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topic: Worlds 2004 (18 articles)

Accommodations at Hay

Thu, Dec 9 2004, 11:00:04 am EST

Now the houses open up.

Misty Dunn|Worlds|Worlds 2004

www.visithay.com.au

Misty Dunn at the Hay Tourist Centre «haytouristcentre» writes:

Two houses have become available for the Worlds- better late than never I suppose.

(editor's note: Contact Misty.)

Discuss the Worlds at the Oz Report forum

Alex and Christian's Awesome Adventure, Part 2

Mon, Jul 5 2004, 3:00:01 pm EDT

The second in a series looking at why Christian and Alex were the top two pilots at the Worlds. Get high, go fast, take the best line.

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Christian Ciech|Icaro 2000|Worlds 2004

Let's look at that first glide on day four from a vertical perspective over time:

Christian (light blue), Alex (red) are the highest at 13:15 and will cross the start cylinder circumference in thirty two seconds. Davis (light green) is the next highest but two kilometers behind them. Oliver (yellow), Arnold (pink), and Michael (blue) are lower and just behind them.

So first off, Alex and Christian have been cleverer than the other pilots, using their time before the start time to climb 1000' higher than the rest of them. At 3.5 km out from the start circle at 4 minutes before the start window opens, this gives them a big advantage.

Next, they head for the start circle circumference early and arrive just after Michael, 1,200' higher. Oliver is twenty second behind them, 900' feet lower and Arnold a minute behind, 1,300' lower. I'll arrive two and a half minutes behind 700' lower.

Next, Christian and Alex are clever enough to fly fast through the sink in the valley separating the ridge that they are leaving from and the next spine. They fly at air speeds that corresponds to the expectation of finding strong lift (1000 fpm) on the further spine and therefore they spend less time in the sink than the other pilots.

They fly a line .5 to 1.5 km to the left of the other three pilots, .4 km to the right of me. I find that this line is much better than the ones flown by pilots to my right, and therefore Christian and Alex and flying a better line than those pilots to their right.

They fly a straighter course than the other three pilots, especially Oliver and Michael and therefore have to cover less distance to get to the spine.

Over the glide to the spine Arnold loses 5,600' while Alex loses 4,400'. Arnold is the pilot who flies closest to Alex (although starting 1,3000' below him) and Christian but is off to their right by half a kilometer for 7.8 km soon after the start circle.  During this part of the glide Arnold loses 3,100' flying at 58 mph at 9:1. Alex loses less than 2,000' flying at 56 mph in sink and 50 mph straight in lift, which lasts for 1 km. His glide ratio is 13.5. It is this section of the flight that explains almost all the difference in glide.

I have not been able to distinguish of there is any difference in the glide performance between Alex (on an AIR ATOS VX) and Christian (on an Icaro 2000 Stratos) and every one else. Perhaps we'll be able to tease that out later.

One reader has pointed out that I used the term L/D when I actually mean the glide over the ground.

The Worlds animated

Fri, Jun 25 2004, 6:04:03 pm GMT

See how the pilots did.

Worlds 2004

http://www.drachenflieger.at/html/flyanimation.html

You can get a view of how the pilots did looking at this site. You can see the top three or all the pilots fly.

The Worlds - the top level results »

Thu, Jun 24 2004, 9:00:01 pm GMT

Doing the first part of a wrap up.

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Brian Porter|Christian Ciech|Corinna Schwiegershausen|Francoise Dieuzeide-Banet|Icaro 2000|Johann Posch|Kari Castle|Manfred Ruhmer|Quest Air|Tove Heaney|Worlds 2004

http://www.drachenflieger.at

http://www.drachenflieger.at/html/results.html

http://www.a-i-r.de/pages-d/a_300-Bewerb-WM-2004.htm

http://www.Icaro2000.com/Home.htm

Internet access has been very hard to come by since we left Greifenburg (until we got back here to Quest Air). Even in Greifenburg it was much more difficult than what we have come to expect. Also with the scorekeepers insisting on using PDF files for results the Oz Report was lacking (except through links) in its ability to report more fully the outcome of the Worlds.

My desire is to highlight the hang gliding competitions around the world. Previous to the Oz Report (starting in December, 1996), you might hear about some result from some one you knew or maybe read about it months later in our association's magazine (very unlikely in the US for any European results). Now you expect to know the results the evening of each day as the scorekeepers put them up on their web site. One DHV pilot each day is required to put up their day's story on the DHV web site.

Here are the top twelve places in the rigid wing class:

1 CIECH, Christian, (Icaro Stratos C) ITA 5200
2 PLONER, Alessandro, (AIR Atos VX) ITA 5076
3 CHAUMET, David, (Helite Tsunami) FRA 4620
4 RAUMAUF, Anton, (AIR Atos V) AUT 4167
5 GRICAR, Primoz, (Aeros Phantom) SVN 4059
6 GEPPERT, Walter, (AIR Atos V) AUT 4023
7 MIEDERHOF, Ralf, (AIR Atos C) DEU 3911
8 RIS, Jürg, (AIR Atos C) CHE 3860
9 LAVERDINO, Franco, (AIR Atos C) ITA 3751
10 POSCH, Johann, (AIR Atos V) AUT 3572
11 LEISER, Rene, (AIR Atos V) CHE 3488
12 POLOVYY, Mykola, (Aeros Phantom) UKR 3469

Sorry about the lack of formatting above (see the comparison above at the European Championships), but the results are published in PDF which is not an internet standard and refuses to play well with others. Please tell all your scorekeepers to use HTML output from RACE if they want to have their results published in a nice format in the Oz Report (and other publications) in a timely fashion. Maybe they want to force the reader to their site, so they don't play nice.

