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topic: Cory Barnwell (72 articles)

A few comments on JD's analysis

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

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

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

JD writes:

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

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

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

Should the 200 point penalty that Daniel received be rescinded and he be given the 10 point penalty as per CIVIL Section 7A rules?

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Cloud Flying »

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

A careful look at the data

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

JD Guillemette writes:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

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

Daniel Velez Bravo's analysis

Daniel Vélez Bravo|Davis Straub|Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

https://danielvelezbravo.wordpress.com/

Translated into English:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

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

Day six, canceled

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

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

NWS, Today:

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

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

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

HRRR, 1 PM:

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

HRRR, 4 PM:

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

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

What the sky looked like near noon:

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

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

The final results are found here:

https://OzReport.com/26.68#1

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2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

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

Day five, canceled

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

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

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

NWS, Today:

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

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

RAP, Noon:

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

RAP, 4 PM:

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

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

SkewT shows slight chance of cu-nimb here.

58°F at CB.

The task:

Wilotree 10 km
Midflo 3 km
Zimmrr 400 m.

71 km

This is what the sky looked like this afternoon:

The winds at Leesburg Airfield:

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

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

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

NWS:

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

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

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

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

HRRR, 4 PM:

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

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

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2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

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

Day four, results

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

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

Open task:

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

Cumulative:

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

Sport task:

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

Cumulative:

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

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2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

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

Day four, light winds and cu's

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

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

NWS, Today:

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

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

RAP, 1 PM:

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

RAP, 4 PM:

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

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

SkewT show reduced chance of cu-nimb here.

53°F at CB.

The task:

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

78.7 km

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

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

Day three, looks like a much better day

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

The forecast:

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

NWS, Today:

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

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

HRRR, 1 PM:

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

HRRR, 4 PM:

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

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

SkewT doesn't show cu-nimbs

47°F at CB.

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

The task:

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

77 km

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

It was almost 4 PM.

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

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

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2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

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

Day three, results

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

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

Open task:

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

Cumulative:

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

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2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

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

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

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

The forecast:

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

NWS, Today:

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

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

HRRR, 1 PM:

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

HRRR, 4 PM:

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

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

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

50°F at CB.

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

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

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

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

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

82 km

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

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

Day two, results

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

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

Open task:

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

Cumulative

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

Sport task:

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

Cumulative:

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

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2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

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

Day one, results

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

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

Open task:

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

Sport task:

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

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

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2022 Wilotree Park Nationals »

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

Day one, trying for 30% in goal

Wilotree Park Nationals 2022

The forecast:

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

NWS, Today

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

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

HRRR, 1 PM:

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

HRRR, 4 PM:

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

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

47°F at CB.

Task:

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

77 km FAI triangle.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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2021 US XContest National Champion

Tue, Jan 25 2022, 7:05:12 am MST

Larry Bunner

Bruce Barmakian|Cory Barnwell|COVID|Davis Straub|Flytec 6030|Greg Dinauer|Gregg "Kim" Ludwig|John Simon|Krzysztof "Krys/Kris" Grzyb|Larry Bunner|Maria Garcia|Mick Howard|Pedro Garcia|Wilotree Park|XC|XContest.org

This past year has been a challenge on many levels; Covid, death and weather were constants throughout. Covid acted as a veil that constantly reminded of the need to take care and precautions to keep us all healthy. Although not directly impacted, the potential issues continually lurked in the background. This summer death knocked on the door too many times (having lost several loved ones) and in spite of our best efforts took Sue’s beloved mom from us.

The weather was inconsistent and challenging to predict. The winter/spring season in Florida never really set up with the conventional southeasterly flows up the peninsula. When southerly winds did briefly occur, they ended up being blocked by stationary fronts north of Ocala. There weren’t any 100 miles flights to the north this year.

In the Midwest (Whitewater, WI), typically cold fronts will pass through on a weekly frequency starting in late July. It wasn’t until mid September that a strong cold front finally passed through that resulted in a good flight however the soaring duration was limited by the number of sun hours at this time of year.

Even the weather in the usually reliable west Texas was hard to predict. The coastal plains were inundated with moisture in early summer that retarded the development of normally hot arid conditions expected in late July and early August. A week in Cotulla, Texas was somewhat of a bust. A number of pilots gathered there to be towed up by Gregg Ludwig on his super trike with setting records in mind. Even though we had all of the logistics aligned, two days of torrential rain limited our best efforts. I hadn’t seen west Texas so green before.

Yet it wasn’t all gloomy. Florida is a great time in the winter and spring as a significant number of like-minded cross country (XC) pilots gather at Wilotree Park to fly preset tasks on the good days. Davis Straub, Greg Dinauer, John Simon, Mick Howard, Pedro and Maria Garcia, Corey Barnwell and a host of others fly together on most days to enjoy the sweet Florida conditions and improve their skills.

Although the southerly conditions didn’t get established this year, there were a number of decent flying days. February and March resulted in about 45 hours of airtime but no big cross country days to speak of. A week of exceptional weather started off the month of April and on the 4th a large group went for it on a 100 mile triangle around the Green Swamp. John Simon, Pedro Garcia and I managed to make it.

The next day looked good for an out and return task with light winds and high cloudbase. We set a task to fly south to Gilbert Airport and return north to Baron Airport and then back south to Wilotree (~100 miles). Davis, Bruce Barmakian and I completed the task in epic cumulus cloud filled skies.

The conditions the next day were almost a repeat so we set another big task to the south to Suzanne Airport and back to Wilotree. Davis and I flew together the entire flight. The task was ~90mi so as I neared Wilotree I found a good climb and decided to fly further north to get an additional 10 miles to put me over 100 again.

On the fourth day, conditions still looked good with mostly blue skies but high top of the lift so we again set an aggressive task to the south to Lake Wales and then back to Wilotree. To get 100 miles we would need to proceed further north to Grass Roots Airport and back to Wilotree. We flew together to Lake Wales and back. Davis landed at Wilotree however just as I approached the airport a gaggle of vultures popped out of the field climbing very fast. I joined them and climbed back up to 4500’. A convergence line of clouds formed a couple miles to the west and was producing excellent lift up to 600fpm. Cloudbase at 6700’ was enough altitude to glide north to Grass Roots Airport and back to Wilotree for my fourth 100+mile flight in four days!

The conditions indeed had been epic with strong climbs up to 1100fpm (>700fpm average) on two of the days and tops above 7000’. Two weeks of competitions started the next weekend however the weather had turned for the worse. There were only two good days during the period. The rest were mediocre at best with low, slow climbs and few clouds. By the end of the month it was time to head back to northern Illinois.

The four 100 milers in Florida:

Back on my home turf, I connected with Kris Grzyb from Aurora, IL who I have flown big flights with for over 25 years. We share the same strong desire to push ourselves for long distance and he is probably the best cross country pilot in the US. Thankfully for me anyway he logs flights under his native land of Poland (lol!).

In early May strong spring conditions set up for three days of good flying. Kris had to work on May 11th however my brother Rob met me in Whitewater, WI to fly in strong post frontal conditions. We didn’t have a driver but decided to go for it and figure out retrieval once we were done flying.

I launched first and climbed in successive thermals to 5000’, 5500’, 6700’ and 7200’. The spacing between thermals was tight and for three hours my lowest point was above 4500’. Temperatures up high were brutally cold (less than 25°F) however I was reasonably prepared with heat packs in my shoes, multiple thermal layers, bar mitts and heat packs for my hands. At one point the thought crossed my mind how wonderful it would be to soar in these conditions and be toasty warm. I didn’t get hypothermic but did have to run in my harness to keep my core temperature up.

Unbeknownst to me the surface conditions at Whitewater worsened after my launch so Rob elected not to fly. He knew the conditions would be better the next two days so decided to drive the chase vehicle to pick me up. We weren’t using radio’s so had no idea he was on route. About 100 miles out high cirrus shaded the ground and ever so slowly cooled the environment including my body temperature.

I’m a strong believer that eliminating distractions is the key to excellent performance and am driven to remove those distractions that impact my ability to focus on the task at hand. Unfortunately the cold was getting to me and once that started my thoughts about the length of time it would take to get retrieved were becoming dominant. I began looking for towns in the distance suitable for a landing. The optimal place would be an airport however after over-flying several towns I touched down in an open field on the outskirts of Metamora, IL 4hrs 40min in the air and 153 miles from launch.

Unbelievably Rob arrived 30 minutes later. After a 2 hour ride back to my house we checked the weather for the next day and found that the conditions improved with light and variable winds and top of the lift at 10,000’!

Whitewater to Metamora:

We met Kris at Whitewater early. He had followed my tracker for the whole flight the day before and was chomping to fly a big one. He planned out a 207km (128mi) FAI triangle to the southeast to Ringwood, IL then west northwest to Avon, WI and finally back to Whitewater. Temperatures at the top of the lift were predicted to be 15°F so it was going to be a very cold day. I dressed similarly as the day before but added a neoprene no fog face mask.

Kris was off early and on course. I followed and headed southeast but a few clouds later was down to 1700’; quite disappointing after having topped out above 7300’ on the previous two climbs. After digging out and struggling to get high again and seeing the clouds on course line thin out, the decision was easy to just follow a better cloud line.

The task was abandoned and I flew a new route to the south using the Flytec 6030 to determine distance to takeoff. The line was good for 30 miles just past Harvard, IL where it then diverted to the west which was perfect to get me back on the original course line.

The last climb at the southern terminus took me over 9000’ for the first time and the clouds to the west were strong too with multiple climbs over 8500’ and one climb rate at a peak over 1200+fpm.

West of the Rock River the lift was more elusive; flying under multiple clouds resulted in little gain but there were better looking clouds further west. I spent an hour searching for a good climb and eventually found one near Durand, IL that was solid and took me to 9400’. The path north now looked epic with flat, black bottomed cumulus marking the lift along the way. The next four climbs were over 8800’ with one strong climb at ~750fpm average to 9859’ the highest of the day.

East of Evansville, WI I decided to return to Whitewater so headed east toward Milton. This leg of the flight was uneventful with several good climbs until I was high enough to glide back to the airport for a good landing. The flight duration was 5hrs and 35 minutes and total distance was 120miles. Kris flew the original task and made it back as well. Rob had an awesome flight too.

