Wednesday, May 4th, 2022 at Wilotree Park:

NWS, Today:

A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Mostly sunny, with a high near 91°F. Calm wind becoming east around 5 mph.

Hourly afternoon forecast: east wind 3 mph at 1 pm turning to 5 mph northeast at 3 pm, cloud cover 30% increasing to 39% by 4 pm, chance of rain, 7% before 2 pm, then 33% until 4 pm, then 39%.

HRRR, 1 PM:

Surface wind: north 2 mph (4 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 640 fpm
TOL: 6,700'
CB: 5,900'
B/S: 10.0

HRRR, 4 PM:

Surface wind: north 6 mph (7 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 620 fpm
TOL: 7,900'
CB: 7,700'
B/S: 10.0

CAPE shows some chance of over development here or in the neighborhood but very likely on the coasts.

SkewT doesn't show cu-nimbs

47°F at CB.

We didn't get any rain during the day, but a few exploded cu-mimbs on the west coast brought a bit of shade.

The task:

Wilotree 5 km
Fantsy 5km
DSROK 5 km
T47433 2 km
Wilotree 400 m

77 km

We launched at 1:10 PM after the Sport Class launch and started at 2 PM.

I asked everyone who saw it about my launch from the previous day and other than folks being amazed that I didn't kill myself I didn't get much help about what to do to avoid the problem. Then just before launch Mick Howard said that my back cradle was too low. He had tried "my" cart and disliked it. He wanted me to get on a different cart with a higher back cradle and therefore a shallower angle of attack.

I have been using this cart in this position (it's fixed) for two years, but it is only this year that I've run into this problem of the left wing dipping. It is clearly the case that the left wing is stalled or not flying while the right wing rises up. The issue was why, when this didn't happen before and now only with the 583 powered tugs, like Bobby's.

I towed behind Jim Prahl in a 914 powered tug today with the back cradle up. It all went smoothly like it is supposed to. I think what is going on is that I slightly changed my launched procedure this year. Instead of pulling in over the base bar with one tube held in my left arm and getting the protow release in front of the base bar, and then grabbing the other tube with my right hand, I have been grabbing both tubes and rocking up to get the release above the base tube. I likely haven't been pulling enough forward to get the stinger out of the cradle and launch angle reduced to where it would be if I had the higher back cradle.

So tomorrow I will go ahead and tow behind whoever comes to tow me with the adjusted cart with the higher back cradle.

I was the first to tow in the open class after one early bird and I quickly found 300 fpm to cloud base at 4,500' right over Wilotree Park. So the game of keeping out of the cloud commenced. I happily flew to a cu to the southeast to get up to 5,000' and just stay on the edge of the cu. at the edge of start cylinder.

I lost a few hundred feet getting the start time by getting back into the start cylinder and then getting to the first cu down the course line put me down to 3,400' south of Lake Erie and in a weak thermal up to 4,100'. Heading south I found 500 fpm to 4,800', now things were looking good, but half a dozen pilots were out in front and couldn't be seen. I was already just east of the Seminole Lake Glider Port and had a 5 mph north tail wind.

The next thermal was south of 474 and 33 and averaged 430 fpm to 5,100.' Derrick Turner and I were scorching the task hitting strong lift after the initial weak stuff. We flew over the sport class pilots who were bunched up low south of 474. The as we approached Dean Still there were half a dozen pilot low well below us heading south toward the Fantasy of Flight turnpoint. Whoa, we were high above the leading guys.

The lift over them was a weak 150 fpm, but there was no need to rush ahead. We climbed to 4,100' then I headed out with Daniel Velez to get the turnpoint. We turned around and headed back north to get under the next cu, but it was only 170 fpm to 4,100'. Daniel left but I didn't see him go. I headed on my own west to a cu but it was only 130 fpm to 3,300'.

Again on my own I headed north back toward Dean Still road and toward the 5 km turnpoint cylinder around Dean Still and Rockridge. I found 200 fpm just south of Dean Still, but still was only able to climb to 3,300'.

Inside the turnpoint cylinder heading toward cu's over the Famish turnpoint I was down to 1,600'. I worked 76 fpm to 2,000' and then went looking for better lift. I went searching all over looking for lift under cu's. I was in the cylinder for twenty minutes and down to 1,100' AGL over the Green Swamp I found 233 fpm that got me to 4,000' and on my way again.

