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Vince Endter in Florida - 2003

Author Comment
preface Vince goes to Florida...
 
Vince Endter has been flying hang gliders for about 4 years. He has progressed rapidly through the skill levels and has been flying a rigid wing Atos for two years now. He is currently flying an ATOS-C. This is the second year that Vince is taking part in two of the biggest hang gliding competitions in the US: the Quest and Wallaby competitions in Florida, one right after the other (Apr. 12-26 2003).

Another Sonoma Wings member, nationally-ranked competition pilot Rich Sauer, will also be in the competitons, flying a Laminar flexwing hang glider.




To help you follow along as Vince details his adventure, here are some maps:
Map showing both Quest & Wallaby
Quest Air map
Quest Air satellite photo
Quest Air EarthViewer photo   (and a bigger version)
Wallaby Ranch map
Wallaby Ranch 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
A race generally goes from noon to 4PM, Florida time - 9AM to 1PM West Coast time.

And here's a link to: Vince's 2002 Florida Adventure

Vince Florida Comps
Rich Sauer, working on the rack
Here we are once again in Florida for the Quest and Wallaby comps. My wife/driver Nancy and I were at the San Jose airport at 4:30 AM to catch a 6:15 flight. There was no line so security went fast. I was concerned with the number of batteries, cables, radios, etc. in my luggage. I was sure they would want to search my bags. I had used tie-wraps to hold the zippers closed and when we arrived in Florida the tie-wraps were still there. They had not opened my bags.

The flight wasn't too bad, only one crying baby and one small child kicking the back of my seat. This was much better than I usually find on commercial flights. We hit some great turbulence over the Gulf of Mexico, but the pilot descended to a lower altitude and smoother air. On our approach to Orlando, we flew about 10 miles south of Wallaby. I was able to see Wallaby but I did not see any hang gliders in the air. I did see some on the ground though.

We picked up our rental mini-van and found that the rental company had removed all the roof racks from all their vehicles. They said that people were putting too much weight on the top of their cars. Imagine that! I started to worry about how we were going to get a rack on the top of the car. As we left the airport at 5:00 PM, it started to rain. It continued to rain for the next 3 hours. We drove to the house that I'd rented. This year I swore I would not stay in some flea-bitten motel.

The house turned out to be better than I'd imagined. It has 4 bedrooms. Rich Sauer has one, Jim Yocum has one, my wife and I share one, and Johnny Carr and Ron Richardson (from the UK) are sharing the last one. After unloading our luggage, we headed out for a bite to eat and to look for some way to attach a rack to the car. We struck out on both the rack and the food so we headed back to the airport to pick up Rich. On the way back to the house we stopped for food and groceries.

This morning, Rich had an epiphany about the rack. We drove over to Wallaby to look at our crate with the gliders, say Hi to the ranch staff, and also to look for the rack we left there last year. We found all three. After breakfast at the Ranch, off to the hardware store for some nuts and bolts we went. (Don't tell Lori or Tiki where you read this, but you can bribe them with Red Vine licorice). The only place local to find it was at the hardware store, Tractor City. Once back at Wallaby we were able to install the rack, load the gliders and head to Quest.

I am sitting in the clubhouse writing this now. My PCMCIA card for the wireless network is not able to pick up the signal outside. We have met a lot of familiar faces here. The wind is strong out of the west and no one is flying. Rich is going to put some new mylar in his glider and we have a couple more screws to install to put the finishing touches on the rack.

On the way to Wallaby, Rich spotted a buzzard, which he took as a good omen (Rich's handle is "Buzzard").

Vince
A good omen


Vince Quest Day 2 - Friday 4/11
TRAGEDY

Unfortunately, we had a fatal ultralight accident here at Quest today. The mood changed from fun and excitement to very somber. Nancy, (my wife) saw the entire incident from takeoff to impact. She is very upset. The pilot took off in 15 mph wind and climbed very steeply with very little forward progress. After about 2 minutes of climb, he entered what looked like an intentional spin. After two revolutions, one of his wings snapped. This is when I looked up. I heard his rocket chute deploy at about the same time that his other wing folded. The chute never inflated. One wing separated. He came almost straight down from 500' at a very high rate of speed. He was killed on impact. This is one of the few times in my life that I have felt like crying. Tears come to my eyes just writing this.

We set up our gliders and checked them over. Rich added a decal of a buzzard to his glider. I feel like I am in a daze. I can't get the images out of my mind. It is going to be difficult to get my mind back on the comp and flying.

I was told by several sources that the cause of the accident was that the tug was put together incorrectly. The bolt that holds the strut did not engage the hole in the strut block and the strut was held in place by the squeezing of the bolt. It was enough to let the pilot get airborne, but it failed when he did the spin. I have heard several conflicting stories of why the chute failed. I will not speculate. I did not take any pictures of the wreckage, but I did get some of people's reactions later. They are too sad for me to post at this time.

On a more positive note, Nancy found an alligator in the pond across the street from our rental house. She spent several hours yesterday trying to get it to come closer, but it was too smart for that. She has also found many dog friends here at Quest. It helps that she carries dog treats in her pocket. Sometimes she will have 3 or 4 dogs following her around. She has also been trying to teach Mark P's parrot, Oscar, to step up on her hand. He can be quite an interesting bird. He has taken to Nancy very quickly.

No one flew today. It is still very windy. I was hoping to get a chance to try out my new Flytec Race. I have not flown with it yet. The weather is predicted to be much better tomorrow with winds of 5 to 10 mph. I should get several good days of flying.

The pilots meeting just finished. The death of the pilot, Chad Elchin, was handled as well as anyone could hope. Some good words were spoken and there were very few dry eyes in the crowd. The pilots passed the hat for Chad. It looked like the pilots were very generous.

David Glover had the difficult task of changing the mood of the meeting from a wake to a comp meeting. He pulled it off. I don't think anyone else could have done so well. By the end of the meeting we were feeling much better about the days to come. I always look forward to his talks. He can really keep your attention because you don't want to miss the next joke or pun. They are using the same rules they used in Australia. We will have virtual goals. None of the pilots will need numbers on their wings. Pilots will have a number in their GPS waypoint list. The start times will be every 15 minutes for as long as anyone wants to start. There are 120 pilots in the meet with about 30 rigids, 85 flex wings and 5 swifts.

By the way, sitting in the pilots meeting, I was extremely cold. It must be in the 50's here today.

Vince

(Davis Straub's OZ report for Friday 4/11)
Rich's buzzard decal


Vince Quest Competition Day 1 - Saturday 4/12
David Glover, camel jockey
The day started out looking good. The winds had died down and the sky was clear. The weather channel reported the winds should be 5 to 10 out of the west. David Glover continues to surprise us. The sound system started to play "put your camel to bed" when off in the distance we see someone in a burka riding a camel coming our way. Sure enough off jumps David. The meeting went smoothly but David had a hard time topping his camel entrance.

Davis gave us a weather briefing which sounded a lot like the weather channel. The lift was supposed to be 500 fpm which means we should see climbs around 300 fpm. The winds were the same. There was a single task, with the rigids and flexies starting about 5 miles apart. From Quest it went south down 33 to Dean Still road, then east to the 27-547 intersection and then back to Quest, almost straight over Wallaby, for a distance of about 60 miles. The last leg would be into the wind.

I am writing this paragraph while in the car. I had a really bad day. I took 4 tows; two of them were the worst ever. I sank out on the second one and was towed so far down wind on the fourth that I was not able to get back on course.

The first tow was behind an ultralight (not a dragonfly or a trike). I knew something was wrong when they were still not off the ground after a couple hundred yards. I passed within 30' of the wind sock, lower than the top of the pole, and they still were not climbing. I had the bar to my waist and I was still climbing above them. I tried a couple of different flap settings but I just could not get down to it. It was like the pilot was just flying level and would not climb at all. At one point they climbed up enough to get level with me, then they hit sink or dived down so low they gave me the rope or it broke the weak link at their end. I was about 700 agl. I came back and towed again. This one I released at 1600 because I was in a good thermal. I worked it for 5 minutes and slowly sank out.

There were pilots constantly sinking out and landing back at Quest. I landed and got in line again. The third time I was behind a trike that seemed very under-powered or we were in constant sink. They took me over to the west above a swamp, lake and trees. There was nowhere to land if the weak link broke. I looked at my altimeter and I was at 230'. I had set it for 130 before takeoff. You do the math. We continued to fly over unlandable terrain for a couple of minutes before we started any type of climb. The pilot kept looking down at their left wheel. Every time they did they would pull in a dive. They did this about 10 times. It was hell trying to stay at the proper position. Finally they did it one more time and then hit big lift. They went from being way below me to being well above. The line went very slack. When it tightened it jerked so hard it broke both of my weak links and my bridle disappeared. This was the first time I have ever broken a weak link.

My fourth tow went well except for one thing. The pilot towed me so far down wind (the exact opposite direction of the rigid start point), that I was not able to get back. I could only stay in zero sink and was continuing to drift east further and further away from both Quest and the rigids' start point. As I tried to glide back into the wind, I hit 900 fpm down all the way to 200 agl. I landed next to highway 33. I was too tired to break down and drive back to Quest for another try. I loaded up and we are now heading out to pick up Rich Sauer. We have not heard from him since he launched but Rich Burton relayed that he was on the ground between the first turn point and Wallaby.

