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Edit Vince's Journal
5/10/02
This is a post-journal exercise you can participate in. We are trying to re-do Vince's journal so it can
be published in Hang Gliding Magazine. If you want to try your hand at editing it, give it a try and let
Ernie know about it. He'll post all attempts here so we can
all take a look at them and decide which one goes to the magazine. Vince has final say, of course.
Since a major part of an editor's job is to make sure the article is grammatically and syntactically correct,
you can take this test to see how good you are at the basics:
Grammar Diagnostic Test
Here's the editing attempts:
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| preface
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Vince goes to Florida...
Vince Endter has been flying hang gliders for about 3 years. He has
progressed rapidly through the skill levels and has been flying a rigid wing Atos
for a year now. This year Vince has decided to take part in two of the biggest
hang gliding competitions in the US: the Wallaby and Quest competitions in Florida,
one right after the other (Apr. 13-27 2002).
Two other Sonoma Wings members, nationally-ranked competition pilots Rich Sauer and Chris Arai,
will also be in the competitons.
To help you follow along as Vince details his adventure, here are some maps:
Map showing both Wallaby & Quest
Wallaby Ranch map
Wallaby Ranch satellite photo
Quest Air map
Quest Air satellite photo
Vince is also using an APRS radio while he flies. This radio reports his position
in real-time to a web page, so that you can see where he is as each day's race
to goal progresses.
Click here to see where Vince (KF6WAV) is now
Click here to see where Rich Sauer (KB6ORD) is now
Click here to see Vince & Rich on the same map (focus is on Vince)
A race generally goes from noon to 4PM, Florida time - 9AM to 1PM West Coast time.
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| Vince
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Florida
Comps
I decided to start posting my experiences with the Florida comps
before I even get there. I leave tomorrow morning, April 11, at 6:15 for
Florida from rainy Northern California. For the last couple of
months I have been preparing for this trip, physically (running 20
to 30 miles a week), mentally and financially (working weekends when
I can, which cuts into flying). All I can think about for the last
several days is “have I forgotten anything?” I installed a new Wills
Wing control frame on my Atos and purchased a new Rotor harness.
Transferring my radio installation, parachute, water bag, hook knife
etc has been a pain. I made a couple of mods to the glider in
addition to the control frame. I received my replacement tow bridle,
but it looks a little short. I will have to compare it with others
once I get there. I have not been able to try my vario mount on a
tow cart, another item to check once I am there.
I made room
reservations, car reservation and shipped my glider ($317 insured
for $9,000). The glider arrived at Wallaby last week with a small
hole in the crate. Now I have to wonder about damage. I arranged a
driver for both meets. I still have to build some kind of rack on
the rental car. I only have Friday to do that. I should have left a
day earlier. I was able to fit all my stuff in two bags. One bag has
my harness, vario, gps, second gps (for the retrieve car), radio,
flying clothes, and other miscellaneous items. It weighs 50 pounds.
The second bag has my clothes, tool kit, third radio, car antenna,
batteries, cables and a bunch of junk I thought would be useful. Now
I wonder what the airport screeners are going to think when they see
all these batteries, wires, radios etc. I just heard today that the
bomb squad at San Francisco blew up a guy's shoes because he had
electric heaters in them. They blew them up AFTER they knew it was
just electric heaters. I guess they figured since they were there
anyway……..
I really hate flying commercial. I only like to
fly if I am in the left front seat. I prefer to be the master of my
own destiny. I am reminded of an old joke that goes like this: A
priest if sitting next to an elderly lady who is praying as the
airplane is taxing for takeoff. The priest says to her “there is no
need to worry, if your time is up, your time is up”, to which the
lady responds, “I am praying that the pilot's time is not up”. The
airline seats are too small for me as well. And I won’t go into all
the bad things that have happened to me on commercial flights, too
many to list. But, I hate driving more than I hate flying commercial.
I will be glad when I can fly myself to the comp.
I don’t
know how much time I will have to read email and to post to the
list. I will probably be posting in the blind. Don’t take offence if
I fail to respond.
Vince
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| Vince
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Wallaby: day minus 2
I left for the airport at 4:15 AM. I wanted to arrive an hour and
a half before my flight. The lines at the counter and security were
almost nonexistant. I have not flown commercial since September 11,
so the security measures were new to me. I did observe what I would
call “reverse profiling”. The people who were consistantly pulled
out of line for additional screening never matched what I would
think a terrorist would look like. They were always white males or
asian females. I was pulled out of line twice for additional
searches. My shoes were inspected twice. Interestingly I saw at
least 10 men who looked of middle eastern decent who were not pulled
aside. I guess they did not want to offend them.
The flight
from San Jose to Dallas was pretty good. We had light turbulence
most of the way. I like being able to feel the texture of the air.
There is a certain calming aspect that comes with the bumps. I guess
it reminds me of hang gliding: the smoother the air, the more likely
I am to get a sled ride. As we came over Texas, small cu’s were
starting to form. And there were LZ’s and retrieval roads
everywhere! Cloud bases were about 3,000’ and the clouds looked
spaced well enough to glide from cloud to cloud. These clouds
continued on across the south into Alabama. From there we were in
and out of the clouds at 37,000’ until Florida. The conditions over
Florida looked pretty good. Our landing at Dallas sucked. The pilot
slamed all the wheels on the runway at once, no flare. The landing
in Orlando was much better.
I signed up for my rental car,
and when I found it, the roof rack was missing. I had to go all the
way back to the rental counter and ask for a different car. The guy
at the counter said he had never seen a mini-van with a roof rack,
and I said I had never seen one without. He gave in and I got
another car. My driver (Bob Blazer) and I headed out to find our
motel and Wallaby. But what’s up with this, a toll road! What the
hell is a toll road doing in Florida. Another $2.50 later we were at
the motel.
After dumping off a bunch of our junk, we set out
to find Wallaby. There must be some dopey law in Florida against
signs, because all Wallaby has out front is a mail box with numbers
on it about 2” tall that say 1805. That’s it. It’s a good thing
there was still light out or we would have missed it. We found the
office, met Tiki and Lori, signed up, picked up the pilot's
package (goody bag), and went looking for my glider. We located it
next to all the other new Atos’ that had just come in from Germany.
There was a small hole in the lid. I set up the glider and found no
damage. Putting on the numbers was a little test they make you go
through to see how coordinated you are. I am number 43 for the comp.
There were about 100 gliders set up all around the Ranch. They leave
them set up and tied to a cable that runs along the side of the
runway. Lots and lots of motor homes, trailers and tents. Things are
getting interesting.
Tomorrow we will set out in search of a
hardware store so we can build the rack on the rental car.
Vince
PS I found Rich today. He is still waiting for his
glider.
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| Vince
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Wallaby: day minus 1
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Wet Pilots, Vince's rental car
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As I sit here it's raining hard at Wallaby. Not a good day for
flying - solid overcast skys. I did manage to get a short flight to
test out my gear before the rain started. The tow was easy, much
easier than towing behind Hungary Joe at Crazy creek. I was let off
in sink, about 100 down. I searched around for a couple of minutes
and found zero sink where I was able to maintain 1500' for about 10
minutes. It looked like pilots were landing as quickly as they were
being towed up. I hope this is not what Florida air is about. One
thing that I really noticed is the lack of mountains. I already knew
that the highest point in Florida is a little over 400', but it's
still weird flying without mountains. It will take me a little time
getting used to navigating with out the benefit of mountains.
We started the morning building a rack for the rental car. We found
an Ace hardware about 10 miles away. The guy at the counter said
they could cut the pipe for us. We gave them the measurements and
picked up all the fittings. When we went to check out, the guy tells
us the pipe will be ready in a couple of hours. That's not going to
work for us so he tells us about a Home Depot another 12 miles away.
We run over there and they have no problem cutting the pipe - 1"
rigid. I brought some .060 stainless aircraft safety wire and some
safety wire pliers from home. I had to buy a wrench. I had shipped 4
padded cross bars in the crate with my glider. We took everthing out
to the parking lot and built a pretty nice rack. It even looks
better than some of the racks I have seen on the locals' trucks.
The procedure here is to first sign in, pay for your tows ($150 for
10), and pick up your pilot package. You can have your GPS programed
today (which I did) with all the waypoints and goals (68 of them).
There will be a pilot's meeting at 7:00 PM.
I just left the pilot's
meeting. I guess you could say it was like any other big meeting.
There are a few people who don't like what is going on and tie up the
meeting. The biggest complaint was FAR 103.23 (distance from
clouds). Some of the best pilots complained that to be competitive,
they had to fly closer to the clouds than the regulation states. Even
if the meet director would agree, he could not publicly say: go ahead
and violate the FAA regs. But some figured if they kept complaining
the meet director would somehow change his mind. It ain't going to
happen. Davis Straub ran an interesting discussion about using a GPS
in a comp. I picked up several items I thought were good ideas. I
met Nancy. Actually I met the back of her head. She sat at the same
table but never turned around. From what I can tell from the back of
her head, in person she is just like she is on the list. ;-)
Rich Sauer's glider (as well as Manfred, Kari and others) arrived just as
it started raining. There were 3 crates of gliders in all. The
pilots who's gliders are in the crates are understandably impatient
to get the crates open. If it ever stops raining I'm sure they are
going to tear into them. Kari got her glider assembled in time to
take a quick tow. Rich had to change his control frame so he will
have to try to get a tuning flight tomorrow.
Driving here is not at all like driving in California. It seems that
all the local truckers have gone to the Daytona Motor Speedway for
driving instruction. They do not stay in the right lane, they seem
to prefer tailgaiting the car in front of them at 15 mph+ over the
speed limit. When they change lanes, it takes them just a little
over a second and they give the car they are cutting off at least 3'
of space. I thought for sure I would see them tip over.
I spent some time today walking around the flight line. I can say
now for certain, no matter what the manfactures tell you, you cannot
buy the same glider that some of the top comp pilots fly.
Vince
PS I met Malcom today. I asked him about having a sign on Dean Still Rd.
He said he used to have one, but he got too many tourists and they were
getting in the way of hang gliding.
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| Vince
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Wallaby: day
1
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The Flight Line
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I started the day by turning on the TV and checking the weather. It
looks like we'll have rain showers until Wednesday. We arrived at the Ranch at
8:30 am. The task committee was meeting at the breakfast tent. My
glider was still wet from yesterday's rain. Many pilots were towing
up for tuning flights.
The pilots meeting started about
10:45. The task for the day was Coleman with start times every 15
minutes beginning at 1:00 and ending at 1:30. An alternate task was
set up as the same goal, but flights ending at 3:00. That is, if you
don’t make goal by 3:00, you are given the distance to where you were
at 3:00. The start circle was the Ranch, with a 5 mile diameter for
flexies and 3 mile for rigids. I guess since we rigid flyers have
such a poor glide they decided for safety to keep us closer to the
Ranch in case we sink out ;-) The meeting went very well with few
questions. The tow area was designated in the new area that Malcom
cleared last year. Davis gave the weather report which was for weak
lift, cloud bases a little above 2,000’ and rain later in the day.