The third day showed lift over 10500’ (the best I can recall in the area in 45+ years of flying) however there would be higher winds from the southwest as the day progressed. Kris set a monster task to fly around the city of Madison and its airport over 150 miles. Although neither one of us completed the task, Kris did manage to get ⅔ around the course and I did around 60 miles. The notable part however was that both of us thermaled up to cloudbase and I reached 10,497’ in one climb.

It was almost another month before I flew again. The 2nd of June looked to be epic again so Kris and I set another task around the city of Madison. A dry wedge of air was centered over the area and the forecast was for light winds with cumulus clouds rising to over 9000’ at the peak of the day. Kris and I both completed the 150+ mile task in just under 8 hours. I posted the story of our flight in my blog: https://tinyurl.com/ymy9nccp.

The two big triangles in Wisconsin:

The rest of the summer didn’t produce any big flights. Even Cotulla, TX was woeful at best. In September, I was able to spend a couple days flying with friends in SE Oklahoma at the Panorama site on the Talimena National Scenic Byway. The site is beautiful and the pilots are a great group. On the 16th I flew for 5hrs 20min and approximately 120 miles. This story is also in my blog: https://tinyurl.com/ycknfnmn. This was my 8th flight over 100 miles this year. The best six were long enough to get awarded the XContest US National Championship for the second year in a row.

2021 US XContest National Champion Larry Bunner

https://www.xcontest.org/2021/world/en/ranking-hg-national:US

https://www.xcontest.org/2021/world/en/pilots/detail:lbunner

For the year, I ended up with 51 flights, just over 136 hours and 2279 miles.

Ayvri:

https://tinyurl.com/4hteuksz
https://tinyurl.com/4wnpddmu
https://tinyurl.com/5n7zkvym
https://tinyurl.com/4sd8aeut
https://tinyurl.com/y2vm7mwc
https://tinyurl.com/4b6mcmnm
https://tinyurl.com/mrzhuzje
https://tinyurl.com/2p954h4f

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Having fun in winter

Sat, Jan 15 2022, 7:24:13 pm MST

The park fills up with pilots as the forecast looks good

Cory Barnwell|Richard "Ric" Caylor|Stephan Mentler|Thaisio Feliz|Wilotree Park|XContest.org

With rain forecast starting early in the morning on Sunday it looks like Saturday is the day. Here's the morning forecast for Saturday:

Soaring forecast for Saturday January 15th, 2022 at Wilotree Park

NWS:

Saturday
Sunny, with a high near 72. Calm wind becoming south around 5 mph in the morning.
Hourly forecast: south southwest wind 5-6 mph, cloud cover 10%, no chance of rain.

RAP, 1 PM:

Surface wind: southwest 6 mph (9 mph at 2,000', 17 mph west southwest at 4,000')
Updraft velocity: 540 fpm
TOL: 4,400'
Cu: 0' (I suspect that there will be cu's.)
B/S: 6.0

RAP, 3 PM:

Surface wind: southwest 6 mph (8 mph at 2,000', 9 mph at 4,000')
Updraft velocity: 620 fpm
TOL: 5,200'
Cu: 4,800'
B/S: 10.0

Task:

Quest 3 km
BAYLK 1 km
T50469 1km
SAWMIL 1 km
Quest 400 m

There were over a dozen pilots ready to go flying, but there were no cu's forming over the field, which matched the forecast. Stephane Mentler goes out to launch as almost everyone else waits. I go right behind him. I launch at 1:45 PM with everyone else taking their own sweet time.

There is lift, but it is weak just over 100 fpm. Climbing 500' from 1,800' I head over to a small fire to the southwest toward the first turnpoint at Bay Lake, but there is nothing coming off the fire and I have to go back to start over again at 1,400'.

The slow climbs and low top of lift (nothing like the forecast) will prove to be the issue in the 3 km start cylinder around Wilotree Park. I will climb to 2,900' head southwest and soon get down to 1,200'. With a 5 mph southwest head wind I will lose distance toward the turnpoint as I circle up. Other pilots have joined in the fun now despite the fact that they don't see anyone getting very high.

Cory Barnwell joins me as we climb to 3,100' and head southwest again still inside the start cylinder. The day is not looking all that great for our task set given the forecast. Finally climbing back slowly to 3,000' Cory and I head out and an hour after launching are able to make it outside the 3 km start cylinder.

Our glide puts us down to 1,200' where we find weak sink and work it until it starts to turn positive. We're about 1.3 km from the turnpoint and being pushed back to the north. We hang on for 24 minutes climbing to 2,100' and drifting to almost 5 km from the turnpoint. It is a straight easy shot back to Wilotree Park from this location and altitude (it wasn't when we were low) but I decide to go for the turnpoint.

There are four or five pilots stuck with me. I think Cory and Ric Caylor have headed back to Wilotree Park. I find a nice thermal 2 km from the turnpoint at 3:22 PM and then move to the side to find 400 fpm under the first cu that we've seen. I climb to 3,400'.

Given how things have improved I decided to continue with the task, other pilots go along with that choice also.

I nick the turnpoint and head north into the blue toward the intersection of highway 50 and 469. I find 30 fpm 5 km to the north of the turnpoint, 5.5 km south of the second turnpoint. I'm at the eastern edge of the Green Swamp.

I see cu's to my west and head for them. Unfortunately, I don't find any lift. Thasio had just come under me when I was turning in 30 fpm up.

I head north again going over areas that I was familiar with near Slone Ridge Road where I ride my road bike every other day.

I see Thasio landing up ahead in a familiar field. I'm down to about 500' and to the south of the field that he lands in when I spy a couple of small lakes and they are completely covered with birds, either Sandhill Cranes or Wood Storks, huge birds. It is completely shocking to see some many large birds packed in so small an area. Like flamingos in south Florida.

I land with Thasio and four of us and up landing in this field. What a great day.

https://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/15.1.2022/18:45

https://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/2991641

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

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'Twas the Day Before Christmas

Fri, Dec 24 2021, 5:16:45 pm MST

When all through the Park

Bobby Bailey|Christmas|Cory Barnwell|Richard "Ric" Caylor

The hang glider pilots were ready, they pined for a lark
Their gliders were set up by the oak tree with care;
In hopes that the cummies soon would be there;

The pilots would soon be nestled all snug in their gear;
With beeps of their varios dancing in their ears;
And Jim in his plane, and Bobby in his too,
Were revving their engines as they normally do,

When out of the south the cu's came our way,
We looked into the sky and decided to play.
Away behind Bobby I flew like a flash,
I had to hold on tight, this flight cost some cash.

The sun on the field was heating below,
My vario sounded and I soon would let go.

With little Bobby so lively and quick,
I knew in a moment that I likely would stick.
More rapid than buzzards the birds did appear,
And I whistled, and shouted so that they could hear.

"Now, Mick!, now Scott, now Cory and Ric!
Right over me and going up quick!
To the top of the thermal! To the top of the lift!
Now glide away! Glide away! We have received such a gift!"

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with a hill side, lift up to the sky;
So up to the cloud base all of us flew
With hearts full of thanks and our warm clothing, too--

And then, in a twinkling I heard such a sound
As my vario hit 600+ fpm all around.
I straightened it out and ran for the edge,
Just getting outside a cumulus ledge.

I was dressed in four layers from my head to my pants,
I was hoping I hadn't accidentally picked up some ants;
Bundled all up in my hang glider sack,
I was warm as could be with my hang glider on back.

My eyes — how they twinkled! my dimples, how merry!
My cheeks were like roses, my nose like a cherry!
My droll little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
And the stubble on my chin was as white as the snow;

If I had a Russian mouth release, it would be tight in my teeth,
Or an Australian dual version that would be hooked down beneath;
But I had a broad smile and a little round belly
That didn't do much when I laughed, unlike a bowl full of jelly.

I was pushing and pulling, circling in the sky around,
And I laughed when I saw how far I was from the ground;
Banking up high and twisting my head
Soon I was a bit dizzy, but it was nothing to dread;

When I got to the top I went straight down the course,
And went for the turnpoint, life could have been worse,
And hearing the beeps tell me I was there,
And seeing that I had goal with a flare;

I pulled in hard to get up to speed,
And away I flew as the height above goal I did read.
But I was ready to exclaim as I dove out of sight -
"Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!"

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Registration Open for Florida Spring Competitions

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

Finally Airtribune responds

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

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

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

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

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Dinosaur 2015 - Predictions From the Organizers »

September 7, 2015, 8:27:25 MDT

Dinosaur 2015 - Predictions From the Organizers

A pilot had qualms

Dinosaur 2015|Terry Reynolds|weather

https://www.rockymountainglider.com/locale.html

WEATHER

(1) While no one would be so foolish as to guarantee the weather for any hang gliding contest, the period scheduled for this meet should yield seven straight days of outstanding flying conditions. The desert area around Dinosaur is not affected by the high mountain weather which makes many mountain sites inconsistent. (2) While a high mountain site could have a solid week of virtually unflyable conditions, it is unlikely that there will be even a single day at Dinosaur on which a safe, valid task cannot be called. (3) During the post-monsoon period of this meet, pilots can expect a weather pattern dominated by high pressure, with light westerly winds aloft and blue thermals/small cumulus. Climbs above 17,000'msl are normal.

The numbers in parentheses and emphasis added.

The pilot writes:

Terry Reynolds and Crew, Jim and Amy Zeiset, and all those vested deeply in Dinosaur 2015 should be applauded and recognized for their enthusiastic and significant effort in putting on such a comp from scratch. Events such as this are a labor of love and demonstrate both a philanthropic and historical support for the sport of hang gliding. They are by nature cash negative.

However, when will event organizers properly recognize the importance of meteorological assessments and strategies? Pursuits which rely upon harvesting energy from atmospheric discontinuities which is both reliable and safe must fully understand the scope and impact of these parameters.

Reading the paragraph about the weather from the Dinosaur 2015 website in advance (see above), and being somewhat familiar with the area, meteorological patterns, and time of year for this event, I bit my lip, sublimated the skepticism, and hoped for the best.

