Newcastle Hang Gliding Club

http://www.paraglidingworldcup.org/node/2005

http://www.paraglidingworldcup.org/node/2005/415

http://www.paraglidingworldcup.org/node/2005

http://www.paraglidingworldcup.org/node/2005/398

http://www.fastretrieve.com/worldcup/download/

http://www.paraglidingworldcup.org/node/10817

http://vimeo.com/36065307

http://andre-comps.blogspot.com/

http://biggovtsucks.blogspot.com/

Cliff Whitney is a hang glider pilot and owner of Atlanta Hobby.

Check out this.

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-tribal-skies-20120203,0,2712225.story

Eighty-three-year-old Dodson was a pioneer when he started hang gliding almost 40 years ago. He tried paragliding, but on one of his maiden flights he went into an unexpected spiral dive after launching from 3,500-foot Kagel Mountain, about 30 miles north of downtown Los Angeles. "If I'd hit the side of the hill then, I would've been mush," he said.

In his late 60s at the time, he decided to stick with the wing he knew. He doesn't fly as often as he'd like these days because of back and respiratory trouble. So he gets his fix accompanying fellow members of what he calls the "Sylmar Senile Senior Soaring Society" to the top of the mountain in a 1988 Dodge van with 381,000 miles on it.

His last flight was on his birthday in October. "I got pretty winded getting into the harness, and winded again walking over to the launch," he said, standing at the edge of the cliff with the San Fernando Valley spread out more than a thousand feet below and the downtown skyline peeking over ridges to the south.

"But once I was in the air, and the weight was gone, I could do it," he said. "I was fine."

http://paraglidingforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=45061

http://www.paraglidingworldcup.org/node/2005

http://www.paraglidingworldcup.org/node/2005/390

http://andre-comps.blogspot.com/

Yes, there was at least one reserve if not two thrown yet again today. Jack Brown, USA, I think.

From: http://biggovtsucks.blogspot.com/

Official PWC site
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Results: Task 1 | Task 2 | Task 3 | Task 4 | Task 5 | Task 6 | Task 7 | Overall
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/#!/ParaglidingWCup
Nicole McLearn | Brett Hazlett | Nicky Moss | Andre Rainsford | Gin Team Blog

http://green.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/02/02/a-whooping-crane-migration-will-finish-by-truck/?src=rechp

An effort using ultralight planes to coax essentially orphaned whooping cranes all the way from Wisconsin to their wintering grounds in Florida has ended for the season. The problem this time isn’t a possible violation of Federal Aviation Administration rules, but rather the birds themselves.

"The birds haven’t been cooperative," said Liz Conde, a spokeswoman for Operation Migration, the group that organizes the flights. "The birds are refusing to follow the ultralights any further."

http://paraglidingforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=44972

Here is a beta version of XC Planner version 2: http://xcplanner.appspot.com/

What's new:

- it should work on your mobile phone (iPhone/Android)
- you draw your flight, and XC Planner calculates the maximum score
- support for all XC leagues, and auto-detects your country's league
- speed and duration calculations
- airspace (thanks to Worldwide Soaring Turnpoint Exchange)
- thermals (thanks to ParaglidingNet, Switzerland only, but more countries coming)
- waypoint downloads include precise altitudes
- more download formats
- transfer your flight to your mobile phone by clicking on "Share" and then scanning the QR code
- much more...

http://www.hvlnamibie.com/

Among our 23 pilots, 10 claimed their flights on OLC; they achieved 14 of more than 300km tasks (max 421km), 32 of more than 250km, 42 of more than 200km: an average of 6 OLC claimed flights per pilot, average distance per flight 244km, average duration per flight 6h10 (max 8h48)! Flights' log.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iNEUHTH7rTQ

http://www.paraglidingforum.com/download.php?id=38639

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dcDN409ZBv4

Article here.

Thanks to Mike Degtoff.

