|
|
The Oz Report Volume 6, Number 87 Flytec
Championship – launch, go on final Well, not quite, but close. We’ll call a short task today, and make a lot of people happy (and some others not so happy). First, a few interesting tidbits. According to David Glover, the Flytec Championship is the largest aerotow in the world for the second year in a row. Seems to jibe with my understanding of these things. This year there are at least 104 pilots in the meet. During the peak period when every one wanted to tow yesterday, they were able to launch a pilot every 23 seconds (this is from two lines). Shows just what you can do when you’ve got the resources and the organization. Both major This is the kind of rivalry that we all enjoy. The two major flight parks striving to be the best that they can be both with safety and with efficiency. Everyone appreciates this kind of competition and it is healthy for the sport and the industry. Congratulations to Quest Air for hosting the largest aerotow meets in the world! Speaking of which I got an e-mail message tonight from the Flying Tush: I just wanted to say that I
think Dave is doing a fantastic job as meet director. I've never really
been in a comp where the director doesn't treat us like simpletons and
it’s very refreshing. He also has a great manner with the mic which keeps
us laughing whilst still dealing with serious topics. I have never been
quite so impressed by a meet director before. I can only agree that David is doing a great job, both with the people relations aspects as well as the technical aspects of the meet. The Quest Air folks are also doing a superb job on the ground, in the air, and at the dinner line. The vegan food is an added plus (except the weird soy bacon). Did I mention that we had a task today? Okay, okay. Geez, the weather forecast sucked today. I had three different forecasts to go with this morning, and so we just picked one and said we’ll use that one for the task selection. We decided to go with Gary Osoba’s perhaps just because it was done just for us: Now the other models showed weak lift all day. So we decided on a long task to Chalet Suzanne (42 miles) to the south southeast, then to Wachula (total of 77 miles) to the southwest, and a short task to Chalet Suzanne, if the lift reported by the wind technicians was poor. With the winds out of the north at 10 mph, and our options of going east/west poor, we decided to run down wind, especially given the possibility of poor lift. Poor lift was the output from the other models, because the high temperature was supposed to be ten degrees cooler than the day before – about 85 degrees, with the north northeast wind. With a primary and secondary task set up we get out on
the flight line and make arrangements with the wind tech’s to speak with
them in the air and get a feel for the day. Earlier reports ( The wind dummies are off at There are no cu’s nearby, and there are plenty of high clouds perhaps from the front that is supposed to be going through. We delay everything 15 minutes, while we wait for the ground to get warmer. We are also discussing whether to call the shorter task. We can see the clouds to the south and hear the reports from the thermal techs that there looks like there is plenty of lift to the south. They also report winds of 10 to 12 mph at 30 degrees. We decide to let the first competitors launch at
The three pilots still in the air don’t come down, but
slowly climb out, so the secondary task – the short one with Chalet
Suzanne is on. We’re thinking that this poor lift could be a local effect
due to With time running out, and a few pilots staying up,
suddenly everyone wants to get into the air. Now it is very important just
when you launch, because everyone (almost) will try for the I get off at 2,000, fly over to the thermal, and get up
in a thermal that averaging 300 fpm. The day has gone from really weak to
just fine in over an hour. We just needed for it to heat up. The inversion
lasted much longer over Quest than The start will turn out to be very important today
especially as we have such a short task. I’m feeling pretty good even
though there are plenty of rigid wings that launched before me and are now higher, as
I’m situation in the perfect position away from Quest and climbing at a
rate that should get me to cloud base just as the A few minutes before 2 L30, ten rigids further out come back to join Alex Ploner and I in our thermal just inside the start circle. Still a few of them, including Christian Ciech are 300 feet over our heads. Not good. I head out first hoping to get ahead by getting to the start circle first just as the start time begins. If the pilots behind are waiting in lift, they’ll get a bit higher, but be a minute late. Still they come over me. Alex in plunging ahead trying to find strong lift way ahead of the gaggle in order to catch up and get ahead of Christian. After the first thermal, the gaggle heads toward the sand minds just to the north of 474 as we head a bit west of highway 33 and on the course line. I try keeping a line to the east seeing if I can find a line that works better than the line chosen by Christian who’s about a mile ahead. The lift lines are the same, so that strategy doesn’t
work. I continue it as we approach We’ve picked up the flex wings who started 2 miles in
front of us also at The Swifts tried to get out in front, but we catch them at I4 and get over them also. Just south of I4, we hit a strong thermal and climb at 600 fpm at 15 miles out from goal. It looks like this will be all we need to make it. We head off from toward the goal from 4,500’. So far glides have been averaging about 20 to 1 over the ground with the ten mph tail wind. At ten miles out I lose my GPS signal and also find 500 fpm, so I take a few turns. The IQ/Comp has already told me to go to goal, so I’m not worried about my elevation, but this lift should speed me along. I know where the goal is, so I don’t need to have the GPS signal. After a couple of turns, I continue on the ten mile glide across numerous large lakes into goal racing with all sorts of other pilots, flexies and rigids to get there early. Manfred will get to goal first, come in high enough to
get back up, and fly back to Quest. That way he doesn’t have to break down
the Swift. Christrian Ciech will be the first hang glider into goal. Oleg
will just beat out Seventy seven pilots will make goal, quite a few for the very first time. A pilot will come up to me in the goal and say that he’s been reading the Oz Report for two years and this is the first time that he has made goal. He’s obviously incoherent. Christof, who helps Felix build ATOSes, will make his personal best and his first time into goal. Other pilots will be delirious. Long time competitions pilots will be disappointed with the fact that the task isn’t enough of a challenge and doesn’t differentiate pilots enough. The field is a very narrow north/south grass patch. Thank goodness the wind is right down the runway. I've never seen so many pilots landing at the same time. Mitch Shipley comes in a few feet over my head and lands ten feet in front of me two seconds after I land. Class I:
Class 5:
Preliminary results are up on the http://www.flytec.com/ web site. By the way, regarding the weather. Instead of 85 degrees, we saw 96 degrees. When the forecast from the weather service is that far off on a critical variable which determines the predictions for lift, then all bets are off.
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/Ozv6n87.htm/. Davis Straub |