Women's flex wing:

1 SCHWIEGERSHAUSEN, Corinna, (Moyes Litespeed S 3) DEU 3809
2 DIEUZEIDE-BANET, Francoise, (Icaro Laminar Zero 7) FRA 3571
3 BRAMS, Rosi, (Moyes Litespeed) DEU 3301
4 CASTLE, Kari, (Icaro Zero 1) USA 3207
5 BAEUMER-FISCHER, Sybille, (Aeros Combat) DEU 3100
6 PETROVA, Natalia, (Aeros Combat 2) RUS 2898
7 KHAMLOVA, Natalia, (Aeros Combat 2) RUS 2888
8 BAZAN, Laura-Nidia, (Moyes Litespeed 4) ARG 2831
9 WERNER, Monique, (Aeros Combat 13) DEU 2686
10 HEANY, Tove, (Moyes Litespeed S 3.5) AUS 2618

Swift Class:

1 RUHMER, Manfred, (Swift) AUT 6611
2 PORTER, Brian, (Swift) USA 4744
3 BAIER, Bob, (Swift) DEU 3913
4 NADLINGER, Arnold, (AIR Atos V) AUT 3797

I have special HTML templates for scorekeepers that help get the results formatted in even a better fashion. I can send them to any scorekeeper and will do so.

Discuss "The Worlds - the top level results" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Flying in Fiesch

Thu, Jun 17 2004, 12:00:06 am GMT

A sailplane pilot looks back

what sailplane pilots feel

sailplane|Worlds 2004|Worlds 1989|Martin Pingel

Martin Pingel «martin.pingel» writes:

Some of the reports coming from the Worlds are very similar to the experience I had out in Switzerland the week before the 1989 Worlds at Feisch.

I was up above launch above the glacier having a great time at about 12000 ft and decided to get down early and avoid the strong valley winds that would set up from mid afternoon. As I burned off height the wind sock in the landing field and in the paragliding field (which was some two to three miles further up the valley) were pulled out showing a gentle southerly breeze (up the face of the mountain side) - so no problems.

As I got lower and lower I noticed that the wind sock in the paragliding field (higher up the valley) was now blowing "down" whilst the one in the hang glider field was blowing "up" the valley. It all happened very quickly, one second I was flying then the next second I had no air speed and a flat free fall of about 500 ft and the ground getting uncomfortably close.

At about 200 ft above the ground (I was too slow in reacting to deploy a chute) the glider eventually started to pick up a bit of flying speed. However I was now positioned downwind, down slope going towards a large building, a railway embankment and a glacial river in full flood!

I managed to ease the glider away from the first two objects, but whilst it was only just flying above the stall speed the ground speed was frightening. I flew over the river and flared straight into a large bush which I grabbed hold of so as not to fall back into the river and a certain drowning. I hurt my vertebrae between my shoulder blades (an injury that still gives me trouble now).

After recovering the glider through the woods, I watched as the "hot" pilots came into land facing a 12000 ft mountain with a 30 mph wind blowing off it - it was frightening. I was in touch with John Pendry and talked him through the best approach based on the previous pilots and he got down safely but was very white faced after.

I understand that a pilot was killed there the following week.

What gets me is that nobody has learnt that hang gliders are not designed well enough to fly in those sort of conditions.

Discuss "Flying in Fiesch" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

The Worlds, days ten and eleven »

Wed, Jun 16 2004, 8:00:00 pm EDT

It's over the back hard, and then it all lightens up.

http://www.drachenflieger.at

http://www.drachenflieger.at/html/results.html

Manfred does the task in 2:15 hours. Christian with Alex just behind did it in 2:45 and Corinna, followed closely by Kari, came in soon after in her task. Numerous pilots dribbled in after the leaders.

With a cold front over us on Wednesday the day was called before we set up. Thursday started with a report of north winds at 40 km/h with gusts to 65 km/h at 8 AM just to the north of us.

The reported winds quieted down as the morning proceeded, but the reports still pushed the task committee to redo the task to send us out in a more easterly direction on the south mountains, the Gailtaler Alps, to stay away from the more turbulent areas. We could see the clouds swirling and bent over from the north above us.

We had an early start at 1:30 given the forecast for lighter winds later in the day, but there were paragliders overhead, so it looked like the winds had lightened up. I was very conflicted about going at all. I was tired of flying in the lee and didn't like the earlier prediction of strong turbulence.

I decided to go near the end of the launch line to get a chance to see how folks were handling the air. It was looking pretty good so the last fifteen of us were lined up, when Junko crashed very hard below launch. She hurt herself pretty bad, destroyed the borrowed Swift, and the crash caused her rocket to deploy into her, burning her arm.

It looked like she has cut or broken her wrist, a broken leg, badly burnt arm badly and may have other injuries. The help was very quick with a doctor to her immediately. It took the helicopter only five minutes to get there and they brought four folks who put her on a stretcher, with two IV's and quickly got her to the hospital.

The launch was closed and the start windowed opened while we were on the ground. There wasn't much of a point in the day's competition for Ron, Jim, and I as well as the others on the launch at this point. The women hadn't started launching for their task, so they reviewed it and changed the times before beginning the task.

I decided to fly, see if it was turbulent on the task or not, and land if I didn't feel good in the air. Actually the air was pretty nice, but I was just not motivated, so I glided down the valley and landed. Jim and Ron, far behind the first gaggle which started half an hour before them, struggled over the Weissensee and didn't get up on the set of mountains going to the start point. They landed without reaching the start point.

Bruce and Vince launched before Junko attempted to launch and get high over launch before heading south across the Drau valley to get the high. Vince got a couple of turnpoints before landing and Bruce made goal.

