Wills Wing
Flytec

Oz Report

topic: picture (68 articles)

Stanwell Park 2022 »

Sat, Dec 24 2022, 1:58:34 pm GMT

It's summer time there.

Rebecca Rannstrom|picture

Rebecca Rannstrom sends this picture of her husband launching at Stanwell:

Discuss "Stanwell Park 2022" at the Oz Report forum   link»

A Look Back at the HC 2022 »

Tue, Jun 28 2022, 4:46:40 pm GMT

Detail info for all flights:

Task 1 All Pilots: https://ayvri.com/scene/gdkz603ojz/cl4g1eetg00053b61xc79vdpv
Task 2 All Pilots: https://ayvri.com/scene/gdkz603ojz/cl4g5d3sd00063b61khtk16sd#fullscreen
Task 3 All Pilots: https://ayvri.com/scene/gdkz603ojz/cl4g5xy9l00063b61zwp2iikc#fullscreen
Task 4 All Pilots: https://ayvri.com/scene/gdkz603ojz/cl4gb80nc00063b6111k9er60
Task 5 All Pilots: https://ayvri.com/scene/gdkz603ojz/cl4gbd1p200063b617mgztw2f

Discuss "A Look Back at the HC 2022" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Vågå Open Hang Gliding Competition 2022 »

Tue, Jun 28 2022, 4:43:45 pm GMT

Results

Manfred Ruhmer|Olav Opsanger|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|picture|Vågå Open Competition 2022|video

https://airtribune.com/vaga-open-hanggliding-competition-2022/results

Jonny wins Class 1 and Manfred wins Sport. Everyone got something to drink.

Discuss "Vågå Open Hang Gliding Competition 2022" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Piano

Fri, Feb 18 2022, 7:24:04 pm MST

Landing at the LZ at Valle de Bravo

Knut Ryerson|picture

"Knut Ryerson" «krryerson» writes:

Pre-comp week in Valle De Bravo, Mexico.

Talking to our driver here in Valle we found out that the kids at Piano LZ have to first go to school, then take a shower, before they can show up at the LZ, offering to break down our gliders.

They charge 50 pesos which is $2.50.

Most important, they are very polite, works hard and do a better job than most pilots.

Some of the older kids also help loading the gliders on to the vans.

Some of the younger kids used the white chair in the picture to stand on, so they can break down gliders.

The food at the LZ is being prepared by two Mexican ladies and it’s homemade, very fresh, low priced and outstanding.

The flying conditions have also been superb this week.

What more can you ask for? Just a fantastic place.

Discuss "Piano" at the Oz Report forum   link»   »

Don't work so hard

Wed, Jan 26 2022, 11:44:33 am MST

Saving your back

picture|transportation|video

Discuss "Don't work so hard" at the Oz Report forum   link»   »

Wolfi at Canoa

Fri, Jan 7 2022, 11:06:43 am MST

Ridge Racing

Canoa Open 2021|picture|video|Wolfgang "Wolfi" Siess

How does Wolfi get on top of everyone?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cLG1yrswKdA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcN2ZBHoUN8

https://youtu.be/4oGagp6gqxU

Discuss "Wolfi at Canoa" at the Oz Report forum   link»   »

Felix's Flying Year in Review

Fri, Jan 7 2022, 11:03:04 am MST

In just over 4 minutes

Felix Cantesanu|picture|video

https://youtu.be/8t63mVhtLg0

Discuss "Felix's Flying Year in Review" at the Oz Report forum   link»   »

Hang Gliding Instruction in North Carolina

Mon, Nov 22 2021, 8:31:30 am MST

4000 tandems

aerotow|Craig Pearson|Facebook|instruction|Moyes Delta Gliders|North Wing|picture|scooter|tandem|Thermal Valley Hang Gliding|towing|video|Wills Wing

Craig Pearson «craig» writes:

We own and operate Thermal Valley Hang Gliding and operate in Lenoir NC. Our website is http://www.thermalvalley.net . We are on Facebook and Instagram and have been in business since 2011. We primarily aerotow tandem discovery flights but teach aerotowing, foot launching, and scooter towing. We have flown nearly 4000 tandems and are Wills Wing, Moyes and North Wing authorized dealers (although Wills Wing dealership status is unknown for now).

www.thermalvalley.net

https://www.facebook.com/thermalvalley

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ika0wJDgjYs

https://youtu.be/2yJZTbQMiqk

Discuss "Hang Gliding Instruction in North Carolina" at the Oz Report forum   link»   »

2022 Hang Gliding Calendar

Tue, Nov 9 2021, 11:46:23 am MST

It's ready

calendar|Moyes Delta Gliders|picture|Sander van Schaik

"Sander van Schaik" «sander» writes:

Once again, promotion of our beloved Hang Gliding sport. For ourselves, but also for potential new Hangglider students. Thanks to pilots from all over the world sending their photos, I could make the Hang Glider Calendar 2022.

The A3 Calendar of 2022 is created with pictures send by hobby and competition pilots from over the whole world. Every picture includes the pilot's name, location and photographer's name. This wonderful product is THE Calendar 2022 to use in your own house, give to potential hang gliding students, or at your office to promote your big hobby.

Purchase here.

From November 8th 2021 the Calendar will be sent out. In time for Xmas and Dutch Sinterklaas.

Specifications of the Hang Glider Calendar
• Calendar is in A3 format
• The design includes week numbers.
• The A3 Calendar is made out of beautiful pictures send from all over the world by competition and recreational Hangglider pilots.
• Every picture includes the name of the pilot, the name of the photographer and the place where it is made.
• This is THE Ultimate Calendar for promoting the Hang Glider Sport at home, at their workplace or at the office.
• The Calendar is printed digitally
• The Calendar is made in full color, 12 months + 1 cover, 250gram satin-white paper with glow finish, finishing with wire and thumbhole Calendar hook.
• The Calendar will be sent in a Cardboard case, so the Calendar will be received undamaged.

Who is on the Hang Glider Calendar 2022?

Sponsoring by
- Airborne
- Airspire
- Deltavliegschool Randonaero
- Drachenfliegen lernen
- Ellipse
- Forbes Flatlands
- Icaro 2000
- Mintgroen
- Moyes
- Naviter
- Rotor Europe
- Trike Valley
- Westerwold airfield
- Wills Wing

Dealers
- Germany ( www.drachenfliegenlernen.de )

Discounts
If you want to order more Calendars:
- 5 Calendars - 19 euro per Calendar
- 10 Calendars - 18 euro per Calendar
- 25 Calendars - 17 euro per Calendar

Sending costs for any weight package
Send inside the Netherlands - € 4,95
Send inside Europe 1 - € 7,95
Send inside Europe 2 - € 10,95
Send World from of € 19,95

Dots

May 26, 2021, 9:31:52 MDT

Dots

Connecting

picture

Discuss "Dots" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Blacky

September 8, 2020, 8:28:13 MDT

Blacky

Camouflage

Facebook|picture

Discuss "Blacky" at the Oz Report forum   link»

A Flow of Time

April 10, 2020, 9:30:19 EDT

A Flow of Time

Night and Day

Facebook|picture

This is my first time-blended image of 2019, taken at a gorgeous overlook atop the Rio Grande Valley in northern New Mexico. Based on the astronomical alignments of the pre-twilight sky (I use the TPE apps and PlanIt! Pro to plan my shots), I knew the Milky Way would be arcing over the southern extent of this portion of the Rio Grande, while sunrise would occur over the snow-capped Sangre de Cristo Mountains to my east, near the opposite section of the river.

I hobbled out onto a rocky spine maybe 8 feet wide and covered in uneven boulders and found this irresistible cholla cactus clinging to the rocks just feet away from a precipitous drop into the canyon below. It took over an hour of trial-and-error in the dark to get the composition right, ensuring the cactus was roughly in the middle of my panorama and the boulders weren't obstructing any segments of the river, all while avoiding stepping towards the steep drops on both sides of the spine. After all the tedious setup, I finally captured my night-sky foreground and sky frames just in the nick of time, right before astronomical twilight kicked in. I captured two more panoramic sequences afterward, one during blue hour and another HDR sequence at the moment the sun peeked out over the mountains. All images were captured between roughly 4:30-7:00am from the same tripod location.

Discuss "A Flow of Time" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Makapuu?

June 19, 2019, 8:11:15 MDT

Makapuu?

Who are the four guys?

picture

Is this Makapuu?

This picture is from the eighties. Who are the four guys?

Discuss "Makapuu?" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Flaring

July 2, 2018, 7:43:32 MDT

Flaring

Colorful

Facebook|picture

Discuss "Flaring" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Rhythm of Flight Web-series Episode 11 "Going Back to Cali" »

Fri, Jul 29 2016, 2:56:03 pm GMT

picture|video

We are excited to bring you episode eleven of our hang gliding series! Follow Jonas and Wolfi as they head on their final course back south to California. Sit back and watch as the ROF team conquers Notch Peak, Utah followed by arguably the most scenic sled ride in the world in Yosemite National Park, California. Without out a doubt some of the most scenic footage of the entire trip this is one you don"

With PayPal please click the Send Money tab to send the money and eliminate credit card fees by clicking the "I'm sending money to family an friends" if your PayPal account is connected to your bank account and not just to a credit card:

The email address would be davis and I would be at davisstraub.com.

If you’d rather just send a check for $20 or $30 (US Dollars, only please) or more, please feel free to do so. The mail gets forwarded to me wherever I’m at.

Payable to:

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

If you send a physical check, be sure to send me your email address so that I can register you as a subscriber.

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

Come over to the Oz Report support web page and sign up to support us: https://OzReport.com/support.php. Or click here:

You can also use Dwolla (The best way to move money. No percentages. No hidden fees. Just 25¢ per transaction or free for transactions $10 and less.)

Discuss "Rattling the tin cup" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2012 Brazilian Nationals »

Thu, Oct 11 2012, 7:21:36 pm GMT

Forth task

Brazilian Nationals 2012|map|picture|tracker

http://www.superrace2012.blogspot.com/

Follow it live: http://www.flytrace.com/Tracker/map.aspx?group=43

http://timaonasalturas.blogspot.com/

Konrad writes::

The bad thing about pre frontal flying is that after the good flying days at some point the front will arrive. Task cancelled, this picture shows the front moving in from the west early this afternoon.

Discuss "2012 Brazilian Nationals" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Slide show (power point presentation) of the Australian Morning Glory

January 26, 2011, 9:04:51 AEDT

Slide show (power point presentation) of the Australian Morning Glory

Like when Jonny was playing with it

Dutcher Sterling|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|picture

http://www.powerpointspowerpoints.com/powerpoints/Curiosos/Gloria_matutina.pps

Thanks to Dutcher

Oz Report in Laragne-Montéglin, the ancient gliders

June 27, 2008, 8:51:01 pm +0200

Laragne - museum

The sea of gliders.

Ali Gali|picture

Ali Gali took this panoramic of the old gliders set up in the campground LZ, click for the bigger (1.6 MB) version:

Big Spring – Keep Hope Alive »

Sun, Aug 3 2003, 6:00:01 pm EDT

cost|food|internet|picture|radio|Swift|tandem|tug|Worlds

The US National Hang Gliding Championships was a big deal for the fairly depressed town of Big Spring. We’re holding the meet at the former air force base, so there’s one source of local revenue and people that’s gone. The refinery laid off a lot of people also, so there isn’t much in town in the way of jobs.

The town really expressed their support for having the Nationals there, and they are hoping for the Worlds (flex or rigid/women’s/Swift). They want us to come back next year, of course.