As soon as the meeting was over there was a dash to get in
line at the tow area. All the tow carts were taken so I had to carry
my glider there. I have never carried my glider so far. The Wills
Wing aero down tubes are fine for standing on lauch, but I’m sure I
will have bruises from today. Everyone lined up in two lines, odd
numbers on the right and even numbers on the left with both flexies
and rigids mixed together. At 11:35 some wind dummies were towed up.
One disappeared for a few moments due to whiteness, in full view of
everyone. There was obvious lift and they seemed to be staying up.
Close to noon the tug pilots were reporting rain showers and for
safety reasons the day was called. Time to carry my glider back.
Thankfully the Ranch crew was bringing the carts back to the tow line
and I was able to wheel my glider back.
I screwed up my GPS
getting ready for the task. One of the good suggestions Davis had
was to remove all your waypoints except for the ones needed for the
task (If you have a way to reload them, which I do). So I deleted
all of them except goal, then realized I needed the Ranch for the
start circle and the one with my pilot ID (the scoring program looks
for it to know who’s gps it is reading). My laptop is back in the
car, and I am in line for the start. So now I am furiously
trying to re-program my gps by hand, using the waypoint from a friend's
gps. I got it all back ok, but it was a learning experience. I don’t
think I will do that again.
Malcom had things very organized;
there were lots of helpers going up and down the tow lines asking if
anyone needed anything. The cart with the water supplies was a
particularly nice sight for the eyes, but I failed to get a
picture of it. With the day called, I decided to head back to Home Depot
and get some more wood to repair my crate. When we got back to the
Ranch, they were towing again. It didn’t look like anyone was doing
great. One thing that has impressed me here is the number of great
landings. In the last two days I have only seen one whack (an
Atos-C). I have read in the past that many of the comp pilots have
bad landings, but I have not found this to be true. Most of the
pilots run out their landings, which I don’t see as often in the
West. It never did rain here today (at 6:00 as I am
typing).
The people in Florida have been very nice. I hear a
lot of please and thank you’s, yes sir’s and the like. I have not
spotted any alligators yet.
Vince
PS Rich got in a
tuning flight today. Chris Arai is here as well.
|
| Vince
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Wallaby: day 2
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Brian Porter in his Swift, in front of Vince
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I didn't bring enough socks with me to Florida so I took a couple of
pairs in the shower with me and washed them with shampoo. They have
been hanging in the room to dry for over a day and they are as wet as
ever. The humidity in Florida is high. I put them in the microwave
to dry. 2 pairs of wool socks take 12 minutes to dry in a
microwave. We are staying at the Super 8 motel a couple of miles
from Wallaby. We got the competitors rate of $35.99 a day, which
includes a refrigerator, coffee pot and microwave. They have a free
continental breakfast, so to save money (I have been known to make a
nickle cry) I have 2 or 3 bowls of cereal and a donut for breakfast,
this saves me $5 to $8 a day. One of these days I will eat at the
Ranch, but being a vegetarian, I can't see paying full price to eat
some produce. Laurie announced that they were going to have a
special vegatarian dish each night during the comp, so I will try
that.
The crowd at the Ranch seems younger than I am used to seeing at
Western launch sites. There are a lot more females here as well.
With the warm Florida weather, there is much skin exposed (which can
be good or bad depending on who is exposing their skin). As I walk
around I hear several different languages spoken. Felix has several
Germans with him; then there are the Italians and an English
contingent (The English sound just like Leo Jones back home. Since I
am used to him, I can understand most of what they say). There are
probably a lot more nationalities here, but since I am eating away
from the Ranch, I haven't met that many pilots. I did manage to talk
to the front of Nancy's head. She is very pleasant to talk to. I
realized that both she and my wife married electricians. My wife
said she made a good choice.
At the pilots meeting, a 70 mile task to the northwest was called
with a turn point at 40 miles to keep people from crossing some
unlandable areas. The big news of the meeting was JZ our USHGA
president threw his chute yesterday. He did not tell us what
happened. Hopefully someone will find out and post it to the group
(I just talked to JZ see below). The weather for today was for more
rain with possible thunderstorms. Everyone lined up early today with
most lining up before the meeting. At the meeting Malcom said we
were to line up by pilot number not sail number as we had twice as
many odd numbered sails. Several pilots had to move their gliders to
the other line.
The wind dummies launched at 11:35 and came down right away. There
was a large cell heading right toward the Ranch. All the tugs headed
for the barn and many of the pilots carried their gliders back to the
Ranch. It started raining at 12:00 with thunder and lightning 10
minutes later. I am sitting in the back of the truck waiting for
them to either call the day or proceed. While waiting, I got a chance to
talk to JZ. He had adjusted his spoilers to 100 degrees from the
factory setting of 80 degrees. In doing so he adjusted past the
spoiler limiter. This caused a $2 piece of hardware to fail. When
this failed he could not operate his spoiler. The glider started a
slow spiral dive which continued to increase in bank angle and
speed. Then out came the laundry. He landed in a bog. Both he
and the glider are fine. When he hit the ground he sank deep into the
bog and it took a little effort to pull himself out. The area he
landed in is called the $100 field because the owner has an agreement
with Malcom that anyone from the Ranch that lands there will pay
$100. I asked a couple of Ranch employees and they could not say
exactly where this area is. They need Ernie to make them up some
no-landing maps.
By 2:00 the sky was getting very dark, by 2:15 it was a dark purple
and JC finally called the day. A few minutes later it was raining
hard. Yesterday after they called the day and Malcom started towing
again, several pilots climbed past 4,000'. One made it to Quest on
two thermals and had the goal at Coleman on glide, but turned
around. Robin with the Swift made it to Quest and most of the way
back. He landed out behind the sand pit a couple miles from the
Ranch. Several people were needed to carry out his glider. The meet
director wanted to make sure there was no chance of a valid day. I
was hoping they could change the task to a foot race around the
Ranch, at least I would have a good chance of finishing in the top 50%
We drove out to my glider, (which is tied down at the flight line) to
make sure everthing was OK. I don't think I have any more alkali
dust from the Owens on it any more. One of the best investments I
made before coming here was the Screw - an anchoring device. There
is a run of the dog anchors at the local stores. Hopefully tomorrow
we will get to fly.
I am no social butterfly (where is Lori when you need her) so it is
difficult to find out what is really going on around here. I met a
woman pilot who introduced herself as Clair. I said "Pagen", then I
felt the air tempurature drop about 50 degrees as she
replied: "formerly". I didn't know. I looked around for a hole to
climb into but was out of luck. To top it off, she carried her
glider back from the tow line and looked like she never broke a
sweat; I felt like a wuss. There are a lot of big egos here and it
is interesting to see them clash. I know very few of the pilots by
sight, so I can't say who is clashing with whom.
Vince
|
| Vince
|
Quest: day minus 7
Since we had a rain day we headed up to check out Quest. I met
David Glover and Steve Kroop. They have a nice operation up there.
Bill Moyes was there putting together a couple of dragonfly tugs.
The most interesting thing I saw (being an A&P) was their new
turbine tug. When I was told about it I said “you mean a turbo tug”
to which Dave replied “no, turbine”. They have a turbine engine that
came off an A7 Corsair. In the A7 application it is used as the
starter moter. The really nice feature is the planetary gear box,
which is quite compact. One of the big problems with turbine
installations is the size of the gearbox. This engine came with the
nice small gear box. I’m real interested in seeing it
fly.
After the drive to Quest and back I feel more
comfortable about the LZ’s in this area. Sometimes it seems that
there is nothing but trees, lakes and swamps. It looks like there
are good LZ’s every 2 to 5 miles.
Vince
|
| Linda
Sauer
|
Rich
I talked to Rich today while he was sitting in the launch line.
Manfred helped him tune his new Laminar MR700. He is extremely pleased with it's
performance. He said that he was able to climb through one of the
proto WW's but still couldn't keep up with Manfred. Who can?
Linda
|
| Linda
Sauer
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Comp Day1
Rich just called to let me know that he & vince both made goal
today. It was a 50+ mile out & return.
linda
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| Vince
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Wallaby: day
3
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Vince on a cart
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Don’t follow me!
When we got to the Ranch this morning, I
stopped at my glider to see how it had survived the night. I found one
of the ribs (second to last at the tip) had broken from the back of
the spar. We sped off to Walgreens for some 5-minute epoxy. By
9:00 am I was ready to go again (if we ever went).
The weather
was predicted to be better today: 40% chance of showers, mostly to
the north; winds out of the SSE; cloudbase at 4800; top of lift at
3500’ with lift between 200 and 400 fpm. The task was called for an
out and return to Gator, 53.5 miles round trip. The first start time
was moved up to 12:30 with the launch window open at 11:00. I was in
the odd line, which is on the north side. The wind changed a little
and they turned our line around. The even line stayed where they
were. A lot of pilots grabbed up the launch carts and put their
gliders on them, even though they were not ready to go. I was in my
harness, helmet on, and ended up carrying my glider to my place in
line. The ranch hands keep saying, "don’t get on the cart unless you
are ready to go". And I thought they meant it.
I was towed up
at 11:53. It turned out to be a good time to go. I pinned off early; we
were in lift and I wanted to give the tow pilot a break (Rich later
told me that in light lift like today, take the entire tow). I headed to
the closest gaggle I could see. I worked with them for a few minutes
then saw a better gaggle a mile to the south. On the way over to this
second gaggle I found some good lift so I stopped to work it. I was going up at
200 fpm. Now I know what a gaggle magnet is. Within 60 seconds there
were 15 more pilots in my thermal. I believe this gaggle turned out to have 40 or
50 gliders in it. I noticed we were drifting toward the turn point,
which was good, but we were past 1.5 miles from the Ranch. I found
out after I landed that the start circle is a 3 mile radius. I thought
it was a 3 mile diameter. So, don’t follow me. I headed back to the
Ranch, got low, but managed to cross the 1.5 mile radius at 12:30. I
thought I had a great start. The lead gaggle was gone.
I got
lower and lower. Everyone was way above me on course. I was down to
500’ AGL and finally found something. I worked this for a long time
(50 fpm). At 1500’ I saw two other gliders a mile away circling. I
was back to 1200’ there and with no lift. Again I spotted a glider
circling. I joined it at 1000’. It turned out to be Clair Vassort.
We worked together for quite some time (I talked to Clair after
landing and thanked her for marking the lift for me. She said after
I got up she'd followed me as well). More and more gliders joined us.