On the way to pick up Rich, Nancy slammed on the brakes and started saying "Oh God!" I thought she saw someone crash. She whipped a U-turn and I could not understand what she was saying. Finally she gets out that there is a little turtle on the road and it will get run over if she does not save it. She leaped out of the car, picked up the little fellow and sent it on it's way in a much safer spot. I hope that PETA hears about this and gives her an award.

We picked up Rich. He landed on Old Grade Road, which is half way between the first turnpoint and Wallaby. He said he had climbs to 5000'. I never got above 2200'. He also said the climbs were much better above 3000'. He had an interesting approach to landing. He thinks his carbon leading edge inserts may be making his glider too stiff. He will give it one more day and if it still feels too stiff he will take them out. His radio was not working in flight. He could hear us, and we could get his carrier, but no voice. He will have to work on it tonight. We are now on the move again heading back to Quest.

The first rigid wing glider had already completed the task when we pulled into Quest. David from France was the first glider in. I also saw the following rigid wing pilots land: Christian, Bruce B., Jim Yocum, Rich Burton, Davis. Manfred was the first flex wing in, but more than 1/2 hour after David. I don't know when anyone started.

Vince

Track log for Vince
Track log for Rich
Track logs for Rich Burton (blue), Jim Yocum (black), Bruce Barmakian (red)

(Davis Straub's OZ report for Saturday 4/12)

Vince Quest Competition Day 2 - Sunday 4/13
First, some more about yesterday. I don't think many people knew this, but Mark Mullholland had his first flight in a Swift Light yesterday. It was also his first XC since he crashed in Spain two years ago. And, to top it off, he finished first in the "Swift" class, beating Brian Porter. He is still not fully recovered from his accident. I hope when Dave Glover reads this he will give him some special recognition.

I received an award today for having the most tows yesterday (4). I hope I don't win that again. I've had about 20 pilots come up to me and say "so you're the one who took the 4 tows". I would much rather be known for winning the day.

I have been flying with my APRS the last two days and will continue to do so through both meets. I will ask Ernie to post the link to the site that will show my track in real time. It will be at www.sonomawings.com.

It was much warmer today. I was thinking that the lift would have to be better. There was also less wind. That should help keep the thermals together. Davis' weather prediction was for weak lift (300 fpm). He said Gary Osoba said we should have something closer to 900 fpm. I was hoping Gary was right. A short 40 mile task was called. It was kind of diamond shaped. We would have a headwind on the first and last leg.

One of the tugs that gave me a bad tow yesterday was parked ominously close to my glider today while I was in the staging line. It was as if it was taunting me. I tried to put it out of my mind. The launch window opened at noon. One pilot towed up at 12:06 and then landed. Very few pilots towed early. I figured I might as well get it over with and I got in line. It was around 1:00. I was greatly pleased to see myself hooked up to Rett "the mountain". He gave me a beautiful tow up-wind and dropped me off in 500' up. The climb quickly turned into 900+ fpm. I was pleased that Gary was correct, and that I'd had a great tow.

I had my Atos V-tail on my glider yesterday. I felt that it took a lot of the feel out of the control bar. It definitely dampens it. I switched back to my T-tail today. It has a floating tail plane that does not dampen the control bar. I think I will prefer the V-tail in places like the Owens, but in the light Florida air, the T-tail gives me a better feel of the air. It must be working because I was climbing very well. Most of the time I could stay close to the top of the stack. I never had a flex wing out-climb me today.

Most of the rigids were boating around their start cylinder at 4000 to 4500 feet. I thought I saw several leave before the first start time (it is allowed). I hung back until the 2:00 start. I must have been the only one who took the 2:00 start because I was all by myself all the way to the second turn point. I left the start at 4500' and was able to glide the 7 miles or so to the Gator turn point without turning. I hit a very good lift line and lost less than a 1000'. On the way back I figured I would take the same line. Oops, wrong move. I was quickly down to 1000'. I spent a lot of time getting back up to 2800'.

Rich Sauer took the 2:00 start as well. He was about 5 miles away at the flex wing start circle. He made the Gator turn point and was already back over Quest when I was low. He managed to find a sink hole that sucked him to the ground at Quest. He has been having glider problems. He removed his carbon leading-edge inserts and installed a new VG line. When we pulled out the old one we found it was twisted several times in the down tube. In flight today he found that his cleat would not hold the new VG line so he is working on that now.

I could see the flex wings taking a line much more to the east. A few miles before the second turn point, I was down to 600'. I managed to get up to 1200' after about 10 minutes. I lost my thermal and was back down to 700' when I found some lift. At this point, about 30 flex wings came in over me. My little lift turned on to about 800 fpm and I climbed back up to 4500'. From there on, I stayed above 3000'.

I was 2 miles short of the last turn point when I climbed in good lift to 5000'. I was able to glide to the turn point and then back up wind all the way to Quest without another thermal.

I was finally able to use my new Flytec 4030 race for final glide. It started out saying I would make goal by 1300'. I hit some lift and it went up to 1500'. For the next 3 miles I was in sink and I read as low as 300'. I told myself I would turn in the next lift. I hit some nice lift and I was waiting for it to die a little so I would know when to turn. It never stopped. The final 3 miles to Quest I continued to climb. I crossed goal at 1600'. I sure felt better than yesterday.

It looked like most of the pilots made it back today. I was way back in the pack of rigids, due to my 3 low saves. I heard several of the top pilots complaining about the task being under called. I thought it was a wonderful task. Many pilots, who normally do not make goal, got a chance to cross that yellow line today. If the 300 fpm lift prediction had been correct, very few would have made goal. I am in a much better mood today although my wife is not in such a good mood. Her dog (which is being looked after back in San Jose) will have to be put down tonight. It was getting worse and worse right up to the time we left for Florida. She was hoping her dog could make it until we got back.

Vince

The day's task was:
Rigid: start-S4, TP1-Gators, TP2-BayLake, TP3-T4743, TP4-Liveoak, Goal-Quest.
 Flex: start-S1, TP1-Gators, TP2-BayLake, TP3-T4743, TP4-Liveoak, Goal-Quest.

Track logs for Vince(red), Rich Sauer(blue), Rich Burton(black), Jim Yocum(green)

A bigger version of the same combined track logs (2mb)

A closeup of Vince's start-circle meanderings (1.4mb)

(Davis Straub's OZ report for Sunday 4/13)

Vince Quest Competition Day 3 - Monday 4/14
Vince writing, Nancy hooking a rug
Yesterday's results showed that I lost about a half an hour on my low saves. I am going to try to fly with the lead gaggle today instead of leading myself. Yesterday most of the pilots took the 2:30 start times (I took the 2:00). The fastest rigid wing pilots beat the fastest Swifts by 20 minutes. They burned up the course in 1:15, while I did only 2:01.

Mark P. had an interesting tow if you could call it that. He'd just come off the cart when the trike lost power. They did not release the rope and he was towed for a couple hundred yards at 1' off the ground. He belly-landed and everything came out OK.

The caliber of rigid wing pilot is noticeably higher this year compared to last year. All but one of the rigids made it back to goal yesterday; even Jamie made it. Davis is getting beat both in the air and on the table tennis table. Samantha beat him the other day. She also beat Manfred, one of the few times he ever loses.

Today's task was called to Dallas (a sailplane port to the north) then back to Center (about 12 miles north east of Quest) with Quest as goal. Total distance is about 67 miles for rigids and 69 for flexies. The rigids and flex wings have different start circles about 5 miles apart. The weather called for even better conditions than the two previous days. Lift was predicted at 600fpm with the top of lift at 7,500'.

After the pilots meeting, we walked out to our (Rich and me) gliders and found that someone had taken the carts we had previously tied to our gliders so we could get them over to the staging area. We had the typical Okalahoma land rush start for the staging area. We were staging in a different area today because the wind had shifted to out of the east.

Very few pilots towed up before 1:00 and most of them came back and landed. The day did not look that great, but we could see clouds in the distance all around Quest. At 1:15 most of the pilots suddenly all got in line at the same time. I was about 7th to tow. I had a great tow behind a trike. He let me off upwind in 300 up which soon turned into 500+. I climbed to about 4,500' and then headed over to the rigid start circle. I came into ever better lift that took me to 6,500' Rich S. said that he also had a good tow behind a trike. Clouds had formed over the area. I had to make big circles to stay out of the lift and keep clear of the clouds.

A short note: GW is making a video for the event. Today he was filming next to the trike that I towed behind. I came off the cart and stayed low. I passed my wing over his head by about 18". He didn't even duck.

At 2:00 there were a lot of clouds out on course, with some blue holes. About 20 of us were boating around at 6,500'. No one took the 2:00 start. Just before the 2:15 start I signaled to Jim Yocum that we should take the 2:15 since we were so high. It turned out to be a bad decision and I'm sorry I lured Jim into starting then. 1/2 hour later the clouds filled in most of the blue holes and the later starters caught up with us.

We took off and were able to stay above 5'000 for the first two thermals. Then I lost Jim. In fact I lost everyone. It turned out that Jim was following me most of the way from above and I did not see him. I thought I was off on my own again. I guess that is the story of my life. I just can't seem to stay with the gaggle.

Near the first turn point things got really slow. There was broken lift followed by big sink. I had to stop every couple of miles to stay up. At the turn point I saw a group of rigids, the first since just after the start. I was going up at 500 and they were about 1 mile further away. I should have gone over and joined them because they topped out 1,000' higher than me, glided over my head, and I never saw them again until goal. Rich Sauer was catching up to me as he also took the 2:15 start.