It was almost 4 PM.

I headed into the Green Swamp to get under a good locking cu and got up at 230 fpm to 4,600'. Heading east-southeast to the next cu got me 250 fpm to 5,000'. These cu's were over sunlit fields. There was now shade to the north caused by the outpouring from a cu-nimb far to the west.

Fortunately there were cu's over the shaded ground as the cloud above wasn't that thick and I climbed to 4,600' after tagging the turnpoint at 474 and 33. There were plenty of cu's ahead and the shading was disappearing. I stopped for 200 fpm lift 11 km out from goal and came in with plenty of altitude.

Discuss "2022 Wilotree Park Nationals" at the Oz Report forum   link»   »

2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

Wed, May 4 2022, 7:52:24 pm MDT

Day three, results

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

https://airtribune.com/2022-wilotree-park-nationals/results

Open task:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Robin Hamilton USA Aeros Combat 02:21:50 884.0
2 Pedro L. Garcia USA Wills Wing T3 144 02:22:59 872.1
3 Raul Guerra ECU Icaro Moyes RX 02:20:14 837.4
4 Peter Kelley USA Icaro Laminar 13.2 02:34:23 827.0
5 Daniel Velez COL Wills Wing T3 02:09:31 800.0
6 Mick Howard USA Moyes RX 3.5 02:22:45 785.3
7 Davis Straub USA Wills Wing T3 144 02:53:42 715.7
8 Miguel Molina PRI Aeros Combat C 13.5 02:56:16 697.4
9 John Simon USA Aeros Combat C 12.7 03:00:23 686.8
10 Mike Glennon COL Moyes SX 5 03:10:00 643.6

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Daniel Velez COL Wills Wing T3 984.3 574.8 800.0 2359
2 Robin Hamilton USA Aeros Combat 823.1 651.3 884.0 2358
3 Pedro L. Garcia USA Wills Wing T3 144 857.4 534.8 872.1 2264
4 John Simon USA Aeros Combat C 12.7 765.7 603.5 686.8 2056
5 Mike Glennon COL Moyes SX 5 710.5 650.0 643.6 2004
6 Mick Howard USA Moyes RX 3.5 841.8 369.1 785.3 1996
7 Davis Straub USA Wills Wing T3 144 628.3 529.1 715.7 1873
8 Rob Cooper USA Wills Wing T2 393.2 806.0 642.1 1841
9 Peter Kelley USA Icaro Laminar 13.2 408.9 469.1 827.0 1705
10 Raul Guerra ECU Icaro Moyes RX 558.4 152.3 837.4 1548

Discuss "2022 Wilotree Park Nationals" at the Oz Report forum   link»   »

2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

Tue, May 3 2022, 6:20:26 pm MDT

Day two, would we be able to have a task at all?

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

The forecast:

Morning Soaring Forecast for Tuesday, May 3rd, 2022 at Wilotree Park:

NWS, Today:

A 30 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 2pm. Partly sunny, with a high near 89°F. Southeast wind around 5 mph.

Hourly afternoon forecast: southeast wind 7 mph, cloud cover 50% increasing to 60% by 4 pm, chance of rain 4% before 2 pm, then 34% until 4 pm, then 51%.

HRRR, 1 PM:

Surface wind: southeast 7 mph (8 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 600 fpm
TOL: 6,100'
CB: 5,300'
B/S: 10.0

HRRR, 4 PM:

Surface wind: east-southeast 4 mph (4 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 580 fpm
TOL: 6,600'
CB: 6,100'
B/S: 10.0

CAPE shows some chance of over development here or in the neighborhood but very likely on the coasts.

SkewT shows cu-nimbs don't develop if the high is 86°F.

50°F at CB.

There was a forecast for rain at Wilotree at 6 PM (didn't happen)

We woke up to a completely covered sky, thick gray clouds every where. It didn't look like that there would be any lift any where later.

The NWS hourly forecast (see above) showed at least 50% cloud cover all day and it was already 100%.

None the less the task committee came up with a task, the reverse of the Monday task with a few modifications to the size of the turnpoint cylinders.