The lift got better, sometimes 500 fpm. I left this gaggle behind
and caught up to another one further ahead. About 2 miles from the
turn point I saw the lead gliders passing me for the trip back. The
lift was very good to the turn point. On my GPS I tried to
keep the distance to the turn point less then .25 miles for 30 seconds to make sure I
got the turn point. The scorekeeper said the software does not
support Mark, Enter (creating a waypoint). I hope I got it.
Rich Sauer
reported on the radio that he was 5 miles ahead of me. All the way back,
gaggles would form and break up. At one point I was above both
Carlos and a Swift. The Swift quickly left us behind. The cloud
bases were up to 4800’ and I was climbing to 3800’ before leaving. Six
miles out the clouds were close together and the ground was shaded.
About 12 of us were heading for the Ranch with me about third. We
started working 100 up. I thought with all the shade on the ground,
we would never find enough lift to get us to goal. I spotted some
raptors circling ½ mile to the west. When I got under them I was
going up at 600 fpm+. The rest of the gaggle came in under me. At
3500’ my vario said I had goal.
I went on final glide. I
have my final altitude set for 800’, just to be safe. My vario kept
changing back and forth between making goal and not. Since I had set
goal at 800’ I thought I would be fine. I kept looking for the
Ranch. I thought I saw it, but 3 miles out I realized I had the
wrong place. The Ranch was much closer. I stuffed the bar to my
waist the last 3 miles. I crossed goal at 500’. I made it. First
completed task in my first timed comp! I was ahead of all the
gliders in my last gaggle. Unfortunately, we were one of the last
gaggles to finish.
A note on landings. Unfortunately almost
all the bad landings I saw were Atos’. One Atos C crashed into the
goal post. Another Atos broke a down tube and the keel.
Several things went wrong with communications. We (Rich,
Steve Rudy, and I) could not hear our driver and he could not hear
us. He tried a couple of radios with no luck. After I landed he
realized he'd lost his cell phone. Steve landed out (1.5 miles behind
a locked gate) and had been trying to call. We got hold of him on
my cell phone. By the time we arrived he had already carried his
glider to the road. Someone found Bob’s cell phone and turned it in
to Malcom, so Bob has it back.
Thermaling in my first death
gaggle was nice. It was like being in a tornado with lots of gliders
sucked up. I noticed that most pilots make much larger turns than I
would normally make in a thermal (maybe the rigid wings turn much
better than the flex wings ;-). Steve mentioned the same thing. I
never felt unsafe or had any close calls. I felt like today was a
survival day as opposed to a race day. After my low save, I felt
very uncomfortable under 2000’. The lift was really poor under
2000’. I stopped to thermal a lot just to make sure I would not sink
out. Rich had similar feelings.
It started raining hard here
about 6:00. My glider is getting another bath. I now have to recharge
all my batteries, upload my waypoints back to my GPS, fill my water
bag etc. Gotta go.
Vince
PS Rich took the second start
time, so he did well.
(Davis Straub's OZ report of Monday's competition)
|
| Vince
|
Wallaby: day
4
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|
Manfred Ruhmer
|
No personal drama today, lots of clean socks and underwear. My
glider was in good shape this morning. They posted the results at 12:30
this morning. Gerolf is in first place by one second over Oleg. Four
pilots took the 12:45 start time and had quicker times than Manfred.
Christian (if he had longer hair would look like a young Paul
McCartney) is in first place in the rigid class. The first four
pilots in the rigid class had faster times than the fastest
flexwing.
They moved the pilot’s meeting to 10:00 (10:08 in
pilot’s time, always late). There were some awards for the first
place in each class (a Moyes T-shirt?). Each pilot told us his
secret for winning (get high and find the best thermals). Gerolf
said Oleg almost ran into him at goal, less than a meter separation.
Clair, as our newest American citizen, led us (reluctantly on her
part) in the pledge of allegiance.
A 65 mile out and return
task was called with 3 turn points: Quest to the north; 17-92
intersection to the south; and a point in between. A few minutes
before the tows started, the meet director announced a secondary
task. The main task would end at 3:00. If you did not make goal, it
was strictly a distance-completed contest.
I towed up at
11:30. The lift was OK, about 100 to 200 fpm. I boated around for an
hour. I seemed to be doing better today, staying closer to the top
of the gaggle. I thought I had a good start; I was at 2800’, 3 miles
out right at 12:30. I took the first start gate because I did not
think anyone would make goal and distance would be more important (I
was right for once).
I don’t know how these top rigid pilots
do it, but soon after the start it looked they were already a couple
of miles ahead. At 12:30 I could see the flexi gaggle at the edge of
their start circle 2 miles further out. I don’t know how I can ever catch them.
At exactly 12:30 all I could see was the back of their sails. This
lead gaggle slowly pulled away as the day continued. By 3:00 they
were about 7 miles ahead of me.
I did much, much better
today. I stayed above 2,000’ most of the day, most of the time above
3,000’. Only once did I get nervous about my altitude. I slowly
caught up to the lead gaggle stragglers (flexi’s). Once again I
caught up to Clair and thermaled with her for a short time. I swear
I was catching up to other rigids, although I don’t know how they
all got in front of me. Any time I found lift and I was below 2500’
I would turn in it. If it did not get better than 400 fpm after a
few turns, I would look elsewhere. A few times the lift was better
than 1000 fpm. The air was never rough enough that I could not fly
one handed or with the bar to my waist. So far the thermal cores
here feel like they are surrounded by light lift (a 800 fpm core
might have 100 to 200 fpm 400 yard away). Many of the western
thermals I find might start right at the edge at 800 fpm, with a
core a few hundred fpm better.
At 2:50 PM I went on final
glide, while heading for the last turn point. 3 miles from the
turn point I saw the lead gaggle pass under me. Several of them
raced to the ground. I was a few tenths of a mile short of the turn
point at 3:00. Many of the pilots either did not hear about the 3:00
stop time or forgot. I passed 6 to 10 pilots who were still
thermaling a couple of minutes before 3:00. No one made goal.
Manfred was the closest, 48 seconds short of goal at 3:00. Bob Blazer, my driver, said
he saw 5 to 10 other rigid pilots pass before me, so I might have
made the top 10 in the rigid class today.
I got the last turn
point just for the heck of it (and so I can use this flight for our
local club XC comp - take note Scot). There was a rain squall heading
toward the course line about 5 miles south of the Ranch. The lift in
front of the squall was so good that I only made 3 360’s on the 10 miles
back to the ranch. I flew at 40 to 45 mph most of the way back. I
wanted to get on the ground before the rain. I landed back at the
Ranch. It never did rain. Total flight time was 3:47. This included
the hour between the tow and the start time. On yesterday's flight I was
in the air 3:45. I am very soar (pun intended). Since Labor Day of
last year, I have had less than 2 ½ hours of airtime. Now I have
over 7 hours in two days. To say that my muscles ache is an
understatement. Thanks to modern pharmacology, I’m able to keep
going.
I beat Rich Sauer today by a few miles. He took a later
start time and never caught me. Since no one made goal, we are all
scored on miles completed only. Steve Rudy landed at hwys 474 and 27. We got the
radio problems worked out. We had good communications today. Bob
drove all over the place trying to stay in contact, even though Rich
and I made it back to the Ranch.
Another word on the death
gaggles. I don’t remember if I wrote this already, but I can hear a
lot of other varios in the gaggle. And, I had to keep my head up for
almost an hour at the start today looking for traffic.
A
couple of final rants. They don’t have enough electrical outlets in
our motel room. We must have 6 or 7 items to plug in each night to
charge. We only have two lights we can use since we had to unplug the
rest to use them for our chargers. And all the gas pump nozzles we
have used do not have the lock-on feature. You have to hold the
nozzle on the entire time (which I had to do in the rain
yesterday).
The weather for the rest of the week looks good.
We might end up with a 5-day comp.
Vince
(Davis Straub's OZ report of Tuesday's competition)
|
| Vince
|
Wallaby: day
5
|
|
Steve Rudy, in the launch line
|
Hero to zero to?
I got to the ranch this morning by 7:30.
The first thing I did was check the results from yesterday. The flex
wing results were all screwed up, but the class 5 results looked OK.
I placed 6th for the day, yahoo! I moved up from 14th to 9th place
in class 5. I was feeling real good.
By the time of the
pilots meeting, most of the venting about the results had died down.
The officials are working to fix the problem. JC announced that Nancy Smith
had surgury last night to fix her femur. Obviously she is still in
the hospital. All of the pilots there felt for her.
The
weather was predicted to be like the last couple of days, with light
lift, wind out of the east, and cloud bases at 3,800. A task was called
for an out-and-return with 3 zig-zag turnpoints. The route went
south, northwest, southeast, then north back to the ranch for a total
distance of 65 miles. The start times were moved up with only one
start time at 12:15. To make up for the one start time, the start
cylinders were enlarged. Flex wings had a 10 mile radius and rigids a 5
mile radius. CU’s started forming at 9:15; by 10:00 the sky looked
overcast.
As we headed out to the tow line, holes in the
clouds started opening up. Wind dummies were towed up at 10:45 and
stayed up. Competitors started towing right at 11:00. I was on the
cart and ready to go at 11:40.
I was hooked to a trike. I
have never towed behind a trike so I was looking forward to the
experience. Unfortunatly it turned out to be mostly bad. The trike
seemed to be much more unstable than either a Dragon Fly or my Atos.
The trike was all over the sky. I gave up trying to chase him and settled
in to one general position that he would bounce back to. The climb
was slow, between 200 and 300 fpm verses 500+ behind a Dragon Fly.
At 1750’ he waved me off in the middle of a blue hole, 400 fpm down
and no other gliders around.
I headed for the nearest cloud
that looked like it would have lift. Now here is the tough part, do I
try for the lift, or sink out and re-tow? I made the wrong choice. I
was down to 800’ when I found lift, too far from the Ranch to make it
back. I worked zero sink for 10 minutes. Finally, I had drifted so
far over a forest I had to make another choice: head for the only
field within glide, or drift over the trees and either find lift or
land in the trees. I chose the field. I arrived over it at 200 agl,
where I thought I found some lift but it was just some teaser bubbles. One
180 and I was on the ground. I felt like a total zero, because that
is what you get if you land out (actually you get the minimum
distance).
I was pissed. At first I was pissed at the tug pilot. Then as I
thought about it, I realized it was all my fault. I now know that it
would have been better to land and get a re-tow than leave and look
for lift. Another valuable lesson learned. But what’s this? After I am back
in the car, we hear that the task has been canceled! I called Malcom
and he confirmed that it was canceled. I did not want to tie up his phone so I
did not ask why. I will find out when we get back to the Ranch.
We told Steve Rudy and Rich that the day was canceled. Steve
started to fly back, but got low and landed in a nice field, or so
he thought. It turned out to be a bog with 6’ to 7’ weeds. He is
trying to break down his glider as I type this. I hope there are no
alligators in there. Bob walked in to help Steve carry his glider
out. Now he knows what saw grass is; he has several cuts on his
hands. Rich made the first turn point and is heading back to the
Ranch (which he made.)
