|
The Oz Report Volume 6, Number 79 Wallaby
Open – rain, rain, rain But we don’t care about the rain. We call a task that takes the forecast for rain into consideration and it turns out great. The task committee (again, I’m on the task committee, so there is every opportunity for bias here) calls a fairly short (54 mile) out and return task to the north from Wallaby Ranch to the Gator turnpoint just south of the Florida turnpike and west of highway 27. Assuming that we’ll be able to average 25 mph, this is a two hour task. Certainly such a task won’t stress out the green circle competition pilots, but the main reason we call this short a task is that we want to avoid the chance of over development that is forecast for later in the day. It appears as though a summer weather pattern has
established itself in The day starts off with blue sky and no winds. A few small clouds are drifting past coming out of the west which belies our forecast for light southeasterly winds. The forecast data is sparse for today for some reason, but the lift looks weak, the winds light, and the rain chance high late in the afternoon. We move the day up ½ and hour and encourage pilots to
take off at around A short time after I’m in the air I’ll look down and see that the Ranch is almost bare of competition pilots. I think everyone (98 or so pilots) gets off within 45 minutes. Thanks to the great ground crew and the tug/trike pilots. Thanks to Johnny B who put me in a nice thermal at 1,400’. The lift is indeed light averaging less than 100 fpm
and cloud base starts off low at 2,500’. It slowly rises as we mill about
near cloud base (FAR definition, of course) waiting for the There are fluffy cu’s ever where and we are ever so slowly drifting down wind toward the start circle (3 miles for rigid wings, 5 miles for flex wings). We stay in the light lift because we are already as high as we can safely and legally go and no one is showing us any better stuff. The decision of when to go will come down to a matter of group psychology. As Yup, almost all the rigid wings go for the first start time, so it is a good idea to hang with the main gaggle. Also, the lift is falling apart in our location. But, when we get out near the 5 mile circle, we see that a lot of the flex wing pilots have held back. Maybe it is time to stay instead. We work our way in the plentiful if light lift back
upwind to the 3 mile start circle, and I believe almost every rigid wing
pilot takes the Since we rigid wing pilots are two miles behind the flex wing pilots, we’ve got them spotting a few thermals for us, at least giving us some idea of the lines. This makes the running a bit more comfortable and no one is waiting around for better lift. I hook up with Chris Zimmerman whose quite identifiable in his black WW Talon just south of Lake Louise and we climb out at a healthy 400+ fpm to all of 3,200’ AGL (AGL is all there is a round here with the ground level at 100 fpm at the Ranch at 200’ at the ‘ridge’). We fly right across the
With all the rain from the previous day, the
I’m on my second ATOS-C flight and I’m feeling great. The first flight wasn’t all that pleasant as the mixing air continued to make the ATOS-C into a nervous glider and me into a nervous pilot. Now I was in my elements and really feeling out the lift. I’m flying with John Vernon’s T-tail and we are still discussing just at which angle it should be set. Felix is stating that as the keel is 5 degrees below the cord line, the tail in this case should be set at 5 degrees to the keel with the nose higher. I didn’t notice any drag penalty today. The ATOS-C and ATOS pilots are flying like a pack of wolves jumping with thermal to thermal, ignoring flex wings and basically moving along very quickly and competitively. There seem to be very few pilots out on the course given how many appeared to have started. Maybe they held back some. I’ve got Alex Ploner and Christian Chiech out in front of me a ways, Johan Posch and other ATOS pilots in the neighborhood. Johann and I are on the radio with Felix and Alex so we’re doing some communication, but it often hard to understand. While it looks like it might be weak near the turnpoint, with lots of pilots down low, I get a good thermal 4 miles out, and take the turnpoint with plenty of altitude and race to catch up with whoever might be in front. By now it is has dwindled to Manfred who started 15 minute early, Christian, and Alex. I’m coming right behind with Johann and a few ATOSes in tow. I’m kind of shocked to see that we’ve blown by every flex wing but Manfred. Now we’re heading up wind so we bunch up a bit more and it is possible to get a reckoning on whose where and to keep better track of things. The lift is improving which is nice since it will help with the up wind leg. The clouds are still not growing too high and there is plenty of sun on the ground. With lots of pilots in the air it has been great getting so many helpful hints about where to find lift, so now those of us in front are most definitely on our own. I’m glad that I’m back behind a few pilots and think my chances of catching them is good. I’m a little concerned because I didn’t carry any ballast as I was worried about extremely light conditions. Now we are going into a head wind and I’m wishing I had it. Alex takes a track to the east along highway 27 and gets low. I follow to the west finding some lift, but not enough to catch up with Manfred and Christian. I pass up some lift marked by one ATOS, and that is a mistake as I have to take lighter lift. Johann who is two miles behind is able to catch me along with another ATOS pilot. Small mistakes are costly. We climb and then go on a long glide crossing highway 474 15 miles out from the Ranch. I inadvertently leave my flaps on and notice that I’m not gliding nearly as well at the two ATOSes just in front of me. I get down to 1,500’ over the woods and wonder what they gotten me into when Johann calls up and says he’s got some lift. It’s great to here. When I start to thermal to see what my second mistake is, leaving the flaps on.
Johann and the other ATOS pilot climb out above me and go to goal. I have to find another thermal to get to 3,000’ and then go on final glider over the trees. The flex wing pilots (other than Manfred) are not too far behind me now, so I’ve got no time to stop and sample the lift. It’s nip and tuck, but I come in at about 100 feet with my pod open and the gap in the trees at the end of the field approaching as I cross the line low and land. There in the corner of the field is Robin Hamilton’s broken Swift. He pounded it in a little too hard after breaking a weaklink at launch and took out some of the undercarriage. He had to switch to his Laminar and switch into Class 1 for the meet. Looks like he is repairing it tonight. Brian Porter is now alone in Class 2. Later Jim Lamb will come in his brand new ATOS-C and smack right into a windsock pole. Major damage, but with Felix and Christof from AIR here, it looks like it can be fixed. We’ll have to bring in David Prentice to sew the sail. Another ATOS comes in and a keel is broken on landing. We’ll see how fast that gets fixed. I realize that I haven’t had much to say about the flex
wings other than Manfred who was out in front until the end when Christian
Ciech caught him (starting 15 minutes behind him in the Stratos with the
AIR control frame). With so many rigid wings in the air I concentrated on
them to determine where my friendly competition was and how they were
doing. Unlike in The rains did come and thoroughly soaked the ground.
There are many pilots staying here in tents so hopefully they didn’t get
too wet. It appeared as though all pilots made goal or landed long before
the sprinkles at I don’t have scores yet. I spoke with Peter Gray, the scorekeeper and he is quite impressed with Compe-GPS and its integration with Race. The GPS downloads are going well with the USB to four serial port box. Peter still has quite a bit of work in front of him tonight. In the morning you should be able to find the latest scores at: http://www.elltel.net/peterandlinda/Wallaby_Open_2002/Wallaby.htm
To view the Oz Report on the web go to http://www.davisstraub.com/OZ/. To view this issue of the Oz Report on the web go to http://www.davisstraub.com/OZ/Ozv6n79.htm/. Davis Straub |