There was some really big blue holes. I got one great thermal in the middle of one over the prisons on the way to the second turn point at Center. I went on glide from 5,600' all the way to 1,500' just after the turn point. I thought it was over. I was circling in 20 fpm from 1,500 to 1,700 then 50 fpm. I was drifting away from goal, but the lift was getting better. Two rigids and one flexie came in under me really low. I marked their thermal. Then what looked like a golden eagle joined the three guys below me. It even circled in the same direction. A couple of times it showed its talons to the flex wind pilot. I guess it did not like the guy's thermaling etiquette. This eagle stayed with them at least until 4,000'. Rich came into the gaggle followed by about 30 other flex wings. Rich said the eagle moved over to their part of the thermal and continued to climb with them.

I went on a 12-mile glide to goal from 6,100'. My vario said I had it by 700'. The lift was a little more than sink and I crossed goal at 1,200'. I hurried to land because there were about 35 gliders right behind me. As I came in, I looked for the spot for that part of the contest. They are supposed to give some prize to the pilot who lands closest to the spot, and no one has tried for it yet. The location of the spot required a 90 crosswind landing because it was next to a row of trees. I bonked the landing, but I missed the spot by only 12'. My wing was directly over the spot.

When I crossed goal, Rich was only 2 minutes behind me. The spot was far away from the tie down area. As I was walking my glider back it started raining gliders. I heard that Mark P. had one of his glider ribs come loose, which caused him to have a turn. Jim Yocum landed right after me. There were only about 10 gliders on the ground when I landed, but most of the group that was landing started 30 minutes after us and caught us. I heard that Davis landed by the first turn point. Rich Burton landed by the second turnpoint.

Rich Sauer is felling much better now that he has made goal. His glider was flying much better today after all the changes he had made over the last couple of days.

After landing, Rich told me that his carbon base tube had cracked in flight. He did not want to radio this because Nancy had enough on her mind. It cracked at a previous repair. Looking at the repair we saw it was not done properly. We turned in our GPS's and headed straight for the house to start the repair. I brought my carbon repair kit with me to Florida. We finished the repair in a little over an hour. Rich is cooking it over the burner on the stove. A good setting for the burner is 2 with the base tube about 12" above.

There was a lot going on just before launch and I forgot to turn on my APRS. I must apologize to anyone who tried to check on me. Since we had to run off and fix the base tube, I don't have all the rest of the scoop of today's events.

Vince

The day's task was:
Rigid: Start-S4, TP1-Dallas, TP2-Center, Goal-Quest.
 Flex: Start-S1, TP1-Dallas, TP2-Center, Goal-Quest.

Track logs for Vince(red), Rich Sauer(blue)

a bigger version of the same combined track logs (2mb)

(Davis Straub's OZ report for Monday 4/14)

Vince Quest Competition Day 4 - Tuesday 4/15
The Staging area
I did much better than I thought yesterday. I took 4th for the day. The early departure points helped a lot. I guess a blind squirrel gets lucky every now and then. Rich's base tube repair came out looking good. We will find out how well it works today.

Junko Nakamura, the Japanese pilot flying a Swift, had a structural failure of her glider in flight. She was on a fast glide when she hit turbulence and some of the welds in her cage broke. This caused a loss of pitch control. She still had roll control. Brian Porter and Mark Mullholland were on the radio with her. Brian told her how she could control pitch by weight shift. She managed a safe landing. Her glider is being repaired today and it should be ready to fly tomorrow. She borrowed a Swift for today.

I am writing this out at the staging area. Today looks like it will be a lot harder than yesterday. There is a high overcast and the winds are a lot stronger. The forecast is for lighter lift. Davis said the task today is shorter because of the weaker lift. It is actually about the same as yesterday for the rigids. The flexies start at S1 (Quest) and the rigids start at T2750 (over the city of Clermont). Both classes will make a run down hwy 27; Flexies to T27547, rigids to T27544. That makes the task 58 miles for flexwings and 66 for rigids.

I am back on the ground now. I think I am being cursed by tows at this meet. I had three again. On my first the weak link broke at 70'. Not enough to make a 360 and just enough to make the trees look frighteningly close. I had to make a couple of shallow turns. I saw that without my flaps I would probably have hit the trees. I was able to get the flaps on all the way and land just before the trees. When the weak link broke I was very smooth on the tow, no reason why it should have broken. Nancy dragged a cart all the way across Quest so I could get my glider back.

The second tow was behind the ultralight on which I'd had my worst tow ever the other day. I decided to give it another chance. I should not have. Either the tug is vastly underpowered or the pilot is the worst I have seen. Once again every time the pilot hit a little sink the tug would drop like a stone and I could hear the engine struggling to climb back up. I was pulling in as much as I could to try to get down to the tug. It was all over the sky, much more than any trike or tug I have been behind. The tug's oscillations were getting worse with each bump. Finally the weak link gave out at 900'. I know the name of the pilot. I am going to ask around and find out if my experiences are unique.

I worked between 900 and 1200' for 15 minutes before I decided this was stupid and I should just land and re-tow. The third tow was behind Bobby Bailey. It was like the tug was on rails. It was the same turbulent conditions, but he was flying rock solid. He let me off in 500 fpm, upwind of Quest. I was able to take this up to 4,500'. At that level the climb was weaker than the drift. My vario was showing that I was getting further from the start circle and not high enough to get there. I had drifted almost 3 miles by then. I went on glide to the start circle and after 2000' was now 5 miles away. I caught another thermal and drifted 2 miles, went on glide, and only gained another mile. There were no rigids in sight. I had heard on the radio that most of them took the 2:00 start. I was all alone again

I repeated this climb, drift, and glide until I finally got to the start circle at 2:30 and 2,500'. I was seeing an east wind at 15 to 20 mph. There is a big lake in the start circle so I crabbed south to look for a thermal. I only found weak lift at 1200', which I managed to work to 1900', but I had drifted 5 miles west, all the way to hwy 33. I tried once again to crab south and find something; to no avail. I landed next to 33 and probably only gained a total of 1 mile south of the start circle.

Rich Sauer was not having much luck ether. He was stuck low over Quest for a long while. With all the wind he managed only 10 miles from Quest, landing next to Green Swamp road. He said it took him 50 thermals to get the 10 miles, though he might be exaggerating. His base tube held up fine. Not a creak out of it. It was rough at times today so he got a good test run on it. He had it over the stove burner all night to make sure it was cured today.

We took the Green Swamp road back to Quest. Nancy was having a field day. The first time she slammed on the brakes it was for an armadillo. She jumped out of the car with the camera. It may have made it into the bushes before she got a picture. The next stop was when we passed a large herd of longhorn cattle. Out she jumped again. Cows don't seem to come when called by a wild looking lady in a sundress with a camera.

We just got back to Quest. I talked to Ron Gleason and he said most of the rigids started after 2:00. There were two rigids at goal when we got here, Alex Ploner and Christian. Mike Tryon just landed as I sit here typing. David, flying the Mauette, finished after Mike. Mike has only had one test flight on a rigid before he came here. After today he should move way up in the standings. I saw Davis drive up as well as Heiner, Rich Burton and many other rigids. Jamie beat me today.

Bo took a start time before 2:00. This is allowed under the rules. He must have flown the entire course by himself. He was the first flex wing to cross goal. I have watched several gliders land just before the tree line. About 6 flex wings have crossed goal.

Vince

Nancy's alligator










The day's task was:
Rigid: Start-T2750, TP1-T27547, Goal-Quest.
 Flex: Start-S1, TP1-T27544, Goal-Quest.

Track logs for Vince(red), Rich Sauer(blue), Rich Burton(black), Mike Tryon(green)

a bigger version of the same combined track logs (2mb)

an exploded view of the area around Quest (count Rich's thermals)(2mb)

(Davis Straub's OZ report for Tuesday 4/15)

Vince Quest Competition Day 5 - Wednesday 4/16
Another saved soul
There was a memorial for Chad, the tug pilot, today. Four tugs flew the missing man formation. It was very emotional.

Watch your toes. Apparently I have stepped on some toes with my reporting of my towing experience. Someone came up to me while I was on the launch cart and started yelling at me. After I launched, my wife chased him down to see what the problem was. Some words were exchanged and he got in her face, they actually touched face to face. My wife (who was on the Olympic team for Tae Kwon Do fighting) managed to restrain herself and tried to talk rationally to him. He would not identify himself to her, so she took his picture. When I have a good tow, I say so, and if I know who the pilot is, I say so. When I have a bad tow I don't mention the pilot's name but I will not hold back the truth. You have to take the bad with the good.

Speaking of toes, I am going to step on some more right now. Every day several of us pilots round up launch carts from the cart parking area and bring them back to our gliders so we can use them to roll our gliders to the staging area. For the past several days someone has untied my glider and taken the cart. Today, Nancy staked out the carts. She videotaped two French pilots untying a Moyes glider and taking the cart. They did not re-tie the glider to the tie down cable. Maybe GW will want the tape for the video he is making.

The day dawned clear, with some tule fog hugging the ground. By 10:00 there were low clouds forming. The weather channel reported winds a little lighter than yesterday, which is good news for me. At the pilots meeting, Mike Tryon was recognized for the good job he is doing on his new Stratos. He only had two flights on a rigid before coming here. He was in 7th place as of this morning.