Back at the Ranch we were told the
task was canceled due to rain. It seems almost all pilots other than
me were not happy. I just dodged a bullet. I will keep my place. As
we were sitting under the big tent, Manfred landed at 3:14. He
completed the tast in 2:59. He says that he never heard about the
cancelation. Rich was right with Manfred at the time of the
cancelation and signaled him with the agreed-upon in-flight
procedure (unzip your harness, extend your legs and peddle your feet
like you are on a bicycle).
My confidence is now shaken. The
thermal trigger sources here don’t make any sense. I have to learn
to figure these out better. One other glider landed in the same
field as me, so as I said earlier, don’t follow me. I learned a lot
today.
Bob and I went looking for a another hotel for the
Quest comp. He will be leaving and my wife will be arriving to drive for me at
Quest. We walked into a Holiday Inn and I asked about the room rate
for a single bed. The clerk looked us up and down and told us the
rate for two single beds. I said no, I want the single bed rate, he
repeated the two bed rate and finally said the single bed rate. We
must be near Dade County ;-)
Vince
PS: Both Rich and
Bob have been taking lots of pictures.
PPS: There was something I forgot to mention. I am in the other line from
Davis and we have our own drama. Three of the German Atos pilots
foot launched behind the tug; it was pretty cool. They would let the
tug stretch the tow line then take off running like a slingshot.
They had picture-perfect launches.
(Davis Straub's OZ report of Wednesday's competition)
|
| Vince
|
Wallaby: day
6
|
|
Davis Straub, giving weather briefing
|
Due to the short day yesterday, I took the time to do my laundry
the old fashioned way, in a washer and dryer (the microwave was not
big enough). It never did rain yesterday. I hear much grumbling from
the pilots regarding the task cancellations. I keep my mouth shut.
Florida must have some terrible weather that can explode at any
second for the powers-that-be to be so quick to cancel the task.
At the pilots meeting an out and return task was called with
a single turnpoint of Coleman; a 90 mile round trip. Several pilots
who read the list talked to me about towing behind a trike. I
appreciate their input. Very few clouds were visible by 9:30 this
morning. Most days, it is almost overcast by 9:30. This should help
heat the ground and make for better lift. JC apologized for calling
the day.
The wind shifted just before the first tow window
opened and the odd pilots had to move all the way to the other end
of the Ranch. Malcom was right on top of it, rounding up all the
carts so pilots could move their gliders easier. They delayed the
first tow until 11:15 so we could get the entire line moved.
The wind dummies were towed up and stayed up. Some of the
tug pilots started towing gliders downwind. Malcom let them all
know to tow us upwind so we'd have a chance to get up or land back at
the Ranch. I towed at 11:40.
I was thinking about taking the
second start time at 12:30, but decided that since I would need 4 hours
to complete the task, I'd better take the 12:15 start. I was not in a
good position to start so I was 3 minutes late. This Florida lift
makes no sense to me. Some clouds have lift and some don’t. I would
keep an eye out for clouds forming, but even that did not work. Most
of the time I just looked for other gliders turning. I found lift
from 50 fpm up to 1100 fpm. I had my hang strap go slack several
times. It felt a little like home.
Rich took the first start
time and decked it at Quest. He said Bo and another top pilot landed
there as well. I was down to 800 feet 2 miles before Quest and got a
save back to 4,000. Steve Rudy got a save from 240’ all the way to
4,700’. Things went well until I tried to lead a gaggle. I was back
down to 1200’ when I found lift. I just could not find the cores. I
worked back to 3000’ when a bunch of the gaggle I led showed up
under me, so I guess I did not do too badly.
Five miles from the
turn point, the lead gaggle passed me on their way back from the
turn point. I don’t know how they find thermals so fast. Many of
them made only 4 or 5 turns in my thermal before heading out again.
I was flying slow trying to stay high. I was now able to stay
between 4000’ and 5000’. I thought I had a chance to make it back to
the Ranch.
I was getting less and less thermal markers. About
28 miles out I was at 5000’. I never found another thermal I could
get up in. Like I said before, nothing makes sense. I went under
clouds, over sunny areas, woods and parking lots, yet never found
a thing. I was a mile south of Quest and over a completely shaded
area. I flew back to Quest which was in the sun. I worked at 900
feet for 8 minutes before drifting over the trees. As I approached
to land, I worked at 300’ for four 360’s (I was thinking of Steve’s
save) before that broke up as well, so I landed at Quest.
I
thought I had not done very well, but I saw that several of the top rigid
pilots did not make it back either. At least I had my longest
duration flight ever, 4 hours and 40 minutes, about 30 minutes
more than my previous best. I flew 65 miles. JC said that 20 to 25%
of the field made it back.
I am going to the Ranch to eat tonight
and try their vegetarian meal. I may post more later when I get back
from dinner.
Vince
PS three pilots came in after 5:30. One made goal by 20' and one was
100 yards short.
|
| Vince
|
Wallaby: day
6, continued
|
|
Vince, landing at Wallaby
|
It's 10:10 PM and I just got back from dinner at the Ranch. They had
an excellent vegetarian stew. I talked to some of the people who
were here at goal today and heard some good stories. The biggest
story was that Gerolf had taken an in-flight piss. When he zipped
back up, he got his package caught in his zipper. He flew the rest
of the way to the Ranch like that. He could not go upright for
landing so he landed prone. The ground crew thought he was injured
and rushed over to him. He ordered them all away and lay on the ground
for 10 minutes while he extricated himself. The other pilots have
named him Zippy.
A glider coming in to land hit the 30' wind sock at the top and fell
the 30' to the ground with the pilot and glider landing on their
back. The pilot was not injured.
When the Top Secret came fast into goal the ground crew said the sail
had an incredible amount of flutter. They said it looked like it
would come apart in flight.
The pilots passed the hat and raised some money to buy Nancy Smith
some flowers. Any extra money would go to help fix her glider.
Davis did not complete the task?
Vince
(Davis Straub's OZ report of Thursday's competition)
|
| Vince
|
Wallaby: day
7
|
|
Wallaby flight line; Kari works on her glider
|
Frustration!
By the time the pilots meeting started, there
were very few clouds in the sky. At the pilots meeting they gave
Gerolf (Zippy) a special weenie award.
The
weather report was for a good day with lift of 4 to 5 hundred fpm
and cloud base at 6,500’. An 80 mile polygon task was called. First
turn point to the north, then back southeast, then west and north
back to the Ranch.
By 10:45 when the tow opened there were
still very few clouds. The wind dummies that towed up soon came
down. The first competitor towed up shortly afer 11:00. I think they
had to re-tow. At 11:30 pilots started lining up in earnest. I towed
at 11:45. I made a mistake on tow again. I was not keeping real
close tabs on my altitude. The tug pilot waved me off at 1100’. I
was in 400 fpm up, great, but I could find it for only one turn,
boo. I wanted to take the 12:15 start time but was only at 1400 by
then. Pilots were still being towed up above me.
I found a
good themal and was at 3800’ by the 12:30 start time so I took that.
The lift was working good. I could dolphin fly under the clouds.
Very few pilots were catching me and I led a gaggle for 3 thermals,
staying above 4000’ most of the time. I made the first turn point
pretty fast (for me), but then things started to fall apart. I made
a low save from 1100’ back to 3600’ which cost me a lot of time. I
lost sight of all the gliders I was flying with. I was back on my
own.
I had another low save from 1400’ up to 3200’. In each successive
thermal I was topping out lower. I could see some gliders at 4000’+
above me but just could not get up. A couple miles north of the
Ranch I circled at 900’ for 14 minutes then at 600’ for another 5.
Bob was on the ground giving me wind direction: out of the
southeast at 5. I finally came in for a landing. 50’ above the ground
Bob reported the wind was out of the northwest at 5. For some
reason, everytime he is there, I get a down-wind landing. The base
bar slid along the ground for about 4’, but nothing was
damaged.
I drove back to the Ranch in time to see 15 or more
gliders making goal. Rich was still in the air and reported being at
5600’. There were two rigids on the ground when I arrived, Christian
was one of them. Manfred was here as well. Rich landed at 4:30,
completing the task.
I talked to some of the pilots who
completed the task today. They said the lift was under the darker
parts of the clouds. I was mostly looking for new, forming clouds,
though I tried just about everything to find lift (if I'd really tried everything I would
have made goal). I need to work on my thermaling, that is where I
seem to lose it the most. The best pilots can come in under me and
thermal right up through me, even though it looks like we are taking
the same path around. And, obviously, I need to be able to find the
damn things.
I talked a lot with the pilot of the Top Secret,
Andy Hollidge from Great Brittain. The glider still needs a lot of
refinement. Of the few gliders I was easily able to out glide, that
was one of them. It seems to climb well. He has the thick plastic
coated wires and the control frame looks like it has a lot of drag.
If he is able to clean it up like the Atos or Atos-C it could be a
contender. He is flying with a T-Tail. He says that it thermals
better with the tail. I asked if maybe it was the “T” part of the
tail and he said no, he had tried it with the verticle section only
and it did not make a difference.
There is a party at Wallaby
tonight, free food, beer and margaritas (I can’t seem to find
anthing for us non-drinkers). As soon as I post this I am heading
back. Tomorrow we head up to Quest to register and have the first
pilots meeting.
I just did a quick read of the Yahoo group
list, but did not have time to post. I completed about 40 miles of
the 80 mile task. I tried to transmit my position more often with the APRS and it
seems to have worked better. I will continue to do so for the Quest
comp. I hope to do better there, now that I have some experience.
Vince
(Davis Straub's OZ report of Friday's competition)
|
| Vince
|
Wallaby: day
7, continued
For the first time in three years, Manfred did not take first place;
Oleg did, with Manfred second and Paris third (another first to have
an American in the top 3). Paris was also the
U.S. National Champion for the second year. The Italians took one and two in class 5:
Alex Ploner (Atos-C), and Christian Ciech (Icaro Stratus), with Davis Straub
in 5th place. This was Alex' first flatland comp. The margaritas, beer and
tequila shots were flowing freely tonight.
Quote of the day: Several pilots have the ability to adjust their
sprogs in flight. Paris and some other pilots were discussing this.
Rich told of negative bar pressure at high speeds. Paris said that
on final glide he had to raise his sprogs to keep this from
happening. Another pilot chimed in, "doesn't that hurt your glide?",
to which Paris replied, "NOT AS MUCH AS TUMBLING".
Rich brought his APRS to Florida as well. We are trying to get him
hooked up so you can watch both of us during the Quest comp. More
details later.
The latest Zippy rumor is that it took two stiches to sew him back
together.