Rigid wing and female pilots dribbled in in ones and twos after the leaders by far made it in. David Chaumet was the third rigid wing pilot in.

The full results for the day can be found at the URLs above later in the day. Jamie Shelden sends this picture from Tuesday and writes:

Here is Brian at his landing field next to an apartment building. All the neighborhood kids came out to help break down the Swift. What a crew!

Numerous pilots have placed their flights up on the HOLC. You can download the flights and in some cases make comparisons between pilots/gliders flying in the same areas at the same time. I had heard that the comparisons between some pilots flying ATOSes in the "same" air with one or two of the pilots flying the Aeros Stalker Phantoms are quite interesting.

I haven't had an opportunity to look at these track logs (given my restricted internet access here), but the general idea is that the Phantom is doing much better than the previous version of the Stalker, according to Oliver Schmidt, who has looked at them and downloaded his own flights.

Please feel free to make your own comparisons and judgments based on the real data from real flights. One Phantom pilot (sorry I am not familiar with them so I don't have his name) made goal today, although none did two days ago. This ATOS pilot has yet to make goal.

Of course, you can also look at the results of the competition (so far) and get some idea of how various gliders, but really pilots, are doing. The you can draw your own conclusions that you like about who and what is better.

Discuss the Worlds at the Oz Report forum

The Worlds, days six and seven »

Sat, Jun 12 2004, 8:00:00 pm EDT

The meet organizers call day six and day seven due to a cold front over us.

Belinda Boulter|Christian Ciech|Felix Ruehle|Flytec 4030|Icaro 2000|Jim Yocom|photo|prank|record|Ron Gleason|USHGA|Worlds 2004

http://www.drachenflieger.at

A couple of corrections. Uschi Broich's glider was damaged, but not destroyed by the helicopter. She's not happy about having landed safely with an undamaged glider and then being rescued (when she wasn't injured) by a helicopter that did damage to the glider. Her glider has been fixed, and she will fly on the next competition day.

The ATOS with the broken spoiler wire was damaged after landing, with a sail that was totaled, but the d-cells were in excellent shape. Johann and Felix reported that at the area where the ATOS landed it was always blowing up when they got there, so it was clear why the landing was so soft (and why the glider got picked up and tossed around later).

The "professional" rescue crew that took Kari up to retrieve her harness and glider were nonplussed to find that an amateur crew of women pilots who had started out after them had arrived first and had things well in hand by the time that they got there. Kari was pleased.

Belinda takes this shot of Kari with all  her scars.

Icaro 2000 has sent Kari Christian Ciech's Laminar from the World's in Brazil and Kari still has her base bar to put on it. She will probably be flying with her own harness which had minor damage and a Flytec 4030 Race and Garmin 76S from Ron Gleason (he's using his Flytec 5030). Looks like she'll be able to continue.

Saturday the forecast was for embedded thunderstorms, and sure enough at 1:30 PM it poured here in the valley as we were watching the Flugtag at the lake next door. That ended Flugtag.

This Flugtag was being held in conjunction with the Worlds, and would have presented a great opportunity for people to see unflyable things smashing into the water, next to rigid wing pilots "landing" at goal.

Personally, I don't get the real significance of Flugtag. Is it a way of proving that man was not meant to fly? Is the object to build something that can't possibly "win." It is just a fun way of destroying Styrofoam and polluting a small lake?

There were hundred of people who came out for a day of eating, drinking, looking at new car models, and watching the papier-mâché
constructions dive right off the edge of the plank into the water twenty feet below, without even the pretence of attempting flight.

Certainly more people came to watch this version of a college prank and small time Rose parade, then came to watch us pound in real aluminum and carbon fiber at the designated landing zone at Berg. But then it was advertised very heavily and had a predictable time for the carnage to begin. Our lz did have plenty of beer and other drinks in the barn converted to a bar, so you would think that it had some attraction (and there were a good number of locals there).

It rained all afternoon in Greifenburg so it is hard to imagine that we will be going up to fly on Sunday.

I had a long interview with Felix Ruehle for an article on the V and VX for USHGA HG/PG magazine. I will have additional comments in the Oz Report about what I learned from Felix.

Here you'll find the 3 D track log IGC file from the last competition day so far. If you have SeeYou (www.seeyou.ws) and have downloaded the satellite photos for this area you will have a good idea of what the surrounding terrain looks like if you follow the flight. You can download the ATOS 3D symbol from the AIR web site (www.a-i-r-.de) blow it up to about 400 feet and really get a good idea.

Sunday is is called by the organizers before we have to go up the hill.

On Sunday evening the head of the German Hang Gliding Association showed the old films of the DHV tests of gliders rotating when released from below the 200+ meter high bridge. I have earlier published collages taken from the films.


He started off referring to the fact that we had a couple of tucks and tumbles lately here and then asked who among the pilots in the small audience (about 30 people) had tucked or tumbled. Seven or eight pilots raised their hands.

He then went on to refer to the "classical" tuck during which the nose comes up high then rotates through. I politely asked him what he meant by the word classical. (He is a German speaker using English and it was unclear to me what he meant, and unclear to him after I asked whether this was the correct term). He stated that this meant "most common," or reported to be the case in 80% of the tucks.

This got my interest, because this was not the case in my case, nor was it the case in Kari's case. I also thought it was quite revealing that he didn't ask Kari or Uschi if this was true for them, nor did he ask those who had raised their hands, if this was true for them. I.e., was anything he was about to say actually relevant. And, as he was stating this as scientific fact, you would think he might actually look for some recent evidence.

A bit later he referred again to Kari's tuck and I raised my hand again to ask if he would just ask the participants here if what he was saying was true for them or not. This caused quite a commotion as he didn't take kindly to my interruption and asked who was I to question him and disturb his presentation. I hate this when people ask who are you to bring up these issues instead of addressing the legitimate concerns.

