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The Oz Report Volume 6, Number 82 Wallaby
Open Malcolm reports that Quest Air sent down two tugs and
one pilot, not three tugs as reported in the Oz Report. He seems to want
to stick it to Quest Air and thereby squelch this notion of cooperation
between the The forecast calls for the day to be the best so far with cloud base at 5,500’, light to moderate east winds, and maximum lift at 500 fpm. I want a reasonably long out and return task and push for Coleman and back – 89.1 miles. After a bit of discussion we go for it. Coleman is off to the northwest, so it is going to be a bit of a struggle getting back against the east winds. At ninety miles, the task should last at least 3 ½ hours if not four for the fastest pilots. We continue to be worried about over development and
rain. With such a big task we think that it is possible for the pilots to
work around any local cells and continue the task. Still, we want to get
pilots going early so we set start times at With the launch starting at Cloud base is already up at 3,500’ right after the tow,
so we are playing near the clouds pretty quickly. The flex wing guys have
gone off to their circle at 5 miles out and we rigid guys are hanging back
at 3 miles waiting for the The question is, should we wait and chance over development. The later start time lets us use the guys out in front, but if every one waits then there’s no one there anyway. We wait.
Here is a 3-D reconstruction of my track log in the start circle (the big red circle) showing the east wind blowing us to the west as we thermal up (east is at the top of the graphic). The black lines on the ground are the “shadows” of the 3-D track log. The sky is full of cu’s so it is obvious where to go. With the 10 mph east wind you can watch yourself drift to the west as you head north. We are in full race mode and only stop for good lift. It takes a little less than an hour and forty minutes to get to Coleman, so we average about 28 mph with average lift at a little over 300 fpm. As we approach Coleman there is a ten mile wide blue hole on the course line. Some pilots head right through it as a cloud forms in the middle, others, like myself follow a cloud street on the south and then dive into the blue at the last minute to get the turnpoint. I catch a 600 fpm thermal 2 miles south of the Coleman turnpoint, and the pilots who started earlier and have made the turnpoint are happy to come back and join me in it as we climb to 4,700’. Christian Ciech in the Stratos (started at Of course, as soon as we get the turnpoint, we turn into a strong head wind and our ground speed on glide drops from 45 mph to 35 mph. I push east as much as possible on each glide trying to get upwind. Every time I have to climb in a weak thermal, I’m drifting back strongly to the west. I’m stuck seven miles southeast of Coleman working in
light lift. I can see Brian Porter on the ground and a few rigids and flex
wings scattered about below me, also on the ground. Gerolf, Johann Posch,
Alex Ploner, and a few other flex wing pilots join me as we work our way
out of the hole that surrounds the turnpoint. When we get high enough to
again charge into the wind, I take a more easterly route while the rest of
the gaggle goes southeast over Center Hill toward the
I race to get under a good cloud, get down to 1,200’ before I find the thermal that starts at 400 fpm and builds to 600 fpm as I climb out to 5,600’ leaving the previous gaggle to my west far below. Bruce Barmakian joins me in the climb. Bruce is in second overall and I’m a couple of points behind him in third. Alex Ploner, the world champion, is in first. Bruce and I stay high under the clouds and head toward Quest. We go on a nine mile glide into the wind under lots of clouds and don’t find anything as we pass over Quest and head east. At this point Bruce turns south and heads down 33 looking for lift in sunny places. He’ll not find anything and land 18 miles from Wallaby. At that point we were in the lead (for the rigids which generally started 30 minutes behind many of the flex wings), other than for Christian Ciech who got away from the turnpoint by leaving light lift and going on a long glide to find better lift. I turn 90 degrees to go way to the northeast to get under a newly forming cloud and over a dry field of pine trees. At 1,300’ I find 100 fpm that portends additional lift. Soon I’m in 400 fpm going to 5,000’. I’ve been pressing up wind on each leg and now I’m near the lakes on the west side of highway 27. My former gaggle is much further to the right way downwind. I’m high and looking good. Up a head it doesn’t look so good. There is a cell just to the north of the Ranch right on the course line and it is dropping a bit, not a lot, but a bit of rain. This is the only rain in the sky. I’m trying to figure out how to get around or through this rain. The cu-nimb above it is easy to see and is not all that high. There is plenty of shading all around it. I work southeast to get south of I’m watching all the sky and I notice a small cell forming up highway 192 toward Disney, a couple of miles east of 27. As I approach 192 rain from the cell gets much stronger, and now I’m running between two cells, with the one north of the Ranch over the swamp dissipating. There is still plenty of shade from this cell so I’m nervous about heading over the swamp to get under it. I notice that as I head south along 27 that the clouds that were there are disappearing due to the influence of the cell to the east. Heading from the sunlit areas is doing me no good as the cell is drawing all the lift toward it. At five miles out from the Ranch I’m down to 1,400’ and in the rain from the cell that I thought I had been able to sneak past. I getting tiny bits of lift off warm fields, but all the lift is being disturbed by the nearby cell. I land off the highway in a small field amongst the neglected orange groves. My former gaggle continues on the west side and makes its way through the shade to goal. Christian Ciech is able to beat Manfred into goal even though he started 30 minutes behind him. Johann is the second rigid into goal with Alex just behind him. The flex wing pilots who started early were rewarded with better conditions as they approached Wallaby Ranch. It was a day to start early. The rain squall that put me down rapidly spread, included a bunch of lightening and stopped most of the rest of the field behind me. Gary Osoba writes: It’s unbelievable...just had
a look at the regional radar and the worst OD in the entire state moved
right into your location! You guys just aren't getting any breaks. When Gerolf came into land he stayed prone and just pushed out when he got to the ground and whacked in pretty hard. They he just lay there. People thought that he had been knocked out, but there was something even worse. At some point during the flight Gerolf had unzipped to take a leak, when he zipped back up he caught something very important in his zipper. It hurt. He had to continue flying in a bit of pain to say the least. When he landed it took him a while as he told everyone to go away and leave him alone, to get that part of his anatomy extracted from the zipper. More excitement at the goal. Gary Wirdnam, an Aeros
pilot from The glider flipped over and the top of the glider hit
the ground. Provisional results (quick format to cut down on typing): Cumulative in Class I: Manfred The latest scores may be available at: http://www.elltel.net/peterandlinda/Wallaby_Open_2002/Wallaby.htm The scoring system continues to have major problems. The marriage of GAP 2002, Race, and Compe-GPS appears not to have been consummated. GAP2002 is getting a very bad black eye with the pilots (seems to work fine in Class 5 though). Nancy
Smith Laurie Croft writes: Nancy Smith is at
Her e-mail address is: nancy2@mindspring.com
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/Ozv6n82.htm/. Davis Straub |