Vince
(Wallaby results (all classes)
|
| Vince
|
Florida moving
day
|
|
Quest Air Park
|
Moving day.
Saturday is the day all of us that are going up
to Quest need to move our things that way. Malcom offered to tow up
pilots who want to try to fly there. He also said anyone who wants
to stay at the Ranch while flying in the Quest comp is more than
welcome. I checked the results this morning and they are still
screwed up. The results for the four valid tasks for class 5 are
posted and I have a score in each, but in the overall standings they
have me absent for the third task. Without this missing score I am
in 14th place, but if I add the missing score I am in 9th place
(unless the other pilots' scores are wrong as well).
I snagged
the last room at the Groveland Motel, the closest motel to Quest.
The Super 8 by Wallaby was much much better at the same price. They
only take cash at the Groveland, and since so many pilots are here, only rent for the
week. The room has a refrigerator and stove, but no microwave. How
long do socks take to dry at 350 degrees? After I was all checked
in, I noticed that there was no phone in the room. I asked at the
office and was told there was a pay phone in the back parking lot. I
headed back to Quest to set up my glider and help Rich Sauer install his
carbon leading edge inserts. Mark Poustinchian came over and we
started talking gliders. I told him of my phone line problem and he
offered to let me use his. So, thanks to his generosity, you can
still read my saga.
As I was setting up my glider, the metal
sleeve in the corner bracket fell out, and with it the wire tang and
spacer. I found all the pieces in the grass. After re-installing
them, I used a pair of vise grips to squeeze the two ends of the
spacer enough so it would not easily fall out. If you have one of
the new Wills Wing aero control frames, you might want to check that
part.
As I was driving around today, I noticed something about
Florida traffic signals that I almost never see in California. They
are hung from cables that criss cross the street. Back home, most of
the time they are on long arms that hang out over the street from a
pole, and there is usually another light down lower on the pole. The
problem I have been having, with gliders on the rental car, is that I can
not see the traffic signals overhead. I have been lucky; most of the
time there has been a car in front of me. Hopefully they are not
running a red light.
We had the first pilots meeting at 5:00.
This meet seems more relaxed. David Glover is running the meet and
is at the other end of the spectrum in personality than JC. David
seems to come across so much better. There were much less complaints
from the pilots, even when the cloud flying issue was brought up.
They might have as many as 20 tugs here. It should make the tows go
extremely fast.
Rich seems to have a magnet in the nose of
his glider that kicks in when he is flairing. Hopefully he will get
that worked out. I purchased a new nose cone for this trip, and it
still has no grass stains on it. I hope I can keep it that way.
The weather today looked like there might not be much lift,
but after 1:00 it really looked good. The pilots flying in from
Wallaby had trouble getting down. It’s now 6:00 and the sky is a
little overdeveloped, but gliders are still
thermaling.
Vince
PS While I am sitting in Mark’s
motor home sending this, his double yellow amazon parrot is talking
to me.
(Davis Straub's OZ report for Saturday)
|
| Vince
|
Quest: day
1
First, the "guardian angel" award goes to Bruce Barmakian. During
today’s task, he heard and felt a pop and his control frame got a
lot of slop in it. He looked up at the apex and saw a bolt had come
out and the right downtube was hanging loose. What would you do?
The obvious, climb in the control frame, steer with your feet,
remove your shoelaces and use them to tie the downtube in place.
At least that’s what Bruce did.
Since I am using Mark’s
phone line, I try and limit my time on-line. I am trying to download
my email and the messages from the list. I won’t be able to reply
individually. I was asked about how many class 5 gliders are flying
with tails. Two, if I am not mistaken: Davis and the Top Secret.
There are also two class 1 gliders flying with tails.
The
pilots meeting went smoothly. An 80 mile out and return with two
turn points was called. The task would take us up north and slightly
west and on the return we would fly over Coleman. There would be
only one start time, 1:30. Launch opened at 12:00. By 12:00 there
were no clouds. Some pilots towed up and sank out. By 12:20 a lot of
pilots were lining up.
I had my face shield up while on the
cart; I should have had it closed. As the tug accelerated, I got a
face full of dried grass. Some stuck in my left eye. I was blinking
my left eye, trying to clear it. As soon as I released, I was
able to wipe my eye. I guess I will have to start the tow with my
shield down from now on. I towed up at 12:50 and got to 2000’ for the first time. I
worked with a gaggle and slowly climbed up. Just before the 1:30
start time I was still a little low (3000’) and ½ mile short of the
outer edge of the start circle. The Flex wings had a start 3 miles
ahead. The lift was good when you could find it. I stayed above
3,000’ most of the way to the first turnpoint, several times getting
to above 5,000’.
Two miles from the first turn point (almost
half way through the task) Davis and Christian passed me below. I
was 4 miles behind them. I had caught and passed a couple of flex wing
gaggles. I made a slight tactical error on the way to the second
turnpoint. The turnpoint was out in the blue and I did not think I could glide
to it and make it back under the lift, so I flew a mile away from it
and gained a thousand feet. Then I flew to it and back to the lift. I
saw several gliders go straight to the turn point and then to the
lift.
I lost the gaggle I was flying with (mostly rigids). I
had to find my way back to Quest on my own. I really had to slow
down and work what I could find, since I could not tell what was
ahead of me. The haze was thick enough that I could not see any
gliders ahead of me.
The sea breeze had kicked in and the
lift was shutting down. I was 14 miles out and at over 4,000’ when I
went on final glide. I stopped twice and gained only 300’ each time.
Six miles out my vario was still telling me I had Quest. Then I hit
some 600 down and no up. There was a lot of unlandable terrain for the
last 2 miles before goal so I tried to work some small bubbles of lift and only
got lower. At 400’ I joined some buzzards circling. Five 360’s later
I was at 350’.
I now had only one field to land in. It was
surrounded on 3 sides by orange grove and the fourth side had a
forest with tall trees. My landing went fine, but I had to carry my
glider a ¼ mile through the orange grove to the road. I was 1.8
miles short of goal!
A friend from the Bay Area, Adrian,
drove for us today. He moved to Florida last year and came up to
watch the comp. Tonight my wife flies in and will drive for the rest
of the comp. At least now I will have my own private masseuse!
Rich landed before the second turnpoint. He had a low
save earlier, from 900’ to 6000’. Rich is always well ahead of me,
but today his game was off. I was surprised to hear that he was behind
me.
I thought I was transmitting my position in flight, but
when I landed my GPS was off. I don’t know if the batteries went
dead, or if somehow it turned off in flight. I will put new batteries
in it tonight and try again tomorrow. Rich was transmitting his
position today, but kept getting beeps in his earphone. If he
can’t shut that off, he will not use his APRS. Ernie, could you post
Rich’s call sign so people can try to follow him as well?
The
weather is supposed to be more of the same
tomorrow.
Vince
PS I am still using Mark’s phone line
to post this. Thank’s Mark.
(Davis Straub's OZ report of Sunday's competition)
|
| Vince
|
Quest: day
2
|
|
Rich, working on his leading edge inserts
|
I went over to Quest early to set up my glider and check it out.
Rich was setting his up at the same time. He mentioned something
about the “set up of shame” - if you made goal, you did not have to
set up your glider. I finished 13th for the day, yesterday, the closest pilot
to goal that did not make goal. Half of the rigid gliders made goal
and about a third of the flex wings.
Nancy, my wife and
driver, arrived last night. Life is much better.
At the
pilots meeting, they gave Bruce “the McGyuver award” for his
shoelace-on-the-down-tube trick. A 65 mile task from Quest to Winter
Haven and back was called. Start times were pushed back to 1:45,
2:00, and 2:15. Clouds were forming to the west by 12:00. Wind
dummies started going up and coming down at 12:40.
It semed
that everyone was ready to go at the same time. I was ready pretty
fast and still was near the back of the line. This was another
mistake. Lift was light, and I never did get a good start. I was
only ½ mile from the start line at 2:15. Sucking hind teat again.
The lift was still light for the first 15 miles and picked
up from there. I was only under 3,000’ once on the way to the turn
point. On the way back I was above 4,500’ for 10 miles. Then up
ahead, the cloud dissapeard and there was nothing but blue.
I found several thermals in the blue that took me back above
4,000’. 17 miles from Quest I had my last thermal. I managed a glide
of 8 miles. I heard over the radio that Rich landed 8.9 miles short.
At 10 miles out, I was at 600’. I could see the field Rich landed in up
ahead. I decided to land in the same field to make it easier on
Nancy. I arrived with just enough height to make a left 90 degree
turn to final.
I think my bad landing days are behind me.
Yesterday I found I was not rocking up in my harness far enough.
Today I made sure I was all the way up. The landing was easy, except
Rich did not tell me the field was very soft sand. I sank about
9” into the wet sand.
Nancy was only ½ mile away when I
landed……..behind a locked gate. We had to hoof our gliders the ½
mile to the car.
I saw a lot of gliders on the ground both
to and from the turn point, but not too many rigids. There were a lot
of gliders back at Quest. Looks like another “set up of shame”
tomorrow.
Nancy found lots of interesting bugs, but was
dissapointed not to see any alligators. She is hoping to find an
alligator farm near here.
Rich had a lot of trouble with his
radio caused by using his APRS, so he will not use it tomorrow. I
hope people were able to follow me today.
Vince
(Davis Straub's OZ report of Monday's competition)
|
| Vince
|
Quest: day
3
I got up early so I could finish my “set-up-in-shame”, in peace.
When I land out, it adds another 2 hours to the things I have to do
to get ready for the next day. They have been serving breakfast and
dinner at Quest so we ate breakfast there. I checked the results
from yesterday. If they are correct, I placed 7th for the day. Only 4
rigid pilots made it to goal and about 10 flexies. I hope by the
time the comp is finished I will have learned how to thermal. I just
can’t seem to stay in these Florida thermals. The rougher it is, the
better I do. So far, I can’t say we have had a rough day as
compared to what I am used to.
Since arriving in Florida I
have flown over 24 hours. At this rate, I will rack up as many hours
in two weeks as I flew in all of last year. My arms, neck, back
and legs all feel it.
The Groveland motel really sucks. No
phone, and when they clean the room they turn off the air
conditioning. The first day back to the room it was close to 100
degrees and it took until 4:00 am the next morning to get it cool.
What we do now is, after Rich and I tow, Nancy goes back to the room
and turns on the AC. All the sheets and the bed spread are full of
cigarette burn holes. The room smells like a smokey bar. There is a
refrigerator in the room, but every time the compressor shuts off,
it makes a loud bang. I have to turn it off each night and remember
to turn it back on in the morning. We may just give up and go back to
the Super 8 and make the 45 minute drive each way to
Quest.
At the pilots meeting, two different tasks were called.
One, to Chalet Suzzane airport as a turn point, and then on to
Wachula for a total of 77 miles. If the lift was weak, then goal would be
Suzzane. The weather report was not very good - light lift and blue
skies. If the temperature was high, we could expect a good day.