They served us dinner at the airport office on the first night, let us use two hangars, and the air conditioned airport offices as well as the taxi way. We got free high speed wireless and wired internet access from a local ISP (and thanks to Tim Meaney the super scorekeeper and network analyst. The Super 8 motel manager provided a lot of rooms gratis so that David could put up a bunch of the tug pilots and keep the cost of the meet down.

The mayor came out and welcomed us to Big Spring and he and his wife had tandem flights. There were many radio ads and sponsorship from the local radio station. There were billboards, and media from all over Texas there. Pepsi brought out their Aquafina blimp on the last day. There were food vendors every day and more on Saturday. There was a flea market held at the airport on the last day.

They setup bleachers with shading for spectators (although they should have put it closer to the action). They brought ice cream on the day they wanted us to fill out a questionnaire.

People were encouraged to come out to the airport for tandem and ultralight flights. This provided extra income for tug pilots (and owners), and delighted the town.

Chris Cheney, the local jeweler who last year came out, decided that he really did want to hang glide, took lessons during the year, and this year was aerotowing in a Falcon, worked the launch every day. Many volunteers from the town chased the carts and got us all lined up. Chris got a three hour soaring flight on the last day.

The owners of the Texas RV Park, where a bunch of us stayed, organized the dinner. They’ve got three cabins available next year for about $5/person. Air conditioned.

We may be nobody in the big picture but to a small town down in the dumps, we are somebody.

Discuss "Big Spring – Keep Hope Alive" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Photo/caption contest »

Wed, Jul 9 2003, 5:00:06 pm EDT

Australia|cloud|photo|picture

Alan Blake <ablake@netpromotions.com.au> sends this picture of the morning glory in northern Australia

The photo is of a cloud over 250k's long.

Discuss photos at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "Photo/caption contest" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Flytec/Quest Air WRE – is it all just a dream?

Wed, Jul 9 2003, 5:00:00 pm EDT

cloud|David "Dave" Glover|David Glover|Gary Osoba|maps|PG|photo|picture|Quest Air|record|tail|weather|world record|Zapata

At seven this morning I started looking at the day’s forecasts for the weather. Yesterday I received this e-mail message from Gary Osoba via David Glover:

I really like the looks of the long-range weather pattern as things improve this week, into the weekend, and all of next week. Not only will the winds and precipitation picture continue to improve overall, but the moisture they are getting for the second half of our 500 mile path right now will help with cumulus formation as things continue to dry out.

I think we will see both the 500 mile HG record and the 500 km PG record fall later this week, or next week. I am focusing on getting a glider there as soon as possible and as I am done with my other responsibilities to break the Open Free Distance record of 930 miles. Wyoming bound from Zapata!

Yesterday we had some wonderful flying in the morning but by noon it looked decidedly iffy with cloud base rising only to 3,000’ MSL, lots of clouds filling in and vertical development occurring. By the time we packed up and got on the road it was dumping hard to our south. Over development in other areas seemed significant.

A review of the satellite pictures indicated that it might have been possible to avoid the overdevelopment by staying to the west of it along our route, but our pace was quite slow (averaged 30 mph) due to the slow climb rates and low cloud bases, in spite of the 18 mph tail wind. We felt that the chances for a record flight were slim.

As I looked at today’s forecast this morning, I was again struck by the high moisture content of the air to our north. The FSL charts http://maps.fsl.noaa.gov/
rt_plots_40km20km///rh850mb_sc_09.gif
showed relative humidity at 5,000’ near us at 40 percent, but at 70 percent up in the hill country and the Edwards plateau at 3 PM.

The satellite photo for the visible spectrum for the morning (http://weather.unisys.com/satellite/sat_vis_sp.html) showed clouds surrounding us to the east, west and north (we were in a little slot).

The enhanced infrared satellite pictures http://weather.unisys.com/satellite/sat_ir_enh_sp.html showed plentiful moisture for the first two hundred miles along our course except for the first bit from Zapata to a bit north of Laredo. This corresponded well with the high relative humidities forecasted for 3 PM.

The national forecast for the day showed a front in north Texas by Amarillo in the evening and continuing through the next day. The winds aloft forecast for the day showed winds clocking around as you went north deflecting off the front and going toward Oklahoma.

Cu’s were already appearing low over Zapata and scooting quickly to the north. There was a bank of cirrus way to the east near the sun. Elsewhere it was blue and as the early morning progressed toward 8:15 we needed to make a decision about whether to set up for a long flight. The cu’s were getting thicker and the streets were beginning to form in the classic Zapata tradition. Sure they were low now, but we knew by 9:30 they would be up about 1,500’ to 2,000’ AGL.

The local forecast was for a 40% chance of thunderstorms today and 30% tomorrow. We felt that the chances of it blowing up along our course line were quite high. We’ve experienced quite a lot of moisture coming up from Mexico throughout the whole time we’ve been here in Zapata. This has suppressed our climb rates in the morning and kept the cloud base low. This has reduced our abilities to go far fast.

Finally at around 8:30 we make the decision to not make the attempt today. At 9 o’clock the cirrus clouds come over and drastically reduce the number and thickness of the cumulus clouds below. The cirrus continues throughout the afternoon (I’m writing this at four o’clock) and there continue to be cu’s under the cirrus all day. Cloudbase has risen to about 4,500’.

Satellite photos of the visible spectrum indicate thicker cirrus to the north over our route. Some cumulus. It is blowing up to the east. There appears to be some streeting to the north of the cirrus, with clouds turning to the northeast. It looks drier than we had thought.

The NOAA marine forecast is:

An onshore flow with moderate seas will continue until the weekend…when a change is possible due to the approach of tropical storm Claudette…now located 200 miles south-southeast of Kingston, Jamaica.

Marine winds are predicted to be moderate southeast through Friday, then turning strong northeast on Sunday as the tropical storm enters the Gulf of Mexico and kills the Bermuda high pressure ridge.

The daily ten day forecast (http://www.intellicast.com/Local/
USLocalStd.asp?loc
=klrd&seg=LocalWeather&prodgrp=
Forecasts&product=Forecast&prodnav=none
) indicated much lower temperatures than normal (5 or 10° below normal) and winds no longer out of the south east after Friday (http://weather.unisys.com/mrf/10d/mrf_850_10d.html or https://OzReport.com/txweather.php). The Bermuda ridge doesn’t appear to reconstitute itself in that time frame.

The national forecast for tomorrow morning shows clouds covering Texas ahead of the front. The front will be in mid Texas by 10 AM cutting off any possibility of a long flight. The winds will bend nineties degrees to the east.

During the first two years of the WRE the weather was as spectacular as Gary predicted. Day after day we could attempt long flights in conditions that allowed records to be broken. The last two years of the WRE have been miserable, other than an odd day or two. Moisture has been the big problem for us, but a great boon to the ranchers in this drought prone area.

I came here with the attitude after last year that I would take advantage of the conditions whatever they were. I was completely upbeat and ready to go for it. If the wind wasn’t blowing, well then I’d go for world record triangles and out and returns. Fortunately there have been a couple of days where records of this type were possible.

At the moment we have strong winds, low cloud bases, and wet conditions to the north that seem to preclude any possibility of world records. It is not clear if this pattern is going to change any time soon. The WRE ends in ten days.

Will the epic conditions return next year? I certainly don’t understand the long range prognosis regarding whether we can expect drier conditions next year or not. I know that I’m committed to going 500 miles, but I just don’t know when it will happen.

Discuss the WRE at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "Flytec/Quest Air WRE – is it all just a dream?" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Don’t mess with God

Fri, Jul 4 2003, 3:00:02 pm EDT

Gordon Marshall|NASA|Oz Report|picture

Gordon Marshall <gordon@hangglide.com.au> writes:

Google as God? Was posted on The Oz Report issue 174 June 30 NASA posted this picture on the same day. Hmmnn! God probably anticipated this question and has given his answer. :) http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030630.html.

Discuss "Don’t mess with God" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Photo/caption contest »

Sun, Jun 29 2003, 5:00:05 pm EDT

photo|picture

PK Kelley sends in this picture of his wife:


Attached is a photo of my wife Janice at the Ridgely Fly-In last year. She does these naked handstands all over the world.

Discuss naked photos at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "Photo/caption contest" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2003 King Mountain Meet

Sat, Jun 28 2003, 6:00:02 pm EDT

altitude|Bill Soderquist|cloud|death|Florida|Glen Salmon|glide ratio|Idris Birch|John Woiwode|Kevin Frost|Lisa Tate|picture|record|Shannon Allen|site|Tim King|weather|XC

Jon Woiwode <Woiwodejon@cs.com> writes:

King Mt is on, the conditions are cooking, and over 80 pilots are signed up for this annual event. The contest has an unusual format: open distance XC, with a point for each mile. Gliders are handicapped, with king post gliders the base receiving the 1.0 miles per miles flown, rigids receiving a penalty of 0.81 and topless receive a penalty of 0.89 times the miles flown. Single surface receive a bonus of 1.25 times miles. Best three out of five days are scored, most points wins.

The contest has been held since 1986, and for the past six years has been capably run by Lisa Tate and Terry Edington. They continue to evolve a contest that attracts a huge following from all over the country. We all come here to fly the big air and distances that King has become known for. To get a picture view of the awesome terrain that we fly at King Mt, have a look at the Sonoma Wings website at sononmawings.com.

The XC is flown on one of three corridors, "Route 1, Route 2 or Route 3". Route 1 follows the immense Lost River Range for 70 miles, then doglegs right to and along the 30 mile long Salmon River Canyon, which from altitude looks like a giant open mouth 9000' deep that wants to eat you, to arrive at the town of Salmon, 100 miles, snuggled deep into the canyon.

Route 2 is by far the most intimidating, the most difficult and least flown (I only recall two times in all the years of the contest). It angles over the Lost Rivers, across the Howe Valley to the Lemhi Mountains, across those lofty peaks to the Birch Creek Valley then over the Bitterroot Mountains, which is the Continental Divide. It gets worse, and you've only gone 40 miles at this point. This is the formidable route that I flew for the site and state record in Year 2000; I am convinced that, though difficult, this is the best route for more distance off King, given the right conditions.

Route 3 goes straight over the back of the Lost Rivers to the Lemhis, over these craggy peaks to the base of the Bitterroots, then follows the south side of the Continental Divide to eventually reach Henry's Lake, 115 miles. The task committee calls one of these at the pilots meeting based on the latest weather information and winds aloft.

I missed the first two days, so I'll report the conditions, routes and top pilots:

Day 1 was stormy, rain cells dumping near launch and downwind, north winds aloft. The task committee called Route 3, the best call they could do; venerable pilot Joe Evans dodged rain cells to get 74.4 miles on his rigid. A few pilots made the Dubois airport, 59.6 miles, and received the "bonus" miles. There are select fields en route designated as "bonus"; the advantages to the bonus fields are free points; the disadvantages are that it provides a random injection of points into the open distance XC format.

Day two dawned clear, but still had the NW push from the frontal system. Forecasted winds aloft were 330, so Route 3 was again appropriately called. Zach Majors and Bill Soderquist got out to the Kilgore Store, 89.3 miles, and secured the specious bonus points associated with that field for the day’s best flights. They crossed street after street, punching crosswind to pull off the fine flights. Altitudes of 14000' were common.

Day 3 came in clear and beautiful, with 260-280 forecasted aloft. That is a classic Route 3 direction, and had Henry's Lake 100+ milers written all over it. But for some unknown reason the task committee called Route 1.