Wilotree 8 km
Baron 4 km
Kokee 2 km
Wilotree 400 m

82 km

This task allowed us to stay in the area where there would be the least likelihood of over development and rain.

But there was a lot of doubt about whether that could happen. The Sport Class launched first at 12:40 pm and for the most part they were able to stick, but the conditions still looked very weak as the ground was completely shaded. We postponed the open launch for half an hour to 1:30 PM.

At ten minutes before the open launch the task committee decided to remove Baron from the turnpoints in the task, so it would be to Kokee and back, a 58 km task.

A bunch of open class pilots chose to launch later in the line so I was off early. Almost killed again towing behind Bobby Bailey. The glider went off to the left very hard right away. I held on even harder to the cart as I thought I was going to crash hard, but then realized that the cart was underneath me. The glider whipped around and I dropped the cart when I realized that I was flying. I'm so glad that I've trained myself to hold onto that cart no matter what.

I'm going behind Jim Prahl or Kacey from now on. I don't need to be this brave. The left wing never dips behind the powerful tugs.

There was a thermal right over the launch and of course Bobby wound his tug up tight, which is always a thrill, yet another one apparently, but I held on on the outside and despite the fact that we were in lift I wasn't going to let go until 2,000' AGL, the tow height limit for the competition.

Since we were already turning tight in a thermal I just continued climbing to cloud base at 3,800' and started playing the keep out of the mists game with Pedro Garcia and a few other pilots for about ten minutes with almost half an hour to go until the start window opened. As the lift died we chose to go to the northwest near the edge of the 8 km start cylinder. It it so much nicer to have this additional room when you've got to find the sparse lift.

The lift over Mascotte was weak and soon gave out. I headed for a brown field that had been cleared for development to the east. Other pilots went to the fire over a cleared area to the southeast. Raul followed me to the east.

The lift was great and we were soon back at cloud base. Later Maria would come in under us. The pilots at the fire did well, but their lift stopped at about 5 minutes before the start gate.

Raul and I stayed high (3,800'-4,000') at cloud base as we drifted slowly toward the edge of the start cylinder. We had such a poor start on Monday, it was super great to have a superior start on Tuesday.

I headed west north of the nursery while Raul headed west a bit to my south over the nursery. It looked really dark on the ground in that direction from all the shade from the cu's further to the south. I was heading for more sunlit areas spotted with cu's.

I found some weak lift back to 3,600' and then headed west without seeing Raul again. Down to 1,100' AGL after a 7 km glide over open and sunlit pastures I found 400 fpm that averaged 330 fpm to the top at 3,900'. I saw the pilots from the fire coming toward the two of us turning in a very tight thermal with our wing tips way up. One pilot came in at my altitude and I just said to myself that he had better be prepared to put it up on a wing tip. Fortunately he was and we climbed together rapidly drifting at 9 mph to the west.

It was ten kilometers to the turnpoint and I didn't find much lift under the cu's on the way there. Just before I nicked the turnpoint I felt a little bit of lift that I flew through, but then went back to. I could have easily been the first one to make it to the turnpoint. The pilot I had circled up with came a bit later then Daniel, and then later half a dozen other pilots as the lift continued to be very weak. There were patches of sunlit ground around but mostly the ground was shaded.

It took almost twenty minutes to dig my way out of this area drifting further west to I75 and climbing to 4,100'. The six or eight pilots headed east toward Webster looking for the cu's over sunlit ground. They showed me 340 fpm and I climbed to 3,900', but I should have just kept climbing, but I didn't know that this far out from Wilotree we would be climbing in our last thermal. Other pilots climbed to over 4,000' and went in search of the next thermal, but would not be there.

I flew east until down to 1,400' at the edge of a small treed area with the mine just on the other side I decided to turn back and check out possible lift back to the west. Nothing there so I landed in a nice big field.

Pedro and Maria landed within half a kilometer of my furthest east point.

Rob Cooper, flying in his second competition (after his first at the Paradise Airsports Nationals), didn't follow the crowd and made it to goal.