Steve announced that we were not to take our gliders to the start
staging area until they rang the bell. The winds were switching and
they did not want gliders in the wrong area.
What happened
next was almost comical. About 30 pilots and gliders were lined up
at the parking area, like they were waiting for the Great Oklahoma
Land Grab. I was late again and was not able to secure a cart. The
bell rang and we were off. Davis runs pretty fast for an old guy,
but did not have the endurance. All my running paid off. Even
without a cart I finished 4th to secure my place in the launch line.
It was a good omen.
The launch was supposed to open at
12:45. Several wind dummies launched and came back down. All the
start and finish times were moved back 15 minutes. The sky was
filled with high cirrus clouds. A few pilots towed up and even fewer
stayed up. By 1:30 the cirrus had cleared and the sun came out. I
quickly suited up and was in the launch line. All the priority
pilots figured the same thing and I moved from 5th to 14th to tow.
Due to the light lift, the secondary task to goal at Suzzane was
called, about 42 miles.
I had a great tow behind a yellow
trike (I don’t think the color had much to do with it). He let me
off in 400 up, all by my self. Soon I was above most of the gliders
around me. They headed over like hornets. I was high for the start,
though I was still a mile from the start circle at the last start
time of 2:30. I was in a gaggle of 10+ rigids and 10+ flex wings.
Off to the races we went. Clouds had started to form and the lift
was getting better and better. It looked like it would be a good day
after all.
Finally I was in a good position to see the lead
flex wing gaggle. Most of us headed off in their direction. Many of
the lesser-performing flex wings dropped behind and the gaggle soon
turned into mostly rigids. The first few climbs were in moderate
lift, 400+ fpm. I realized that I am not that bad at thermaling. I
hook in at 235 pounds. Most of the other pilots hook in a lot less
than me. As long as the lift is good, I climb as well as them. But
as soon as the lift drops to less than 200 fpm, they leave me
behind.
After two thermals I was starting to drop behind. I
found a good thermal by myself and used it to climb to 4,800’. I was
now much higher than the lead gaggle and was able to make up some
ground. I caught up to both the Swifts. 15 or more gliders started
following Manfred in his Swift. It was a very long glide, more than
9 miles. Somebody else found the lift and we all joined in. At one
point in this thermal I was behind Ron Gleason by less than 30’ for
more than a 360. Ron later mentioned it, but he did not seem upset.
I felt like our gliders were hooked together. I finally flew a
little wider and then slid back in behind him.
From here we
were less than 18 miles to goal. I was still being conservative and
always took the thermal a little higher than the leaders. We were
going to fly over a lot of water and I wanted to be high. After
another long glide I was in what turned out to be my last thermal
before goal. At 4200’ my fight computer said it was time to go. I
was 8 miles to goal. It seemed like a long glide. 3 miles out I saw
goal and realized I was high. I put the bar to my waist. For the
next 3 miles my ground speed never went under 80 mph. My airspeed
never went over 50. I know the wind was under 10 so my airspeed
indicator must be off.
I came over goal at 750’ msl. Boy I
felt good. All my pains did not matter so much. I tweaked my neck
this morning and it was hurting right up to launch. I never noticed
it in the air. I felt like I was really racing today instead of just
trying to stay up. I check in at the goal keeper and find that I had finished 22nd
overall, seven minutes behind the first finisher. It took one hour and 12
minutes for the 42 mile task. I think I might have made the first 5
rigids, almost certainly the top 10. Rich landed a couple minutes
behind me. He spent most of the day alone.
Some of the
pilots were complaining about the short task. I thought it was a great
call. It was an all out sprint today. After yesterday's four and a
half hour flight, I enjoyed the shorter flight. As I type this we
are in the car heading back to Quest. We are going to turn in our
GPS’s and eat dinner there.
Vince
PS Ernie, I do not
have the time to post any pictures. When we get back we should have
hundreds.
PPS Rich's start circle is 2 to 3 miles ahead of
mine, so we never have a chance to fly together.
(Davis Straub's OZ report of Tuesday's competition)
|
| Vince
|
Quest: day
4
I did OK yesterday. I placed 7th in the rigid wing class. I flew the 42 mile task in one hour
and thirteen minutes. My average speed was a
little over 35 mph. Christian was first, and is well ahead of
everyone else.
During the towing yesterday, I saw one of the
tugs almost run into a dolly and the guy on the ATV retrieving it.
Some said it was the ATV’s fault, but from my view, the guy on the
ATV saved the day. The tug landed long, the ATV was just about to
grab the dolly with his hook. The wing was so close he had to duck
his head to keep from being hit. He kept his cool and at the last
second, hooked the dolly and pulled it out of the way. The guys on
the ATV’s remind me of rodeo calf ropers. As soon as the tug starts
to pull the pilot, they are right behind. A couple of seconds after
the pilots leave the cart, the guy grabs it with a hook and brings
it back, at incredible speed.
Nancy saw her first alligator
today. There is a state park in Groveland that has a lake (I’m sure
every park in Florida has a lake), and she spotted a four footer. It
made her day, almost as much as me making goal yesterday
;-)
The pilots meeting today was a lot of fun. Dave played a
song called “I Got VG” sung to Sonny Bono’s “I Got You Babe”.
Whoever performed it was great. I would love to get a copy of it. We
received a live weather update from Gary Osoba. The lift could be
good today if it does not get overcast. The winds are strong at the
time of the meeting out of the east, northeast. The task for today
is 67.6 miles to the northwest and ends near the Willis
airport.
The wind was still a little strong at the 12:30
tow start. The first start time was 1:45. Several people towed up
right at 12:30 and came back down. Some more towed up and stayed up,
but drifted down wind quite a bit. Pilots started seriously towing
up by 1:00. I got right up to 4,400’. I could not hear anyone on the
radio. Checking my helmet connection, I found it had come unplugged.
I could not find the end in my harness. I had to take my glove off
to feel around for it. It felt like it took 5 minutes to find it.
All the while I was trying to stay clear of the gaggle but still
stay up. I found the other end, but needed to use both hands to plug
it together, so I had to put my glove back on. Then I could not find
the two ends again. I did manage to get them together and make radio
contact, but I was almost to the edge of the start circle and down
to 3,300’
There were no gliders back up wind that I thought I
could reach, so I was stuck with taking the first start gate, 1:45,
low. Six miles out I was at 1,400’. I found a thermal back to
4,400’, but I could see no other gliders. I was on my own again. The
clouds were a good indicator of lift and I was working along fast,
staying above 4,000’. 20 miles out I started to get into
trouble.
I got low again, down to 1,500’. I spotted a glider
circling and came in under them. They climbed out much faster than
me and left. I lost the lift at 3,300’. I tried to follow from below
but had no luck. I was in the blue. I stumbled into a real
screamer, over 1000’fpm up. I saw another glider above me. At 3,000’
I completely lost it. I searched all over. The pilot above me
continued to go up, probably past 5,000’. They left high and made it
to the clouds on the other side of the hole. I was drifting over
forest and really bad landing areas. I played it safe and headed out
to the turnpike (75). I found nothing on the way there. I landed
next to the turn pike, 30 miles from Quest and 35 miles from goal.
One word: Shit!
As I was breaking down, the blue hole started
to fill in with clouds and I watched a large gaggle of fast gliders
pass overhead.
Rich landed 8 miles short of goal at the
Crosswind Landings Airport. The place lived up to it’s name. It is
50’ wide X 2000’ long, lined with 80’ tall trees. When he landed, the
wind was indeed cross. We talked about the thermals today. We both
agreed that instead of the usual columns, they were bubbles. If you
came low, you did not have much chance of getting up in one.
Rich believes part of his problems is tuning his glider. He
is going to take out the carbon leading edges he put in the other
day. He swears 30 gliders passed him today. I am going to play
around with my flap setting in thermals. I can’t find any other
reason I can’t climb as well as all the other gliders with which I
have been flying.
As far as the set-up-of-shame, it won’t be
so bad tonight because everyone will have to set up, since the task
did not return to Quest, if we ever get back to Quest. As I am
typing this, Rich and I have been giving our driver directions back
to Quest. But we got to talking and we missed our exit. Twenty miles
later we are back on track, 10 miles to go. As Rich’s wife Linda
says “don’t tell the driver how to drive”. Words to live
by.
I just got back to Quest. It sounds like a lot of pilots
made goal. Alex in an Atos-C made goal in a little over two hours.
And there is talk of an Atos landing in the swamp. I would rather
land short than take the risk and land in the swamp.
Vince
(Davis Straub's OZ report of Wednesday's competition)
(Discussion of the Class 2 {Swift} competition)
|
| Vince
|
Quest: day
5
I learned to fly Florida thermals today!
Last night, after I
sent in this report, the turbine powered tug did some taxi tests and
a couple of short hops. The sound of the thing is impressive,
expecially when it is starting. We were in the club house when it
taxied in. It sounded just like a King Air as it pulled
up.
Only a few rigid wings did not make goal yesterday. My
poor showing moved me from 10th to 15th place. It’s going to be
difficult to move back up. I have some velcro that I am going to use
to make sure my helmet does not disconnect from my radio, and I am
definitely going to try to stay with a gaggle.
I would like
to thank all the people who have been sending me kind words and
encouragement. When I get back to a motel with a phone line I will
be able to reply to them.
Two days ago when we got back to
Quest, Rich and I set our gliders on the ground, at the tie down
cables. The next morning our gliders were moved and other gliders
were set up in their places. Kari Castle was set up in Rich’s spot.
Rich said something to Kari, to which she replied “the competition
does not end at goal” meaning if you don’t get your glider set up
and tied down, you lose your spot.
The pilots meetings are
turning into the Dave stand-up act. Everyone is really enjoying it.
It’s almost worth the $250 just to see his show. The weather called
for light to moderate lift (very weak by western standards, these
guys get all excited over 400 up, back home it’s hardly worth
turning in). There is a possibility that we could get rain showers
later in the day. Winds are predicted to be out of the south. Two
tasks are put up on the board. One is a 53 mile triangle and the
other is a 90+ mile downwind task. The pilots get to vote on which
one they want. The vote is split. The task committee gets to make
the final decision. Davis is out-voted and we get to do the triangle
(Scot, it’s worth 159 points for the “go for it”). I believe the
triangle was the better task. I called Adrian and told him today’s
task. He said he would post it, so people could follow my track
better.
I took second in the sprint to the tow line, in spite
of having to jocky around several dollies that were in my way. My
strong finish was another good omen. All the start times were the
same as yesterday. No one towed up when the tow window opened at
12:30, not even wind dummies. Ten minutes later a few pilots towed
up. The day looked good so I took an early tow at 12:50. There were
only about 10 pilots up when I towed.