For background, 210-230 aloft favors Route 1, 230-250 favor Route 2, and 260-280 favor Route 3. With the day's forecasted winds aloft, there was no question that on Route 1 we would be flying up the Lost Rivers in a howling headwind!! King Mountain and its surrounding terrain are well known for turbulence; we didn't have to seek more by flying the mechanical turbulence of a headwind along the range.

I quickly pointed this obvious fact out at the pilots’ meeting, and was reprimanded with "once the task is called, it is called". I started to ask one of the task committee members, Kevin Frost, what he was thinking, to be told by the meet director that no one is allowed to talk to the task committee!! Holy smokes, ignorance surrounded by stupidity.

The westerliers made for difficult launches. The SSW upper launch was especially treacherous with dust devils ripping up the road and across the face. Launch cycles were scarce. I was one of the first off upper launch, at 1500. I crank into a beauty, pull out at 10,500', and moved as fast as I could across Rams Horn Canyon to Sunset Mt.

Mr. Nasty, on the shoulder of Rams Horn, had gone leeside and was death defying so I slid across the face of Sunset Ridge and after much broken lift between 8500 and 9500 I hooked a magnificent rocket that held my averager at 1800 fpm and put me out of the hole and near cloud base at 14000'.

This set me up to make the long crossing over Pass Creek, a large pass in the range that is always difficult to cross, and vicious in a head wind. I fortunately hold altitude to get past the massive venturi, but by the time I get to Invisible Mt, now in a lee, trouble brews as a leeside thermal.

I milk altitude through this rock and roll to the front of Invisible, climb on the windward points of the canyons to 11000', and measure winds aloft: 22 mph along the range, a direct headwind. Higher altitudes are smoother, as one would predict, but have higher headwind velocities. Lets see: vicious turbulence along the face of the peaks or pound into howling headwinds; I guess I could get a sharp stick and poke it in my eye.

Many pilots below me, some skating above at altitude punching along the range. I was hoping that I could get to Corner Mt, an obvious and huge dogleg to the right in the range, where the winds would hit the face and life would smooth out. I got there with reasonable altitude, 10500', turned the corner, and was dismayed to find the winds now NNE, a 70° cross for the face I was hoping would be windward. Down to 9000' along this face, I hooked a beauty and took it to 12000', only to find my drift had placed me around the peak and back to the edge of the rotor!

There are better things to do than this, so I flew out and landed in front of Corner. Distance of 38 miles, 2 hours, 20 minutes. Let’s see, that's a whopping 16.5 mph, even on my speedy Aeros 14 Meter Topless, moving as fast as I could. Joe Evans, in his rigid (!), described it as "exceeding my highest bump tolerances". Yup.

Zach Majors, Shannon Raby and Bill Soderquist pounded it out at high altitude against the headwinds for between four to five hours to get 65.5 miles, the longest flights for the day. They also landed at the "bonus" field of the May airport, securing those not so random points.

In epilogue, the day was a beautiful Route 3, with cloud streets setting up all the way to Henry's Lake. I heard numerous complaints and great disappointment by pilots who had come here to attain their personal best, would could have readily hit 100+ miles, and were forced to pound into the wind, not to mention further the outright danger of the severe mechanical turbulence along the range.

The single surface gliders had it especially bad: Frank Gillette, former record holder at King Mt, slugged it out in his Falcon, the longest single surface for 14 miles. So much for the validity of the "handicap", as these factors were based on glide ratio downwind. King Mt has a rap for turbulent air; but if flown properly and intelligently, it is a great big air site. I can only hope the task committee wakes up from their stupor.

(editor’s note: At the green circle meets in Florida, Texas, and Wisconsin, the task committee listens to the pilot’s concerns and acts on them. How obvious.)

Discuss flying King Mountain at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "2003 King Mountain Meet" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Frontal pods

Thu, Jun 26 2003, 6:00:05 pm EDT

Garmin 12|GPS|Micke Wigstrand|picture|towing

Micke Wigstrand <micke.wigstrand@telia.com> writes:

I have in cooperation with the Swedish champ 2002, 2003 Mr. Peter Isacsson, developed a frontal pod. We decided to have it very thin and aerodynamic. We also decided to have inboard speed probe, covered by a carbon lid to minimize the risk of have it damaged by towing line.

It’s only for air foiled speed bars: Wills, Fast, Aeros etc. For the present fits Bräuniger IQ and Garmin 12. IQ& Garmin 76 is under construction.

Materials is carbon reinforced glassfibre, weight about 270g. Connection holes between vario and GPS. The picture shows a prototype without Velcro tabs. I also make conventional pods for IQ & G12 and IQ & 76.

Discuss instrument pods at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "Frontal pods" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Watching clouds from space

Wed, Jun 25 2003, 6:00:07 pm EDT

picture|space

www.wunderground.com/satellite/vis/1k/US.html

marco alvarez <markoalvarez@prodigy.net.mx> writes:

Just place the cursor over the area you want to zoom and click several times until 16x or local. This is what I use to check for clouds and storms here in Monterrey and northeast Mexico.

8x zoom

At 16x you see Falcon Lake picture from yesterday at noon. The cumies go from Mexico thru Texas into Oklahoma. What a perfect day to break the 500 miles.

(editor’s note: What the picture doesn’t show is the cirrus to the west which we got into. If we had been further east it would have been better for us.)

Discuss clouds at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "Watching clouds from space" at the Oz Report forum   link»

USHGA – the waiver/the complaint »

Tue, Jun 24 2003, 2:03:07 pm EDT

Bill Bolosky|competition|crash|insurance|Isaac William|lawyer|Oz Report|picture|smoke|sport|USHGA

Bill Bolosky <bolosky@microsoft.com> USHGA president writes:

Rick is all worked up about the new section F in the waiver that says that the USHGA waiver supersedes local waivers. Tim (the USHGA lawyer, and author of the waiver) put this in because he was concerned that people would sign badly written local waivers, and then go into court and claim that the badly written waiver was binding and not the USHGA waiver. While this argument probably wouldn't work if the pilot was suing the USHGA, it's not as clear if he was suing the landowner or some other third party. The idea of part F is to keep that from happening.

Rick has decided that what part F really means is that the USHGA can use any version of the waiver that a pilot has signed, so that we're all bound by whichever version we signed that's strongest. I asked Tim (the lawyer) if this is the case. He said that that's not true, that the latest version of the USHGA waiver is binding and that the old ones are superseded by the new one. Rick (who's not a lawyer) said that he didn't believe Tim, and that he knows more about interpretation of contract language than a lawyer does. I respectfully disagreed with him. It seems absurd to take the opinion of an amateur over that of a professional on something like this.

The second question is about the meaning of the language at the very end of the waiver, where it doesn't use the term "Sports Injuries." Rick is worried that that paragraph expands the class of things that are waived. I think that it probably doesn't (and I'm sure that that was not the intention of it), but I wrote to Tim to get his opinion on it. I haven't heard back from him yet. When I do, I'll let Rick, the Oz Report and now all of these mailing lists know the answer.

Jones, Isaac William <isaac.W.jones@nasa.gov> writes:

In our zeal to protect our sport and obtain affordable liability insurance over the years, the scope of the USHGA "waiver" has gotten out of control. The "waiver" requires pilots (and many others) to accept inordinate risks not related to our sport. Additionally, the "waiver" bars any recourse a pilot may justifiably and legally have (can you say - kick a dog when he's down). EXAMPLE: Hanglider pilot flying at 2,000 feet AGL between turn points in a competition, over-flys a drunken irate farmer's property. Drunken irate farmer hates hang gliders. Drunken farmer whips out his trusty ole smoke pole (gun) and shoots pilot dead (lucky shot). Dead pilot and glider crash into drunken farmer's house. Drunken farmer can sue and collect from USHGA liability insurance for damages to house. According to the "waiver", pilot can't sue or collect for anything. Something is bad wrong with this picture.

Somewhere along the line we forgot about limiting the scope of the "waiver" to cover only those risks necessary for liability sake. If the farmer shot down a Cessna 150, killing the pilot, the outcome would be exactly opposite. The farmer would be jailed and the heirs of the 150 pilot would own the farm. The current "waiver's" underlining premise of "if you fly a hang glider then you've got to accept total and complete responsibility for anything that goes wrong regardless of the cause" is grossly defective and unjust to the pilot community for which the USHGA solely relies as its basis for existence.

Having said all that I can also say that I've been please with the improvements made by the current USHGA staff on other issues and it would be unreasonable for me or anyone else to think the staff can fix everything right now. The scope of the waiver should definitely make the "to fix" list.

(editor’s note: Well, now I’ve done it. I tried to get Rick Cavallaro’s concerns dealt with without too much ado, but it didn’t just quietly go away, so I felt I needed to at least present his argument. Me, I couldn’t care less. I’ll sign anything. Just let me fly.

Now I don’t want the Oz Report to turn into the waiver report, so at some point I’ll just cut this off and let it find its way back to the hang gliding digest or some such similar haunt.)

Discuss the waiver at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "USHGA – the waiver/the complaint" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Photo/caption contest »

Sat, Jun 21 2003, 2:03:09 pm EDT

movie|photo|picture|Scott Johnson

Scott Johnson at U. S. AirBorne <usairborne@cableone.net> sends:

Here is a picture of my little birdie buddies movie stars, doing a 45 min training run threw Monument Valley. The snow geese's imprinted mother & myself are enjoying a early A.m. stroll threw the park with the kids.

Picture was taken with my PZ1 35mm on my wing tip. I would do training flights with Snow & Canada geese every A.m. & P.m. when conditions were too bumpy to film. During the filming of Winged Migration I was allowed to take all the still pictures I wanted. I have well over 200 still shots of my little buddies flying with me during the 1½ months I worked for them at Galatee films.

Discuss photos at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "Photo/caption contest" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Lightning hit the vario

Tue, Jun 17 2003, 2:03:06 pm EDT

altitude|battery|crash|equipment|fire|Flytec USA|lightning|Oz Report|parachute|picture|power|record|Rob Jacobs|Shane Nestle|smoke|Steve Kroop

Steve Kroop at Flytec USA <flytec@earthlink.net> writes:

We received quite a few guesses on “name that disaster”. Below is a listing of the various ideas with the number of people that guessed each possibility.

9 - Hit by lightning
6 - Melted by the sun on car dashboard
5 - Contact with power line
5 - Fell in campfire/BBQ pit
3 - Attempting to charge the non rechargeable batteries through one of the data ports
3 - Reversed battery polarity
3 - Automobile fire
2 - Placed in conventional oven
2 - Brush/forest fire
2 - Friction from flying too fast
2 - Excessive climb rate
1 - Melted by leaky battery acid
1 - Crash and burned
1 - Burned by a wind direction smoke bomb
1 - Microwave oven
1 - Car heater
1 - House fire
1 - Burnt by ballistic reserve
1 - Baked in over for 45 minutes
1 - Too close to catalytic converter in a P/U truck bed
1 - Was it left out in direct sunlight in the map holder, and the sun did the rest
1 - “The owner closed the car door with the vario left outside the car hanging on the string and bounced along the highway after a long flight… but then it would have been scratched also, and it’s like only melted…”

1- “The owner was a hang gliding (not a paragliding) pilot, that was testing a new topless model for the next worlds on Brasilia (where I’m willing to go) and that the pilot was flying so fast that the air friction heated up the instrument until it melted like that. Fortunately the pilot had those excellent speed sleeves that Flytec offers so he could glide effortlessly and with no drag thus friction involved so he didn’t notice the heat caused by the high speed air friction.”