The good (1) and the bad (2), bad (3). Unfortunately my concerns about the conditions proved to be only too well founded. Congratulations to Zippie on another top performance and extending something of a real roll! Congratulations to the organizers for putting on a very special event at a special site. It's unfortunate that the weather didn't run against historic patterns, but it didn't, and that's like crying over spilt milk.

The message: Make sure events, sites, and meet practice synch with meteorological realities. Time is precious, as are the best and well-meaning efforts and lives themselves.

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Dinosaur day 7 cancelled »

September 5, 2015, 1:59:22 pm MDT

Dinosaur day 7 cancelled

Gail force winds force the end of the meet after three days of flying.

Bill Soderquist|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|competition|Dinosaur 2015|Jim Yocom|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Pete Lehmann|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/results

Final:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 962 928 1000 1962
2 Glen McFarlane Wills Wing T2C 144 947 1000 945 1947
3 Christian Ciech Icaro Laminar 987 916 730 1903
4 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 144 935 897 416 1832
5 Jon Sr Durand Moyes RX4 833 878 374 1711
6 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 576 969 442 1545
7 Jonny Durand Moyes RX3.5 880 472 448 1352
8 Bruce Barmakian Wills Wing T2C 144 556 102 709 1265
9 Bill Soderquist Moyes RS3.5 812 443 380 1255
10 Pete Lehmann Wills Wing T2 154 266 536 673 1209

Sport class final:

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Kelly Myrkle Aeros Discus 844 133 451 1295
2 Beau Buck North Wing Liberty 148 794 107 464 1258
3 Nathan Grimes Wills Wing U2 145 652 272 514 1166
4 Brian Morris Freedom 170 862 220 194 1082
5 Josiah Stephens Predator 142 450 114 468 918
6 Rob DeGroot Moyes Gecko 321 477 265 798
7 John Christian Wills Wing U2 145 613 107 0 720
8 Carlos Alvarado Wills Wing U2 145 363 272 203 635
9 Jon Lindburg Wills Wing Sport 2 135b 319 114 126 445
10 Rick Maddy Wills Wing U2 160 195 0 164 359

Kelley

Jim Yocom was the first of two ATOS pilots.

Dinosaur day 6 cancelled »

September 4, 2015, 2:00:05 pm MDT

Dinosaur day 6 cancelled

Forecast for unpleasant conditions

weather

NWS forecast for this afternoon, here:

Scattered showers and thunderstorms, mainly after 5pm. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 77. South southwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Chance of precipitation is 30%.

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Dinosaur - today's forecast »

Fri, Sep 4 2015, 8:17:14 am MDT

30 mph gusts again forecast

Dinosaur 2015

Forecast here:

Isolated showers and thunderstorms after noon. Mostly cloudy, with a high near 77. Breezy, with a southeast wind 5 to 10 mph becoming south 15 to 20 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

NWS hazardous weather forecast for today here:

SCATTERED TO NUMEROUS SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL DEVELOP OVER THE SOUTHERN HALF OF THE FORECAST AREA THIS AFTERNOON…WITH SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS FORMING OVER THE NORTHERN HALF OF THE AREA. THE STRONGEST STORMS WILL BE CAPABLE OF GENERATING HEAVY RAIN…SMALL HAIL AND WIND GUSTS TO 40 mph.

Forecast for Saturday:

A 20 percent chance of showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 74. Breezy, with a south southwest wind 5 to 15 mph increasing to 15 to 25 mph in the afternoon. Winds could gust as high as 35 mph.

Forecast by Rich Jesuroga. Tomorrow looks worse.

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Dinosaur day 5 cancelled »

September 3, 2015, 1:59:48 pm MDT

Dinosaur day 5 cancelled

Windy with gusts to 30 mph

weather

NWS forecast for this afternoon, here:

This Afternoon: Isolated showers and thunderstorms. Partly sunny, with a high near 81. South southwest wind around 15 mph, with gusts as high as 30 mph. Chance of precipitation is 20%.

Glen sends:

And reports 30 mph gusts just as forecast. I wonder if there is anything to do in Dinosaur, Colorado.

From the cancelled day:

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Dinosaur - Hazardous weather forecasted »

Thu, Sep 3 2015, 9:44:04 am MDT

Thunderstorms for the Yampa

Dinosaur 2015

NWS hazardous weather forecast for today here:

SCATTERED SHOWERS AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL DEVELOP OVER THE SOUTHERN HALF OF THE FORECAST AREA THIS MORNING AND SPREAD SLOWLY NORTH DURING THE DAY BEFORE DIMINISHING THIS EVENING. THE STRONGEST STORMS WILL BE CAPABLE OF GENERATING HEAVY RAIN…SMALL HAIL AND WIND GUSTS TO 40 mph.

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Dinosaur - Thank goodness for the Sport Class »

Thu, Sep 3 2015, 9:29:20 am MDT

So few open class pilots

Dinosaur 2015

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/pilots

There are only eighteen open class pilots flying in the Dinosaur competition. But, fortunately there are eleven sport class pilots and two rigid wing pilots. This with a competition that promised in advance $15,000 in prize money and had lower costs because there was no need for towing.

Without the sport class this would be a very poorly attended competition. It is also a warning flag to future meet organizers that they should be careful about how many pilots might want to come to their competition and how carefully they should encourage sport class pilots.

It wasn't that long ago that there weren't any sport class competitions in the US. We have worked hard to turn that around despite lots of discouragement from old fart pilots who felt that this was a travesty. It has turned out to be very favorable to competitions and has been a whole lot of fun.

It's great to see such enthusiasm from these newer pilots and the fast learning that is taking place.

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Dinosaur - day 4 »

Wed, Sep 2 2015, 10:37:51 pm MDT

The results

Bill Soderquist|Bruce Barmakian|Christian Ciech|competition|Dinosaur 2015|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Lawrence "Pete" Lehmann|Moyes Litespeed RX|Pete Lehmann|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/results

Task 3:

# Name Glider Time Distance Dist.
Points
Lead.
Points
Time
Points
Arr.
Pos.
Points
Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 01:59:35 115.67 717.5 49.4 197.8 35.3 1000
2 Glen Mcfarlane Wills Wing T2C 144 02:04:37 115.67 717.5 42.8 167.6 16.6 945
3 Dave Gibson Wills Wing T2C 144 03:19:32 115.67 717.5 7.5 8.8 734
4 Christian Ciech Icaro Laminar 107.93 688.0 41.6 730
5 Bruce Barmakian Wills Wing T2C 144 112.99 709.2 709
6 Pete Lehmann Wills Wing T2 154 105.07 672.8 673
7 Cory Barnwell Moyes Litespeed RX 3.5 56.85 480.2 480
8 Aaron Rinn Wills Wing T2C 144 53.12 464.5 465
9 Felix Cantesanu Aeros Combat C 12.7 51.86 457.9 458
10 Jonny Durand Moyes RX3.5 50.24 447.5 448

I'm quite certain that Christian was happier to get his leading points than not.

Cumulative (well here's a little different outcome):

# Name Glider T 1 T 2 T 3 Total
1 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 962 928 1000 1962
2 Glen Mcfarlane Wills Wing T2C 144 947 1000 945 1947
3 Christian Ciech Icaro Laminar 987 916 730 1903
4 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 144 935 897 416 1832
5 Jon Sr Durand Moyes RX4 833 878 374 1711
6 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 576 969 442 1545
7 Jonny Durand Moyes RX3.5 880 472 448 1352
8 Bruce Barmakian Wills Wing T2C 144 556 102 709 1265
9 Bill Soderquist Moyes RS3.5 812 443 380 1255
10 Pete Lehmann Wills Wing T2 154 266 536 673 1209

Only the best two scores are used. Clearly, so far, Zac and Glen are disadvantaged by this elimination of the worst day (perhaps they'll have bad days later), while everyone else was advantaged, especially Christian.

Four sport class pilots made goal. Kelly Myrkle is in the overall lead.

Dinosaur - day 4 »

Wed, Sep 2 2015, 4:32:36 pm MDT

Zac tasks wins task 3

Dinosaur 2015|Facebook

https://airtribune.com/play/995/2d

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/blog__day_4

Zac in first, Glen second, Christian lands 9 km short. No one else in goal.

Dave Gibson makes it in later in third:

Nice looking sky. Thanks to Glen for his on the spot (goal) reports.

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Dinosaur - day 3 »

Tue, Sep 1 2015, 11:06:19 pm MDT

Just like the good old days

Dinosaur 2015|Facebook|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|photo

Jonny Durand «Jonny Durand» writes:

If you want to know why I was not in goal today it was because I was in front and at the last turnpoint I went to land because there was lightning and rain on course. Glen reports he flew through hail to make goal and win the day. I did the safe thing and turned around and landed away from the storm.

Every day of the 1990 Nationals at Dinosaur was like this. We didn't know any better then.

Good for Jonny making the safe decision. There is a reason I'm not flying at Dinosaur.

Photo from the first task.

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Dinosaur - day 3 »

Tue, Sep 1 2015, 10:59:34 pm MDT

The results

Bill Soderquist|Christian Ciech|competition|Dinosaur 2015|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/results

Task 2:

# Name Glider Time Lead.
Points
Time
Points
Arr.
Pos.
Points
Total
1 Glen Mcfarlane Wills Wing T2C 144 01:52:45 85.1 340.5 60.8 1000
2 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 01:53:09 78.2 330.7 46.0 969
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 01:55:55 78.2 301.7 34.5 928
4 Christian Ciech Icaro Laminar 01:56:22 78.5 298.1 26.0 916
5 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 144 01:57:21 72.5 290.7 20.1 897
6 Josh Woods Moyes RX3.5 01:58:15 66.5 284.4 16.1 881
7 Jon Sr Durand Moyes RX4 01:59:14 72.4 277.9 13.8 878
8 Pete Lehman Wills Wing Sport 2-155 03:11:37 9.4 12.6 536

Cumulative:

# Name Glider Total
1 Glen Mcfarlane Wills Wing T2C 144 1946
2 Christian Ciech Icaro Laminar 1902
3 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 1889
4 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 144 1831
5 Jon Sr Durand Moyes RX4 1708
6 Rudy Gotes Wills Wing T2C 144 1537
7 Jonny Durand Moyes RX3.5 1350
8 Bill Soderquist Moyes RS3.5 1251
9 Pedro Montes Aeros Combat GT 15 1143
10 Josh Woods Moyes RX3.5 1119

Rob DeGroot was the only sport class pilot to make goal on a Moyes Gecko.

