The Oz Report
Volume 6, Number 8510 PM, Sunday, April 21st, 2002
Wallaby Ranch, FL, USA
"Toto, I have a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."
Named Newsletter of the Year for 2002 by the USHGA
Flytec Championship – the race begins
The weather has continually improved since the
beginning of the Wallaby Open, and over the last few days it has been
great here in
Looks like a good day for you. There is a distinct morning inversion. Things will start a little bit later than the average last week but when they kick off they'll be just fine for the first day of competition. Here's how it stacks up:
11am Blue. Weak lift to about
1800'. Winds at the surface sse at 3-5, aloft se at 5. As things progress
toward
There was a west wind all day, but not enough to keep us from launching to the south. It measured about 10 mph out of te west during the task.
Given the predictions for good lift and light winds, we call an 82 mile triangle, with the first leg north to Leeward, a bit northeast of Belleview, south down to Coleman, and then southeast back to Quest Air flight park.
We are expecting a blue day, or at least clouds that
don’t get too high. It certainly is blue in the morning, and there aren’t
any clouds when the launch window opens at
We call a race to minimize any of the effects of departure points and to make sure that pilots can know where they stand by just looking around and seeing where they are with respect to everyone else.
The rigids start at 4 miles out and the flex wings at 7 miles out north of Quest. With no one all that excited about getting into the air given the blue nature of things, the launch times get compressed. Still, with the sufficient resources just like at Wallaby, we all get into the air very very quickly. It is great having this many (17) tugs and trikes.
The lift seems weak at first for most people. I pull the pin when I’m at 2,000’ and my averager is showing 1,200 fpm. It couldn’t have been a better tow, especially behind a trike. A small cu forms over me as I climb out to 4,500’.
I scoot out to the 3.3 mile mark where all the rigids gaggle up and get ready for the start. You’ve got to wonder about the flex wings that are flying with us. Haven’t they heard the news that they are supposed to be out at 7 miles out?
I made a presentation of the strategy for the day after
the pilot meeting. I suggested to those few attendees that they not follow
the course line to Leeward, but rather head west toward the Okahumpka
service area on the
When the window opens at
I continue pushing northwest to get half way between Wildwood and Leesburg, where I think I will find the good lift over the drier farm lands. Now only one pilot is following me away from all the rest of the pilots. We are hitting good lift. I have to take a six mile glide and get down to 2,000’ to get under the next forming clouds, but the lift continues to be strong and I’m clearly catching the lead gaggle of flex wings that started 3 miles ahead of us.
Just a few miles north of the turnpike I’m next to the forest at its thinnest part, just where I had advised the pilots to go. The lift is light, and the clouds aren’t forming yet to the north of me. I’m checking out a landfill a few miles to the north and thinking that it will be working even if there aren’t any clouds.
The lead gaggle to down wind of me to the east a couple of miles. Suddenly they all turn 90 degrees and head my way as I start climbing. The gaggle includes the two Swifts (one flown by Manfred), Alex Ploner and Christian Ciech on the ATOS-C and Stratos respectively, and a bunch of flex wings – the fastest flex wing pilots.
I really should leave before these guys get to me as the lift is so weak, but now I get a bit nervous after going out on my own up until this point. I wait a few minutes before leaving the gaggle behind when it proves to be just too painful to be with them.
The clouds are now beginning to form, but I find the lift over the landfill first and climb out with enough gusto to bring along the rest of the pilots. To keep away from them I push further west of the course line again, ignoring light lift and looking for a good one under the better clouds to the northwest. At 1,400’ I finally get to the cloud I’m interested in and my 450 fpm attracts a lot of attention. The Swifts have already gone ahead.
The day is improving and we are now under lots of well formed clouds. We climb to over 5,000’. I go on glide with Curt Warren and when he stops to find some lift I continue toward goal and hook into 550 fpm that gets me (and later others) to 5,700’ just before the turnpoint at Leeward airstrip, 40 miles out from Quest Air.
As I approach the turnpoint, I notice Christian Ciech coming into it at the same time from the east. He had not gone nearly as far west as I had. I cut in front of him to get the turnpoint at the edge of the cylinder and head south toward Coleman.
Christian appears to have a much better glide on his Stratos compared to me. I’m not use to seeing other rigid wing hang glider pilots out glide me, other than Hansjoerg. I’m wondering if I’ve got too draggy a harness setup, whether I have enough ballast (I have 11 kilos), whether the T-tail, because it isn’t set at the proper angle, is adding drag, or whether the Stratos has a better glide (see below).
As we head south, we’re in the lead, other than the Swifts which are at least ten miles ahead of us. After a while I notice Alex Ploner coming in 500’ to 1000’ below us. I wonder what happened to him.
The lift going back toward Coleman isn’t all that great, averaging about 250 fpm. The wind is blowing pretty strong out of the west at 11 mph, and I’m concerned about an on-shore flow from the west coast killing the lift. It seems to be dampening things out a bit.
Alex goes off to the west and presumably finds a good thermal while Christian and I head south. At Wildwood, Alex and Christian (who also went off to the west to find lift) join me in 200 fpm under thick clouds, but not well defined clouds. We need the lift even if it isn’t up to the standards we got use to going to the first turnpoint.