1 - “It was dropped from 1500 feet into a plowed field, buried several times by the plow over two years, and finally dug up by a cow, who probably stepped on it at least once. The owner had originally looked for it, but never did find it. He was lucky that the farmer finally found it.”

And the correct answer is…Hit by lightning (the most popular guess) and the winner is… Rob Jacobs (the first one to guess).

(editor’s note: It’s great to see that Rob Jacobs, the hang gliding list moderator, it right on top of the most current Oz Report. Always happy to have committed readers.)

Honorable mention goes to…Shane Nestle with the following explanation:

These damn Flytec varios are so good that the pilot, whose name happened to be Icarus, got a little too carried away with the lift being indicated. Having tried other varios in his lifetime that just didn’t have what he needed, he was amazed at how well he was able to find the lightest of lift and stay with it.

His father, Daedalus, also a pilot and a long time Flytec user, had often bragged of the ease of it’s use and superior response. He would often fly high above his son, Icarus, taunting him to try and follow. When Icarus finally acquired his Flytec Variometer, at a very affordable price I might add, he immediately noticed the barograph feature and insisted on trying it out that day. Daedalus could see Icarus’ excitement and warned him to fly carefully, for today would likely be a record day for Icarus, even though the conditions were the same as always.

Icarus headed off to the local hill and proceeded to launch into light conditions. He immediately knew that he had something great as he was able to detect lift like never before. Soon he found himself able to actually out climb his father! In his exuberance of gaining altitude, slowly at first and then rocketing into the heavens as he centered in on the core, he failed to take heed of his father’s words to be careful. Before he knew it, he had gained so much altitude that the sun began melting his equipment. Unfortunately, Icarus flew an old, dilapidated wing developed in the beginning of hang gliding and no parachute (he didn’t need the parachute because he never got anything higher than a sled run prior his new Flytec vairo) and poor Icarus didn’t survive the re-entry into the lower atmosphere.

The picture presented is the vario used by Icarus and recovered by his father. I hear that Daedalus is trying to trade it in along with his older, but still great, Flytec vario for the new 4030Race. I also hear he is going to be entering a lot of competitions now that he does not have family responsibilities. He’s hoping to get those cool, blue Flytec speed sleeves so everyone will know just who is helping him to win all those races.

Discuss varios at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "Lightning hit the vario" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Death in Greece

Tue, Jun 10 2003, 2:03:05 pm EDT

accident|competition|Costas Papaspyrou|crash|death|helmet|landing|news|Oz Report|picture|spin|students

Costas N Papaspyrou <cn-pappy@compulink.gr> writes:

I was surprised to read about the accident up at Serres in the Oz Report (https://OzReport.com/toc.php?Ozv7n148.shtml#4). As I saw the article was taken from a news paper than it was naturally wrong.

The guy didn’t spin around. He was losing height while trying to catch a thermal but he couldn’t find it. He had only about twenty to thirty hours of experience. He was trained by his uncle, an old hang glider pilot. He had not joined a club and he was not in the competition. I don’t know details about why he was allowed to fly at the end of the Greek category 2 competition.

The reason I'm writing about it is because today the outcome of the examination says that the guy died of a small hit through an industrial helmet he was wearing. The crash, as it was reported in the newspaper would with any other helmet would definitely not been a problem. The body showed no other injuries.

What actually happened, according to a friend flying above, is that he landed somewhere to the left of a gorge. The glider stopped for a short period, but then slid back down the edge of the gorge, tumbling and then it fell for 50m upside down to where the picture shows it landing. The conclusion is that the helmet is to blame after his head injuries.

I don’t really know what to say for such an unjustified loss. Personally I don’t allow any of my students to use anything other than a full face helmet. I have vivid in my memory another accident years ago of a friend doing a top landing. He was pushed back by the wind to the rotors and crashed on a rock. He underwent a lot of head surgery to keep his jaw and teeth and to be able to eat. No students of mine fly without a full face helmet even before they buy a vario. The guy had nothing with him.

Discuss accidents at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "Death in Greece" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Photo/caption contest »

Mon, Jun 9 2003, 6:03:04 pm GMT

photo|picture|weather

Adam G. Elchin <adam@aerosports.net> sends in this photo:

A picture of a fellow pilot who was looking for some airtime on a non-flyable day. Caption goes:

'Unflyable weather conditions result in hang glider pilot jumping his leg in half.'

Discuss photos at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "Photo/caption contest" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Photo/caption contest »

Sat, May 31 2003, 6:03:02 pm GMT

art|Marcelo Zanetti|photo|picture

Marcelo Zanetti <marcelo@xpertelectric.com> sends:

This is a picture of our friend Tim Barr with his pet inside the art tent at the National Fly In last year here in Ellenville, NY.

Discuss photos at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "Photo/caption contest" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Superflytec PG Championships

Wed, May 28 2003, 6:03:00 pm GMT

competition|David "Dave" Glover|David Glover|Florida|gaggle|Jeff Huey|Josh Cohn|landing|PG|picture|Quest Air|radio|tow|towing|Wallaby Ranch

A cold front slowly moved through central Florida today changing the wind direction somewhat from west to west-northwest. The winds basically died down to light and variable.

With a raft of high level clouds accompanying the front the day looked dismal as we contemplated a task at 10:30 AM. The green dot is Groveland.

The BLIPSPOT predicted lift continuing along in the same vain as the previous days , 450 fpm, but it sure didn’t look like we would get any convergence and therefore help with increasing lift. We wondered if we were going to get any cumulus development at all.

We held the launch window back to 1:30 hoping to get enough filtered sunlight to heat up the ground and produce some lift. The cu’s started forming under the thinning cirrus, so it didn’t look completely hopeless, just almost completely hopeless.

We had had so many tows under beautiful cu filled skies, that the tow crew was not looking forward to hundreds of tows under skies that promised very light lift if any. Josh volunteered to wind dummy if he could get his place back and we let him go over shaded ground to see if there was anything out there. He didn’t get up.

Still that didn’t stop folks who decided to start towing anyway as Josh slowly came down. There was a break in the cirrus and a cu formed over the middle of the field. A few pilots got up and started to stick. Suddenly everyone wanted to go.

Fourteen tows later for twelve pilots and everyone was sticking and gaggling in the same thermal in the middle of the Quest Air tow field. They were climbing slowly but they were together and there is a strong incentive to stay with everyone else and not come back to the field on your own.

So on the worst looking day we have the easiest tow operation and get everyone out of the tow field in less than an hour. One pilot comes back after landing within the two mile reflight zone, but after two tows, decides to go on retrieval and pick up his flying buddies.

The task committee called a 23 mile task from Quest, fifteen miles southeast to the intersection of highway 27 and 474, and then south-southwest 8 miles to Wallaby Ranch. The idea was to keep pilots away from the difficult to retrieve areas and over landable areas on the final glide into goal.

Three pilots including Dave Prentice got high and left together. The next eight had to wait longer and get higher within the two mile start circle before they could head out after the lead gaggle.

The lead gaggle didn’t make it to goal and landed further from goal than the later gaggle. I heard Jeff Huey in the air on the radio early on saying it looked like every one would make goal. Looks like he landed a mile short. Josh Cohn was the only one to make it to Wallaby.

Wednesday:

Place Name mph miles Total
1 COHN Josh 18.09 23.3 855
2 HUEY Jeff 22.4 648
3 BROCK Gary 21.7 635
4 FARRELL Jeff 20.8 614
5 HOISINGTON Zach 18.5 546
6 SWAIN Gavin 15.4 443
7 HOFFMAN Doug 15.4 441
8 MOOK Tom 8.6 261
9 PRENTICE Dave 6.6 223
10 SZAFARYN Len 6.4 219
11 SPORER Rob 5.9 204
12 KEARNEY Bill 2.4 83

After four days:

Place Name Total
1 COHN Josh 2129
2 HUEY Jeff 1895
3 FARRELL Jeff 1806
4 BROCK Gary 1607
5 PRENTICE Dave 1426
6 HOISINGTON Zach 1244
7 MOOK Tom 1099
8 SWAIN Gavin 1054
9 SZAFARYN Len 887
10 SPORER Rob 702
11 HOFFMAN Doug 634
12 KEARNEY Bill 376

David Glover writes:

Picture by: Sir Geoffrey Farrell of http://www.4superfly.com Quest can be seen in the middle far right of the picture - spring fed pond on the east side of the field.

Discuss competition at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "Superflytec PG Championships" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Echo Canyon

Mon, May 26 2003, 2:03:03 pm EDT

Doug Keller|Fred Wilson|Oz Report|photo|picture|site

Doug Keller <skyward@shaw.ca> writes:

With reference to my photo that you published in the last Oz Report sent in by Fred Wilson I'd like to make several corrections that of course will be obvious to anyone in Arizona. The site is called Echo Cliffs, there is no native archeological cliff dwelling site, and it is on the Navajo Indian Reservation not a US National Park.

The last time I went through there and tried to fly and get permission they told me at the tribal office that flying is not permitted under any circumstance and never has been. I'm not sure what the current status is but if anyone is considering flying there, contacting the local Flagstaff, AZ pilots is highly recommended.

It was nice to see that picture though, it is one of my favorites and that flight was one of my most memorable.

Discuss Arizona flying at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "Echo Canyon" at the Oz Report forum   link»

PG Aerotowing - NOT

Tue, May 20 2003, 4:00:02 pm EDT

aerotow|PG|picture|powered

john nagyvary <nagyvary@yahoo.com> writes:

This seems to be a much more realistic method of aerotowing a pg, don't you think? http://www.paratour.com/aerotow_paramotor.htm

(editor’s note: Let’s see, two pendulums, one powered, connected by a string? What is wrong with this picture?)

Discuss PG aerotowing at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "PG Aerotowing - NOT" at the Oz Report forum   link»

2003 Ecuadorian Nationals

Tue, May 20 2003, 4:00:01 pm EDT

competition|picture|Raúl Larenas|weather

Raul Larenas <larenas@ec.ibm.com> writes:

From October 31 to November 2 the nationals will be held on Canoa,-Ecuador. This is the best competition of the year. It is a speed race along 25 km of the ridge, really safe with the beach and the road all along.

You can check the pictures of the place http://www.impactoonline.com/ecuavuelo/notas_Canoa.html. For contact and information: http://www.ecuavuelo.info.

The mountain in the picture was bought by 26 pilots. The nice flying weather starts this month and goes through to January.

Discuss competition at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "2003 Ecuadorian Nationals" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Photo/caption contest »

Mon, May 19 2003, 2:00:03 pm EDT

Kenneth Martin|Mike Barber|Paris Williams|photo|picture|students

Kenneth Martin <2kwm@attbi.com> sends in this picture of Mike Barber (US number 2) showing Paris Williams (US number 1) his cut up knee. If you look closely at Paris’ legs you’ll see the skinned knees. His shoulder was also suffering. Then he got hit by a car.

Today Mike flew from Wallaby to Quest with his two students. Paris was out walking around Quest and working on someone’s glider to replace a keel. Looks like they are on the mend.

Discuss photos at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "Photo/caption contest" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Thule HG rack

Mon, May 19 2003, 2:00:02 pm EDT

gear|Gregg "Kim" Ludwig|magazine|picture|racks|tow|USHGA

http://www.rei.com/online/store/ProductDisplay?storeId=8000&catalogId=40000008000&productId=13875764&parent_category_rn=9647564

Gregg Ludwig <Skycruiser3@aol.com> writes:

Thule hang glider rack. It fits into a standard two inch hitch receiver with an anti wobble bolt. Most trucks can accept a front mounted tow hitch like my Tahoe.