Brian Morris on a North Wing Freedom 170 (single surface) is in first place over all with Kelley Myrkle on an Aeros Discus right behind him. There is a handicap.

Dinosaur - day 3 »

Tue, Sep 1 2015, 5:57:20 pm MDT

Rudy second, Zac third, Christian, fourth, only seven in goal

Dinosaur 2015|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr

Jonny Durand, not in goal.

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Dinosaur - day 3 »

Tue, Sep 1 2015, 5:01:53 pm MDT

Glen wins task 2

Dinosaur 2015

https://airtribune.com/play/990/2d

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/blog__day_3

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Dinosaur - day 3 »

Tue, Sep 1 2015, 12:46:34 pm MDT

Watch live tracking

Dinosaur 2015

https://airtribune.com/play/990/2d

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/blog__day_3

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Dinosaur - day 2 »

Mon, Aug 31 2015, 9:53:41 pm MDT

Christian 40 seconds ahead

Bill Soderquist|Christian Ciech|competition|Dinosaur 2015|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Jon Durand snr|Wills Wing T2C|Zac Majors

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/blog__day_2

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/results

Task 1:

# Name Glider Time Lead.
Points
Time
Points
Arr.
Pos.
Points
Total
1 Christian Ciech Icaro Laminar 01:39:40 81.3 354.9 63.4 986
2 Zac Majors Wills Wing T2C 144 01:40:20 86.0 340.0 46.0 959
3 Glen Mcfarlane Wills Wing T2C 144 01:40:22 82.4 339.5 33.2 942
4 Pedro Garcia Wills Wing T2C 144 01:40:35 82.1 336.5 24.2 929
5 Jonny Durand Moyes RX3.5 01:47:25 88.7 278.3 18.4 872
6 Jon Sr Durand Moyes RX4 01:51:11 66.5 255.2 15.0 823
7 Bill Soderquist Moyes RS3.5 01:52:55 57.7 245.4 13.3 803

Notice that Arrival Position and Time points (the difference between the values given) are way more important than Leading points (where the differences are very small among the top five pilots).

Sport class: Most pilots not scored yet.

Dinosaur - day 2 »

Mon, Aug 31 2015, 5:13:26 pm MDT

Zac and Glen first into goal

Dinosaur 2015

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/blog__day_2

https://airtribune.com/play/975/2d

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Dinosaur - day 1 cancelled »

Sun, Aug 30 2015, 3:20:56 pm MDT

Over development - just like in the old days there.

Dinosaur 2015

https://airtribune.com/dinosaur2015/blog__day_1

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Dinosaur 2015 »

July 29, 2015, 7:06:04 MDT

Dinosaur 2015

Fees rising

Terry <<terryreynolds2>> writes:

Dinosaur 2015 (see http://rockymountainglider.com) is a maximum NTSS points (600) meet (+$10,000 prize money). Also, at least fourteen Sport Class ($5000 prize money) pilots have signed up and more to come. Entry fee goes up August 1. Pilots registering and paying before then get an embroidered fleece jacket instead of a t-shirt. So far all entrants are foot launching, so too bad we built Dinosaur International.

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Dinosaur 2015 »

July 16, 2015, 8:00:22 MDT

Dinosaur 2015

150 million years of soaring

Terry <<terryreynolds2>> writes:

The entry fee for Dinosaur 2015 ( http://rockymountainglider.com ) goes up to $425 August 1.

As anyone who has been part of organizing a hang gliding comp could tell you, it would be much easier and better for all concerned if competitors were able to plan ahead and pay the earlier, lower prices ($300 for Dinosaur.) For pilots registered and paid before August 1, the “T-Shirt Size” requested on the pilot registration form is actually for a nice fleece jacket (or vest, as shown) with “Dinosaur 2015; 150 Million Years of Soaring” embroidered around a pterodactyl and hang glider. Entrants paid after that date - we have to place the order - will get a t-shirt. Extra jackets for family, crew, etc. can be ordered by paid up pilots, before August 1, for $55.

The event is non-profit and any money left over will go to the Cloudbase Foundation.

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Dinosaur 2015 »

June 25, 2015, 5:15:33 pm MST -0600

Dinosaur 2015

Fees rising

Terry <<terryreynolds2>> writes:

The entry fee for Dinosaur 2015 goes up July 1 to $400.

The comp was conceived last year to boost hang gliding through competition by providing a major foot launch meet in a proven location. (Although designed primarily as a footlaunch event, we built a runway just for this comp for those who prefer to aerotow.) While aerotow contests have evolved and been refined to a fine art, particularly through the work of Davis Straub and Jamie Shelden, large footlaunch comps in the U.S. seem to be a thing of the past.

Dinosaur 2015 aims to:

1) To attract the world’s top pilots - the World Champion and the U.S. Champion are coming;
2) To bring back former regular competitors - “The Jeffs,” among others, are coming;
3) To build on the well thought out efforts to encourage the Sport Class.

Most of the Sport Class pilots signed up thus far have never flown in either class of a major comp. Nothing changes the fact that only the individual pilot can determine what is safe or not for that individual pilot. That said, we are making special efforts to encourage and cater to Sport Class:

1) Ryan Voight, USHPA Instructor of the Year and experienced big air pilot, will teach a free clinic, including video critique of launches, onsite Friday and Saturday before the contest starts Sunday;
2) Sport Class competitors will drop their two low score days - bomb out or choose not to fly and you’re still in the comp!;
3) Jim Zeiset has pledged $5,000 prize money (split $3K, $1500, $500) to the class.

To register, and to see the answers to more questions than you thought to ask, please go to http://rockymountainglider.com.

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Dinosaur 2015 »

May 26, 2015, 8:27:04 EDT

Dinosaur 2015

Entry fee rises soon

Terry <<terryreynolds2>> writes:

Reminder, the entry fee for Dinosaur 2015 goes up June 1. Please see http://rockymountainglider.com for more information and to register. Contact us at <rockymountainglider> with any questions, to volunteer, etc.

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Green Swamp Sport Klassic - three days later

Tue, Apr 14 2015, 2:04:46 pm EDT

Nice weather after the competition

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2015|Quest Air|weather

The weather forecast here.

The weather has actually been pretty nice after the Green Swamp Sport Klassic. Rain in the late afternoon one hate and a little rain at night on the other. Plenty of good flying in competition conditions could have been had (but it would have been a bit nerve wracking. Lots of tandems and single flights here.

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Green Swamp Sport Klassic - Day 7

Sat, Apr 11 2015, 9:29:09 pm EDT

An upwind leg to start off given the conditions and the approaching front

Facebook|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2015|Jeffrey "Jeff" Lawrence Bohl|PG|Quest Air|Wills Wing T2C

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/flightinfo.html?flightId=-1436600459

http://www.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/getScoring.html?scoringId=319

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/1133582

http://wxc.fai.org/module.php?id=22&date=20150304&gliderclass=hg1

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:davisstraub/11.4.2015/16:40

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

We had a forecast of a 40% chance of rain. We could see on the forecast maps that a front was coming our way. When we looked to the north we could see the milky colored sky. The idea was to have a task that was valid but was short enough that we could get everyone on the ground before any rain showed up.

The visible satellite photo for 12:30 PM. You can see the lack of cu's to our north.

At noon the task committee changed the task because while there were plenty of cu's, there were none then to the north and the milky coloring seemed to be coming a lot nearer. Now the task was to the south to 474 and 33 and then back up to the northeast to the Sawmill turnpoint and back to Quest. The sky to the north filled in with cu's a bit later.

We had expected 7 mph westerly winds, but they were a little stronger, 9 mph to 11 mph and south south westerly. The task committee had abandoned the plan to go to the north to the Grass Roots airfield, so we didn't have a down wind leg to start the task off (the next leg would have been 20 km into the wind), but a 14 km leg into the wind (from the edge of the start cylinder to the north edge of the 3 km cylinder around the turnpoint).

We put a bigger cylinder around the turnpoint so that pilots wouldn't be flying over fields where the owner is less than pleased to have us landing. The edge of the turnpoint cylinder was just east of the Seminole glider port. Right on highway 33.

We started early at 12:30 PM because we felt that the day could end early with rain showers and thunderstorms and we wanted to give pilots the best chance of staying safe. That turned out to be a good call, not that we had any rain.

The first couple of pilots who were towed up didn't stick. I was next and was pulled toward and then flew to the southwest edge of a reasonable looking cu but found no lift. Heading back to the field, down wind, I saw a pilot turning just west of the field and that was 200 fpm. It was early and none of the pilots were getting very high or climbing very fast. We got up to cloud base at 3,800'.

With the south wind we kept drifting back to the north. Finally I had climbed to 3,900' and was at cloud base so I headed south. There was perhaps one pilot out on the course at that point. A few came with me and joined me in thermals to the south of Quest, but as it turned out, still inside the start cylinder (at least at the top of the lift).

I found 200 fpm at 2,600' just outside the start cylinder and drifted back into at 4,100', again at cloud base. Cory was following me and I saw one pilot a little out in front of me lower.

I was on the radio to my team calling out the climbs. Cory was listening. I had turned down the volume on the radio because of some early obnoxious transmission so I wasn't hearing anyone. I forgot that I turned it down, which caused some consternation as I would be the one to stop the task as meet director if there was a safety issue and I needed to hear pilots comments. Turns out there were no safety issues during the day.

There were plenty of cu's along highway 33 and just needed to be sure that I could get to the next one with enough altitude to find the lift. I came in to the lift at 2,000' next to the Seminole field and worked 150 fpm up a little more than a kilometer from the edge of the turnpoint. I needed to get higher before getting the turnpoint. I had to do another thermal to get to 3,500' and high enough to actually get to the turnpoint given that the wind was strong enough to make that difficult.

The sky was still full of cu's and turning around to go back and downwind made things much easier. I found 300 fpm and got to over 4,000'. A 150 fpm thermal 6 kilometers to the north that had three other pilots working up wind around it allowed me to climb up to 3,500', before shooting to the east to get the Sawmill turnpoint.

That looked like enough to make it in so I just kept on gliding and enjoying the tailwind to goal.