The most exciting day
since I have been here was about to start. I was having serious
trouble thermaling since I arrived at Wallaby, 12 days ago. Ron
Gleason set me straight. He said to thermal a lot slower and use 5
degrees or less flaps. Felix had given a talk at Wallaby about
flying rigids (I missed it because I was writing one of my reports).
Felix said to use little or no flaps, or almost all (for landing),
the settings in between don’t help. So now I am thermaling 10 mph
slower than I would dare out west, with 5 degrees of flaps. No one
out-climbed me all day. I either stayed with them or climbed better.
I could not believe the difference (now if I can only figure out
where they hide them Florida thermals).
I still need a lot
of work on my starts. I took all three start times. The first two, I
found myself low only 4 miles out, so I went back to get the next
start time. I never did find the lead rigid wing gaggle. I followed
what gliders I could see. Visibility was poor today. A lot of
moisture in the air. With my new thermaling technique, I was staying
high. On all three legs of the task I either had a cross wind or
head wind.
The hardest leg was the first. Many of us went
way to the east to get to the turn point. This was the only part I
was below 2,000’. I was 2 miles from the Coleman turnpoint and all
the gliders in front of me still were not turning. Almost all of us
at once spotted a lead flexwing gaggle to our right, circling. The
lowest glider I was with was under 400’, I was at 1600’ when whe
found the 400+ fpm lift. This brought many of us to 4,500’, but we
were now 5 miles from Coleman. The ground for miles all around
Coleman was in the shade.
Things really slowed down. I was
with a gaggle of 10+ gliders. We stopped to work several weak
thermals at 200 fpm just to stay up. Five miles past Coleman toward
the second turnpoint at the 50-471 junction, the sun came out and we
had better climbs.
Two miles before the second turn point I
climbed back above 4500’. I made the turn point at 3800’ and went on
to a thermal 2 miles past. I was 11.5 miles from Quest. As I was
climbing past 4,000’, my vario said I had Quest on a glide. After
the time I came up 1.8 miles short, I continued to climb until it
said “what the hell are you waiting for” At least 8 gliders all went
on glide at the same time. I was the highest of the bunch.
For the last 11 miles I transmitted my position every mile.
I went through a couple of miles of sink where I had to slow down a
bit. This time that last 3 miles my ground speed was closer to 70
mph. I crossed goal at 800’, you could not pry the grin off my face
with a crow bar. For the first time since I have been in Florida, I
feel like I learned something. I would never use my new themaling
technique in strong lift, but out here it is the ticket. As I said
earlier, I think I may have made the top ten again. All of the big
guns were already back when I landed, but I saw many rigids on the
ground today, and I also saw 3 or 4 land after me.
Rich
also took the three start times, each time getting low. He was stuck
just before the last turnpoint where he landed. He has been climbing
well, so I don’t know what has been going wrong for
him.
After I landed I called Adrian and he said he watched
the whole time and knew I made goal by my track. Maybe he can re-post
the link in case anyone is interested. I will try to call him with
the task tomorrow so he can post it ahead of time.
As I am
finishing up this, the turbine tug made it’s first real flight.
There is a joke going around that whoever flys behind it will have
to double up their weak link.
Thanks again to Ron for
setting me straight (pun intended) on how to thermal in
Florida.
Today I found out that Mark P. did not have a Cam
Helper. He set all his records without it. Davis has had one for
over a year. I gave one to Mark to help even things out. Hopefully
he will break a lot more records.
Vince
PS Nancy has
been doing a great job chasing us around in circles. And she has
been helping me edit this to try and catch most of my spelling
errors.
(Davis Straub's OZ report of Thursday's competition)
|
| Vince
|
Quest: day
6
I finished 9th in the rigid’s for yesterday’s task, which moved me
up from 15th to 12th place overall. I saw my first bald eagle in
flight yesterday. I also had my first near mid-air with a large
bird. It was some type of raptor. I was on glide and so was the
bird, heading directly toward each other. The bird was looking down.
Just about the time I was going to push out and go over, the bird
saw me and did a wild looking manuever, we missed each other by less
than 6 feet.
I can understand why they usually don’t tow in
high winds. When you launch from a mountain site, you may have to
deal with the wind for a few seconds, until you are away from the
hill. Under tow you have to deal with it for several minutes.
Luckily all the tows so far have been relatively smooth. When I got
my aerotow rating with Hungary Joe, at Crazy Creek, CA, we were
towing in 500 fpm thermals and ratty air. I have yet to have any
tows like that here in Florida. It is smooth enough that I am able
to zip up my harness, and make adjustments to my instruments while
on tow. At the start of the Wallaby comp, I had 7 tows under my
belt, now I am up to an incredible 17 ;-)
We increased the
tip we have been leaving for the maid at the Groveland motel and are
now getting sheets without holes, and they are leaving the air
conditioner on.
Nancy did a great job chasing us yesterday.
There was no easy way to follow us on the way to the Coleman
turnpoint. There was construction on some of the roads and she had
to take some detours, but she stayed up with us the entire way. If
we make it back to goal, driving can be a thankless job, but I feel
much more secure knowing that she is down there and can find us if
we run into some bad luck.
It really helps having Rich here.
He has been to so many of these comps that he is an endless source
of information. I hope I have not been slowing him down.
Tish has been sneaking around squirting people with a big
water gun. Several of the pilots snuck up behind her and threw her
in the pool. Then at the end of the pilots meeting they poured a
container of ice water over her. That should cool her off for a
while.
The primary tast is to Avon Airpark to the south. The
secondary task is also to the south, Chalet Suzanne and back to
Quest. They called the primary task to Avon Park Airport.
The
sprint to the tow line is gettig more interesting. Pilots are
getting real competitive. What Davis lacks in long-term speed, he
more than makes up for with his cunning moves, blocking and weaving
to keep me behind him. There were several ground collisions. Kari
snuck around us and aced us out of first place. I am lined up behind
Davis and Rich. The start times were moved up for today. Launch
opens at 12:00. At 11:55 there were very few CU’s visible. All times
were pushed back 15 minutes.
I towed early, only about 6
pilots ahead of me. CU’s started popping up at 12:30. I found the
gaggle of the big guns, and just before the 1:30 start I lost them.
I did hook up with a gaggle of flex wings and soon found several
rigid wings to fly with, Ron Gleason and Jim Yocom to name a couple.
We flew together for most of the task. They lost me at one point,
but as I was chasing them I found a thermal that was 1000+ fpm. I
took it to cloud base. This gave me the height to get above them for
most of the rest of the task. Everthing was as good as a pilot could
hope for, good climbs to cloud base. Very seldom did I get below
4,000’.
Then came the glide from hell. From 5,000’ 22 miles
out, I and about 20 other gliders went 10 miles without a single
thermal. I could see gliders landing behind me. At 1,200 feet
someone found lift. We circled in it at 100 fpm up for a long time.
I moved over about one half mile and found 400 fpm. Soon everyone
joined me. The lift got very weak at 3500’. Most everyone left,
including me, which was a mistake. We were 11 miles from goal. We
found out later that it had rained in that area 10 minutes before we
flew over.
I guess everyone figured we would hit something
before goal. We didn’t, I landed .9 miles short of goal. I saw 15 to
20 gliders land in a field 1.5 miles from goal. I was later told
that 9 of the top 10 flex wing pilots were in that field There was a
field ahead I was sure I could make. All I had to do was fly over
houses and trees and I would have it. I cleared the power lines by
30’ and made a quick left turn to land. There was no real landable
field for the last ¾ mile. A couple of minutes after I landed, Robin
Hamilton landed in the same field by slightly more margin.
I
caught and passed Rich in the last thermal, another mistake. He made
goal by 100’. He found a small thermal seven miles out that gave him
enough to make it. I had made two 360’s in the same thermal and only
gained 50’ and thought I could find something better.. He feels
really great right now. It looked like 10 rigids made goal. I was
probably the closest rigid to goal that did not make it.
At
the start, I found that I could not thermal as well as Christian or
Alex. Several times I was 200’ below them but could not catch up. I
tried to follow them at the start but lost them around the clouds. I
have one more chance to chase the lead gaggle.
Vince
PS Adrian was at Quest today so he was not able to
post the route.
(Davis Straub's OZ report of Friday's competition)
|
| Vince
|
Quest: day 7,
Yahoo!!!
I just read the list and need to clear up a few comments I made.
When Kari moved Rich’s glider, it was still in the bag. I don’t know
if this makes it any nicer. Kari has thick skin from years of
competition. My wife talked to her for a while and likes her. Most
of the competitors have been extremaly nice. Especially the top
european rigid wing pilots. Even though their english in not that
great, they will take the time to answer any of my questions. All of
the pilots are very busy. I don’t bother anyone if it looks like
they are busy. I have only seen a couple of assholes. When I am back
home I might tell a few more stories.
As for the comment
about slowing down in sink on the way to goal, I was flying over 60
mph, so I was at the far end of the polar. My total sink rate was
over 800 fpm (600 for the glider and 200 was the air). I was quickly
falling below my glide path to make goal. By slowing down to 45 or
50 (sink rate 500 fpm, glider 300, air 200), I was able to get back
above the glide slope. If this thinking is incorrect, please let me
know.
As Davis reported, there was a television crew out on
the flight line two days ago. They got footage of me landing and
came up to me while I was carrying my glider back and did a short
inverview. It went something like this: “Well, how does it feel?”, me
“How does what feel”, reporter “flying hang gliders”, me “it feels
great”, reporter “what’s it like to make goal?”, me “a hell of a lot
better than landing out” etc. Luckily I had my helmet on so no one
will recognize me.
The turbine tug has been flying every
evening. I did not realize it when I first looked it over, but it
has an in-flight adjustable prop, just like the big boys. It also has
beta range, meaning it can reverse pitch. What this really means is
it can back up while on the ground. Something to see: a tug backing
up.
You have to respect Davis and his OZ report. I have been
sending only text, he spends the time to add graphics and
formatting. It takes a lot of work to put it together every day. He
is also downloading the weather every morning. He is fun to tease
and I hope he takes it well. I started writing this so my friends
back home could get a taste of what it is like out here. My wife
suggested I post it to the groups list. I have no intention of
competing with the OZ report.
As for my slowing down in thermals, a
couple of people warned me of the dangers of a spin. I am fully
aware of them. I thought I reported that I would not fly like that
out west. Here in Florida, I have not experienced any rough air.
Maybe the lead gaggle smooths it out before I get there ;-). I did
have to slow down just before goal two days ago because of the
trashy air just before Quest, but flying that fast, it does not take
a lot to make it feel bumpy. I think back to my first flight at St.
John (CA). I was going up at 1400 fpm on one side of the thermal and
down at 1200 on the other. I got scared and left after only 3000’ of
this. I asked some of the other Sonoma Wings pilots about it after I
landed, and the common reply was, "You should have stayed, it
smoothed out after another 3,000’". Now it just seems like a good
day (true story, it was the St. John fly-in August of 1999, launch
is 6,000’).