This is the Thule Goal Post car rack under paddling solutions. $149 and is normally used for canoes/kayaks.

It is designed to plug into a 2 inch hitch receiver. I went to the hitch store and had them install a trailer frame hitch on the front of the truck. If you view a hitch catalog you will see the applications for either front or rear hitch location. Most front mounted hitches are used for off road front mounted winches.

The anti-wobble bolt is used instead of a receiver hitch pin. You simply instert the bolt where you would normally place your receiver pin. The rack has a nut welded on that this bolt screws into. (a picture is worth a thousand words…)

Near the hood height is a pin that allows the rack height to adjust.

Dealer Doug Coster from Michigan Soaring also distributes Thule gear in addition to gliders. He advertises in USHGA magazine and can be contacted at <wingman@traverse.com>.

Discuss hang glider racks at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "Thule HG rack" at the Oz Report forum   link»

WRE-500!

Sat, May 17 2003, 1:00:01 pm EDT

David "Dave" Glover|David Glover|picture|tow

David Glover sends this picture:

Gary writes of the paragliding tow field:

Word today that the work on tow paddock is nearly done. Expecting to hear back from Renato soon. Hangar/set-up/shade structure built. Bathroom facilities done, generator for electrical installed. Water well done. Will request some sort of large tank/pool that we can feed cool water in and out of. Should be set.

Discuss the WRE 500! at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "WRE-500!" at the Oz Report forum   link»

WRE-500!

Fri, May 16 2003, 12:00:02 pm EDT

aerotow|David "Dave" Glover|David Glover|foot launch|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Mike Barber|Paris Williams|picture|Ron Gleason|Tim King|wheels|Zapata

David Glover sends this picture:

Pete Lehmann writes:

Perhaps my article on last summer's Zapata flights may be deterring wider participation in this year's WRE. For the same reason I have been asked why I will be going back if the place can be as unpleasant as I have depicted it to be. The answer is simple. Zapata is unquestionably the one place on earth that has the legitimate, demonstrated potential for a flex-wing hang glider pilot to fly 500 miles. Perhaps there are other locations with that potential, but for the moment Zapata is only one that has proof of it.

That having been said, flying in Zapata is absolutely not for the faint of heart, nor for pilots with minimal cross-country skills and experience. The very early part of the day (if you leave before 11 AM) requires good climbing skills, patience and the ability to judge clouds well while jumping streets to get around Laredo. In addition, pilots must possess strong aerotow skills to safely launch in the sometimes windy, trashy morning conditions.

Pilots who aren't truly good at those things, and who aren't extremely confident of their abilities to climb back out of trouble over severely inconvenient terrain are wasting their time and money going to Zapata. This is not the hang gliding equivalent of bowling.

But for those pilots with the above mentioned skills, and a desire to achieve personal and international records, Zapata is the place to go. It may not rival Paris for culinary or cultural attractions, but the town is friendly and has all of the necessary services to support a hang gliding adventure. It is not the wasteland some have depicted it to be.

I'm looking forward to dinner in Lubbock,

(editor’s note: Of course, pilots with less than minimal cross country skills have done very well in Zapata. One pilot went from his longest flight of seven miles to 135 miles. He just didn’t leave at 9:30 AM when conditions are weak and require a lot of experience. He waited until late morning and went when the thermals were strong and plentiful.

I found aerotowing at Zapata to be the easiest aerotowing possible. I would always leave early in the day when the thermals were very light so the air was for the most part very smooth. The winds would hopefully be strong – 20 mph, but they were always smooth at launch. The winds just made it easy to foot launch.

Zapata is flatland flying, and much less difficult in the air than flying in the Owens, for example, or Chelan, or King Mountain or Sandia, or a hundred other spots that less experienced cross country pilots go to fly.

The difficult part is staying up in light early morning conditions over a 30 mile long region that has few ungated roads (many roads, but almost all behind locked gates). The problem is getting yourself back out to the road 9 miles out from the airport that is open.

This requires some planning and help from the meet organizers. We provide a lot of that help. I carry a set of kayak wheels in the truck, so I can walk in to retrieve my glider if necessary. The major point is that you don’t fly away from the airport unless you know you can make the road.

Zapata is the place for big cross country miles in fun in the air conditions. I look forward to seeing Pete and Mike Barber, Ron Gleason, Mark P., perhaps Oleg, and other go for it guys in Zapata this summer.

If you want to be part of an elite group and enjoy a unique experience, some join us. The only reason we organize this is because we want to go far.

Discuss the WRE 500! at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "WRE-500!" at the Oz Report forum   link»

WRE-500!

Thu, May 15 2003, 3:00:01 pm EDT

David "Dave" Glover|David Glover|picture|Zapata

David Glover <david@davidglover.com> sends this picture:

The Zapata County airport.

Discuss the WRE 500! at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "WRE-500!" at the Oz Report forum   link»

WRE-500!

Wed, May 14 2003, 3:00:02 pm EDT

David "Dave" Glover|David Glover|Gary Osoba|Kari Castle|picture

David Glover <david@davidglover.com> sends this picture:

Kari talks strategy with Gary Osoba.

Discuss the WRE 500! at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "WRE-500!" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Last year Carlos Bessa flew for Brazil

Thu, May 8 2003, 8:00:03 pm GMT

Brazilian Nationals 2003|calendar|Carlos Bessa|CIVL|CIVL Sporting Code|competition|Jim Lee|picture|USHGA|Worlds

Carlos Bessa has earned and deserves a place on the US National team going to Brazil in August. Unfortunately, last year at the pre-Worlds in Brazil, Carlos flew for the Brazilian team.

Check out: http://www.brasilia2003.com/images/resultados/result_06.jpg where he holds up his Brazilian team second place medal. Or click on his picture at http://www.brasilia2003.com/us_pilotos.htm which brings up http://www.brasilia2003.com/images/pilotos/wolf_asa.jpg which identifies Carlos as a member of the Brazilian team flying in the pre-Worlds. He is currently ranked 5th in Brazil (just like in the US – I mistakenly placed him in fourth place in the US and he was previously in fourth in Brazil).

There is no problem with Carlos flying for the Brazilians in the pre-Worlds. It certainly doesn’t disqualify him for the US National team at the Worlds. The only issue is whether he will actually be flying for the US National team in the Worlds in Brazil or for the Brazilian team.

I have yet to hear back from Carlos, but the situation still is that he has said he will fly for the US team, but if he qualifies for the Brazilian National team, the week before the Worlds, he will fly for Brazil. That means the US National team would be down one pilot and with hardly enough time to get the number 7th ranked US pilot (Jim Lee) down to Brazil.

Brazilian Nationals meet in Brasilia – August 3rd through 9th. Worlds in Brasilia – August 17th through 30th (https://OzReport.com/calendar.php). I have discussed how the ranking system works in Brazil at https://OzReport.com/toc.php?Ozv7n66.shtml.

How can we solve this problem? If the US National team has a team leader, the team leader can ask for a substantial deposit that would be forfeited by any pilot that switches teams at the last moment (this would in practice obviously only apply to Carlos). This would provide some protection for the US team, and would also provide some money to get another pilot down to Brazil if Carlos chose to fly with the Brazilian team.

Also, the USHGA Competition committee chairman can ask for a deposit. So, the question is, is this what the US National team wants? The members of the team haven’t yet chosen a team leader. Would a team leader be willing to invoke this provision? Are the team members willing to put up a deposit to ensure that they have a full team? Is this just a team issue, or is it a wider issue that the USHGA competition committee should act on?

This deposit provision was placed in the Competition Rulebook just to take care of this kind of situation, and the question now is, will it be invoked?

I am assuming here that the Brazilian team won’t be decided until after the Brazilian Nationals meet (the second this year) in Brasilia, as that’s what I’ve heard, but that may not be the case. The CIVL Sporting Code seems to indicate that pilot qualifications to enter the Worlds need to be validated 60 days in advance. The procedure seems to indicate that the teams need to be selected by then (although this is not explicit).

We’ll see if the Brazilian and US teams have to be formed by 60 days in advance of the Worlds.

Discuss "Last year Carlos Bessa flew for Brazil" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Stacked clouds

Thu, May 1 2003, 2:00:01 pm EDT

Bill Greening|cloud|picture|William Wixon

http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap030430.html

William Wixon <wixon@warwick.net> sends in this URL of a lenticular cloud (astronomy picture of the day for 2003 April 30) which includes a further explanation of the process of their formation which relates to pileus clouds also.

Discuss cloud types under Bill Greening’s cloud at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "Stacked clouds" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Bill Greening’s cloud

Tue, Apr 29 2003, 12:00:06 pm EDT

Bill Greening|cloud|picture

My father-in-law sent this picture of a cloud that he took near Palm Springs (Cathedral City). Any ideas what causes such clouds? Stacked clouds perhaps due to the winds going around the mountains to the west?

Discuss clouds at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "Bill Greening’s cloud" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Winds aloft

Tue, Apr 29 2003, 12:00:01 pm EDT

picture|Roy Mahoney|weather

Roy Mahoney <panels@poteau.com> writes:

Was just reading your piece on windcast in #112 (https://OzReport.com/toc.php?Ozv7n112.shtml), and thought I'd mention the next best thing I've found at http://adds.aviationweather.noaa.gov/winds/ of which you may already be aware, but you can do forecasts showing wind stream or wind speed, and select surface or at various altitudes.

The only negative is that there is no regional detail, but it's not bad for getting the broad picture, especially being able to see wind forecasts at different altitudes.

Discuss weather forecasting at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "Winds aloft" at the Oz Report forum   link»

The USHGA on marketing hang gliding

Sat, Apr 26 2003, 1:00:04 pm EDT

aerotow|Dan Nelson|environment|equipment|FAA|Jayne DePanfilis|magazine|Oz Report|picture|power|PPG|school|sport|Sport Pilot|students|tandem|USHGA|Wills Wing

Jayne DePanfilis <jayne@ushga.org> writes:

Thank you for the wonderful suggestions regarding marketing you made in the recent “Oz Report.” The USHGA staff thinks along the same lines as you, believe it or not. During my 12 years in the industry, before I joined the USHGA, I managed the single largest marketing budgets for hang gliding in the industry. I learned a great deal from these experiences, including the fact that we must conduct effective marketing on the regional level. Schools must be marketing in their own back yards. The marketing plan must be a long term one. We won't really have an effective national marketing medium or venue until we have a way of connecting national campaigns with schools in specific regions. We don't have a way to translate national exposure into more students and tandems at the school level or regional level. We need this mechanism.

I've also learned that there is no effective substitute for public relations. None of us have a large enough marketing budget that would enable us to wage an effective national campaign the way we are organized now. I am not disheartened, though. I don't have a gloom and doom view of these things. I've just become more realistic over time.

The strategy that I proposed to the USHGA board was to facilitate the development of more aerotow flight parks around the country. These aerotow flight parks might conduct towed hang gliding, towed paragliding, and PPG operations. Imagine what it would mean to Wills Wing or to the other manufacturers and schools if we were able to open a new school that taught and certified 100 new h2s and P2s this year. In my opinion, this is the way to grow the sport. We don't have schools strategically located throughout the country. Imagine 100 new pilots spending money in our industry and living the flying lifestyle.

I completely agree that we should be marketing our sports to these “niche” markets. Indeed, we are talking about reaching out to compatible markets and not just to the “world at large.” No doubt that no one has enough resources to reach out to the world at large.