Nancy saved another one of Florida's finest again today. This time it was a turtle that was about as big as a dinner plate. Apparently PETA has not come down here and put turtle crossing signs on the roads for the little buggers. The task for today was called to the south west to Rok98 then up to the northwest to goal at Sunset. Sunset is a glider port and the task committee was not able to get in contact with anyone at the airport and ask them if it was ok if a bunch of hang gliders flew in. Out on the flight line they changed the task by adding a waypoint after Rok98 called Clnton and changing the goal to Chyrl, which is a small grass airstrip near the town of Bushnell. The winds were predicted to be 5 to 10 out of the east. Climbs to 5,000' were predicted.

I had a great tow, pinning off in 300 up and climbing all the way to cloud base, which was at 4,300'. I had no problem staying up or staying in the start circle. The winds seemed lighter up high. For a long time there were a lot of flex wings in the rigids' start circle, which made for a busy gaggle. Finally all but one of them disappeared. At 1:45 I saw JZ leave on course. At 2:00 I did not see anyone leave and Rich Burton, Mike Tryon, and I started talking about going. Finally, after 2 minutes, Rich Burton said he saw a bunch leave so we went on course.

While we were in the start circle, Nancy radioed that a hang glider pilot had a landing accident and they had to call a helicopter. Once again she saw an accident as it occurred. I don't know how much longer she will drive for me if things like that keep happening in front of her.

We were doing well to the first turnpoint. I was high and in a good position. At 2 miles before the turn point, Rich Burton asked what the next waypoint was. My brain shut down for a moment as I called up the next waypoint and headed that direction. I looked over and saw that everyone was still heading straight. I called Rich and he said we had not gotten the waypoint yet. That's when I realized I'd screwed up. Now I was following from a little behind and below.

I had moved my hang point forward to give me a little more speed on glide, but I think it was hurting my climb. Jim Yocum, Rich Burton, I, and several other rigid pilots were working well together. I had one bad climb and I was left behind. I ended up flying with a lot of flex wing pilots and a couple of rigids. Today was a very scary day for gaggles. Several times there were gliders circling in opposite directions at the same time. Several times I had gliders miss me by less than 30'.

The lift was good all day, with climbs usually above 400 fpm. After getting up at the start circle, the lowest I got all day was 2,900'. Several times I climbed above 5,000' and I could see some pilots close to 6,000'. 12 miles from goal, Mike Tryon was able to climb high enough to go on glide. My vario was indicating I was still 700' too low to go. At 9 miles out, I climbed 1,000 more feet and left on glide. When Mike was 1 mile from goal he said his GPS quit. I looked down at mine and it was also without signal. He crossed goal without his GPS. He then said it came back on and I looked down and a few seconds later mine came on as well. Signal lapses like this make virtual goals a potential problem.

As I crossed goal, I could see 10 rigids already on the ground. There were also about as many flex wings. Two or three rigids landed just short of goal. Rich Sauer was always about a half a gaggle behind me, and low. He had several low saves and made it to 4.5 miles short of goal. There was no lift for the last 5 miles on the way to goal, but there was some lift just to the west of goal over town.

I had my APRS on the entire flight. I hope that someone was watching. I also had my video camera attached to my keel. Unfortunately, Nancy was confused about how to turn it on so I did not get any footage. It would have been interesting to see all the gaggle action. I will try to video again tomorrow.

I am a little late with the report tonight. Nancy was very hungry and we had to stop for dinner before we could get back to Quest to finish it. We went to a Thai restaurant. It was empty and the manager asked if we had reservations. We said no and he said he would have to check to see if he could fit us in. Only one other table was seated the entire time we were there.

Vince

The day's task was:
Rigid: Start-S1, TP1-Rok98, TP2-Clnton, Goal-Chyrl.
 Flex: Start-S4, TP1-Rok98, TP2-Clnton, Goal-Chyrl.

Track logs for Vince(red), Rich Sauer(blue)

a bigger version of the same combined track logs (2mb)

(Davis Straub's OZ report for Wednesday 4/16)

Vince Quest Competition Day 6 - Thursday 4/17
Rich Sauer getting into the tow line
First I will take care of some items that I've learned over the past several days.

A tug pilot told my wife that when you are in the outdoor showers here, you can see the reflection of the person in the stall next to you on the wet floor.

I was telling someone about my close call yesterday with two flex wings when Revo (Steve Revolinsky) said it was another pilot and him. They were on glide and did not see me. They came right through my thermal and did not see me. Revo said they were about 50' apart. I banked about 45 degrees and Revo said I missed him by 6'.

At the pilots meeting today, Junko Nakamura, the Japanese Swift pilot, told her story of flying her broken Swift with a loss of pitch control. She flew it down to a safe landing. It was an interesting story.

This was the first time this week that David Glover has not teased Jamie. He made an announcement about the video my wife shot yesterday of the two pilots stealing someone's cart, but my wife said that those same two pilots were not at the meeting, they were out looking for carts to take.

The task for today was different for the flexies and rigids. The flexies went S5 start, TP1 KOKEE, TP2 CLNTN, TP3 DSROCK, TP4 T47433, GOAL QUEST, total mileage 74.7. The rigid task was S7 start, TP1 KOKEE, TP2 CLNTON, TP3 ROK98, TP4 T33DS, GOAL QUEST, total mileage 81.5.

There was quite a line of pilots at the glider tiedown area waiting for the bell to ring so they could run with their gliders all the way to the staging area about 200 yards away. This has become a standard ritual here. My glider fell off the cart on the run over so I got beaten pretty badly for a position. The clouds were forming early and the day looked like it would be good. At 12:35 I was caught off guard. It looked like most of the pilots decided to tow at once. I was stuck near the back of the line. I finally towed at 1:00. I had a great tow behind a trike. I stayed on as long as they would let me. They finally waved me off at 2300' in 300 fpm. Once again I had an easy time climbing to cloud base, at about 4,300'.

I hooked up with Mike Tryon and we worked our way over to the edge of the start circle. Today the first start time was 1:15. We were boating around at 4,300. We should have started then. By 1:30 there was a large gaggle of rigids circling in sink and we were down to 3,600'. At 1:45 most of the gaggle was down to 3,300'. As the clock got closer to 2:00, we were climbing again but still not as high as before. Finally at 2:15 we were above 4,000' again and most of the rigids started.

Rich Sauer took the 1:30 start. He got low right away and was having a slow time of it. I was quickly catching him. There was a large gaggle of rigids with a couple of flex wings working well together. I was able to stay up. I had checked my sweep this morning and found it was at 2325 so I'd moved it to 2300. It seemed to help my bar pressure and how the glider handled in thermals. I was able to stay with David Chalmet until almost the second turnpoint. I decided to take a different thermal than most of the other rigids and got left behind. I flew for quite some time with a gaggle of flex wings.

After the second turn point I hit a great thermal that was 800+ all the way to 5,600'. I went on a long glide and caught up to the slower pilots in the flex wing gaggle that had left me earlier. I could see the fastest gliders above me but was stuck low with Ron Gleason, Jim Yocum and a couple of others. We circled up in 150fpm for a long time. We were getting further and further behind.

Just after the last turnpoint we again were working very weak lift. Ron and Jim left at 3,300 feet and headed directly west. Mike Tryon and I headed north. We found more weak lift. Ron and Jim found much better lift and beat us by more than 10 minutes.

I was on a glide from 15 miles out. It looked like the lift was shut down. I was over the glider port 9 miles south of Quest at 1,000'. I found 50 fpm and worked it to 2,000' where it got stronger. It turned on to 400 fpm and at 4,600 feet I went on glide to Quest. The final 9 miles went by quickly and uneventfully. I crossed goal at 1,300'. It looked like most of the gliders made it back. My flight time for today was 5 hours and 25 minutes, almost an hour longer that my previous personal best. The scorekeeper said I was in 12th place for today.

Rich Sauer made it back almost an hour before me. He had one more very low save after the second turnpoint, but most of the time he was doing very well.

A pilot hit some power lines on approach to landing. One of the pilots from Colorado, Kiernan, spiraled down and landed to help the pilot. He was taken to the hospital. I was told that he is going to be all right.

Sorry if I did not write more today, but I got back late and I have a bunch of stuff to do to get ready for tomorrow.

Vince

The day's task was:
Rigid: start-S7, TP1-Kokee, TP2-Clntn, TP3-Rok98, TP4-T33DS, Goal-Quest.
 Flex: start-S5, TP1-Kokee, TP2-Clntn, TP3-Dsrock, TP4-T47433, Goal-Quest.

Track logs for Vince(red), Rich Sauer(blue), Jim Yocum,(black)

A bigger version of the same combined track logs (2mb)

A close up of the start circles (1mb)
Look for the tow starts. Notice the different track recording rates. Vince seems to be the highest rate (auto?) while Jim is the lowest (look for smooth circles vs. jerky straight-line segments).

(Davis Straub's OZ report for Thursday 4/17)

Vince Quest Competition Day 7 - Friday 4/18
I need to make a correction to something I wrote yesterday. A pilot did not hit the power lines. He tried to dive under them and crashed. Another pilot was in the air above and spiraled down to lend assistance. The crashed pilot suffered a cracked vertebra but he is able to move all his limbs. He does have some tingling in his fingers and toes. He had surgery today and his prognosis is good.