Discuss "2022 Wilotree Park Nationals" at the Oz Report forum   link»   »

2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

Tue, May 3 2022, 5:44:53 pm MDT

Day two, results

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

https://airtribune.com/2022-wilotree-park-nationals/results

Open task:

# Name Nat Glider Time Distance Total
1 Rob Cooper USA Wills Wing T2 02:02:54 56.49 750.4
2 Robin Hamilton USA Aeros Combat 49.39 604.9
3 Mike Glennon COL Moyes SX 5 48.38 603.7
4 JD Guillemette USA TBD 48.84 600.6
5 John Simon USA Aeros Combat C 12.7 45.23 559.9
6 Daniel Velez COL Wills Wing T3 42.89 532.8
7 Miguel Molina PRI Aeros Combat C 13.5 42.84 526.7
8 Ric Caylor USA Moyes RX 5 Pro 41.90 511.0
9 Pedro L. Garcia USA Wills Wing T3 144 40.35 493.3
10 Davis Straub USA Wills Wing T3 144 40.09 488.0

Cumulative

# Name Nat Glider T 1 T 2 Total
1 Daniel Velez COL Wills Wing T3 984.3 532.8 1517
2 Robin Hamilton USA Aeros Combat 823.1 604.9 1428
3 Pedro L. Garcia USA Wills Wing T3 144 857.4 493.3 1351
4 John Simon USA Aeros Combat C 12.7 765.7 559.9 1326
5 Mike Glennon COL Moyes SX 5 710.5 603.7 1314
6 Mick Howard USA Moyes RX 3.5 841.8 355.1 1197
7 Rob Cooper USA Wills Wing T2 393.2 750.4 1144
8 Derreck Turner USA Moyes RX 4 869.9 266.2 1136
9 Davis Straub USA Wills Wing T3 144 628.3 488.0 1116
10 JD Guillemette USA TBD 467.5 600.6 1068

Sport task:

# Name Nat Glider Distance Total
1 Leonardo Ortiz COL Aeros Discus 10.54 59.2
2 Dean Funk USA Moyes Gecko Pro 10.50 59.1
3 Tim Delaney USA Wills Wing Sport 3 135 8.24 48.8
4 Attila Plasch USA Wills Wing U2 7.62 45.7
5 Douglas Hale USA ? Gecko 155 6.35 39.1

Cumulative:

# Name Nat Glider T 1 T 2 Total
1 Leonardo Ortiz M COL Aeros Discus 996.9 59.2 1056
2 Tim Delaney M USA Wills Wing Sport 3 135 933.1 48.8 982
3 John Maloney M USA Wills Wing Sport 3 155 831.4 30.1 862
4 Thaise Caroline Galvan F BRA Moyes Gecko 704.3 30.2 735
5 Dean Funk M USA Moyes Gecko Pro 550.2 59.1 609

Discuss "2022 Wilotree Park Nationals" at the Oz Report forum   link»   »

2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

Mon, May 2 2022, 7:17:37 pm MDT

Day one, results

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

https://airtribune.com/2022-wilotree-park-nationals/results

Open task:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Daniel Velez COL Wills Wing T3 01:48:24 984.3
2 Derreck Turner USA Moyes RX 4 02:00:14 869.9
3 Pedro L. Garcia USA Wills Wing T3 144 02:00:56 857.4
4 Mick Howard USA Moyes RX 3.5 02:03:10 841.8
5 Robin Hamilton USA Aeros Combat 01:55:10 823.1
6 Konrad Heilmann BRA Moyes Litespeed RX3.5 Technora 02:10:05 782.4
7 John Simon USA Aeros Combat C 12.7 02:03:05 765.7
8 Mike Glennon COL Moyes SX 5 02:08:59 710.5
9 James Messina USA Aeros Combat 13.5 02:24:16 672.7
10 Fabiano Nahoum BRA Icaro Laminar 14.1 02:18:23 644.9

Sport task:

# Name Nat Glider Time Total
1 Leonardo Ortiz M COL Aeros Discus 01:18:57 996.8
2 Tim Delaney M USA Wills Wing Sport 3 135 01:23:38 931.7
3 John Maloney M USA Wills Wing Sport 3 155 01:33:32 830.2
4 Thaise Caroline Galvan F BRA Moyes Gecko 01:40:35 704.6
5 Dean Funk M USA Moyes Gecko Pro 02:03:14 553.1

Sport Class, seven of ten made goal, Open Class, twenty three of twenty nine made goal.