Erick Angles <<atout.vents>> writes:

Fly Morocco - 2nd Edition is postponed in order to prepare a cheaper, bigger and more international edition in 2013. Here is a little teaser that a friend just edited to make you guys wait and entice some to pre-register, some pilots already did.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xo5ekp_moroccoall_sport#from=embed

http://www.xcmag.com/2012/02/paragliding-world-cup-superfinal-2011-light-conditions-and-no-one-in-goal-ontask-6/

Today is canceled due to continued weak conditions: http://www.paraglidingworldcup.org/node/10787

http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/2012/01/first-slow-mo-video-of-goose-flying-upside-down.html

It's a move that's sure to impress even the most skilled circus contortionists. During flight, geese can twist their necks to flip their bodies upside down, while keeping their heads upright.

Now amateur videographers Hans de Koning and Lodewijk van Eekhout have captured the first slow-mo video of the manoeuvre, winning a prize in a competition organised by the Flight Artists group at Wageningen University. Known as whiffling, the move is often performed before landing as a means of braking. Upside down wings generate more drag causing a goose to slow down quickly, just like what happens when a plane is inverted during flight.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05NcCQJZnQ0

I experienced a full tear of the tendon on September 22nd at the Santa Cruz Flats Race after I tripped while running out a landing on the third to last day.

After a continuing thread of poor decisions I’m finally setup for surgery on my shoulder for next Monday (February 6th) or the Monday after (February 13th) depending on getting approval from Florida Blue Cross/Blue Shield in a timely manner. The arthroscopic surgery will include:

1) Tying the tendon back to the bone.

2) Cutting attachment points that have developed after the injury in the muscles (unfreezing the shoulder).

3) Clearing out some arthritis that has developed over the years from injuries forty years ago.

It will be out patient surgery and I should be back home right after the surgery.

The surgeon http://www.desertortho.com/doctors_pierre.htm characterized the tear as small (even though it was full) as I tore only one tendon. He does five or six of these surgeries every Monday. I have the most common tear.

It will take three months for the tendon to tie back to the bone. It is my understanding that rehab work has to wait for three months, but Larry Bunner (who got the surgery almost two months ago) seems to be doing rehabilitation. This means that I won’t be flying in the Spring competitions, but my plan is to go to Florida, attend the competitions and perhaps act as meet director.

I hope to be able to fly in the July competitions and the SCFR in September in order to keep my position on the US National team in order to go to the Worlds in January in Australia. We’ll see how that goes.

Scott Dougall <<scottdooogall>> writes:

I was really happy to make it back to flying after having an accident last year on Kobala, Slovenia. I made a little video and this blog entry to say thanks to all those who supported me while I was recovering.

http://www.stovolando.co.uk/?p=669

charles baughman <<big-bird>> writes:

The view was breathtaking. I was high, way above the clouds in very smooth, serene air and all alone. I was really glad I had a camera and hoped the shots were good. I saw Patrick climbing up to 8700' and I radioed to him, "Get your butt up here, this is incredible air." He responded, "I'm trying, I'm trying!” During the flight I had radioed to my flying friends several times how wonderful the conditions were and apparently sounded like an exuberant little kid at Christmas. The return reply could have easily been, “Shut up, I am busy.”

The forecast on Saturday, Oct 22, for Pine Mt. Oregon was for lift to 8000' and a 10 to 15 mph west wind which is straight in at launch. Pine Mt. is over forty miles east of the Cascade Range and the westerly winds put it in a lee side condition, which is very dry with very few trees. This is Central Oregon, categorized as a high desert area. These conditions make for good flying and cross country potential. There are many days of thermal flying in the summer with cloud base ranging from 10000‘ to 14000‘ and occasionally higher. Landing areas are plentiful at about 4300’ where the terrain is mostly flat and treeless but usually has sagebrush ranging from two to five feet tall. Pine Mt. is a big rocky volcanic mountain with several long ridges. There are four main upper launches of which the west launch, at 6100’, is the favorite launch for hang gliding. The paragliders use the four upper launches and very often use the convenient lower launches on the northwest facing ridge which are very close to a parking area.

I launched at 2:00 PM and found conditions to be good, especially for this late in the year. Five hang gliders and seven paragliders launched that day. Paragliders Steve Roti and Scott Maclowry said they got up to 7700’, where they found the wind to be at their maximum, so they flew out and down. I got high in good lift with light turbulence. The cumulus were dry and wispy at 10000'. I worked the lift back to the Antelope Launch area. I would have continued east but I saw no appetizing cumulus and decided to head back upwind to the ridge. I was able to make it back to the top of the ridge because of the superior performance of the Atos type glider.