Gary Osoba flew in to Florida to give us an in-person weather report. I think he nailed it. We had climbs to almost 7,000. If I knew one tenth as much as he does about weather, I would be a much better pilot. Gary wanted to make sure an item got into the Vince report because he did not think it would make the OZ report. He said Davis has been talking about flying from Zappata to the Texas panhandle. So Gary started calling him PD for panhandling Davis. Any similarities to a street person with tin cup are purely on purpose.

The pilots meetings have been running a little long this year. Dave has to work hard to make it more interesting than last year. His pilots meeting are the best I have ever attended. The task for today was an out and return to the SAVANA turn point. The rigids had the S5 start point, which is close to Quest. The flexies had the T50469 start point, which is almost 9 miles to the start-circle edge (where a competitor would start on-course) away from Quest. With the start circles they have been having, if you sink out, you can not make it back for a re-tow. The total distance for the task was around 66 miles.

I had another great tow behind Rett today. He let me off in a smooth 250 up thermal. What was really cool was he did a split S when I released. I was caught off guard. My first thought was that I was holding him in the air with the tow rope and when I released he fell out of the sky, then a split second later I realized what he was doing. I have had my video camera on my keel the last two days. Unfortunately, when I released, I made a right turn so you can't see him on the tape.

I am typing this now at Quest after making goal. To celebrate, I had a beer. For those that know me, I don't drink very often. After one beer I am sh$t faced. If my report doesn't make sense, that is probably why.

We had most of the rigids in one gaggle in the start circle. Most of us were topped out at cloud base. Surprisingly, it was not too bad; when we start mixing flexies and rigids, it starts getting interesting. We were all high at 2:00 but very few started. At 2:15 Davis was the first to start and the rest of us followed. I have come to the conclusion that I cannot glide as fast as the best gliders. I lost the lead gaggle from the very start. What I am pleased about is that I was climbing extremely well today. I don't remember seeing anyone climbing better.

The climbs along course were very good. In fact, any time I got below 4,000' I was feeling like I was in trouble. We had some long glides between thermals, but we were climbing to 5,000+ most of the time. My highest today was 6,800'. The cloud bases were close to 6000'. My big climb was in the blue about a mile before a cloud street. From a spectator viewpoint, today would have been boring. I climbed to 6,600' 15 miles before Quest. My vario said I had it by 800'. I crossed goal at 1,400'. At least three rigids passed me on final glide. My ground speed was close to 60 most of the time and one rigid passed me by at least 10 mph. No matter how much I pull in the bar I just can't go any faster. I guess I will have to ask Christoff (from AIR) how he has been setting up the gliders.

I made the course in 2:21. The fastest I have heard is 2:05. I will know a lot more after the pilots award ceremony. It is supposed to take place at 9:00 tonight. There are a lot of grinning faces walking around. I think most pilots had a great day today. It looks like more than half of the contestants made it back. I have heard that a 7-day task does not happen very often at these Florida comps. This is the second year in a row that Quest has had a complete 7 day comp.

Nancy has just about had enough driving and we still have one more comp to attend. Tomorrow she is going to take the day off and go to a serpentarian place where they milk venomous snakes. I grew up around farm animals, but I have never seen a snake udder. I guess I will have to have her take the video camera with her.

The pilots meeting just ended. Manfred took first and Oleg second in the flex wing category. Christian was first and David second in the rigid wing class. Mark Mullholland placed first in the Swift class. Mike Tryon won the best new competitor award. David Glover was on the top of his game at the awards ceremony. If you have ever been to a comp, you know how these things can drag, but David really makes them fun. Even though I had some really bad days here, I had some even better days to make up for it. The weather so far has not lived up to Davis' dire predictions. Other than some high wind days, the lift has been strong and the weather wonderful. I read some reports that there was water everywhere and very little landing area. While there may be a lot of water, there still seems to be more than enough landing areas. I have more to write, but it's getting late. I will try to post tomorrow.

Vince

The day's task was:
Rigid: start-S5, TP1-Savana, Goal-Quest.
 Flex: start-T50469, TP1-Savana, Goal-Quest.

Track logs for Vince(red), Rich Sauer(blue)

A bigger version of the same combined track logs (2mb)

(Davis Straub's OZ report for Friday 4/18)

Competiton Results: Rigid   Flex

Vince Travel day, going to Wallaby - Saturday 4/19
I finished 16th at Quest. I moved up from the 25th place I had after the first day. Every day that I got up in the start circle, I did well and made goal. One zero day is very difficult to overcome; two zero days are that much worse. Today we move over to Wallaby. I may or may not set up my glider today. I have not decided.

In my view the Swifts have not been doing very well. I am not sure, but I think that they never had the fastest time to goal. Yesterday they were flying with us and in between thermals they were poking along, gliding at almost the same speed as the other gliders. The only time I saw them really speed up was on the final glide to goal. When I was in Chelan last year, they were flying much faster; they would glide at least 20 mph faster then me between thermals.

As I sit here at Wallaby in the tent that was set up for the comp, I can see a lot of people playing golf. It is a little past 12:30 and no one has flown in from Quest. It looks like it should not be too hard to make the flight, but I was just too tired to fly. The day off is a welcome rest. Manfred flew a Swift from Quest. It rained a little at 3:30 and the winds picked up. No one has flown out of Wallaby this afternoon.

Yesterday, I flew three thermals with Davis Straub. He took a much different line than most of us. He was off on his own several times. I guess he was betting it all yesterday. On the return leg, we both left the same thermal at the same time. I could see gliders turning just before the prison. Davis went east a mile or more than the line I took. I beat him by one minute. It is interesting to see the strategy that different pilots take.

My Flytec Race vario has worked great for these races. I don't know how much use it would be for the average XC pilot, but it is one of the items I would say is a necessity to compete at a high level. It has a one-button setting to turn on the final glide computer and the winds can be adjusted just as easily. The calculated arrival altitude is displayed every couple of seconds. I have also used it to determine if I was making progress to a turn point. I just turn on the final glide computer when the turn point is the waypoint. If my arrival altitude is decreasing, I am drifting away from the turnpoint more than I am climbing.

I had a chance to use my skills as an electrician today as Bart was trying to hook up extension cords to run all the power for the pilots' tent. I told him how to divide the load so that the tent would not burn to the ground. The cords are smaller than I would use, but hopefully we will have lights tonight. I am going to send this report before tonight's pilots meeting so I can relax for a while.

Vince

Vince Wallaby Competition Day 1 - Sunday 4/20
Wallaby Task Committee
I made a major omission from the final day at Quest. GW Meadows made another fantastic video of the Flytec Championships. I saw him filming out on the flight line several times. He is a very brave person. I missed his head by 12" or so with my wing on one launch. That shot made it into the video. I would recommend calling Quest or Flytec and inquiring if you can purchase a copy.

I also forgot to mention that I saw Nancy Smith at Quest last week. Her leg looks all healed up and she has no outward sign that she ever injured it.

Today we showed up at Wallaby at 8:30 so I could set up my glider. After I was all set up, Nancy and I lounged around just relaxing. We both really enjoy the benches that are hanging from all the trees around the ranch. It reminds me of my grandparent's farm back in Pennsylvania.

Nancy never made it to the serpentarium yesterday. On the way to one of her destinations she passed the Audubon of Florida center for birds of prey. Did you know that the great horned owl is the tiger of the bird world? It will attack and take over any other bird's nest. Nancy had a great time there and is back, ready to do some more driving.

The pilots have been very friendly at both competitions. I have been meeting a lot more pilots this year. Manfred talks and jokes around more than I remember him doing at the Worlds. I guess each time I come here I feel more comfortable with the other pilots. There is free popcorn and beer here during the meet. Quest had free beer as well. Too bad I don't drink much beer.

The pilots meeting got off to a bit of a rocky start due to all the time spent going over rule questions and task questions. This first task was set up a little differently than any I have flown before. Instead of a start cylinder that you left to start your time, there was a 15-mile cylinder around the first turnpoint and your time started when you entered the circle. You still had to go to the first turnpoint. This caused a lot of confusion with many pilots, but I think everyone figured it out once they were in the air.

Davis is doing the weather again for this meet. He said the lift should be in the 500 fpm range with cloud base at 6,000'. The winds were predicted to be out of the northeast at 5 to 10, but at 11:00 they were closer to 20 at 2,000'. Two tasks were set up in case the winds did not die down a little.

The secondary task was called while we were out in the staging area. It was ROK-98, FATA, CHALET, then back to the ranch, total distance, 71.9 miles. ROK-98 is the intersection of Rock Ridge road and hwy 98, FANTA is the Fantasy of Flight airport, CHALET is the Suzanne Chalet airport.

I was about the 20th person to tow. I had a wonderful tow behind Rett. I pinned off in a gaggle of about 10 other gliders. Unfortunately we were not going up. It took me about 15 minutes to climb back to my tow release altitude. No one was going up much. At 1:15 the lift started to get better and I was able to climb to cloud base. Rich Sauer towed up just in front of me and we flew around together for a while.

My start was not too bad, but I did something really stupid. I was at 4,300 and at the same altitude as David Chalmet. I was right at the edge of the start circle. He headed about 1/4 mile back towards another gaggle 1 minute before the start. I figured he knew what he was doing so I followed. Somehow he got there without losing much altitude, while I lost about 300'. I turned to start and lost another 200' more before reaching the edge of the start circle. I was below all the top gliders right from the get go.