After calming down he then asked a few pilots if the nose up situation was true for them: two said yes, one said no. Then he asked Uschii (she said yes) and Kari and she said no. The rest of the pilots who had tucked were not asked.

The point of interest here is that work that he was about to present while fine in and of itself, does not address the fundamental issue, what air conditions cause a glider to tuck and tumble. There are many causes for the situation where your angle of attack is too high for the air packet that you are currently in. (You can find extensive discussions of these issues in earlier Oz Reports.)

The conclusions drawn from the work are overly broad and often irrelevant to the actual conditions that the pilot faces. If the pilot has the opportunity and ability to hold the bar to their chest when they recognize that they are suddenly at a high angle of attack, this can in some circumstances be useful and possible. That's about all we can say. It is incorrect to "imply" from the research that in 80% of the "cases" the pilot could have saved themselves from a tuck and tumble by holding the bar to their chest.

I have no way to judge under what circumstances you will tuck and tumble, but if the pilot is flying in a normal fashion, it is the air that will determine this and not the pilot. Unless that pilot is flying in an unsafe manner, it is not the pilot's fault that the glider tucks and tumbles.

I was speaking with Jim Yocom on the way up the hill the other day. His feeling was that in all the cases where he had spoken to the pilot who tucked and tumbled, the pilot reported that it happened so fast that there was no time to do anything. In the cases where the pilot tucked and recovered things happened much more slowly. Brain's record event at a certain rate, and if your brain can't record it, it happened too fast for you to actually do anything.

The meet organizers claim we have an 80% chance of flying on Monday. It rained on Sunday.

Oz Report and USHGA sponsor US Team

Fri, Jun 11 2004, 11:00:04 pm GMT

Who else is there?

Oz Report|Worlds 2004

The USHGA members through the USHG Foundation paid for the entry fees for the US team. The Oz Report (through it's subscribers) paid for the US Team t-shirts, our only team ware.

Other teams had nice outfits, and all the Oz Report gave me was this crummy t-shirt.

Discuss the Worlds at the Oz Report forum

The Worlds, day five »

Fri, Jun 11 2004, 11:00:00 pm GMT

The safety committee, including me, calls the day based on a forecast.

Worlds 2004

http://www.drachenflieger.at

First, a few updates from Thursday's events. Uschi Broich's glider was fine after she landed after her tumble. She was breaking down the glider when the helicopter came over to rescue her. The down wash from the helicopter destroyed the glider.

The ATOS pilot's glider was also fine after he deployed and landed. Then a thermal came through after the pilot was unhooked and tossed the glider about.

I spoke with Felix about what had happened to the spoiler wire on this ATOS. First off, the glider was an early ATOS C and hadn't been in for its bi-annual inspection. Second, the sweep was about four inches too far forward. This meant that the spoiler wires were not aligned with their pulleys on the spar walls. The pulleys are metal and have sharp edges.

For a couple of days the pilot had been hearing noises when moving the control bar from side to side The noises were the worn spoiler control wire on the pulley. The pilot mentioned on the last day that the control frame would catch as he moved it from side to side. The pilot did not inspect the wires.

The control wire broke at the pulley having been cut over time by the pulley edge.

Felix suggests the following:

1. Pilots should inspect their spoiler wire/pulley alignment to be sure that the wire is on track. This is easily done by opening up the zipper on the under surface and looking at the pulley.

2. Keep your ATOS sweep within the designated range.

3. Inspect all your wires for wear.

4. When on the ground move the control bar from side to side and if you hear a noise inspect the pulleys and the side wires.

5. You can put a little bit of grease on the wire at the pulley if you like.

This was an easily avoidable deployment. ATOSes are made to be extremely simple for the pilot to maintain and the pilot had plenty of warning of trouble in the offing.

Kari and a crew went up early in the afternoon to recover her harness and the bits and pieces of her Laminar. With the forecast for thunderstorms, I hope that she got up there early enough to get everything out before the rains came.

The weatherman called for 100 percent chance of thunderstorms and rain in our area. The meet director proposed a task that would get us on the ground by 3:30 with a start time of 1:30. The idea was to close the task at 3:30.

Our task was a ninety kilometer run along the valley and the women's was for a sixty kilometer run along the north side. Given the forecast for thunderstorms, the fact that there was plenty of vertical development in clouds twenty kilometers away to the south at 9 AM, the fact that there was cumulus congestus twenty kilometers to the east at 11 AM, the fact that we couldn't start launching until later because it was forecast that there wouldn't be enough lift early, and that the cloud base would be low, the safety committee unanimously canceled the task.

Now the women had a bigger fight on their hands. Some were arguing vociferously for a task after the previous task got canceled. It was canceled because the meet director felt that there would be a conflict between the helicopters and the flyers near the second turnpoint where Kari went down. This was a little late as almost all the women competitors had already gone through that area.

There was an underlying theme that those pilots who wanted to cancel the day were supporting Kari who couldn't fly on Friday and that those who wanted to fly the task wanted to get a day's worth of points on Kari. This is assuming that she even flies again in the competition.

Some women felt that the task was too small to be a valid task for the world competition. The whole point of the small task, of course, was to get them out of the bad conditions. All but four women, in a show of hands, wanted to cancel the day.

Finally, the women's safety committee met (including Tove who had earlier resigned because she felt she was not being listen to as a non-local) and called the day.

Jim Yocom took this shot after he went flying at around noon:

As you can see it was pretty cloud covered at this point and would continue to be so for the rest of the day. At 4:30 there was a downpour at the Fliegercamp (which is located to the right of the small lake in the middle of the valley in this picture) from a thunderhead, as well as lightening and thunder.