Hang gliding and paragliding could benefit from a major motion picture like skydiving did. Our sports would benefit if a very well known personality went flying and learned. The media would have to be interested in covering the story or experience. It wasn't long ago that I watched a famous female actress talk about her hang gliding experiences in Rio on a popular late night talk show and the host didn't ask her a single question about hang gliding. He simply wasn't interested.

Dan Nelson, the USHGA's Communications Director and Editor, had meetings recently with a well-known magazine publishing company about coverage for free flight in their publications. We are going to be conducting “brand” seminars and focus groups to identify our market position and needs. We conducted the first one at the recent board meeting. We talked about our sports as lifestyle sports and we spoke of market segments. We had a great time. We plan to attend the largest outdoor retailer trade show in the country this year, Outdoor Retailer. We need to create a unified identity for our chapters. We have about 100 chapters and they could be carrying and exemplifying our message. We need a way to extend our identity through these chapters as logical extensions of the national association and our sports.

I think we should stop and consider for one moment what we would do if suddenly 500 people wanted to learn to hang glide or paraglide, where would they go to do it and how long would it take them to complete a training program? It is not “easy” to learn to hang glide or paraglide. And Paul, you are right, most of the people we know personally don't think like us. Hang gliding and paragliding are “dangerous” sports. We have found ways to significantly improve the way we teach, the equipment, the all-around pilot knowledge and skill, improved written tests and practical tests too. There has never been a better time to be in our sports than today.

The USHGA does not have a marketing budget yet I am working on a new budget now and we are hoping for $8,000 for the first year. The USHGA's budget is tight, very tight: a $4,000 initiative is 0.5 percent of our budget. I've been able to keep expenses down by significantly cutting the overhead in the office and by providing continuous diligent business management but any single line item initiative can be difficult to manage.

This year we are going to incur a significant expense for moving folks around the country to address the Sport Pilot Rule, the FAA's desire to adopt the USHGA's tandem standard as their industry standard, the development of the tandem PPG standard. The USHGA needs to seriously consider changing our articles of incorporation to facilitate our association with power, even aerotowing. Just these initiatives alone will stretch our resources within the USHGA's $950,000 operating budget. I would hate to see our cash flow position erode but it may slip just a bit this year due to the management of these important initiatives.

I agree with most of what I have read on the Oz Report about marketing our sports. Most of it is just good common sense. We have no shortage of great ideas, but we do have a shortage of folks to implement them. As I said, we have no budget for marketing at the USHGA and I hope we can change this. Dan and I are both proven marketers to the outdoor industry. I plan to continue to try to focus on marketing even in light of budgetary and manpower constraints even in light of the challenging regulatory environment we are faced with today. We really need to implement some creative strategies and I think Dan has ideas for some of these strategies. Feel free to send your thought and ideas directly to him at <Dan@ushga.org> or to me at <Jayne@ushga.org>.

Discuss “marketing” hang gliding at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "The USHGA on marketing hang gliding" at the Oz Report forum   link»

The 2003 Wallaby Open

Sat, Apr 26 2003, 5:00:01 pm GMT

Aeros Combat|Aeros Combat 2|Alessandro "Alex" Ploner|Alex Ploner|Betinho Schmitz|David "Dave" Glover|Eric Raymond|Icaro Laminar MR|Jerz Rossignol|Kari Castle|Kraig Coomber|Moyes Litespeed|Nene Rotor|picture|Wallaby Open 2003|weather|Wills Wing|Wills Wing Talon|Zapata

http://www.wallaby.com/wallabyopen/2003/

Heavy rains during the night.

Overcast in the morning. The forecast is for improving weather during the day, but not enough improvement as the winds are predicted to be even higher than yesterday. Winds measured by the buoys are already over 20 knots.

The overcast goes away around 1 PM, and we have blue skies with cu’s at 1,500’ to 2,000’ with winds out of the west.

Things change. The provisional results I received earlier had something wrong with them, so here are the latest results:

Flex wings:

Place Name Glider Nation Total
1 BONDARCHUK Oleg Aeros Combat 2 UKR 3984
2 HAZLETT Brett Moyes Litespeed 4 CAN 3728
3 SCHMIDT Betinho Moyes Litespeed 4 BRA 3723
4 BOISSELIER Antoine Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 3721
5 WALBEC Richard Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 3670
6 COOMBER Kraig Moyes Litespeed 4 AUS 3599
7 DURAND Jon Jr. Moyes Litespeed 4 AUS 3586
8 RUHMER Manfred Icaro Laminar MR AUT 3567
9 ALONZI Mario Aeros Combat 2 FRA 3518
10 WARREN Curt Moyes Litespeed 4 USA 3511
11 LEE Jim Wills Wing Talon 150 USA 3501
12 CAUX Raymond Moyes Litespeed 4 FRA 3472
13 BESSA Carlos Wills Wing Talon USA 3434
14 OHLSSON Andreas Moyes Litespeed 5 SWE 3297
15 WOLF Andre Moyes Litespeed 4 BRA 3290
16 ROTOR Nene Wills Wing Talon BRA 3232
17 CASTLE Kari Icaro Laminar MR700 USA 3025
18 MULLER Chris Wills Wing Talon 150 CAN 3022
19 RICHARDSON Ron Avian Cheetah GBR 2914
20 ROSSIGNOL Jerz Icaro Laminar USA 2840

A picture of Oleg from Dave Glover.

Rigid wings:

Place Name Glider Nation Total
1 PLONER Alex Air Atos C ITA 4512
2 CHAUMET David La Mouette Tsunami FRA 4140
3 CIECH Christian Icaro Stratos ITA 3988
4 BARMAKIAN Bruce Air Atos USA 3707
5 POSCH Johann Air Atos C AUT 3414

Alex Ploner taken by Dave at Zapata.

Discuss "The 2003 Wallaby Open" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Flying the flag for foot launched flight

Thu, Apr 24 2003, 5:00:06 pm EDT

advertising|bungee jumping|communication|cost|electric|equipment|FAA|FAQ|fatality|Florida|game|job|landing|magazine|news|Oz Report|PG|picture|radio|Rod Clark|safety|sailplane|site|space|speed gliding|sport|students|USHGA

Rod Clark <Rod.Clark@ge.com> writes:

Since beginning to hang glide I’ve become acutely aware of the need to bolster participation in the sport. It’s clear by reading The Oz Report, and Hang Gliding and Paragliding Magazine that our sport needs new pilots. I’ve seen discussions on marketing in The Oz Report, and as a marketing person myself (for General Electric. Yes… I bring good things to life) I began thinking about how we can grow our sport.

I had a chuckle when I saw the “We need your friends” ad in the HG and PG magazine. I’ve been trying to drag friends into the sport since I began, and haven’t been successful once. As a marketing campaign goes, it’s a bit silly. USHGA’s target market isn’t people interested in me (my friends). USHGA’s target market is the people who’ve always dreamed of flying, but weren’t exposed to our sport. Thus, I’ve put together a few ideas about how we can capture the hearts and minds of those individuals and really communicate a message to them. Soaring is a reality, and it’s available to you.

My plan boils down to two basic premises in marketing; Identifying a target market, and providing for them an awareness of our sport. Let’s look first at the target market.

Paraglider pilots are the first and most obvious choice. First, paraglider pilots are already interested in soaring and have already taken the first steps to make their dream come true. However, because of the overlap in flying conditions, Hang Gliding offers Paraglider pilots an opportunity to fly when they might otherwise be to strong. Every USHGA instructor should encourage all of their students to become biwingual at some point in their flying career. It’s good for the sport and the pilots.

Although sailplanes are in the same dire membership situation we are in, it is a source of potential hang gliding and paragliding pilots. Although much of the sailplane community is older, there is a core group of young people that hang gliding may appeal to. I personally was never interested in hang gliding per say. I wanted to soar and I wanted to fly sailplanes. What I really wanted to do was fly, and when I realized the drawbacks for sailplanes (they are expensive, easily breakable, must always be flown within distance of a landing strip, much more work in the air, and the tiny excuse for a cockpit that you are claustrophobically stuck in) I began looking elsewhere.

A low cost marketing campaign would be to make an alliance with the SSA and “swap” (by swap I mean run ads without charging each other) advertising space in our respective member magazines. We could run ads saying “think outside the bubble”, “think smaller”, or something silly like that. Push the idea that flying with the wind in your face is the dreamy alternative, that high-performance hang gliders are almost reaching 20:1, and you don’t have to pay for tows.

One of our best sources is the FAA/AOPA private pilot community. How many times have you heard this story. We all have friends who are licensed private pilots who are not flying, or are not even current on their rating. Why? There are several reasons. First, renting Cessnas is terribly cost prohibitive. Who can afford to go flying at $70 per hour? Not me, and truth be told, not many people. My best friend has had his private license since he was sixteen. He’s thirty now with one kid and probably hasn’t flown in a year (not because he doesn’t want to).

Second (and most importantly), most private pilots are disillusioned by the idea of flying. People are drawn to flying from a young age. Every kid runs down the sidewalk with their arms out like a bird trying to lift off the ground. They imagine the wind in their face, swishing and swooping with the birds. Then, when we become “grown-ups” we seek the most obvious choice, a private pilot license. After getting licensed most pilots come to the same conclusion, “This isn’t like my dreams of flying”.

Frankly, flying a Cessna sucks. It’s noisy (really noisy). The cockpits are awful (like flying a Yugo). The windshield is usually scratched up to the point you can barely see out of it. You are severely restricted in where you can fly, and what you can do when you fly there. Headphones and an almost constant communication with an air traffic control tower make the dream of “running down the sidewalk with your arms out” seem more like mechanized warfare.

Before those perspective pilots become to disinterested (or go broke renting planes) let’s capture them and bring them into our sport. Again, our two governing organizations can “swap” advertising space in our member magazines. FAA/AOPA can run ads saying “Go further” or “Have the batteries in your lift died”. USHGA can run ads saying “What’s the buzz all about” eluding to the noise of the cockpit. We need to exploit our strengths (like cost, noise, fun) and share with them “this is closer to your original dream”. Also, break the common reply “I need a motor to feel safe” by describing how you can always fly within gliding distance of a safe landing spot.

Let’s also cater to the idea of owning something high-tech. Show them high performance wings like the ATOS or the Talon and give them something to get their mouth watering. Most people like the idea of owning something. Since hang gliders no longer look like “the bamboo butterfly”, we can advertise “You can’t afford that Cessna, but you can own this super-high-performance-flying machine for less than ten grand” (well, sort of). I read in a recent article of Flying Magazine how cost prohibitive it is to own a twenty year old Cessna 182. They estimated total cost of ownership at over $22,000 per year, or $179.00 per hour to operate. Let’s sell them our toys for much much less!

Heck, I could lay out the ads if you can negotiate the free advertising space. Additionally, my swapping idea is really effective if we get placement on their web sites (and this goes for all of my markets).

RC pilots also make a great audience. First, the hobby is thriving, especially in the electric and sailplane/electric markets. Second, the audience spans all generations. RC pilots start as bright teens and carry on well into their twilight years. Many of the “twenty’s and thirty’s” pilots probably do not realize that our sport would allow them to “actually fly” and in many cases be comparable in cost (have you priced a comp RC sailplane and 8-channel computer radio these days?). For about the same cost as a nice RC sailplane you can own a Falcon. Again, swap space in AMA’s magazine and on their web site.

I struggle with some of the following suggestions, because it may sound as though I’m contradicting myself. We need to grow our pilot base by appearing as an intellectual sport, and Zen sport, but a large audience is the X-Games generation. Allow me to address these individually.