I lost the leaders right away so I just joined up with whatever gaggle would form up near me. I flew with about 20 gliders for quite some time. Most were flex wings with about 4 being rigid wings. We made the first turn point without much trouble. Rich was losing about 200' on me with each thermal. He said he was not climbing or gliding as well as the other flex wings. He is going to put his carbon leading edges back in tomorrow. The lift was strong, at times 600+, but it was very broken and it was hard to stay in the core, especially with a lot of other gliders in the way.

The second turnpoint came and went without much of a problem, but I could see things slowing down ahead. There were a lot of gliders circling low. About a mile before reaching them I hit a great core that was 800+ all the way to 4,500'. This took me right over the next gaggle and let me catch the gaggle ahead of them. When I was 6 miles from the CHALET turn point, I could see the leaders passing under me. I could also see several rigids struggling near the turn point. I made the turn point relatively easily but got real low on the way to the ranch. About 15 gliders hooked up and worked 100 fpm thermals to 3,000' or so before giving up and going on glide.

As we got closer to the ranch, the climbs started to improve. At 12 miles out, I was at 4,000' and my Flytec told me I was 800' short of goal. At 9 miles, we hit a really good one and I left when my vario said I had goal by 800'. I left a little before Ron Gleason and a couple of other rigids, but they passed me on the glide to goal. Ron gained about 30 seconds on me in 8 miles. His glider is really fast.

Unfortunately, Rich landed after the second turn point. He was with a gaggle of 6 gliders that all hit the deck. Nancy picked up two other pilots who were down on the side of the road. One was from Pennsylvania and the other from Brazil. She enjoyed talking with them and listening to their tales.

It looked like at least half of the rigids and a third of the flex wings were back when I landed. I was flying a little more conservatively today because I did not want to deck it on the first day. I am very happy with my flight.

Rich wanted to head back to the house to relax so I am typing this up there. I don't have much to report about how the other pilots did other than to say that Ron Gleason, Heiner, Jim Yocum, Bruce Barmakian and I landed within a couple of minutes of each other. I don't know if this is correct but it looked like Davis landed after the first turnpoint. I am still flying with my T-tail; all but two or three other rigids are flying with the V-tail.

To relax, Rich (a third degree black belt) is out back showing Nancy (a second degree black belt) some of the forms from his martial arts style. If you ever meet me in person ask me to tell the story of how Nancy and I met.

Vince

The day's task was:
Rigid & Flex: TP1-Rok98, TP2-Fanta, TP3-Chalet, Goal-Quest.

Track logs for Vince(red), Rich Sauer(blue)

A bigger version of the same combined track logs (2mb)

(Davis Straub's OZ report for Sunday 4/20)

Competition results for the day

Vince Wallaby Competition Day 2 - Monday 4/21
I finished 9th for the day yesterday. Only 50 points separated 4th from 9th. Yesterday was a day that most of the rigids could have done much better if they had had one more good thermal. Most of us behind the top three worked several thermals at 100 fpm. Jim Yocum and Bruce Barmakian spent close to 20 minutes low near the last turn point. Ron Gleason gained 50 seconds on me on the final 8 mile glide to goal. My climb rate is just a little better than his, but he smokes me when it comes to glide. Alex Ploner did the course in about two hours and twenty minutes, faster than the fastest Swift and more than twenty minutes faster than the fastest flex wing.

I have come to the conclusion that I probably tore my left rotator cuff the first day of the Quest comp. At first I thought it was just a muscle pull, but it has been getting worse. I can barley lift my left arm above my shoulder. I am having difficulty flaring my glider. It does not hurt much in flight, but ground handling my glider causes me pain. I have been taking "sky candy" (as one pilot calls it), ibuprofen, and that helps a little. I hope I can make it through the rest of the comp.

The pilots' meeting was a little chaotic this morning. The task was to BOK, then AVON, back to BOK and then to the Ranch, 85 to 95 miles depending on which start circle you had. The total distance was actually the same since we all started from the Ranch and flew south on the first leg of the task. The flex and rigid wings had different start circles. The start times were 1:15 for rigids and 1:30 for flexies. This was called a race start. There was some confusion about the BOK waypoint. There is poor GPS coverage in the area of BOK and some pilots were concerned that if their GPS did not have coverage near the Bok tower, they would not be scored properly. This turned out to be a problem for me.

JC said that if you track log was missing at the BOK waypoint, they would give you credit for it. They can tell if you turn you GPS off and then on or if you just lost a signal. The meeting ended close to 12:00. They are going to change it to 10:30 so the pilots will have a little more time tomorrow to stage.

The edge of the rigid wing start circle was 12 miles south of the Ranch on the course line. We essentially had a 12-mile race just to start. I launched at 12:10 with about 4 other rigids. The tug must have had a small engine because we seemed to be climbing slowly. It did not matter much because I was in no hurry and the pilot was doing a great job. He let me off in light lift near Davis. We circled up to cloud base together and then headed for the edge of the start circle. There was good lift every couple of miles. The cloud base started off low, about 3300'. By the time we were at the start circle the cloud base was 4,400' and it looked like all the rigids were there.

I had my best start ever. I was at the edge of the circle 4 seconds before the start and I was one of the highest. I was out in front but the faster gliders soon passed me. I decided to follow David Chalmet. He glided a long way and then started turning in weak lift. As I started to turn, I saw that most of the other rigids were getting close to cloud base in a great thermal about a mile behind me. I could not find the core of my thermal and only climbed to 2,600'. I saw everyone else leave high. I was in last place.

I worked weak lift between 2,000' and 3,000' all the way to the BOK turnpoint. My GPS was only working part of the time. It was not receiving for a long time. When it re-acquired, I looked down and saw that I was 1.5 miles southwest of the tower. I had to fly 3 miles off course to get the waypoint, which caused me further delay. I thought it would be faster to walk the rest of the way. I finally hit a good thermal that took me all the way to cloud base, 4,800'. I looked down and Davis was below me. I guess I wasn't the only one having a slow day. From this thermal I had to cross a blue hole. I made it almost 10 miles with no lift. I found some zero sink at 800'. I was able to climb back to 1,400' but had drifted dangerously across a lake. I headed back to shore and hit 600 down all the way to the ground, 7 miles short of the Avon airport. I did not see any other gliders on the ground on the way down so I figure I got last place for the day.

Rich is doing better. He made it across the blue hole and made the Avon airport. He was down to 700 feet but climbed back to 5,200'. We are in the car chasing him as I write this. He has been doing well, though a little slow; he has climbed above 5,000' several times. He reported several gliders on the ground 9 miles south of Bok Tower.

We drove ahead a bit so Nancy could look at the pond at Chalet Suzanne. Nancy says it has more turtles in it than any pond she has found. They also have a small pond right in front of the chalet, which she says is loaded with tadpoles. She is kicking herself for not bringing a net with her. I don't know what she would do with a bunch of tadpoles, but I have learned it is better not to ask.

Rich scratched his way for another 20 miles but landed about 4.36 miles short. We watched 7 or 8 other gliders land short. He was in the air for more than 6 hours. He worked the heat from a cooling tower over a hospital that gave him another mile. We are back at the ranch at 7:30. I am going to post this now and not worry about who finished.

Vince

The day's task was:
Rigid: start-27-547, TP1-BOK, TP2-Avon, TP3-BOK, Goal-Quest.
 Flex: start-SG1, TP1-BOK, TP2-Avon, TP3-BOK, Goal-Quest.

Track logs for Vince(red), Rich Sauer(blue)

A bigger version of the same combined track logs (2mb)

(Davis Straub's OZ report for Monday 4/21)

Competition results for the day

Vince Wallaby Competition Day 3 - Tuesday 4/22
Spongbob Squarepants,
Nancy's mascot on the glider rack,
takes a bug for the cause
Paris had a launching incident yesterday. The witness I talked to said that he bounced off the front of the cart and hit the ground. He totaled his control frame. I saw him today driving a golf cart around so I think he did not fly today. The flex wing field is slowly winnowing down.

I did as poorly as I thought, yesterday. I placed last except for Bruce Barmakian who made goal but missed the Bok turnpoint. They may give him the turn point anyway because his GPS was not working. Rich Sauer placed 21st with his flight. Not too many flex wings made it back.

The weather was looking a lot worse today. The winds were strong out of the west. They were predicted to be 10 mph but I was seeing a lot stronger wind in flight. The cloud base was low, between 3,000' and 3,500'. The lift was predicted to be close to what we were seeing yesterday, around 500 fpm.

The primary task for today was PLACID, 71 miles south in the crosswind. The secondary task was AVON (which was the turnpoint yesterday), 46.7 miles. The start circle was a 17-mile diameter circle around 33-474. This put the edge of the start circle 5 miles south of the Ranch, just past Hwy 4. They moved the launch start time to 12:30. The start times were 1:30, 1:45, and 2:00. Bo was first to launch; he was also first to land. He towed right back up again and this time stayed up. No one else wanted to launch. Finally, close to 1:15, pilots started taking off in earnest.

I towed up at 1:30 and had the best tow of my life. I did have a little incident with the cart. I hit some bumps just as I was releasing the cart and it bounced up and hit my feet. This caused me to pitch forward a bit and I got a little too close to the ground for my liking. I think Nancy caught it on video. Watching the tows ahead of me, it looked like the air was rough so I was really trying my best. My climb behind the tug was relatively smooth. What was really great was that the pilot took me right above a gaggle of 6 gliders. All I had to do was pin off and I was already turning in the core. It was 400 up all the way to cloud base. I saw a lot of gliders landing for a re-tow below me.