About forty minutes later Mick Howard came first into goal on his Wills Wing T2C. The topless gliders are heavily handicapped. David Lopez was next over goal, then Cory and finally Spinner, the Quest Air tandem pilot. That's everyone who made it to goal of the contestants.

Larry came in with David and said let's go back and do the course again but in the opposite direction so he and David did that and were successful.

The first leg was just too much of a headwind for the Sport 2 pilots. So that was a bit unfair. We, of course, try to make each task fair to all the pilots, including the Falcon pilot, so we would not usually include an upwind leg, especially not the first leg.

The cu's were cleared out at about 3:30 or 3:45. It was a good thing that we started early as the end ended so early.

http://soaringspot.com/gss2015/results/club/daily/day7.html

http://soaringspot.com/gss2015/results/club/total/day7.html

# Pilot Glider Total
1. Cory Barnwell Wills Wing U2 160 5007.35
2. Mick Howard Wills Wing T2C 144 4075.95
3. Matt Christensen Wills Wing U2 160 3756.62
4. Jeffery Bohl Wills Wing U2 160 3692.01
5. Jim Weitman Moyes Litesport 4 3689.30
6. John Maloney Wills Wing Sport 2 150 3217.33
7. Greg Sessa Wills Wing U2 160 3137.92
8. David Lopez Wills Wing T2C 2992.86
9. Willie Van Caulart Wills Wing Falcon 2 195 2501.97
10. Owen Mcdermott-Berryman Wills Wing U2 2277.73
11. Dana Pasternack Wills Wing Sport 2 2051.27

Replay the flights here: https://airtribune.com/2015-green-swamp-sport-klassic/blog__day_7

Dana, in eleventh, is the leading points person in contention of the US women's national sport class champion. There were three women in the competition.

Cory Barnwell did not have to fly the last day as Mick Howard could not catch him as the most points that he could have scored would be 800 given his handicap. Because of the difficult first leg, the day was not worth 1,000'. Too many pilots landed quite short.

Because this is a sport class only competition the sport class pilots were the focus of the competition and it was very friendly. Because we have a handicap system, we allow in topless gliders and pilots with lower NTSS points and ranking. We just have to keep it fair with an appropriate handicap to allow everyone a chance to do well, but not rely on the glider to give you an edge.

Kim Frutiger raised about a $1,000 for the Cloudbase Foundation with a raffle. Pilots had a great dinner at the Redwing restaurant and a local band played great music.

The winner:

Photo by Adam Bain

Larry and his new glider:

Green Swamp Sport Klassic - Day 6

Fri, Apr 10 2015, 9:42:29 pm EDT

One contestant makes it back

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2015|Quest Air

Pilots took a relaxed approach but we got in the air quickly. The lift was only 100 fpm until we got high and then it improved. We climbed to 5,000' and cloud base. Plenty of cloud suck at the top. I headed out with Cory and either Matt or Jeff. I moved ahead and kept going past Mascotte to get under nice looking clouds west of highway 33 after a 10 kilometer glide.

The lift was not what I hoped for but I was still well over 3,000'. I went looking for something more than 75 fpm. That just brought me further down and I went on a hard search stopping for just a little over zero at 1,800'. I stayed in it until finally it turned on to 300 fpm and climbed to 4,800'. I had lost the two pilots I was with and hopefully helping.

Plenty of cu's ahead and it was easy to climb high to 5,200' just before the turnpoint at the Turnpike. Cory and another pilot were way north of the Turnpike and Greg and Tom came in under about 1,000' below.

With all that altitude it was easy to head southwest to the next turnpoint. Dave and another pilot were low out on this leg.

When I got to Center Hill I could see a rain shower/cell about 20 kilometers to the west. There was a lot of shading to the west, but still patches of sunlight east of the cell and some dark clouds east of the cell. I flew over the town of Webster at 1,600' and found very sweet lift at 100 fpm in the shade. It was so smooth and there was no gust from the cell to the west. The wind was 4 mph out of the west.

As the cell dissipated I headed out at 4,000' to the west to get the optimized turnpoint at 7 km radius. There was strong lift right at the turnpoint to 4,500'. It looked really good.

With nice clouds ahead I found good lift to 5,300' and headed for the turnpoint at the northeast end of the Green Swamp. I was hoping earlier to get rid of this turnpoint as it was right in line with the last leg and I wanted to go over the Green Swamp instead and there were nice cu's there.

As I approached the next turnpoint I could see that there were very few cu's between it and Quest Air. There was a cu to the right over the Green Swamp but then I saw Cory turning sharply to my northeast over the nursery. I headed for him.

Missed the lift there and the cu next to him disappeared. Ran to the south to get under a cu in the Green Swamp but came in too low and couldn't go too deep into the Swamp. Landed in a long field next to Sloan's Ridge Road at a farm that I very often bicycle past. Had a great time with the farmer and his friends.

Mick Howard made it in. Cory did not. Greg and Larry made it back.

http://soaringspot.com/gss2015/results/club/daily/day6.html

https://airtribune.com/2015-green-swamp-sport-klassic/blog__day_6

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Green Swamp Sport Klassic - Day 6 task

Fri, Apr 10 2015, 11:33:59 am EDT

Green Swamp Sport Klassic - Day 6

Triangle task

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2015|Quest Air

Turnpike and highway 33 first. Starts at 1:30 PM.

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Green Swamp Sport Klassic - Day 5

Thu, Apr 9 2015, 8:58:58 pm EDT

Green Swamp Sport Klassic - Day 4

Many personal bests

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2015|Quest Air

This mentoring is harder than it looks, at least for me. I got a new team today and my goal was to help out our star women pilot, Dana. I told Dave Lopez that I wasn't going to help him as he made goal yesterday, and therefore I needed to help the people that hadn't made goal yet. I told Cory the same thing and he went to a different frequency. Maybe the guys making goal need to get on one frequency together and not with the mentors. All the mentors agreed that they needed to help out the pilots who weren't making goal.

I also wanted to help Fernando and Willie on the Falcon. Dave, Willie and Dana are easy to spot in the air. Fernando is not.

Our team launched second and I was right with them. There was huge lift right at the end of the field and I pinned off low and climbed out quickly. The launching took all of 33 minutes, or about a minute a pilot. We've got four planes for 30+ pilots.

After 3,000' at 300 fpm the lift slowed down and the gaggle over launch filled in with most of the pilots. We climbed to 3,900' and I had Dana and Dave with me. Fernando I could not find. Willie had been with me but wandered off, I don't know exactly why. Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to ask him.

Dana was just above me and I said let's go toward Mascotte when we got to almost 4,000'. I could see Tom and three other pilots circling there so it was time to get going. She seemed responsive to my suggestions.

She came in low and I could see Willie way low but working lift. Tom, Larry and I were working better lift much higher and it wasn't long before I was at cloud base at 4,700'. Dana was working her way up steadily so I pushed forward to the next clouds to report on what was ahead.

The lift was less than 100 fpm under the next two clouds so after a few minutes and at 4,000' I pushed north northwest downwind to clouds just passed small fires. No lift over the fires but the clouds were working a little. This turned into a general area of lift.

Dana, Tom, Larry, Dave Lopez and four or five other pilots were low and circling. Dana further to the south with a couple of them. I had headed upwind to the east under a cloud street and stayed high.

I went back to Dana three times where she was circling with a few others but there was 400 fpm down above them. I'd go back to the north and tell her that as soon as she felt comfortable she should join us further north to get better lift.

She was finally able to get to where we were and David Lopez and I climbed to 4,800' at 300 fpm. She was about 1,000' below us. At cloud base we headed to the prisons to the north northwest.

Got to the prisons at 4,200' and found light lift. Now the idea was to wait for Dana. David and I were out in front and there was no reason for him to wait. I just needed to wait to stay with Dana. I headed southeast away from the course line hoping that he would get the idea and head off on his own. There were plenty of cu's around.

Losing just three hundred feet on my little glide back I returned to the area of lift but it was not there. I went searching for it under good looking clouds but suddenly there was sink every where.

Now racing to find the lift I lost 2,500' before I hit some weak lift as 1,700' Suddenly there was David Lopez right next to me at my altitude. He apparently had followed me around when I wasn't trying to climb up but wait for Dana.

A few turns that averaged 35 fpm and then I just lost it circling a little to the east of it when it was moving northwest apparently. In 500 fpm down I was quickly on the ground. David found it and climbed up.

The pilots and mentors behind us soon caught up with us and a good number of them made it to goal. As I write this they haven't reported in yet.

Cory, Dave Lopez, Tom, Mick, Matt, Greg and Larry at goal.

http://soaringspot.com/gss2015/results/club/daily/day5.html

https://airtribune.com/2015-green-swamp-sport-klassic/blog__day_5

Dana continued to do well without my mentoring and undoubtedly had her personal best.

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Green Swamp Sport Klassic - Day 5 live tracking

Thu, Apr 9 2015, 12:47:53 pm EDT

Green Swamp Sport Klassic - Day 5

It's working

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2015|Quest Air

https://airtribune.com/2015-green-swamp-sport-k…/blog__day_5

Starts at 1:30 PM EDT.

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Green Swamp Sport Klassic - Day 5 task

Thu, Apr 9 2015, 11:29:14 am EDT

Green Swamp Sport Klassic - Day 5

A personal best day

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2015|Quest Air

Over open areas to the Savana airfield turnpoint, then a leg to the west to keep us out of Ocala airspace, then the field next to Williston airfield. Five kilometer circle around Dunnellon.

114.5 km.

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Green Swamp Sport Klassic - Day 4

Wed, Apr 8 2015, 10:49:24 pm EDT

Another fabulous day in paradise

Bob Caldwell|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2015|Quest Air|Tom Lanning

The task:

Four turnpoints. A zig zag task assuming an east wind. Cu's started popping before the 10 AM pilot meeting. The start time was moved back again to 1:30 PM to make sure that we had plenty of lift for the pilots who launched first.

The forecast was for good lift, the kind we always get here in Florida with a high cloud base and light east winds. So far we have had east winds every day.