I placed 9th for the day in yesterday’s task. I
passed most of the lead flex wing gaggle. Most of the pilots who
made goal were in the gaggle a mile behind the lead gaggle.
The pilot’s meeting was more laughs and prizes. Cristoff,
one of the Germans, flew the wrong task yesterday and had the best
flight of his life. The task for today was
Quest-Cheryl-Quest-474,33-Gator-Quest. The total distance was 70
miles. The committee wanted to keep the pilots close to Quest so we
could all get back in time to have the awards tonight.
By
12:00 CU’s were in the sky and the first competitor towed. I towed
at 12:15. I wanted to make sure I could get a good start. I found
the rigid wing gaggle and about 15 of us all took the 1:15 start
time. I was keeping up until the second thermal. It took me two
360’s to find the core, and by then all the top pilots were 1,000’
above me. I slowly fell behind.
I was flying alone again; I
swore I would not do that. At several miles from the first turn
point, I found a really good one that was 600 fpm+ all the way to
5,000’. I was able to glide all the way to the turn point and a few
miles back. I saw a glider turning ahead of me and came into his
thermal at about the same height. It was Davis. We worked two
thermals together. He went on a really long glide. I was slightly
behind and to his right.
Once again, I stumbled on another
600+ thermal. I was back above 4,800’. I lost sight of Davis. I
spotted some gliders turning two miles ahead. I headed straight to
them, but before I got there, they left; there was no lift there. I
spotted them again to my left. They were really low. I came in over
them at 1800’ agl. There were five rigids below me and one above. We
worked a lot of zero sink. After what seemed like twenty turns, I
and the rigid above me spotted a bird climbing out to our right. We
both headed over and found 400+.
We topped out above 4,000
feet and headed for Quest. The next thing I know I am in a thermal
with Davis again, along with Ron Gleason and although I did not know
it at the time, Mark P. (he was free flying the task). We worked
together (with me mostly pimping) to the 474-33 turn point and back
to Quest. I dropped behind again, but found a nice 600+ thermal all
to myself. This put me on top (except for Christian and Alex
who stayed 1,500’ above us all the way to goal).
I took the
lead to the Gator turn point and found a thermal. The four of us
worked together to about 4,300 then we went on glide. Just as we
were passing Gator on the way to goal, Heiner came in over us,
stinking high, got the turn point and took the lead. We were all
flying as fast as we could to get to goal. We had a 10 mph head wind,
but there was a lot of lift on the way back. My arms were aching
from stuffing the bar. About ½ mile from goal, I realized that I was going
to be under 100’ when I crossed. I had to slow down and fly with one
hand to unzip, because I did not think I would have enough time to
do it after I crossed goal.
Christian and Alex finished
several minutes ahead of our group. Heiner finished two or three
seconds before me and I was two or three in front of Ron. Davis was
a couple of seconds behind Ron, and Mark P. a couple more seconds
behind Davis. It was quite a finish. If no rigids took the last
start time and burned up the course, I placed 4th for the day -
Yahoo!!! I guess I can rub it in to Davis a little (today is the
last day of the meet) that he got beat by a rookie big-air pilot, on
a two year old Atos to boot. I was the sixth pilot to cross the
goal; the Swifts were one and two. The first flex wings came in ten
minutes behind us.
I owe much of my success the last couple
of days to Ron Gleason and Rich Sauer. Ron told me how to fly my
Atos in Florida (although he waited until I bombed and was not a
contender J, and Rich taught me how to find these Florida thermals.
Rich had another string of bad luck. He was low most of the
day, I mean really low, like 800’ low. He had many saves but finally
had to land on the way back from the Cheryl turn point. It’s hard
for me to be so happy and watch him land out.
I am posting
this now and am going to go enjoy the festivities. I will post about
the party tomorrow.
Vince
(Davis Straub's OZ report of Saturday's competition)
|
| Vince
|
Florida comps:
final thoughts
|
|
Vince, Best New Competitor
|
The awards presentation was great. Stand-up Dave (Glover) was “on”
last night. He told a story about his aero towing lesson with Bill
Moyes that had me crying, I was laughing so hard. I hope someone
recorded it on video. I was presented with the “Best new competitor”
award. I received $100 and a nice plaque (suitable for hanging as
Dave would say). I really appreciate the recognition. I was really
trying hard to figure out how to be competitive in these comps. Only
two pilots made goal on all seven days. It goes to show if you can
make goal every day, you can do well.
I found three things
that are required to win. They may seem obvious, but before I came
here I did not realize how much.
1>
You need a good start
2> You
have to be able to find the good thermals
3>
You have to be able to work the thermals to the
max.
If you have a bad start, it is almost impossible to catch
up. These pilots fly really fast and don’t waste much time.
You can try to pimp your way around the course, but at some
point you will come in low, the thermal will be gone, and you will
be on your own. It took my talking to a lot of pilots to figure out
where to find the thermals (I am still not very good at
this).
I thought I was pretty good at thermaling. Then on one
of the first tasks, I was in my thermal doing great (or so I
thought) when the lead flex wing gaggle joined me from below, and in
a few minutes climbed up through me and were gone, no hello, no
goodby, no kiss, just left me standing at the door. Boy was that a
wake up call. I finally learned how to thermal the last three days
of Quest. The only pilots I was unable to climb up to were Alex and
Christian. Too bad I don’t have the chance to study them more. I was
very frustrated at the end of the Wallaby. I was trying my hardest
and could not figure out what I was doing wrong. I was not having
much fun until things started to click. Now I’m sorry it’s over.
It is worth it, at least once, to enter one of these comps,
just to see how you stack up and where your weaknesses lie. Flying
against the best in the world is a very good lesson.
I
finally made the OZ report after two weeks here:
“Twenty minutes
after coming in low, I’m up to 4,000’ and on my way to Quest with
Curt, Paris, Ron Gleason, and some other ATOSes.”
I was one of
those ATOSes. I guess he could not see me the last 30 miles in the
same thermal 30’ away. And for the last 14 miles (from Quest to
Gator and back) he could not see my number from behind. Looking at
my down-loaded barogragh, I was never below 1,900’ for the task.
Three flex wing pilots had faster times than me; they took the
last start time.
Some stats for the two weeks I was here: My
GPS trip log says I flew 1,596 miles (this includes circling in
thermals); My vario totaled 39 hours and 6 minutes of air time; I
climbed 322,281 feet; I made goal 5 times; My highest ground speed was 85
mph.; my best climb (5 second average) was 800 fpm.
Total tows: 11, lifetime 18. Weak link breaks: 0. Re-tows: 0. Times
caught my privates in my zipper: 0. Beat Davis: twice. Motrin
consumed: 24. Downtubes broken: 0. Injuries: 0.
We made the trek over
to Wallaby today to repair my crate and get the glider ready for
shipment. Rich had to crate 3 gliders for Rich Burton. I figured that
since I was not going to be in the sun very much today, I would
forgo the sun screen. Oops! Fixing the crate took longer than I
thought and I got my first Florida sunburn.
Malcom has been extremly
helpful in receiving and shipping my glider. He goes out of his way
to help us pilots. I don’t know how he does it, but he seems to know
overyone's name, and there were almost 100 pilots here for his comp.
I can’t thank him enough.
Both Wallaby and Quest have been
great places to fly. They seem different in personality, but I can’t
say which is better. I think each pilot will have to make a choice
(or not) as to which place better suits them. If you are planning a
trip to Florida to fly, I would suggest flying at both parks.
Death gaggles: they were not as bad as I was told they could
be. Flying in them was a Zen-like experience. As I was going around I would be
aware of the pilots around me, but at the same time I'd be feeling the air
and trying to adjust my position without cutting off other pilots. I
don’t know if I ever cut anyone off, no one ever said anything to
me. Tish did give me the finger once on glide. I wanted to go to my
left (where she was) and she wanted to go to her right (where I
was). Of course she did not want to change her glide. I figured in a
minute she would be below me and I would cross over her. I was
willing to wait. She did not want to wait that long.
The
Exxtacy sucks as a comp. glider. It climbs well, but drops like a
stone on glide. Same can be said for the La Mouette Top Secret. If
not for Andy’s exceptional ability, that glider would be at the back
of the pack. The Atos-C is not the next generation glider after the
Atos; it is just a very small step. What the German pilots liked
most about it was not the performance, but the lack of slop in the
control frame, which gave them better handling on
landing.
The cost: Kevin is correct when he talks about the
high cost to come to these meets, especially if one has to travel a
long distance. I do not get vacation time and neither does my wife.
If I factor in lost wages (the bills don’t stop just because I’m not
there), the total cost is above $7,000. This does not include the
cost of the equipment necessary to be competitive. If I lived close
enough to drive, camped out, didn't need a rental car etc, and got
vacation pay, my cost would have been closer to $1,200. I worked 250
hours of overtime last year to save up the money and come here and
compete. In comparison, for me to go to King for a week probably cost
$3,500.
One of the pilots mentioned to me the cost of the
gliders and tugs over Quest just after they had all towed up. It worked out
to $1,825,000 for 85 flex wings, 25 rigids, 21 tugs/trikes and all
their equipment, harnesses, etc.
Most of the pilots/gliders I
saw were trying to be competitive with very few round base tubes, draggy
harnesses, etc. All the effort to clean up the drag would not make
much difference on a normal XC flight, but at the speeds you need to
fly to keep up (I typically flew 38 to 40 mph between thermals), drag
becomes very important.
I felt very uncomfortable for the
first week flying in Florida. There were no mountains to help me determine the
direction I was flying. I soon learned the major roads around here
and used my GPS more to determine direction. Driving around, it
looked like there were very few landable LZ’s. After that first
week, I never worried about LZ’s; they always seemed to be around
when I needed one, though I was very careful about swamps, forests,
locked gates etc. My glider seems to float more in this thick air
than what I am used to, therefore I have been using up more ground
on landing than I like. I still had to bundle up to fly. I wore a
T-shirt, heavy alpaca sweater, XC skiing jacket, balaclava, and
insulated gloves. The heat was comfortable, and the humidity
bearable. It never got hot enough to wear shorts.
It was nice
to meet so many pilots that I know only from the list. One of the
best pilots I know of is Mark Poustinchian; he is also one of the
nicest people I have ever met. I want to thank him and Samantha for
letting me use their phone line all last week, and letting my wife
entertain Oscar, the parrot. I hope to see many of you out west
this summer. See you at launch and in the air.
Vince
(Quest Class 1 results (Flex wing)
(Quest Class 2 results (Swift rigid wing)
(Quest Class 5 results (Rigid wing))
(Comment from Mark Poustinchian)
(Comment from Davis Straub)
|
| postscript
|
Flori | |