The drift was very strong. We would fly almost straight back upwind to get another thermal. I did not care about the start time; I was just going to try my best to stay up. As it turned out, I crossed the start circle about one minute after 2:00. I was staying high in spite of the strong wind. I joined a gaggle just south of Hanes city. Rich was right above me. We climbed out together to 3,500'. We headed back upwind together. Rich found a little lift at 2,000'. We climbed in that for a couple hundred feet. I headed further south for something better. I hit 500 up. He joined me but missed most of the elevator. I topped out at 4,500' and went on glide. I felt bad about leaving Rich behind.

I did not hit any lift until I was down to 2,000' and then I only climbed up to 2,600'. The wind seemed to be getting stronger. I was down to 1,000' 19 miles from goal. There were only two landing fields within gliding distance. I worked it back up to 1,500' but now there was only one field within gliding distance and nothing but orange groves all around. I chickened out and headed back over the field.

I found no lift until I was 40 agl on final. I got bumped up enough to now have to worry about hitting a fence in the field. Ron Gleason was on the ground and he later said the wind was gusting 15 to 20. I dumped the flaps and made the fence but at 10 feet I got popped up again. I landed hard enough to bend a weak link. Ron helped me change it. The landowner came over and we had a nice chat. He was very nice, but he said he would stick to horses and stay clear of hang gliders. He asked me if I ever graduated from school. When I said yes, he said "and you still fly those things?".

As I was on the ground breaking down, I heard Rich on the radio reporting being at 3,500' overhead. So much for my feeling sorry for him! He made it all the way to goal. At the goal line there were a bunch of gliders parked just after goal. He did a belly flop landing 10' short of the line, but he made the virtual goal so they should give it to him.

On the way to goal we passed Davis heading back so I guess he did not make it. I heard that Christian did not make it either. Bruce Barmakian, Campbell, Mark P., David Chamet, and Alex Ploner made it. There may have been others. Flex wing gliders that made it were: Jim Lee, Manfred, Rich, Terry Prestly, and some others.

Rich found a great pizza place last year, so we are going out right now for pizza. The place is called Mannino's and it is located on hwy 27 about 2 miles south of hwy 4. Their phone number is 863-424-4222.

Nancy is really good at socializing. She seems to know most of the pilots as well as the drivers and volunteers. She is getting a lot of knitting, spinning and rug making done on this trip. I try to tell her how lucky she is to get so much time to work on her projects. then I duck.

Vince

The day's task was:
Rigid and Flex: start-33-474(17mi.circle), TP1-Bok, Goal-Avon.

Track logs for Vince(red), Rich Sauer(blue)

A bigger version of the same combined track logs (2mb)

(Davis Straub's OZ report for Tuesday 4/22)

Competition results for the day

Vince Wallaby Competition Day 4 - Wednesday 4/23
An older model Dragonfly
This just in. There was a midair today between two gliders. Both pilots landed safely but one glider was damaged. That's all I have about it for now.

I was told the wrong information yesterday. Manfred did not make goal, he landed before the BOK turn point. More than half the rigids made goal, but only about 11 flex wings. Rich is disappointed. He made goal, but he received less points for it than he did when he landed short the previous day. The winning flex wing only received a little over 500 points. There were a lot of flex wings that never went on course or landed shortly after leaving the start circle. This devalued the day for them.

JC is doing a great job this year running the meet. He does not have quite as many jokes at David Glover, but he pulls out some now and then. Today he said that they were going to laminate 80 copies of yesterday's results for the 36 pilots who beat Manfred. When Manfred falls short, he even does that well. Yesterday was valued so low, he did not lose that many points.

Three tasks were chosen today and a new turnpoint was added, T4. They are all in the same direction, south, but they're three different distances. The one we end up using depends on how good the day looks. The winds are predicted to be out of the north at 10. The lift is supposed to be the same as yesterday. There are high clouds today, which could shut down much of the lift.

We are in the car driving back from goal. They called the second task. Ranch, T4, LARRY, WAUCLU. Total mileage was 59.7. It was a blue day except for some high clouds. Some wind technicians towed up at 12:30 then came back down and landed. It looked like Bo towed up and he also landed. Finally by 1:30 everyone started lining up for tows. Davis towed to about 600' and either pinned off or had a weak link break. He stayed up. That was one of the motives that got pilots into the air. A pilot landed in front of our line and we had to wait almost 8 minutes for him to move his glider. Everyone that was standing in their harnesses, in the sun, were pissed.

My tow went off uneventfully which is the way I like it. It took a little searching, but I found a nice little thermal, 300 up all by myself. As I worked my way to the edge of the start circle, the gaggle got bigger and bigger. It grew so large that I was really scared. The lift was either light or not there, and 80 pilots seemed to be circling at the same altitude. As I was thermaling, I guess another pilot wanted to cut me off so he started waving at me. I guess he wanted me to pull over and stop so he could take my core. I just waved back. Rich had enough and headed out on course. I had an incident that scared me enough that I left at 2:35. It was a crappy start but at least I was alive.

Rich led a gaggle of about 8 gliders for 3 or 4 thermals before I was able to catch up with him. We flew together for a couple more before I caught a really good thermal and caught up to a gaggle in front of me. I was staying high most of the time; only a couple of times did I get below 2,000'. I was staying with my gaggle no matter what. I saw the leading rigid wing gliders catching up to us, Alex, Christian, David, Bruce. Manfred was also in this group. Once they caught up to us, I was able to stay with them for 3 more thermals.

12 miles out, my vario said I had it made by 500' so I went on glide. At 3 miles out it was dropping steadily until it was below 300'. I really wanted to make goal so I made two circles in light lift and it was back up to 400' and I again went on glide. As I crossed goal I could see 4 other rigid wings on the ground and about just as many flex wings. With my bad start I was 15 minutes behind everyone, but I was very pleased with making goal and breaking my landing short streak.

Rich landed a few minutes after me. He was at 1,300', 3.5 miles out. He caught the same weak lift that I found and was able to make it in without any worry. Hopefully, he will end up in the top 20.

By the time we left goal, it looked like most of the rigids and 25 or so flex wings made goal. We are giving Bruce Barmakian a ride back with us. He says he misses his California flying buddies. I hope he gives up some of the secrets to his success. The only thing I got out of him was that he saw an alligator on the side of the road. Nancy was really disappointed that she was not there to see it. Bruce is going to show her where it was. I'll bet she makes a detour by there the next time she chases us.

Vince

The day's task was:
Rigid and Flex: start-Ranch, TP1-T4, TP2-Larry, Goal-Wauclu

Track logs for Vince(red), Rich Sauer(blue)

A bigger version of the same combined track logs (2mb)

(Davis Straub's OZ report for Wednesday 4/23)

Competition results for the day

Vince Wallaby Competition Day 5 - Thursday 4/24
Nancy explains to Vince what he's doing wrong
I placed 6th yesterday. I am really pleased, considering that I started about 7 minutes after the 2:30 start. I am glad I started when I did because I had a really enjoyable flight. Some of the pilots I talked to, who took the 2:45 start, had to put up with the death gaggle for a long time.

Bruce Barmakian told me, after the fact, that I was thermaling with Manfred. Manfred went on glide and I made two more 360's. I saw him land just short of the goal. I can't tell who's who while in flight. Everyone knows who I am because I am the only one flying with a black T-tail.

Today we woke up to clear skies and winds out of the east. The weather report called for increasing wind as the day wore on. Most of the talk around the table was of the death gaggle at the start circle. No one was happy with that situation.

There is no rush for the carts at Wallaby. Malcolm decides where he wants to stage before 10:00. The pilots put their gliders on a cart and wheel it out to the staging area and then they usually bring the cart back to the tie down area. The ranch hands bring the carts back that are left at the launch line. It is all very casual.

The pilot's meeting was very quick today. Three tasks were called, each with its own start circle and procedure. It was a lot to program into my GPS. I have a Garmin 76S GPS. What I do is program each task as a route. I set up my GPS to run routes manually. They call the task at the last minute out on the flight line. I then just run the route that they called. The 76S also has a feature where you can tell it the radius you want around a waypoint. I set mine for .25 miles, which is what we are using in the comp. When I get within .25 miles of the waypoint, the GPS asks if I want to go to the next waypoint. All I have to do is hit enter and off I go.

The task that was finally called was RANCH, ROK-98, 98-301, INVERS. This would take us mostly down wind about 60 miles. It was an entry start with the circle centered on ROK-98. The radius was 10 miles for rigids and 15 miles for flexies. The rigids had a 1:15 start and flexies had a 1:30, 1:45 and 2:00 start. By 12:00 there was a high overcast and no sign of lift. Some wind technicians towed up and came back down. All the start times were moved back. The rigids now had a 2:00 start. Flexies had 2:00, 2:15 and 2:30.

Very few pilots towed up early. By 1:30 most everyone was lined up. My tow was a lot rougher than I had expected. We went through a lot of small thermals. I finally released at 1800' and found 300 up all the way to 4,000'. Looking back at the day, I never would have guessed it would be that good. The nice thing was that I had towed early and had the thermal all to myself.

Soon more and more rigids started to gaggle up. We moved very slowly to the start circle. No one wanted to go out in front. We were going so slow that we were still 2 miles from the start at 2:00. We continued to move at this pace most of the way to the second turn point. I was staying high, very seldom getting under 4,000'. I was above David, Christian and Alex for a long time.