Tom Lanning was off first and I was off at about sixth with my team right behind me. There was 100+fpm lift at 1,400' so I pinned off and slowly climbed up to over 4,000' as plenty of pilots joined me just over the launch area. This time I only had to spend 40 minutes over Quest waiting for the team to congeal up at cloud base at 4,600'. Matt, Glen and I took off to the northwest with three pilots in front of us and plenty of cu's along the course line.

I glided 9 km to the nursery west of Mascotte. The three pilots in front turned north at Mascotte and headed for some good looking cu's. Down to 2,200' I turned over the middle of the nursery and found 140 fpm. Matt joined me. We saw Glen low on the east side of the nursery suddenly start climbing well. We shaded over there and found 250 fpm to 4,600' and went on glide for the first turnpoint at Center Hill. Matt was just behind me and I suggested to Glen that he climb up to cloud base before leaving.

It was a 10 km glide to the turnpoint and around to the second leg to a cloud where I saw three pilots, including Larry and Greg turning. I was down to 2,500' before I got to the lift, but I thought that the glide was pretty good at 16:1 with an average sink of 220 fpm. Matt behind me didn't get as good a glide and didn't get the first waypoint before he joined us in the lift.

It was broken and weak at 150 fpm. I watched Larry high head for the next cloud and waited to see if he would turn. I was hanging with Matt and Greg, and Tom was circling just off the deck below us. I headed for Larry when I saw him circling but Matt headed back to the turnpoint. I didn't know at the time that he had not made the turnpoint, so I could not understand what the hell he was doing.

Greg, Jim Weitman and I climbed in Larry's thermal at 300 fpm to 4,600'. I didn't know what was up with Larry, but it turned out that he couldn't help any of his team as his microphone cable was broken. So he was helping Greg help Jim.

As they all headed to the second turnpoint to the south I headed back north to find Matt and get him going. He was circling low over Tom and with David Lopez. They were in weak 60 fpm lift and I came over them and joined them in it. I needed to relax and stay with Matt. Glen was behind but getting slowly to the first turnpoint.

I went south a short distance to a nice looking cloud, found 250 fpm and climbed to 4,600' as they all came in under me. At cloud base I told Matt that I was going to go to the big dark cloud south down the course line and that as soon as he got to cloud base to come join me. After a six kilometer glide I was in 350 fpm with Larry, Greg and Jim who had by then made the turnpoint only 3 km to my south and were back in this nice thermal heading to the next turnpoint to the north northwest.

At 4,800' and cloud base I went south to the turnpoint and then came back to the same area where I got up to find Matt not very high. After fifteen minutes he finally found a nice thermal and we left for the turnpoint, for me again. Glen was there but 1,000' below us as we took the turnpoint and headed back to the north to see if we could find the strong lift one more time.

I found 132 fpm and Matt came over to me as Glen landed just south of us. I climbed to 3,100' and said I'd go look for better lift to the north under good looking clouds. I didn't find it and landed. Matt landed soon thereafter, both of us just short of the third turnpoint.

Larry, Greg, and Jim struggled just south of the Cheryl (third) turnpoint (about where we landed) and Cory caught up with them. Only a few pilots made it into goal.

Bob Caldwell«rcaldwell» writes:

Shot this looking toward Orlando from the gulf coast at 1 EDT. 38,000 ft. Sweet looking sky, hope soaring was great.

http://soaringspot.com/gss2015/results/club/daily/day4.html

http://soaringspot.com/gss2015/results/club/total/day4.html

https://airtribune.com/2015-green-swamp-sport-klassic/blog__day_4

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Green Swamp Sport Klassic - Day 3

Tue, Apr 7 2015, 10:26:37 pm EDT

A beautiful day a long ways away from the rain that came later to Quest Air

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2015|Greg Dinauer|Larry Bunner|Quest Air|Tom Lanning

The sport class pilots on the task committee called a task that was an extension of the first and second day's task using a 3 km cylinder around Gross with a 20 kilometer leg to Inverness to the northwest. The last leg would take us over wild country, swamps, river and forest. I thought that this should prove interesting for sport class pilots.

My team was scheduled to launch first at 1 PM. The sky was full of cu's and had been since early morning. The wind was actually out of the southeast so I saw no reason not to get going right away. I was the first pilot to launch at 12:58 PM hoping to help out my team by stating where the lift was.

I was pulled almost 4 km to the southeast to get me on the upwind side of a large black cu. There was no lift all the way out and I just felt a little bit as I released and went to the edge of the cu. There was lift there and I climbed to cloud base, 3,600' at 200 fpm. I called out my location and my climb rates, and continued to do so for the next hour and a half.

Pilots were pulled up after me, including Larry Bunner. They all landed fairly quickly as I went upwind further southeast to get under forming clouds. Pilots kept being pulled up and landing. Finally a few began to stick including Larry again and Greg Dinauer and a few of the sport class guys.

All my team had to go to the back of the line and things were slow down below. It was an hour and forty minutes of circling near the field before I had one team mate, Matt Christensen, that I could help make it to goal. We left together at 4,000'.

There were plenty of pilots out on the course before us as we were near the end of the leaving pilots, but we didn't see too many. The rest of the team was behind us.

I raced ahead to spot better lift for Matt telling him to take the weaker lift that I left behind to stay high. I got down to 1,500' but found 150 fpm and called out my position. Soon a pilot that I thought was Matt came in under me but wasn't climbing. As I got above 3,000' I saw Tom Lanning just above me and then another pilot came in to join us just below me.

Well it turned out that this pilot was Matt and I was just waiting around for the pilot way down below who I thought was Matt. When he asked if we should go after Tom left (and we hadn't really been gaining much as I was just waiting around) I finally realized who was who and off we went.

There were plenty of cu's lined up going toward our turnpoint to the west. Tom was hanging around going slow to see if he could pick up a pilot to mentor. The one he tried to drag up a few times refused to climb with him, so Tom was on his own.

I raced ahead to spot the lift and got down to 1,500' again over a pond but under a black cloud and found 300 fpm. I radioed to Matt and he was soon a couple of hundred feet below me.

I had to leave to escape the cloud suck and went ahead toward the turnpoint and a cloud about a kilometer to the north of it. Matt could easily follow me and see if he needed to go with me or shade a little to the north to the next set of clouds. I went under the dark cloud but didn't find any lift. Tom was just to the north.

Not finding lift meant I had to head toward some cu's further away and over unfriendly territory. I could see Tom about 1,000' above me and watched to see if he was getting anything. Matt was behind but high and I told him to stay high under the clouds to the north.

Down again to 1,500' over the river I came in under Tom as he turned over a small patch of sunlight on a open forest plantation. There was a bit of lift coming off it and I stuck with it at 123 fpm. Matt stayed high and kept going. Tom was high enough to continue even though he didn't find any great lift in the next clouds.

Getting to 3,200' I moved to way, way left of the course line to get over open fields and under better looking clouds. Over the highway I spotted a bird further west climbing very fast. I was just a few seconds and I was in the good lift, which provided plenty to get the last 11 km into goal.

Greg, Larry, Tom, Matt, Cory, and Jim had made it in already. A few landed nearby. Others came in later.

Day score: http://soaringspot.com/gss2015/results/club/daily/day3.html

Cumulative: http://soaringspot.com/gss2015/results/club/total/day3.html

Blog and Live Tracking: https://airtribune.com/2015-green-swamp-sport-klassic/blog__day_3

https://airtribune.com/play/505/2d

Looks like Matt won the day.

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Green Swamp Sport Klassic - Day 2

Mon, Apr 6 2015, 9:30:15 pm EDT

No monsters in the air for us

cart|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2015|Greg Dinauer|Larry Bunner|Quest Air

The forecast was for again east southeast winds at 8 mph. Good lift, but the chance of thunderstorms late in the day.

With the chance of thunderstorm activity the task committee calls at earlier launch at 12:30 PM. But the question was will it be soarable at 12:30? There was a layer of high cloud above that the models don't take into account so the heating started up late as those clouds went away.

I have seen this happen before where the desire to get an earlier start because of possibly late deterioration gets us going when the conditions aren't really ready. Larry Bunner, mentor, and head of the task committee, launched first and Greg Dinauer, another mentor ,was lined up right behind him but had to get out of line because of a flat on the cart. He was placed back in the sixth spot.

Larry landed out (amazingly upwind). Greg was waved off early but in very very light lift and had to work hard to stay up as numerous pilots didn't and landed back at the field. The wind was 9 or 10 mph out of the east.

I relaxed the whole time because it sure didn't look good to me and didn't launch until we got through all the first flights of the all the pilots and the line was filling up with reflights. Larry was soon back at launch.

Lift was still weak when I went up but got off early and climbed up. Went to a vertical cu to the southwest and got up again from low. Now there was good lift over the field and I could see pilots getting up. I went over a joined them.

The start was open, whenever you leave the five kilometer start cylinder, your time starts. Given that it seemed to get better as the day progressed, I hung around in the start cylinder trying to find my team and could only raise Mick on the radio. My team was near the last team to launch.

Finally headed out with a few pilots and there were plenty of nice cu's along the course line to the northwest, more cu's to the south of the course line.

It was three thermals to the goal field progressively stronger going from 200 fpm to 500 fpm. I could see pilots working lift all about me. It looked like they would be able to make the goal.

Results (so far): http://soaringspot.com/gss2015/results/club/daily/day2.html

Live tracking, replay, notes and pictures from the day: https://airtribune.com/2015-green-swamp-sport-klassic/blog__day_2

It turned out to be a spectacular day and the task was too short, but after yesterday it was good to have a bunch of pilots in goal. Larry made it to goal and then headed back to Quest Air upwind. He got within a mile of Quest.

Live tracking with Airtribune seems to be working and we found a couple of pilots who were lost due to instrument failure because of their tracks.

Looks like a lot of pilots are having a good time.

There was plenty of thunder and rain to our west along the coast and some to our east later in the day.

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2015 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

April 5, 2015, 10:32:52 pm EDT

2015 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

18 mph winds at 2,000'

Davis Straub|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2015|Greg Dinauer|Jeffrey "Jeff" Lawrence Bohl|Joe Schmucker|John Alden|Jon "Jonny" Durand jnr|Larry Bunner|Quest Air|Rick Brown|Tom Lanning

Despite a NAM/XCSkies forecast for 7 mph winds at 2,000' at 2 PM, it was 18 mph at 2,200' at 2 PM. Launch conditions were relatively mild with winds about 10 mph on the ground. The wind at 2,000' was supposed to be east southeast. The winds were northeast on the ground and in the air. The air was supposed to be rising at between 700 to 900 fpm, I didn't find any lift on my first attempt and about an average of 10 fpm on my second. Larry was able to climb up from 900' to 4,000' in 450 fpm.