First, the perception in the mind of the general public is that hang gliding is for the lunatic fringe and the thrill seeker. A common response when somebody hears that you are a hang gliding pilot is “Oh, do you also skydive and bungee jump”. Bungee jumping is a game of crapping your pants for eleven-point-five seconds. Hang gliding is a sport of Zen like concentration. Those who endeavor (and survive) are typically intelligent, conservative people who thrive on the extreme concentration, strategy, and constant decision making.

In a way, Rock Climbers are an excellent target market for hang gliding. Have been a former big wall climber myself, I can tell you this first hand. In rock climbing (as in flying) you really hope that nothing “exciting” will happen. A climber may work diligently and focus intensely for hours on end trying to reach the summit. During that process, a Zen like clearing of the mind and all of its worries is achieved through a purging of any excess, allowing for a clear calming focus. Sound like a light lift day to you? We can appeal to this audience. Put an ad in Rock and Ice magazine saying “Seeking a higher Zen, try this”.

The part that I struggle with is this.

We need to appeal to the X-games generation. Rock climbing, hiking, mountaineers, pilots are all a similar breed of conservative individual. These people are the same age as the X-gamers, have common interests with X-gamers, and are in the same overall demographic, but are fundamentally different in their willingness to put their life on the line. I fly because I feel it is safe. I am a pilot, not a lunatic. I’m also from the X-game generation.

The tough part is, we need the exposure of something like the X-games to bring people awareness of our sport. The down side is that we may not want some of the people it may bring (freestyle motocrossers come to mind). The last thing hang gliding needs is a surge in popularity by reckless thrill seekers and have our annual fatality rate skyrocket. We must choose carefully which genera we appeal to. X-gamers will likely be enthused about speed gliding. But that enthusiasm could in the long run kill our sport. Can the WRE make it as an X-game or Olympic test sport? We should ask.

The second part of my marketing plan (the first being target marketing, which we just covered) is about awareness and perception of the general public, and making hang gliding desirable and accessible.

The first issue to tackle is the one of safety. The perception in the mind of Joe Public is that hang gliding is a dangerous sport. Because of the steep learning curve just thirty years ago, this worry is not without merit. However, whenever hang gliding appears in the press outside of our circles, it is important that we stress that the sport has evolved into a safe, fun activity with high-tech equipment and structured teaching. Instructors and pilots must preach this to prospective pilots.

Having said that, USHGA should have a public relations person (even a member volunteering their services) to actively communicate with local news papers whenever an event is taking place in that area. Beyond that, we can even push for story placement in lifestyle sections of the Sunday paper. This is especially important in markets with such huge potential (such as those in California or Florida). Articles should stress safety, soaring as a sport in general, and the opportunity for every man and woman to become a pilot. And emphasize, “We are not the lunatic fringe!”

Once these open minds have been captured an exciting web portal must be available for the prospective pilots to explore. I believe that an exciting and graphic FAQ section on the USHGA web site is highly desirable. Current visitors to the USHGA are greeted with a very business like web site, designed to suit active pilots and instructors. For that purpose, I believe that USHGA has done a very good job. However, a picture section, with descriptions of different facets of our sport would be highly beneficial in capturing the imagination of prospective pilots, and furthering their dreams of soaring.

Since the low cost, compared to any other type of flight, is a highly desirable trait, we really must emphasize it. You’ve all had a look at your fellow pilots. You know that most of us are of modest means. When I initially became interested in Hang Gliding, the first instructor I contacted only offered package deals for lessons. I thought, jeez I can’t plunk down $1400 up front! I ultimately chose an instructor that allowed me to pay per lesson. In my opinion, all USHGA instructors should offer per-lesson plans. We have to make it as easy as possible for anyone to become a pilot, and not give any reason to turn them away.

We’ve developed a bunch of great single surface gliders. Now let’s get some new people excited about using them!

Discuss “marketing” hang gliding at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "Flying the flag for foot launched flight" at the Oz Report forum   link»

The 2003 Flytec Championship

Mon, Apr 14 2003, 5:00:02 pm GMT

ballast|Brett Hazlett|cloud|David Chaumet|Flytec 4030|Flytec Championships 2003|gaggle|GPS|Hansjoerg Truttmann|harness|Johann Posch|Kraig Coomber|Mark Bolt|Paris Williams|picture|radio|Ron Gleason|Timothy "Tim" Ettridge|Timothy Ettridge|tow|track log

The scores when they are done will be at:

http://www.flytec.com/flytec_champ_03/scores.html

Yesterday Bo was able to grab the bag that David was holding up at goal for $50. David said he could see him aiming at him from 3 miles out.

Photos by Timothy Ettridge (as was the camel picture yesterday)

There was an inversion at about 1,000’ and it didn’t break until a little after 1 PM. Mark Bolt and Bo gave it a try at 12:30 and both came down and then relaunched. The second time they stuck, but Bo had to circle up from about 300’ at the west end of the runway.

I had been waiting in the ready line waiting to see if anyone stuck. As we watched Bo slowly climb out pilots began to get ready. I just waited here the front of the ready line until there was pressure from behind to get going and launched at 1:25 PM. That meant that 95% of the pilots now had to get launched in 35 minutes if they wanted to get in the air by the first start time. What it really meant is that the first start time would probably not be the favored start time.

Amazingly it looked like only a couple of wings were still on the ground at 2 PM. Pilots must have pinned off low to get the tugs back on the ground so quick for the next tow.

It was a strong climb to 3,500’ and then a slow steady climb thereafter to over 6,000’ and cloud base. It was great to be bundled up in warm clothing which I made sure that everyone knew they might need today.

I was on the radio with Johann Posch and watching David Chaumet climb up to cloud base with us from a later launch. We let the 2 PM start time go by even though we were high as it didn’t look like anyone wanted to go. David headed west (downwind) and Johann and I followed him to keep him in our sites. We were again at cloud base at 2:15 PM and it looked like David wasn’t going to go. Then he did and we were right there with him.

I always want to fly with the fastest pilots and here was David off by himself and I wanted to be sure I was sticking with him today. We didn’t have any of the other fast guys, but they were starting also from cloud base to our east, upwind.

We were right on a line for more clouds (there were less to the northeast) so this looked like the hot spot in spite of the fact that we were a bit downwind of the course line. We were hitting the clouds right as we went north so that looked good.

David has a superior glide. Johann was slightly out gliding me, but David was going faster and staying even with us as he moved out ahead. At first we were all together going in the mid thirties speed wise and I couldn’t see any difference between us. When we started flying in the mid forties, then he pulled ahead and still had the same glide.

I was carrying 22 pounds of ballast (hook in weight of 222 with ballast). Either he carries more ballast, or his glider/harness has less drag than the ATOS-C with me or Johann on it. He is a skinny guy.

We were able to keep up with David by finding the cores faster and climbing quickly. His climb rate was about the same are ours. No dramatic difference there. The question is is this a one of a kind La Mouette Tsunami or are the others like this one? We haven’t seen another Top Secret (Tsunami) perform this well at all, so it is hard to know if this is a production model. It seems to be the same glider he had at the worlds in Chelan.

We came in under Hansjoerg by the prisons (surprise, there is a new prison going up next to the other two southeast of Coleman) and got back to cloudbase. Then off to Wildwood for the next cu. We joined up with Jim Yokum there who had started from a position to our east. We could see flex wing gliders also to our east.

Gliding toward the first turnpoint, I got out in front, a little lower and in the wrong position and the wrong tape went off in my head (the I can get ahead and find lift under these clouds even though I’m getting low tape). I tried to save my sorry ass at 1,000’ but just couldn’t stay with the weak lift drifting fast to the west.

Johann, Jim and David got up in the strong one that I refused to go back to (part of that bad tape), and got high before going into the turnpoint where they also found good lift. I was scratching too low one mile to the west and couldn’t chance going up wind to find that thermal.

There had been blue holes and clouds on the way north, but the blue hole got bigger as pilots headed south to Center Hill. Jim and Ron Gleason fell back to the west and got up to 7,200; over highway 75 quite a bit to the west, while Johann plowed through the blue and landed just south of Center Hill.

The flex wings were gaggling up and helping each other out more. By starting at 2:45 Bo, with Paris, Brett Hazlett, Johnny Durand, Jr. and Kraig Coomber, they were able to catch the 2:15 and 2:30 starters. Manfred started at 2:30 PM.

With a big lead gaggle they made their way through the blue hole and then at the second and last turnpoint 12 miles out from Quest were able to make it back against the head wind.

Bo won the day followed by Paris, Johnny Durand, Brett and Kraig. Johnny Durand had his GPS go out on him and he saw Bo and Paris go for it. He said that he wished he had a Flytec 4030 Race for this final glide.

Christian won the day starting a half hour after David. David was second.

To see how the top pilots did check the URL above and click Top Tracks. The animated track log for Sunday for rigids is at http://www.flytec.com/flytec_champ_03/top5/rigidtracksat.HTML (ignore the paraglider symbol).

You’ll need http://www.flytec.com/flytec_champ_03/comprigid.html to know who is who. Go to the scores URL above and click competitors to get their numbers.

Discuss "The 2003 Flytec Championship" at the Oz Report forum   link»

The Dragonfly accident

Fri, Apr 11 2003, 12:00:05 pm EDT

accident|Dragonfly|parachute|picture|tail

The accident occurred a little after 9 AM this morning. Chad was flying the Dragonfly with the heavier 4-stroke engine at about 800 feet. There was a strong west wind and in a turn one of the wings folded up. The cause of this fold up was the fact that the bottom strut for that wing was not bolted to the box at the main bulkhead.

During assembly the strut was inserted incorrectly into the box. The bolt marked below with the red arrow was inserted but the strut was inserted into the box above the bolt hole so that the bolt wasn’t attached to the strut. The bolt was tightened down squeezing the box and holding the strut in by friction. Again, the bolt was not inserted in its correct spot through the strut.

The friction held the strut in place until the flight regime increased the forces on the strut to exceed friction’s hold on the strut and it came out and the wing folded up.

Chad pulled the BRS handle immediately and the rocket took off with a loud bang which caused me to go outside and I watched the Dragonfly diving toward the ground.

Apparently the BRS rocket pulled the chute from the canister correctly but the parachute shrouds tangled in the wires on the tail going to the wheel as per this picture: The parachute therefore didn’t inflate.

On this Dragonfly and the other ones with the 4 stroke engines have the BRS canister mounted just in front of the pilot on the pilot cage, and not at the apex above the wings on the leading edge (more pictures on this tomorrow). The canister is mounted in this location when the Dragonfly has this engine to offset some of the weight of the engine.

Discuss Dragonfly accidents at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

Discuss "The Dragonfly accident" at the Oz Report forum   link»   »

Babes at Flight Parks

Wed, Apr 9 2003, 2:00:05 pm EDT

Alexander Prymak|picture

Alexander Prymak <prijmak@yahoo.com> sends in this picture of his son Nikita from Quest Air:

Discuss "Babes at Flight Parks" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Small control frame

Tue, Apr 8 2003, 2:00:06 pm EDT

control frame|Kate Diamond|Oz Report|picture

Oz Report readers may remember the Kate Diamond has been my test case for the small control frame, and that she has taken to the Icaro 2000 MastR 12. Rob Fox <rob.fox@ukgateway.net> sends this picture to illustrate the problem:

Discuss "Small control frame" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Florida Report

Thu, Apr 3 2003, 10:00:01 pm GMT

Aeros Combat|Aeros Combat 2|Airborne C2|cloud|competition|Florida|Jamie Shelden|picture|record|Rick "Ricky" Duncan|Ricky Duncan|Timothy Ettridge

http://www.davisstraub.com/Glide/questairweather.htm

Light winds. The FSL predictions showed no clouds but at 10 AM they showed up in force. Bo took off at 10:30 in good lift thinking he could get the 100 mile record in light winds as he started early (we assume 15 mph on a single surface hang glider). He dolphin flew after getting up but only 12 miles as the day totally changed as high clouds came over quickly and thinned out the cloud streets.