A good number of pilots chose to free fly. The conditions were quite nice according to the reports, with light lift and no turbulence. Cloud base at noon was a little over 10,000'. Bruce Barmakian chose a task to go out to the east end of the valley to get Thursday's turnpoint and come back. He landed in the same field that he landed in on Thursday. Most pilots had landed by 1:30.

It looks like we won't be flying tomorrow as the cold front should be right over us. I'm certainly appreciating the opportunity for a rest for a couple of days. Given what actually happened during the course of the day, I think that we could have flown the short task, and had everyone safe on the ground by 3:30, especially if we had started earlier then they were allowing us to. Pilots were working lift before noon.

Unfortunately, we were meeting at 11 AM and didn't know the future. At noon there was a thick cloud right in front of launch that could have easily turned into a cu-nimb.

From Kari's description of her tumble, it is clear again, to me at least, that there are air conditions out there that will tumble and perhaps destroy a hang glider and that you often have little to no way of knowing when it is safe and when it isn't. The glider is just taken over by a force that is much much bigger than anything you have ever experienced in the air before and it happens so quickly that your mind doesn't even have a chance to record it clearly.

It's just like you're flying along like you always have and suddenly you are upside down, or rotating violently. No one's reflexes are fast enough to respond to the air's action upon us.

We ATOS pilots are very very happy with our tails as they have continued to dampen out the turbulence a bit and continue to assure us that we have a better chance than gliders without tails of staying upright. Still, tomorrow one of us could find an invisible dragon.

At 9 PM Friday night I saw the truck with the remains of Kari's glider return to the Fliegercamp. They got wet.

Discuss the Worlds at the Oz Report forum

The Worlds - day four »

Fri, Jun 11 2004, 12:00:00 am GMT

Tossing and turning, what's the key to keeping us upright?

Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Belinda Boulter|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|David Chaumet|Gerolf Heinrichs|Jamie Shelden|Jim Yocom|Kari Castle|Natalia Petrova|Tove Heaney|Worlds 2004

http://www.drachenflieger.at

It didn't seem that bad. At least as far as I could tell. Wasn't quite as nice for me as yesterday, but wasn't bad (well, more about that later). Tove thought it was the smoothest and most fun day yet.

But, Kari Castle tumbled in her new Icaro 2000 Laminar at 11,000' over the range to the south of Greifenburg while thermaling up. Tove was high above her when she saw a glider first showing its white top, then the Red Bull undersurface, then the top, then the red side, and on and on. She knew right away that it was Kari and was waiting to see the parachute which finally came out after the glider destroyed itself.

Tove was thermaling up in a nice little thermal at almost 12,000' and was enjoying the lift and searching around a bit for more of the core. This was the thermal that Kari came over to and joined. She was just thermaling up as usual, when the glider got yawed around in the opposite direction. Then suddenly the bar was jerked down. She held on tight.

The next thing she knew the glider was rotating around as she continued to hold on tight to the control bar. Soon the glider was breaking up into pieces and after a while the control bar was pretty much all she had that was intact.

With plenty of time she reached for her chute found a clear area and hucked it out. Now she found herself coming down on the ridge top, with lots of rocks below, so she started trying to steer the wreckage around to guide herself to one side or the other hopefully over to the trees.

But the steering didn't do all that much as the winds took over and she ended up unhurt on the steep hillside with her parachute holding on to a tree and the wreckage about to slide down the hillside.

A sailplane pilot also saw the tumble and called air traffic control which got a chopper out right away. They still didn't have good co-ordinates, but Natalia Petrova did and got those to the chopper. They also apparently triangulated on her cell phone and found her. She was airlifted out under the chopper in the same manner that we saw last week at Gnadenwald, with a rescue person with her at the end of the line. Kari said that she loved that part of the flight.

Kari has a few minor cuts and bruises but she was doing fine when we saw her and talked with her a few hours later. The women's task was called for the day.

But, Kari wasn't the only one who tumbled on Thursday. Apparently Uschi Broich, flying a Seedwings Vertigo (according to the scorekeepers), also tumbled near where Kari did and threw her chute. I don't have her story, but it was said that she was drinking a beer at the goal field.

Also, a rigid wing pilot, an ATOS pilot, I assume, had trouble with one of his spoiler wires and decided to throw his chute. He first reported that he was having a "technical difficulty." Maybe he didn't know how Jamie Sheldon and Bruce Barmakian have recovered and corrected these problems in the air (see earlier Oz Reports).

Just to add to the carnage today. A free flyer doing a high bank turn coming into the landing field here at the Fliegercamp broke his Laminar at 400' and got his chute out in time to save himself. A paraglider pilot apparently stalled his glider at 20 feet at the Fliegercamp and broke his back and leg and had to be helicoptered out. And there was another paraglider accident at launch.

The weather forecast was for northwest winds at 25-35 km/h at 3,000 meters, pretty much like yesterday with a cold front approaching on Friday from the west. The trigger temperature was 30° and cloud base was expected to be around 14,000'. I dressed with two coats and stayed warm.

Our task in class five was to head northwest on the north side of the valley beyond Lienz, then back north of the launch to the east end of the valley, back to the castle on the south side past the goal field at Berg, then back to Berg, 156 km.

The weather man was very concerned about the chance of over development again and even more so on Thursday. He felt that there was a good chance of gust fronts in the valleys if there was a thunderstorm at the top of the valley. They called for the task to be stopped in advance at 5 PM.

No one seemed to be concerned at all about the forecasted winds, even when I pressed the point. Later there was plenty of over development and cu-nimbs but just not along our course line.