Christian again gets a better glide going into Coleman. Alex has a bit better glide than I. He’s not doing as well as Christian. Later he will tell me that he was gliding with Christian in the Wallaby Open, but that Christian was out gliding him today.
I stop for lift just before Coleman having taken a different line trying to get under some clouds on the west side of Christian and Alex. They work for me and I get above Alex. Christian makes the turnpoint and heads southeast toward the prisons.
The gaggle of flexies and a few rigids in catching up with us point men out in front as I approach Coleman, so I hurray up and take the turnpoint and head for the prisons. Alex was chasing Christian and is working light lift just west of the prisons when that effort failed. I’m 500 feet over him, and continue along in buoyant air without any strong cores toward the southeast hoping to find Christian.
I spot him working lift 5 miles south of the prisons and come in at 1,700’. The lift is averaging only 280 fpm, but we are under a large dark cloud and the cloud cover from there toward goal is spotty. We are 15 miles out.
Christian and I will spend 12 minutes climbing here in this light lift while Alex and then the gaggle will come in underneath us. Johann Posch has been listening on the radio and I’ve been providing lift locations and he’s with the gaggle.
Christian and I are playing a cat and mouse game on top of the gaggle. As this is a race we know that where you are determines your position in the race. He is only 200 feet over me (as the lift has slowed down at the top of the thermal). He won’t leave until I do (or until Alex does). I want to force him to leave by staying with him in the thermal until there is nothing left. You only have to beat the other guys and the three leaders all together.
Finally Alex leaves from below, I immediately follow to his right, and Christian can watch us and take an even further right course which proves to be much better. Alex and I plummet from 5,200’ to 1,600’ in 7 miles. I find lift over a brown earthmoving area with clouds above it and Alex comes in below. We climb out to 4,200’ while Christian just continues on toward goal after a few turns in our thermal.
The gaggle has spotted me circling up again and joined in below. Johann comes in just over me.
Alex goes on glide and I follow with Johann right behind me. We hear that Christian is on final glide in front of us.
The final glide is very fast at speeds over 50 mph. We four rigid wing pilots have left just before the flex wings decide to go. Johann and Alex pull in more than I do and I see them out in front and way below me and I’m not willing to go quite that fast. I speed up when I see them in front of me going faster.
Curt Warren and Gerolf Heinrichs are right behind me and below as they have sped up also. They are beginning to catch up and as I’m not willing to let them beat me to goal, I pull in even further and keep them at bay.
Gerolf and Curt are right on the deck and have to slow up a little while I have plenty of altitude and can pull in more as I find smoother air. Christian then a few minutes later Alex with Johann right behind him cross the goal line. I’m not far behind. And right after me Curt and Gerolf right on the ground.
They are right next to each other as they cross the goal line and right next to the ground. Curt is 2 inches off the ground and has been in ground effect for 300 feet. He slows down and flares. Gerolf crashes a bit into him, takes out his own control frame and breaks a few of Curt’s battens.
Gerolf lies on the ground and doesn’t move. We think he may be hurt, but he just doesn’t want to be moved. An ambulance is called, but Gerolf turns out to be okay, well almost – sprained ankle. The rest of the gaggle comes in right after Curt and Gerolf’s show and buzz the launch low also.
We find out after landing that Bruce Barmakian had one of his Wills Wing slipstream downtubes come unscrewed at the apex. It was flopping down on him in flight. He had to climb up into the control frame, untie one of his shoe laces, and tie the downtube back in place. Thankfully downtubes are not structural on ATOSes.
Landings were difficult at the field with no wind. I had a slider and found that the AIR ATOS-C control frame with its little skids would slide just fine.
Felix and Christof finished Jim Lamb’s ATOS-C repair this morning after Jim hit the wind sock pole at the Wallaby Open and he was back in the air at the Flytec Championship today. Oleg, GW and many others helped Gary Wirdham get his Aeros Combat 2 back together after he took out the main windsock at Wallaby and he was back in the air today.
Class 2 just got interesting
Manfred had his second Swift flight ever today and came in about 5 minutes after Brian. He is getting use to flying the Swift and learning about final glides. This should prove to be an interesting race.
Stratos
I spoke with Christian Ciech quite a bit about the Icaro Stratos. There are two versions – one based on the ATOS with the WW control frame. The other based on the ATOS-C. Christian has slightly modified the ATOS-C for his Stratos for this contest.
The modifications consist mainly of a longer tip wand and a longer sail (last panel) to accommodate the longer tip wand. The longitudinal sew line for the sail is on the bottom not the top like on the ATOS-C. This allows for them to change the color pattern. The ATOS-C changes the sail cloth at this line, the Stratos uses the thinner sail clothe all around. There are some slight changes in the sail cut.
Christian is doing very well on his Stratos, but then he is a very good pilot also, a former member of the Italian flex wing national team. Today he was gliding very well, we’ll see if he keeps that up.
Icaro bills Christian as the designer of the Stratos. After my inspections here, I would say that this is marketing hyperbola. Christian has been involved in making modifications to the ATOS-C to his liking. Felix Ruehle is the designer of 99% of the Stratos.
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Davis Straub
co-author
of Windows Me Secrets
"I gotta tell you; you took a total moron
and turned me into a guru! I couldn't have done it without your
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davis@davisstraub.com
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