Discuss "2022 Wilotree Park Nationals" at the Oz Report forum   link»   »

2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

Mon, May 2 2022, 6:56:16 pm MDT

Day one, trying for 30% in goal

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

The forecast:

Morning Soaring Forecast for Monday, May 2nd, 2022 at Wilotree Park:

NWS, Today

A 10 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms after 5pm. Sunny, with a high near 89°F. East wind around 5 mph.

Hourly afternoon forecast: east-southeast wind 6 increasing to 8 mph mph, cloud cover 21% increasing to 33%, chance of rain. 10% at 2 pm, 18% at 5 pm.

HRRR, 1 PM:

Surface wind: east-southeast 4 mph (5 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 620 fpm
TOL: 6,100'
CB: 5,700'
B/S: 10.0

HRRR, 4 PM:

Surface wind: southeast 2 mph (3 mph 2,000')
Updraft velocity: 680 fpm
TOL: 8,500'
CB: 7,200'
B/S: 10.0

CAPE shows little chance of over development here or in the neighborhood.

47°F at CB.

Task:

Wilotree 5 km
Kokee 4 km
Baron 5 km
Wilotree 400m

77 km FAI triangle.

Kacey pulls me upwind to the east but not as far as the forming cu. I continue flying toward it 3 km east of Wilotree Park, but don't find anything and have to come back downwind to find another cu much closer to Wilotree and at 1,200' start turning. This thermal averages almost 300 fpm to 4,100'.

There are lots of good looking cu's a bit to the west by the Mickey Mouse lake and pretty soon we are playing around with each other to stay out of the cloud at 5,000' to 5,400'. This lasts for twenty three minutes until eight minutes before the start gate opens.

As the lift begins to die I make a crucial error and head back a kilometer to get under a cu north of Mickey Mouse while other pilots will stick with the dying cu. This will put me 1000' below everyone else at the edge of the start cylinder at the start time.

We all head west-northwest toward the eastern edge of the Green Swamp south of highway 50 and west-southwest of the nursery. There is a nice looking cu there and it has been a good spot of lift before but I'm also looking at the cu on the southeast corner of the nursery, almost always an area of strong lift. I decide, unfortunately, to continue west just south of that cu.

When we get under the cu to the west it's weak, really weak. The pilots that are high continue onward to the west. At first it's 77 fpm, then moving over it's 150 fpm to 3,800'. I've soon had enough flying with Raul and head northwest to find 200+ fpm to 5,400'. It sure would have been nice to find stronger lift.

I take the turnpoint with a few pilots behind as I left my gaggle and then flying to cu's to the northeast I get down to 1,400' before I find 340 fpm back to near cloud base at 5,000'. I'm at the southwest corner of the forested area and heading out over it I find again weak lift at less than 200 fpm. It's a slow climb to 5,200'. I'm hearing from Pedro, but he is always 6 km ahead and finding better lift.

This lack of strong lift continues as I go from cu to cu to the northeast to the turnpoint at Baron. Finally I find 350 fpm in the blue and then head southeast along the Florida Turnpike to the next good looking cu. It's not bad at 240 fpm, but I leave early at 4,400' for better looking ones further south and find 340 fpm to 5,200'.

It's 11:1 to goal, but I figure that at 15 km out I will likely not glide at 11:1 so that I might have to take some lift at the chicken coops north of Mascotte. I come over to them take a couple of turns and then see three pilots just to the north of me climbing fast. I go over to them and it's 700+ fpm . Where was this stuff much earlier in the flight. Now the point is to climb as high and as fast as possible so that I can flying into goal at 55 mph.

Discuss "2022 Wilotree Park Nationals" at the Oz Report forum   link»   »

Registration Open for Florida Spring Competitions

Thu, Nov 25 2021, 9:47:52 am MST

Finally Airtribune responds

Airtribune|Paradise Airsports Nationals 2022|Stephan Mentler|Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

You can now register for the Florida competitions being run by Stephan Mentler.

https://airtribune.com/2022-paradise-airsports-nationals/pilots

https://airtribune.com/2022-wilotree-park-nationals/pilots

Discuss "Registration Open for Florida Spring Competitions" at the Oz Report forum   link»