Given our late start yesterday everyone was ready to launch early and it was no problem climbing up to over 12,500' and moving down the range to get to the start circle. We were facing a 20 km/h west wind as we moved west.

There were forty gliders milling around at 13,000' just before the start circle at 1:15 the start time and we all went on a long glide to get to the hills just above Lienz.

Flying past Lienz, the wind changed from west to south, and I wondered where this north west wind was supposed to be. We were staying high, well most of us were, and racing over the snow fields at the peaks to get to the first turnpoint. A few of us climbed up to over 14,000'.

Marcuse, a Swiss ATOS pilot, would later mention that he got into a situation near here where the wind noise completely stopped, then in slow motion his nose rotated until it was straight down, still no wind noise, then slowly rotated back up, still with no wind noise.

Racing back from the turnpoint, I decided to take the less direct route and stay in the Drau valley instead of the valley and hills to the north. That slowed me down a little, but I found sweet lift on the ridge lines that made me enjoy the flight a little more.

Getting to the second turnpoint past the east end of the valley, I had Jim Yocom and Vince just behind me. They had taken the back route. Bruce had just gone down in the Drau valley after taking the turnpoint ahead of us. Ron hadn't gotten up at launch and was reporting conditions.

I raced to a paraglider on the south side and slowly got up while Vince and Jim headed to the north side to find better conditions and get ahead of me. I soon made my way over there to find that there was light lift all along the hill side on the north side and I could just fly straight and come in over the launch with plenty of height to make the turnpoint and goal.

Jim and Vince had just reported no sink on the way to the turnpoint at the castle and back downwind to goal so I kept going. Unfortunately within the next few minutes everything changed.

As I approached the castle on the south side of the valley with 3,000' AGL I suddenly turned into a leaf in the wind and was falling at 1,000 fpm. I stupidly continued and made the turnpoint only to land after racing back to the north side hoping to get out of what I assumed was rotor.

In fact the south winds had suddenly picked up and Jim and others were now having a hard time getting down safely at goal a few kilometers away. I thankfully had a safe landing, even if it was a slider in a recently manured field.

When we got back to the goal field, everyone was freaked out about all the incidents. It was unclear why the women's task had been stopped (and therefore not scored as no one was in goal from that class). Perhaps it seemed like the pilots were raining out of the sky and it was unsafe to continue.

As an outsider I don't understand the conditions here and have to take people's word on it on what are safe conditions. I spoke with Gerolf and he says that locally the wind will go to south with an approaching front. Perhaps this clash of air masses was the cause of some problems over the southern range.

I asked Gerolf about foehn conditions and he says that it requires an upper level layer of stable air and that you can usually see the lenticulars. There has been no indication of upper level stable air except perhaps a bit on day two.

The preliminary results have Christian Ciech winning the day, a Aeros Phantom pilot in third, David Chaumet in fourth and Alex Ploner fifth.

Belinda's shot of the launch over Berg on Thursday morning. We get up there at 9 AM..

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The Worlds, day three »

Wed, Jun 9 2004, 8:00:00 pm EDT

Stirred, not shaken.

http://www.drachenflieger.at

What a difference a day makes.

The forecast was similar to what we saw for Tuesday, with the winds forecast to be somewhat lighter, 25 km/h instead of 35 km/h, out of the northwest. But, two of the three mountain sites were reporting winds in the five or six km/h range. The other site west down the range was reporting 22 km/h. The winds have been out of the north over the back every day that we've been here for the last week.

On the safety committee I argued against going back to the northwest for the first turnpoint and instead asked to go to a turnpoint on the Lienzer Dolomites southwest of Lienz. I was hoping that this puts us on the southern range and away from the lee side of the mountains that we launch from. Finally, I got some support for this change.

After Tuesday most pilots were a bit freaked out. With our weather guy reporting a chance of over development and strong isolated showers the task was set smaller at 136 km. The women have a 72 km task also mostly on the south side of the Drau valley in the protected area just south of launch.

The American team launched about half an hour before the start window, which was late. The launch line was slower than on the previous days. After yesterday I was not all that excited about getting into the air.

The conditions over launch were pretty reasonable, and while we get jostled a bit, there was basically little turbulence, at least, none like we experienced on the first two days. I was still not ready to slow down the thermaling and milk the lift, but at least I was not crying.

I climbed only to 11,000' at the start circle while some pilots who launched earlier were at least at 12,000'. Bruce Barmakian is high and going with the leaders.

The winds were about six km/h out of the northwest in spite of the forecast and we quickly got to 12,000' on course on the north side of the Drau valley. Then it was a quick jump across the valley to the south to the Lienzer Dolomites.

It was also easy to get up  on the Dolomites by going to the north face. Often there is extreme turbulence here (like yesterday), but not yesterday.

Getting over 12,000' was easy on the Dolomites and it was a smooth run to the turnpoint on the lee side of the Dolomites. Two kilometers east back down the valley to the south of the Drau, I joined a small gaggle that would climbs at an average of over 800 fpm to cloud base at 14,500'.

It was cold up there. Even the Flytec gloves that have been doing a great job for me are not enough to handle how cold this was. I then glide 30 km without stopping for lift just to get down far enough to warm up.

I watched the pilots just in front of me go right down the valley, at first under the clouds, but then I moved off to the left to get over the northern range while keeping an eye on everyone. It was easy to climb back to over 12,500' after I got a chance to warm up at 10,000'.

It was a quick glide to the next turnpoint on the lee side and a forcefully push back to the north to get on the windward side of the range and quickly back up to over 12,000' once again.

It then took only one more thermal on the north side of the Drau to make it to the last turnpoint at the east end of the Drau valley and back to goal, a forty kilometer final glide. It was great just coasting along the hillside on the north side of the Drau getting little bits of lift and very little sink all the way into goal.