Ragged cu’s with light lift under the high clouds with up and down periods for the rest of the day. Some periods of sustained lift.

Ricky Duncan showed up today. He’ll be flying in the Flytec Championships. It sure was great to see him. Jamie Sheldon also showed up last night with an ATOS-C for Mark P. Five ATOS-C’s will show up tomorrow.

Quest is beginning to fill up with gliders and pilots getting ready for the upcoming competition. Stacks of Icaro 2000 Laminar MR’s, Aeros Combat 2’s, Airborne C2’s, and Moyes Litespeeds. The joint in jumping and good flying is happening.

Timothy Ettridge <TimothyEttridge@aol.com> sends the picture of the setup area at Quest today.

Discuss "Florida Report" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Intermediate gliders

Tue, Mar 25 2003, 9:00:06 pm GMT

Aeros Discus|Icaro 2000 MastR|Moyes Litesport|picture|Steve Uzochukwu|Wills Wing U2

Steve Uzochukwu <steveu2@which.net> asks:

Very good reviewing the intermediate and high end king posted gliders. There's not much of this nowadays, especially not with the comparisons you have made. To improve on the accuracy of perceived agility, would it be possible for you to quote clip in weight and let us know whereabouts you were in the weight range? Particularly for the Icaro 2000 MastR series, we would have a better picture if we knew if you were bottom or maybe even below the weight range lower limit.

I clip in at about 190 - 195 pounds (88 kg)

Icaro 2000 MastR: http://www.Icaro2000.com/Products/Hang%20gliders/MastR/MastR.htm

U.m Laminar 12 R Laminar 13 R Laminar 14 R
Sail Area sq m sq ft 12.5 134.55 13.2 142.08 14.4 155
Weight (Packing Bag Not Included) kg lb 29 64 30 66 32.5 72
Clip-In Pilot Weight (Min / Max) kg lb 50/85 110/187 60/90 132/198 70/110 154/243

Aeros Discus: http://www.justfly.com/gliders/discusdata.htm

Sail area: 148 sq. ft, Pilot weight: 150-215, glider weight: 65 lbs.

Wills Wing U2: http://www.willswing.com/prod2.asp?theClass=hg&theModel=U2

Moyes Litesport: http://www.moyes.com.au/ProductDetail.asp?ProductID=50

Discuss "Intermediate gliders" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Fuzzy red and white dot

Thu, Mar 20 2003, 8:00:07 pm GMT

picture|Rodger Reinhart

Rodger Reinhart <Rodger_Reinhart@atmos.com> writes:

On the day the helicopter photographed the California coast I was flying north of Santa Cruz. I am the fuzzy red and white dot in the upper left corner. Turns out it as a good flying day in CA and quite a few gliders were captured in the air. I remember the helicopter at my altitude and thinking any closer and I am out of here. http://www.californiacoastline.org/cgi-bin/image.cgi?image=6405&mode=sequential&flags=1

Discuss "Fuzzy red and white dot" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Stealth glider

Sun, Mar 9 2003, 11:00:06 pm GMT

Gerry "Scare!" Grossnegger|picture

Scare sends this:

Strange how water always reflects the true inner image of something, eh?

Discuss "Stealth glider" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Kate without shoes

Wed, Dec 4 2002, 7:00:07 pm GMT

control frame|harness|helmet|picture|Tascha "Tish the Flying Fish" McLellan

I don’t have a picture of Kate flying at Anna Bay without a helmet or harness like this one of Tish:

The difference was that Kate is so light that she was 15’-20’ over the beach. Conrad and Chris would get her up in the control frame and then throw her off the 4 foot high ledge.

Kate said that the folks back in England might believe that she flew in the control frame without a harness and helmet, but that they would never believe that she went without shoes. I had commented to her earlier in the day about why was she putting on her tennis shoes here at the beach. It was just this English thing.

This is Conrad soaring the ledge, but Kate was getting about twice as high as she is much lighter.

BTW, thanks so much to Conrad, Tish, Chris, and Russell for all their help and support flying at the dunes and the beach at Anna Bay. Thanks again also to the crew at Airborne for all their help and the loan of the gliders.

Discuss "Kate without shoes" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

The 24 hour 7 day a week thermal »

Sat, Aug 24 2002, 11:00:08 am GMT

picture

http://www.enviromission.com.au/index1.htm

The picture:

Discuss "The 24 hour 7 day a week thermal" at the Oz Report forum   link»

Re: Angelo on Tucks and Tumbles

Thu, Mar 14 2002, 5:00:06 pm GMT

Peter Gasparovic|picture|tuck|tumble|aerodynamics

Peter Gasparovic «pegas», Air Force Academy in Kosice, Dept.of Aeronautical Engineering, http://pegas.oceany.cz writes:

The main difference between a hang glider and other aircraft is the lower stall speed of the hang glider relative to turbulent gusts. One is more likely to encounter turbulent gusts that can quickly reduce the hang glider’s air speed to below its stall speed. Therefore a hang glider is often found in flight regimes, where nonlinear aerodynamic characteristics are dominant (below stall speed).

There are also other non-linearities at lower angles of attack (AoA). These have to do with variation in wing twist and airfoil shape (wing flexibility). Good examples can be found at http://www.willswing.com/launch.asp?
theCategory=support&link=frmSupportPage.asp
. More interesting is the effect on tumbling of the wing’s characteristics at high AoA (stalled wing), because they are inherently nonlinear (regardless of wing flexibility), and are very hard to quantify using the classic mathematical analyses.

Angelos's quest is for positive pitch at high AoA (roughly speaking). I claim that it is not possible to design glider with positive (stable) pitch moment about the hook-in point at high AoA (with a stalled wing). Why?

To explain this one should forget about the neutral point, pitch moment about some point, and so on. Concentrate on theCENTER OFPRESSURE (CoP). CoP is the point where the lift acts and where it can be totally balanced by our weight. In the next 2 pictures we see the movement of this CoP in first an unstable and secondly in a stable airfoil (glider). What can be seen, is that regardless of airfoil shape (similar to wing twist), CoP suddenly jumps aft to 50 % of the cord length at stall AoA. This leads to a strong pitch downward.

The third picture shows typical movement of CoP for both airfoils (glider). At angles above 45° drag becomes greater than lift and produces similarly strong pitching. Even though it is essentially impossible to eliminate this pitching (because of long arm), I think that in some way it could be improved by better stalling characteristics. It is desirable, that when CoP starts moving aft, lift should drop as soon as possible to as low a value as possible. In the forth picture, the blue curve represents potentially better glider. To be sure, we must also look at the location of CoP.

Unfortunately, stalling characteristics of airfoil can be affected only within a limited range of AoA, because fully separated flow is relatively insensitive to the airfoil shape. However, in the case of the whole wing it can be different. I don't have available any measurements of actual gliders at very high AoA. It would be interesting to compare these results for flex- and rigid wings.

There is a similarity in the requirements for good stalling characteristics to reduce the chance of tumbling and to increase the chances of having a good landing. The motion of a stalled glider is controlled by the loss of lift and by onset of strong pitch down forces. Loss of lift alone causes only slow curvature of flight path (tuck?), whereas pitching down rotates glider very quickly around the CG and moreover causes even greater loss of lift. In a tumble it is desirable to reduce pitch down moment, though at the expense of greater loss of lift. The same applies to landing. Lower pitching moment will result in smaller sensitivity to late pushing out, and it will not cause frontal whack after an early flare.

Discuss "Re: Angelo on Tucks and Tumbles" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

WRE – sponsored by Flytec »

Sat, Mar 9 2002, 7:00:03 am GMT

David Glover|FAA|Flytec|Gary Osoba|picture|world record|World Record Encampment 2002

Gary Osoba and David Glover are back from four days of meeting with Zapata officials and the FAA personnel in Laredo. Lots of good things have happened to help out pilots coming to the WRE and Gary will be sending me a written report very soon which I’ll share with Oz Report readers.

You can register for the upcoming 2002 World Record Encampment in Zapata, TX. All pilots who want to come to the WRE must go through this registration process even if you have told me that you want to come or have written to David.

You can register at: http://www.flytec.com or click picture.

We will have a special World Record Encampment newsletter that will provide information of special interest to WRE participants. Anyone can sign up to receive it at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WRE_News or click picture.

Or, just subscribe by e-mailing «WRE_News-subscribe». This is not a discussion group, but is a newsletter mailing list and you will receive the newsletter from the meet organizers only.

There will be a special discussion group newsletter open to all actual WRE participants. Soon after you register you will be told how to join in this discussion group. This group will help you co-ordinate for drivers, etc.

Discuss "WRE – sponsored by Flytec" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

1000+ Hang Gliding Pictures - $20

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

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

David Glover «dhglover» writes:

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

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

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

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

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

Discuss "1000+ Hang Gliding Pictures - $20" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Fun photos

Wed, Apr 12 2000, 9:00:03 pm GMT

Mark Vaughn|picture|Flytec|Steve Kroop|Brauniger

Mark Vaugn, «Cmvjv», writes:

Here is a shot I took at Wallaby last month during the WW show off days. I took it with hopes that Flytec might purchase it for their promotions of Flytec Equipment. So far no bites from Steve Kroop. Something about being worried about promoting WW now that they are carrying the Brauniger line. Maybe you can use it in the OZ report somehow.

Yes, the photo is doctored.

Discuss "Fun photos" at the Oz Report forum   link»  

Manfred’s Rumors

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

Aaron Swepston|Betinho Schmitz|Gianni Hotz

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

Competitions Summary

High Level

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Discuss "Manfred’s Rumors" at the Oz Report forum   link»

The Forbes Flatlands - settings records

Sun, Jul 5 1998, 7:56:15 pm EDT

competition|Forbes Flatlands|job|picture|record|release|site|Tascha "Tish the Flying Fish" McLellan|Tim Cummings|Tove Heaney

It's been beautiful, sunny, and not too cold here in Seattle that last few days, but in the southern hemisphere it's the first of July (sun time), and the Forbes Flatlands are underway in New South Wales, Australia, just outside the semi-charming farming town of Forbes.

The Forbes meet is one of the major Australian competitions, and Forbes was the site of the last winter's World Hang Gliding Championships. You can always expect a number of European pilots, along with a few Americans, to show up to fly at Forbes, and in the other major competitions in Australia.

Tim Cummings maintains a web site that gives daily reports on the competition. You can check it out at http://www2.eis.net.au/~tim/forbes99/index.html. Tim has done an excellent job, and he is writing up a press release everyday on the results.

This year the Forbes meet has been designed to let the top competition pilots break the existing world records for triangles and out and returns. They have responded with a vengeance, especially the women pilots. Check out Tim's site for the latest records. Tish, Tove, Rohan and others are blazing through the skies.

Tove Heaney, who set the women's distance record last month in Manila is doing very well and is currently in 9th place, a couple of points behind her husband Grant. I happened to catch a picture of her last year at Hay (that's Conrad Lotten in the middle, and Oleg Bondarchuck on the right):

Discuss "The Forbes Flatlands - settings records" at the Oz Report forum   link»