The task was stopped with the report from me of the winds aloft and increasing winds with the northerly component at launch. Should be a low scoring day.

The scoring is completely screwed up so far: http://soaringspot.com/gss2015/results/club/daily/day1.html

Day 1, yesterday, Sport Class, Preliminary results
Davis OzGAP 160, Task time: 07:00:00
QUEST - GROSS
Task length: 38.4km
# At Launch: 11, # Who Flew: 8, # At Goal: 0, Total Distance Flown: 7 km, Average Distance Flown: 1 km, Nominal Distance: 20 km, Minimal Distance: 5 km, Nominal Goal Percentage: 20%, Nominal Time: 1.0 hour, Minimal Time: 24.0 hour, Day Quality: 0.011, Launch Validity: 0.815, Distance Validity: 0.029, Time Validity: 0.491, Pilots with speed points: 0, Handicapped, Available Distance Points: 10, Available Speed Points: 1, Available Start/Departure points: 0, Available Arrival Points: 0, Tmin: 24:00:00,
#CNPilotTeamGliderHcapStartDist.Points
1.110Willie Van CaulartCANWills WingFalcon 2 19514513:44:185.0km12.48
2.105Greg SessaUSAWills WingU2 16010014:45:496.8km10.28
DNF.126*Adrian SanchezUSAWills Wing Ultra Sport 1471065.0km9.12
4.112Owen McDermott-BerrymanCANWills WingU210013:29:075.0km8.60
DNF.114*Cory BarnwellUSAWills WingU2 1601005.0km8.60
DNF.402*Davis StraubUSAWills WingT2C 1441005.0km8.60
DNF.101*Jim WeitmanUSAMoyesLitesport 41005.0km8.60
DNF.118*Richard WestmorelandUSAWills wingRam Air 1461005.0km8.60
DNF.121*Clive BeddallCANMoyes2006 Litespeed 4S1000
DNF.113*John AldenUSAWills WingU2-1451000
DNF.107*Jeffery BohlUSAWills WingU2 1601000
DNF.108*Rick BrownUSAWills WingU21000
DNF.403*Larry BunnerUSAWills WingT2C1441000
DNF.122*Matt ChristensenUSAAFH 22800
DNF.116*Glenn CurranUSAWills WingU21000
DNF.401*Greg DinauerUSAAerosCombat C-12.71000
DNF.106*Michelle HaagUSAWills WingSport 21060
DNF.124*Mick HowardUSAWillsWing T2C 144800
DNF.119*Spencer KindtUSANorthWingLiberty1000
DNF.404*Tom LanningUSAWills WingT2C 1361000
DNF.109*David LopezUSAWills WingT2C800
DNF.104*Lance MacleanUSAWills Wing Sport 21060
DNF.103*stephan mentlerUSAMoyesLitesport1000
DNF.102*Antonio MercadoUSAWills WingU21000
DNF.115*Fernando MilaniUSAWills WingSport 21060
DNF.125*Kelly MyrkleUSAAeromot. Super Ximango1060
DNF.111*Dana PasternackUSAWills WingSport 21060
DNF.104*Joe SchmuckerUSAWills WingSport 2 1761060
DNF.123*Jonny ThompsonUSAA-151000
DNF.117*Alex TrochezUSAWills WingU2 1441000
DNF.120*michael williamsUSAWills WingSport 21060
* File not yet delivered
DNF = Did not fly

Looks like a nice day tomorrow with a southeast wind.

Dinosaur fees to rise

March 30, 2015, 3:09:16 pm EDT

Dinosaur fees to rise

March 31st.

Dinosaur 2015

Terry writes:

March 31 is the last day for the Dinosaur 2015 early entry fee. Go to http://www.rockymountainglider.com/registration-fees.html to fill out your Pilot Entry Form and pay before the entry fee goes up!

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2015 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

March 30, 2015, 8:45:51 EDT

2015 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

It starts next Sunday

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2015|Quest Air

http://ozreport.com/2015GreenSwampSportKlassic.php

Twenty two pilots are signed up. In addition, we have four mentors.

https://airtribune.com/2015-green-swamp-sport-klassic/pilots

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2015 Dinosaur »

March 16, 2015, 9:01:12 EDT

2015 Dinosaur

Registration is open

Terry <<terryreynolds2>> writes:

Registration is now open for Dinosaur 2015. Open ($10,000 First Prize), Sport ($5,000 prize money) and rigid classes. August 30 - September 5. Dinosaur, Colorado. Please see http://RockyMountainGlider.com for complete information.

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2015 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

February 16, 2015, 8:42:59 EST

2015 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

The next deadline is Sunday, March 15th

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2015|Quest Air

https://airtribune.com/2015-green-swamp-sport-klassic/pilots

Seventeen pilots have entered. All but two are actually confirmed (they have completed the three step process):

http://ozreport.com/2015GreenSwampSportKlassic.php

The entry fee increases after March 15th by $25. You must complete all three steps to qualify for the $200 entry fee.

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2015 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

February 13, 2015, 11:52:40 pm EST

2015 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

The first deadline is this Sunday, February 15th

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2015|Quest Air

https://airtribune.com/2015-green-swamp-sport-klassic/pilots

Fifteen pilots have entered. Eleven are confirmed (they have completed the three step process):

http://ozreport.com/2015GreenSwampSportKlassic.php

The entry fee increases after the 15th by $25. You must complete all three steps to qualify for the lowest entry fee.

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2015 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

February 5, 2015, 8:40:23 EST

2015 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

All types of hang gliders

Facebook|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2015|Quest Air

https://airtribune.com/2015-green-swamp-sport-klassic/pilots

http://ozreport.com/2015GreenSwampSportKlassic.ph

https://www.facebook.com/events/475511969257990/

You can fly a Class 1,2,4,5 hang glider in the competition. We handicap all the gliders for a fair competition.

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2015 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

February 3, 2015, 8:24:58 EST

2015 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

The first deadline is February 15th

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2015|Quest Air

https://airtribune.com/2015-green-swamp-sport-klassic/pilots

Fifteen pilots have entered. Seven are confirmed (they have completed the three step process):

http://ozreport.com/2015GreenSwampSportKlassic.php

The entry fee increases after the 15th by $25. You must complete all three steps to qualify for the lowest entry fee.

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2015 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

January 12, 2015, 8:57:42 EST

2015 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

Pay by February 15th for the least cost

Dragonfly|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2015|Quest Air

The first deadline is only a month away.

http://ozreport.com/2015GreenSwampSportKlassic.php

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2015 Green Swamp Sport Klassic - mentors and sessions »

December 22, 2014, 9:31:04 EST

2015 Green Swamp Sport Klassic - mentors and sessions

Steve Kroop will lead two instrument sections

Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2015|Larry Bunner|Quest Air|Steve Kroop

Flytec 6030|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2015|Larry Bunner|Quest Air|Steve Kroop

We have added mentors and instructional sessions to the Green Swamp Sport Klassic. Steve Kroop of Flytec USA will lead two sessions on flight instruments. Those prior to the 6030 and the 6030. Larry Bunner, Greg Dinaur and I will act as mentors and I have asked other experienced competition pilots if they are interested.

These pilots will be on hand to help and fly with you each day. There won't be teams, but the mentors will be happy to communicate in the air with up to four pilots each day to help them compete. The mentors will be assigned to different pilots each day.

Mentors will also lead discussion sessions on competition issues, tactics and strategy.

If you are interested in Sport Class competition or just want to try out and see if you like competing, sign up here:

http://ozreport.com/2015GreenSwampSportKlassic.php

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Dinosaur 2015 »

December 4, 2014, 8:51:59 CST

Dinosaur 2015

Terry is up and going for it

Terry <<terryreynolds2>> writes:

Tim Collard, longtime Colorado tow pilot, stood in for me with the Mayor of Dinosaur and a local rancher/county road grader artist building the new hang glider towing runway (1800' x 75') just east of town. While Dinosaur 2015 is being organized primarily as a foot launch contest, we want to provide an alternative for pilots who prefer to tow. The runway is within the same 10k start circle as the foot launches and a 2000' tow puts the pilot at the same altitude.

http://www.rockymountainglider.com/

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2015 Green Swamp Sport Klassic »

November 10, 2014, 9:11:23 PST

2015 Green Swamp Sport Klassic

The web site is up

Facebook|Green Swamp Sport Klassic 2015|Quest Air

http://ozreport.com/2015GreenSwampSportKlassic.php

https://www.facebook.com/events/475511969257990/

Registration will open in December.

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Dinosaur 2015 goes topless

September 17, 2014, 6:37:26 MST

Dinosaur 2015

No longer restricted to kingpost only

Dinosaur 2015

http://www.rockymountainglider.com

August 30 - September 5, 2015

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2014 Big Spring Nationals »

Tue, Aug 5 2014, 5:10:52 am GMT

Day two

Big Spring Nationals 2014

https://OzReport.com/2014BigSpringNationals.php

http://soaringspot.com/2014bsn/

http://airtribune.com/bigspring2014/blog#!day_2

Replay: http://airtribune.com/play/273/2d

A 141 km triangle was called when the cu's start popping early. Due to uncertainty about the launch location the task was delayed with a start time at 2:50 PM. A very late task. We are moving the pilot meeting up an hour tomorrow to get pilots to be prepared.

Launch went briskly despite having to make multiple changes. I was just happy to be able to launch into the wind. I got off early and we climbed to over 9,500'. It was late in the day after all. The winds were light at 2 to 7 mph out of the east. The sky was full of cu's with plenty of lift under them.

We had a nice tail wind of 6 to 12 mph 62 km to the west to the first turnpoint. There was plenty of lift under the nice clouds. Not too much vertical development.

The clouds were thinning out as we headed northeast toward the second turnpoint and we had a cross or quartering head wind between 5 and 9 mph. I'd hooked up with the lead gaggle as we struggled a bit past the first turnpoint, but gradually lost a few of them as we pressed forward to the next turnpoint.