Unlike on day one, there was a bit of east (tail) wind at goal, so the landings were much better. None the less, one Italian rigid wing pilot broke his arm on landing.

There was never any undue turbulence throughout the flight. I even got to relax in the thermals and let my arms have a break. While the thermals still had plenty of edges, they were just a reminder that you had to find the core to go up well.

Manfred won the Swift class. Rosie came in first for the women passing Corinna, who was second, when she was not heavy enough to keep up on final glide with Rosie. Kari was third, five minutes behind these two.

Kari followed Corinna to the last turnpoint but a bit below her. Then just before turnpoint, Corinna made a big turn, and headed over the back for a lee side thermal that Kari being lower can't get to. Rosie joined Corinna and they beamed up high above Kari who struggled to find a thermal and came in behind them.

Christian Ciech came in first fourteen seconds in front of Alex Ploner in the rigid wing class. Most pilots will make it into goal, as the task was too short for the conditions.

Tuesday's task didn't count for the rigid wings and the women's meet because someone must be at goal for the day to count when it is stopped. I still wonder why they have this rule. We don't use it in the US.

Dustin and Kevin flew to the base of Gross Glockner to the northwest from launch and reported getting beat up badly. Dustin was amazed to hear that we had great conditions on our course.


Gerolf Heinrichs and Jamie Shelden sitting on the goal line on Tuesday. Photo by Tim Ettridge.

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Austrian webcams

Tue, May 18 2004, 6:00:01 pm GMT

Seeing when the snow goes away.

weather|webcam|Worlds 2004

Austrian web cams

The Worlds web cam

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Australian ATOS and UHF radios

Fri, May 14 2004, 6:00:03 pm GMT

More on the new ATOS dealer there.

ATOS

Airborne Australia|Airborne Fun|competition|Exxtacy|gear|helmet|John Reynoldson|radio|Raptor Designs|Swift|trike|Worlds 2004

John Reynoldson «aerial» writes:

While the current market for rigid wings in Australia is pretty small and we're a long way from Europe, there is slowly growing group of ATOS, Exxtacy, Swift and Stalker/Phantom pilots, and given the growth elsewhere, this segment of the flying population looks likely to expand and will need local professional service.

My company, Raptor Designs currently makes communications gear and distributes (and manufactures) flying helmets for everyone from paragliders up to Tiger Moths. Through the helmet connection we have access to professional composite facilities and expertise, and we hope to get guidance from A-I-R in the near future to facilitate local inspection/repair of ATOS parts.

I am only a new ATOS pilot though I have been flying hang gliders since 1975. I have met Davis at a couple of the Deniliquin competitions when I was free-flying my nanolight soaring trike/Shark (and demonstrating just how early in the day it gets good and soarable). This unit is now adapted to the ATOS and provides some fantastic soaring. I originally bought the ATOS for just this purpose, but I've found that I've really enjoyed flying it as a hang glider too. It complements my Airborne Fun 190 very well depending on the site/conditions.

Plans and kits for the nanolight trike (the Thistledown) may be available later this year depending on what my lawyers say :-)

Prospective Australian ATOS pilots who would like to be kept up to date should drop me a line at «aerial» or just visit the web site www.aerialpursuits.com and follow the links.

We are hoping to be able to provide an attractive option for overseas pilots who need Australian UHF CB radios for the Worlds in Hay. The intention is to have UHF radios available at an attractive price, complete with accessories such as speaker/mikes and finger switch PTT units with the option of selling them back at the end of the competition period (at an agreed price dependent on the condition of the unit). Car-based CB's with good antennas will also be available. In addition, we intend to provide service for radio systems, spare radios and repairs to PTT systems right there in Hay. International pilots who are interested should email me well ahead of time.

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Flytec Championship - day nine »

A tough day, made that way by the task committee (on purpose).

competition

Sat, Apr 24 2004, 7:00:00 pm GMT

A.I.R. ATOS|A.I.R. ATOS VX|Aeros Combat|Aeros Combat 2|Aeros Ltd|Alex Ploner|Brett Hazlett|Brian Porter|cloud|competition|Eric Paquette|Flytec Championships 2004|Flytec Championships 2005|gaggle|Jacques Bott|Johann Posch|Just Fly|Kraig Coomber|Manfred Trimmel|Mario Alonzi|Ron Gleason|Swift|tandem|Worlds 2004

The results will be posted here: http://www.flytec.com/flytec_champ_04/index.html

We are back to east winds again like for most of the meet. The winds are forecasted to be higher at higher elevation, up to 19 knots. It also looks like the clouds will be thin or not there at all. The top of the lift is forecasted to be 7,400' with lift at 640 fpm, so it should be strong and high enough to come back into the wind.

We hold everything back half an hour as there are clouds forming and we want them to fill in a bit. The rigids will start at 2 PM and the flex wings at 2:30. The clouds do start to look good just on the north side of Quest.

The flex wing contest is very tight with Mario Alonzi in first by less then 40 points over Oleg Bondarchuck. Both these top two pilots are flying Aeros Combat L's. Of course, Bo who won yesterday, is flying the Aeros Combat 2 (not the L). So this day could determine who wins the meet.

The rigid wing contest is not particularly tight (for first at least). Alex had hoped to be 1000 points ahead so that he could go tandem on the AIR ATOS VX today, but he was only 600 points ahead of Worlds Number 1, David Chaumet, on the Tsunami. Alex has won every task. Ron Gleason has a chance to move into fourth behind Eric Paquette (see below), if he does really well today.