Jim Yocum was doing the lion's share of pulling the gaggle along. He was usually the first to leave and the first to find lift. Unfortunately for him, the gaggle found better lift and left him (and me) behind. I managed to stay with the lead gaggle all the way past the second turn point. Ron Gleason, Jim and I stayed close together until 13 miles from goal. I took a bad line and hit 1200 fpm down for over 2 minutes. When I got to the next thermal I was 600' under them. The thermal was really good, the best of the day. I climbed at 800 fpm all the way to 5,200' at which time I left the lift to go on glide. I had no problem making goal. I was the 9th or 10th rigid in. I lost about 15 minutes on the leaders during the last leg.

Rich was doing really well. He was a little irritated that I was staying above 4,000' and he was staying closer to 3,000'. He joined up with a couple of small gaggles and made it to goal. The last part of his flight, he climbed above 5,000'. It makes for a much more pleasurable drive back when we both make goal.

We picked up Bruce Barmakian for the drive back. During the drive, I learned that Nancy has picked out a wife for Bruce. She prides herself on her matchmaking abilities. We'll see what comes of this.

Vince

Even the dogs get the royal treatment at Wallaby
















The day's task was:
Rigid: Start-Rok-98 (10mile cir.), TP1-Rok-98, TP2-98-301n, Goal-Invers.
 Flex: Start-Rok-98 (15mile cir.), TP1-Rok-98, TP2-98-301n, Goal-Invers.

Track logs for Vince(red), Rich Sauer(blue), Mark Poustinchian(black)

A bigger version of the same combined track logs (2mb)

(Davis Straub's OZ report for Thursday 4/24)

Competition results for the day

Vince Wallaby Competition Day 6 - Friday 4/25
One of the rigid wing pilots managed to land in a wind shadow at goal yesterday. The result was a broken upper down tube, right hand side. This is only the second time I have seen one of the Atos-C down tubes break (the first was a result of a deployment). The normal result is just a bent weak link. I was able to repair it last night and it was as good as new today. I used the same procedure that I use to repair the Atos-C base bar. If you are interested go to www.vincenancy.com/atos and look under "carbon repair".

I did place 10th yesterday, as I thought. I was only 11 minutes behind the fastest finisher. There were only 4 minutes and 60 points separating 4th from 10th place. I received almost 800 points for the day. Rich finished 23rd and received 738 points for the day. I moved up 4 more places to 11th place overall. Rich moved up to 20th place, 6th place among USA pilots.

We woke today to strong winds, about 15 mph. The weather channel was calling for winds to 20 mph and possible thunderstorms. It did not look like we were going to fly today so we took our time getting up and driving over to Wallaby. It was blowing even harder at the Ranch.

At the pilots meeting, the weather forecast was for 15 mph winds at the surface and 30 mph at 3,000'. The lift was supposed to be almost as good as yesterday, but top of lift was 3,300'. A down wind task of 80+ miles was called. As safety director, Malcolm canceled the day due to high winds. The pilots applauded his decision, not because the day was canceled, but because he had the guts to call it at 11:00 and not have us set up and wait around until 2:00 to cancel. It was the right call. The winds were even stronger at 3:00.

Sweet Dreams - a reminder of home
With the day called, it was now Rich and my turn to drive for Nancy. She wanted to go to the Reptile World Serpentarium so that's where we drove her. It is not a very large place but they have a large selection of domestic and foreign snakes, lizards, turtles etc. One of their functions is to provide venom for companies that use it for medical purposes. We missed the milking demonstration (I did not see the little milking stool) but Nancy was not too disappointed because she has seen that before on TV. I saw enough poisonous snakes to give me nightmares for a week.

We drove back to our rental house for some rest before heading out again. We are planning on eating dinner at the Ranch tonight. Normally, we have so much to do to prepare for the next day's flying that we head straight home and start our tasks. My laptop is having some problems with the wireless system at Wallaby. I can always receive a strong signal, but I have been getting IP conflicts and about half the time I can not post from there, I have to drive home and use a dial up connection.

Vince

Competiton Results: Flex and Rigid

Vince Florida Summation
As I look back on my Florida adventures, I tend to see more of the positive than the negative. I really had some great flying days. The first week, though, was really difficult. There were 2 fatalities that week, and some other accidents that put me in a down mood. I also received a lot of grief over an item I wrote in one of my reports. This caused a lot of tension for both Nancy and me. It did work out for the best, though, and I had a lot of people thank me for saying what had to be said.

I found that I will never be as good as the top 3 pilots unless I get a competition harness in addition to my XC harness and make some modifications to my glider (OK and maybe lose 20 pounds). I have almost a 50% larger cross-section in my harness than the top pilots. I do not know if I am willing to make the adjustments to my glider though. I would guess that they are getting very close to the edge of the envelope as far as stability is concerned. Making goal every day is a must. Even if I do all the above I may still have a problem cracking the top 3. I like to fly with a large safety margin. As I was watching some of the other pilots, I knew I would land before I would try what some of them were trying. As some pilots found out, you can't win if you can't fly because you injured yourself.

Rich and I had several days when we were able to help each other in flight. This was fun. I like flying with other pilots. When working together the flight can be more enjoyable.

One item I need to work on is reading the clouds for lift. Most of the time I fly, it is a blue day. In Florida, pilots who could read the clouds did very well. On a blue day, it was better to stay with a gaggle. On days with clouds, the great pilots would leave the gaggle and fly very fast.

It is also very important to know when to fly with a gaggle and when to leave one. I had some of my worst days when I lost a gaggle. I also had my best days when I lost a gaggle and flew most of the flight all by myself. This was one of my most satisfying flights, knowing that I did it on my own. Another great day was when we flew around the green swamp. It was over 80 miles around. I was in the air for 5 hours and 45 minutes, my longest duration to date. Over an hour of that time was getting into position for the start. I had two low saves during the flight and was the last rigid pilot into goal.

I rented a house this year and I will do that again if I go next year. The house was much more comfortable than any motel I have stayed in. I also had some very interesting roommates. Two of them were from Britain. We had a lot of entertaining conversations about many subjects. It was never boring around the dinner table. The people in Florida are, in general, very nice; and they're curious. Floridians use Sir and Ma'am a lot more than here in California.

It would be fun if we could get some more Sonoma Wings members there for the comps. If one gets vacation time it may not be as expensive as one may first think. The house was $625 per person for the month. Airfare was $180 round trip. Glider transport was $400 (this included a lot of gear as well). The rental car was $600, split between Rich and me. Food was not much more than what I would have spent if I were at home. The comps were about $500 each, including tows. A retrieve driver runs about $150 a week plus gas. The total ends up being less than $3000 for a three or 4 week flying vacation.

BTW, Nancy didn't bring home any toothy, think-skinned souvenirs. She did manage to catch something almost every day, though. She purchased a little terrarium that she used to put these little critters in. She would release them after a day or two once she had observed them for a while.

Vince

Vince Florida Go-for-it
Rich and I are both now back, though our gliders will not be back for 2 weeks. I would like to give a big thank you to Ernie for publishing our exploits on the web site. The track logs were a great hit. Both meet directors started showing the track logs of the top finishers after seeing our posts.

Rich and I both had some fantastic flights. I think the most memorable for us was the trip around the green swamp. It was over 80 miles and was very challenging.

I have added up my Go-for-it points. Here are my flights from Florida as I have calculated them. If there are any questions, let's get them out of the way now. 

 Date          Miles     Bonus      Total      Type
4/13/03        11          2         22        O&R
4/14/03        65.5        2        131        O&R
4/16/03        25.3        1.25      31.625    Goal
4/17/03        66.3        3        198.9      Triangle
4/18/03        68.7        2        137.4      O&R

4/20/03        69.8        3        209.4      Triangle
4/21/03        40.2                  40.2      OD
4/22/03        27.5                  27.5      OD
4/23/03        53.8        1.25      67.25     Goal
4/24/03        56          1.25      70        Goal

                      Total Points: 935.275


Vince

Rich Florida Go-for-it
Vince used my track logs on Topo USA to calculate my '03 Go-For-It point mileage and I added the max elevation and airtime not on tow. 

 Date     Miles    Bonus    Total     type       Max Elev  Airtime
4/12/03   21.64     0        21.6     OD          5,308     1:43
4/13/03   13.75     0        13.8     OD          4,924     1:26
4/14/03   65.49     2       131.0     O&R         7,598     3:54
4/15/03   10.77     0        10.7     OD          5,095     2:10
4/16/03   61.4      0        61.4     Task line   5,469     3:54
4/17/03   65.42     3       196.6     Triangle    5,154     3:49
4/18/03   68.44     2       136.9     O&R         6,181     3:37
4/20/03   37.1      0        37.1     Task line   4,927     2:42
4/21/03   78.41     2       156.8     O&R         5,393     5:43 yes 5:43 Hours
4/22/03   46.8      1.25     58.5     Goal        4,540     2:51
4/23/03   53.36     1.25     66.7     Goal        5,430     3:17
4/24/03   55.11     1.25     68.9     Goal        5,367     2:57

              Total Points: 960.0


After looking at this list, I now realize why I'm so tired this week! Also, some of the short flights were strong cross wind days and you earned every foot. I think I will add a new column for how many times I unzipped to land and then climbed out, and use that for a bonus number. Ha!

Rich

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