About half a dozen pilots got higher than me including Chris Zimmerman and Zac just before the second turnpoint, but we all got over 9,000'. The cu's were getting real thin as it was almost 6 PM.

We made the turnpoint and headed into the headwind going southeast back to Big Spring. The wind varied between 5 and 15 mph. I was on my own and so was Chris Zimmerman who got left behind in the thermal just before the turnpoint. Ahead there were very few cu's and a no cu area along the course line. Chris on his own headed south west of the course line (down wind) toward good looking cu's, and I headed east south east toward the wispies in that direction.

I essentially found a lift line jumping from cu to cu going 11 kilometers east of the course line. Chris was way to the west of the course line under thicker cu's. It sure didn't feel like I was going to make it in.

I was heading on a course almost perpendicular to the course line but I recognized it as a lift line as I wanted to stay high, find some good lift and get back over 10,000'. Finally after five 200-300 fpm climbs I found a thermal that took me to over 10,000' thirty kilometers from goal. Other pilots were struggling in the blue, while Chris was doing well under his clouds.

I headed off into the blue south toward goal. Goal looked reachable from that distance out and it went well at first as I hit a little thermal and climbed back up. At 10 km out I was down to 5,000' (2,500' AGL) and just barely on glide to make goal. Fortunately I found a very nice thermal in the blue and climbed up to 6,700' which was plenty enough to make it into goal. Of course, there was not that much sink after that so I came in at 4,200'. Again, Robin was right behind me, also high at 5,000'.

Chris was in first having taken a better route in. The pilots who left him behind in the thermal before the second turnpoint came in soon after him.

See the tasks and the scores at the links above.

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2014 Big Spring Nationals »

Mon, Aug 4 2014, 1:23:27 pm GMT

Gregg Ludwig's trike

Big Spring Nationals 2014|Gregg "Kim" Ludwig|Jeffrey "Jeff" Lawrence Bohl|Mick Howard|Robin Hamilton|US Nationals 2014

He towed me up on the first day, no issues, just like last year.

Gregg Ludwig «Gregg Ludwig» writes:

Last Sunday I towed Robin Hamilton, Mick Howard, Jeff Bohl and Bob Fisher, who are all participating at Big Spring. One nice upgrade I did was to replace the 13.5 pound battery with a Lithium battery of similar capacity that weighs only 2.2 pounds.

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2014 Big Spring Nationals »

Mon, Aug 4 2014, 12:25:50 pm GMT

Sport Class pilots go big

Big Spring Nationals 2014|Cory Barnwell|David Williams|Jeffrey "Jeff" Lawrence Bohl|US Nationals 2014|Wills Wing

Three sport class pilots made their goal then flew to the open class goal on the first day. David Williams, Jeff Bohl, and Cory Barnwell. Cory wrote:

Epic day today! Made the sport class goal and then kept going and made the open class goal too! Over 70 miles! Took me six and a half hours. New personal bests for distance, duration, and altitude gained (over 8,000 feet)! Woohoo!

He seems to be flying a borrowed Wills Wing U2 160.

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Dinosaur 2015 »

July 4, 2014, 7:08:31 MDT

Dinosaur 2015

$5,000 prize money for sport class

http://www.rockymountainglider.com/about.html

Terry<<terryreynolds2>> writes:

Jim Zeiset just kicked in another $5,000, designated for Sports Class prize money. This will be escrowed as will the $10,000 from us.

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Dinosaur 2015 »

June 23, 2014, 7:44:53 MDT

Dinosaur 2015

King posted only - open and sport

http://www.rockymountainglider.com/about.html

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2014 East Coast Championship

Day 7 and final results

Sat, Jun 7 2014, 9:27:48 pm EDT

Aeros Combat|Aeros Combat GT 15|Aeros Combat L|Aeros Discus|Airwave Vision Pulse|Bob Filipchuk|Brian Boudreau|Bruce Barmakian|Charles Allen|Cory Barnwell|Dana Harris|Dan Lukaszewicz|Dave Proctor|Davis Straub|East Coast Championships 2014|Felix Cantesanu|Greg Dinauer|Greg Sessa|Highland Aerosports Flight Park|Hugh Mcelrath|Icaro Laminar Z8|J.D. Guillemette|Jim Messina|Joe Schmucker|John Claytor|John Dullahan|John Waters|Knut Ryerson|Michelle Haag|Moyes Litespeed|Moyes Litespeed S|Moyes Litesport 4|Richard Elder|Richard Milla|Soraya Rios|Tom McGowan|Tom Mcgowan|Wills Wing|Wills Wing Sport 2|Wills Wing T2C|Wills Wing Talon|Wills Wing U2

http://soaringspot.com/ecc2014/

Task 7:

1. Greg Dinauer Aeros Combat 12.7 02:26:13 1000
2. Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 02:26:22 994.02
3. Charles Allen Icaro Laminar Z8 12.8 02:40:06 837.19
4. Tom Mcgowan Moyes Litespeed 03:34:53 546.85

Final Totals:

1. Bruce Barmakian Wills Wing T2C 136 4913.06
2. Greg Dinauer Aeros Combat 12.7 4560.29
3. Davis Straub Wills Wing T2C 144 3821.55
4. Jd Guillemette Moyes Litespeed S4 3037.99
5. John Waters Aeros Combat L 15 3026.09
6. Jim Messina Moyes Litespeed S 4.5 2953.45
7. Charles Allen Icaro Laminar Z8 12.8 2941.23
8. Bob Filipchuk Aeros Combat GT 15 2397.18
9. Dave Proctor Wills Wing T2C 154 1449.28
10. Tom Mcgowan Moyes Litespeed 967.38
11. John Claytor Wills Wing Talon 160 276.18

Task 7 Sport:

1. Hugh Mcelrath Wills Wing Sport 2 01:39:20 1060
2. Brian Boudreau Wills Wing Sport 2 155 01:43:18 980.21
3. Dana Harris Wills Wing Sport 2 155 02:17:47 660.81
4. Cory Barnwell Airwave Vision Pulse 02:21:01 640.73
5. Soraya Rios Wills Wing Sport 2 135 02:29:32 592.70
6. Richard Elder Wills Wing Sport 2 03:00:45 468.69

Final Sport:

1. Felix Cantesanu Aeros Discus 3798.89
2. Hugh Mcelrath Wills Wing Sport 2 3519.46
3. Cory Barnwell Airwave Vision Pulse 3258.15
4. Brian Boudreau Wills Wing Sport 2 155 3044.54
5. Dana Harris Wills Wing Sport 2 155 2810.15
6. Richard Milla Wills Wing Sport 2 2804.88
7. Knut Ryerson Wills Wing Sport 2 2440.09
8. Soraya Rios Wills Wing Sport 2 135 2417.55
9. Richard Elder Wills Wing Sport 2 2203.56
10. Greg Sessa Wills Wing U2 1982.97
11. Michelle Haag Wills Wing Sport 2 135 1156.05
12. John Dullahan Moyes Litesport 4 649.96
13. Dan Lukaszewicz Wills Wing Sport 2 482.98
14. Joe Schmucker Wills Wing Sport 2 175 462.76

$300 payment due by June 8th for the Big Spring Nationals

June 2, 2014, 7:27:38 EDT

$300 payment due by June 8th for the Big Spring Nationals

Thirty four pilots signed up so far, getting close to the limit

Big Spring Nationals 2014

http://ozreport.com/2014BigSpringNationals.php

Now that June is here, this is a reminder to let you know you only have a few days to get your entry fee to us and received by us.

Pilot entry fee and full on-line registration must be received by us in the following amounts given the dates below:

Before June 8th Before July 6th After July 6th August 2/3
$300 $350 $400 $450

We look forward to having you at the Big Spring Nationals and having the resources to make sure that you have a great time towing and flying.

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2014 Big Spring Nationals now up on CIVL calendar

Mon, Nov 11 2013, 3:54:55 pm GMT

International Finance

Big Spring Nationals 2014|calendar|CIVL|US Nationals 2014

https://OzReport.com/2014BigSpringNationals.php

Nicky «Nicky» writes:

The sanction fee has now been received and the event is here: http://www.fai.org/events/events-calendar-and-results?id=34877&EventCalendarId=9273

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The PG issues

Thu, May 22 2003, 2:00:02 pm EDT

Cory Barnwell|magazine|news|Oz Report|PG|Quest Air

The next few articles concentrate on paragliding, which is unusual for the Oz Report. This isn’t a conscious effort on my part. It just seems that I have access to a bunch of paragliding news lately and there is a bunch of paragliding activity here at Quest Air.

Paragliding is not something of particular interest to me (I use to do it), but I see its practitioners as members of the hang gliding community and I certainly like to encourage its growth.

John Cory is not too happy about the direction that he feels the Hang Gliding and Paragliding Magazine is taking – drifting toward paragliding: https://OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=101

Andy Mutz sends in $10 as he sees me more consistently covering paragliding. I feel that it is just an aberration. ☺

Discuss paragliding at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

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The “new” Oz Report

Thu, Apr 24 2003, 5:00:03 pm EDT

calendar|competition|Cory Barnwell|Oz Report|weather

Thanks to the hard work of John Cory and Gerry the Oz Report has a more functional interface at https://OzReport.com. The table of contents of the latest issue can be found there.

You can find the familiar Oz Report Table of Content, by clicking “The Oz Report” in the left hand menu and then “back issues” (https://OzReport.com/toc.php). Access to other areas of Oz Report information can be found on this menu or on the main page. The Oz Reports themselves have been moved to the pub folder so you’ll find them directly in this manner: http://www.ozreport/pub/Ozv7n111.shtml.

Over time the Oz Report portal (home page) will provide easy access to additional hang gliding related information (competition calendar, the WRE, pilot rankings, on-line contest, weather).

One special area is HG Videos. I have about twenty short videos that I will add in a few weeks to the two that are there now. These are little flicks that are meant to illustrate the fun of hang gliding. They are part of a marketing campaign put on by the Oz Report to bring in new hang glider pilots. Please use them to amaze your friends.

Discuss the “new” Oz Report at OzReport.com/forum/phpBB2

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