We get reasonable climbs to cloud base at 5,000' staying out of the fourteen mile start circle centered around Kokee, 19 miles to the west, northwest. One flex wing, maybe Chris Chris Zimmermann is the only one to go with us, unlike Bo the day before. The rest of the flex wings will wait until later to start.

I'll go down early missing the second thermal, so I'll get a chance to see how the rest of the crew does waiting at goal. Alex Ploner is the first pilot in, with Mark and Brian closely behind him (starting fifteen minutes later). After a bit of a wait David Chaumet comes in, followed by Jacques Bott, Eric Paquette and later Ron Gleason. Then it is a long time until Kurt Schumann gets home and a long time later Johann Posch. The question remains whether Ron will gain enough points to pass Johann for forth.

Now it is time to wait for the flex wings to make it. The sky has been washed clean of clouds for the last hour, but Alex says that he find plenty of lift on the way home. He said he struggled getting to the second turn point, but the guys who came along a little alter timed it perfectly and had clouds form out in front of them as they made it to the second turnpoint to the north at Coleman.

The winds were switchy out on the last leg into Quest from Coleman. So it wasn't as hard making it in as we had thought.

As we break down Alex's VX, we catch site of four flex wings coming in low and fast. In the lead is Oleg Bondarchuck, with Antoine right behind, followed closely by Kraig Coomber and Brett Hazlett. These four are the first gaggle and they are a good ways in front of the next group that includes Mario coming in low and fast just over the trees.

It looks like Oleg has been able to grab the lead back from Mario. It looks like for the first time the Aeros Combat has been the glider selected by the top two place finishers in a major hang gliding meet (outside the Ukraine, that is). Congratulations to Oleg, Mario, Bo, and the folks at Just Fly and Aeros.

The new AIR ATOS -VX, with the very excellent Alex Ploner piloting, it has proven to be the glider to be in in light conditions. It is still not clear what he will be flying at the Worlds in the Alps. Manfred Trimmel won the first day at Bassano in a VX.

Alex, Christian, ad David Chaumet have to be the top favorites at the Worlds coming up in six weeks. Alex and Felix will have an interesting decision to make.

Brian Porter has been flying a very heavily customized Swift with a much smaller cage. He will be flying this in the Worlds. Will this be enough to beat Manfred? We'll see.

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2004 Worlds web site

Wed, Mar 17 2004, 3:00:04 pm EST

It's mostly up and running.

the Worlds

Worlds 2004

www.drachenflieger.at

http://home.earthlink.net/~xcflying2/index.html

You can register and look for places to stay.

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Women at the Worlds

Thu, Feb 26 2004, 8:00:05 pm GMT

I asked Angelo why only six women? Why not twenty?

Worlds 2004

Angelo wrote back:

You have no idea how difficult it was to have just six.

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The race for the Worlds in Oz

Sat, Feb 14 2004, 2:00:01 am GMT

Bo Hagewood|Bubba Goodman|calendar|Carlos Bessa|Chelan XC Classic 2004|Chris Zimmerman|Claire Vassort|competition|Curt Warren|Davis Straub|Dean Funk|Dennis Pagen|Flytec Championships 2004|George Stebbins|Glen Volk|Jerz Rossignol|Jim Lee|Kari Castle|Kevin Carter|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|Mark Bolt|Mike Barber|NTSS|Paris Williams|Phil Bloom|Richard Sauer|Scott Angel|South Florida Championships 2004|Steve Rewolinski|Tennessee Tree Toppers Team Challenge 2004|Terry Presley|USHGA|US Nationals 2004|Worlds 2004

The points from the Australian meets add up as we look at the NTSS standings for US flex wing pilots and how they effect who's going to the Worlds in Hay in 2005.

https://OzReport.com/compPilotRankings.php

The race to be on the flex wing national teams is on. Pilots were in Australia flying to gain points on their country's team so that they can go to the Worlds in Australia next January. In the US, the pilots are chosen on the basis of their four best competitions results. They can use their two best flights from 2003, and their best flights from 2004. One new rule is that only two flights from competitions outside the United States count. Here's how things stand today:

1 Hagewood Bo 1498
2 Williams Paris 1150
3 Warren Curt 1059
4 Lee Jim 1014
5 Bessa Carlos 994
6 Rossignol Jerz 975
7 Castle Kari 965
8 Zimmerman Chris 898
9 Sauer Richard 886
10 Presley Terry 827
11 Carter Kevin 811
12 Goodman Bubba 806
13 Straub Davis 733
14 Pagen Dennis 719
14 Bolt Mark 719
16 Bloom Phil 662
17 Vassort Claire 657
18 Grzyb Krzysztof 635
19 Angel Scott 632
20 Rewolinski Steve 629
21 Barber Mike 628
22 Bunner Larry 557
23 Volk Glen 516
24 Stebbins George 512
25 Funk Dean 476

Of course the pilots who went to Australia got a head start. Bo has four meets that count now and Kevin has three meets. Other pilots have only two meets that count. Both Bo and Kevin have meets with low points that can be overcome with better results in 2004.

It takes about 1,900 NTSS points to gain a place on the US National flex wing team. That means you've got to average about 475 points per meet to make it. Placing first in a fully valid, well attended meet gives you 660 points.

There are five USHGA sanctioned meets in the US in 2004 - Flytec, South Florida, Team Challenge, CXCC, US Nats. All these meets are worth at least 330 points to the flex wing winner (with a minimal number of days flying). The rest of the pilots get a percentage of the winner's points.

See https://OzReport.com/calendar.php for a list of the competition in 2004.

Flying to the Worlds in Austria

Wed, Jan 28 2004, 2:00:05 pm EST

Worlds|Worlds 2004

the Worlds

http://www.ltu.de/index.html?SiteID=1020600&LangID=9