My glider is an Atos VR11. It is classified as a rigid wing hang glider and has a very wide span, flaps, spoilerons, winglets, and a horizontal stabilizer. The flaps and stabilizer are coupled together and the setting can be changed in the air with a pull cord. Pitch and roll are controlled by weight shift movement. It has an excellent glide ratio, and that allows me to--- go places.

After I flew back to the launch area, I scratched for lift with Scott Michalek and Tim Reynolds and later circled up to Patrick Kruse. After some searching, I entered a strong smooth thermal with my climb averaging 700 fpm. I love fast climbs, especially when they are smooth. As I climbed higher and higher, I looked up for a cloud, which I could not find, and I topped out at 12100' and 2000' above the clouds. The entire climb was cloudless. As I was cruising around in the smooth upper layer, I noticed a glory on a cloud. The glory is an optical phenomena that falls into the "Water Droplet Arc" category similar to rainstorm rainbows. The physics of the glory are not fully understood but a basic explanation is that glories are rainbow-colored rings produced by backscattering, surface wave effects, and diffraction from small, uniformly sized water droplets such as those in clouds and fog. The colored rings are seen around the “anti solar” point, directly opposite the sun along a line running through the observer’s location. Droplet characteristics are important in the type of glory formation. Smaller droplets produce larger glories. Uniform droplets have more rings, and they are more distinct as well. The glory’s angular size depends only on the diameters of the cloud droplets. The distance from the cloud has no effect on how large it looks. All of the glories in my pictures look to be the same angular size even though I was at different distances from the clouds. The shadow itself can change size depending on the distance from the cloud. The glider shadow in my pictures is small and off center in the glory. The camera is not centered on the glider. it is on the left wingtip aimed to the right and forward and it “sees” its part of the shadow in the center of the glory.

The glory sighting was mesmerizing. I had seen these before, but this time I was able to stay up at cloud height for an extended period of time while taking pictures. Most of the clouds I used to make the glory shots were elongated and wedge shaped from west to east and the cloud top billows appeared to be rising and showing a wind increase. I flew along the sunny south side of the cloud to get multiple shots. There was continuous 300 to 500 fpm lift near the cloud in clear air. I had to dive to stay low enough to get the glory shots. It was as if I was making speedy ridge runs, except I was flying upwind taking shots, and downwind to line up for another shooting run. After I made multiple cloud passes, the conditions started to deteriorate as the clouds were dissipating. The magical air had lasted about 45 minutes. I flew back to the ridge and as I watched my altimeter unwind my thoughts turned to the camera. I really wanted the shots to be there when I uploaded, because no one would believe or could imagine and enjoy this story without pictures.

I have had discussions about this soaring condition with Gary Osoba, a hang glider designer back in the 70‘s when new designs were coming out monthly. Gary also had some very innovative designs and currently holds many sailplane records and makes attempts to break soaring records every year. Gary had an explanation for my soaring condition: “The condition that allowed you to climb to altitudes above the clouds and then fly along in front of them, as you might do in ridge lift, are rather uncommon. First, there appeared to be a convergence of two air masses with markedly differing moisture levels. Secondly, the winds aloft were such that once you climbed to a position in front of existing clouds, you could “surf” them in a thermal induced wave. As such, the clouds line up in a manner that results in the upper winds to flow over them, creating mild wave lift and sink in a pattern.” I would like to add to this that the elongated wedge shape of the clouds was very interesting, possibly indicating that a drier, colder, faster moving air mass was converging, and riding up the cloud top, which increased the instability and helped to form and pull the cloud into a wedge shape.

After many years of flying, this flight is a strong reminder that the potential for new experience and discovery is always there, just waiting to be realized. In my early days of flying I discovered, for myself, that even a primitive standard hang glider could go up in a thermal using the circling method. We have come a long way since then. Through the years advancements in equipment, improvements in technique, and overall knowledge have enhanced our enjoyment in all aspects of flying. This flight had some phenomenal firsts for me: I have never gained anywhere near 2000' above the lower thermal formed clouds. I have never flown next to a small cloud in clear air and consistently gained 500 fpm. I have never had such a euphoric glory experience. The pleasure of this adventure was magnified by the unbelievable smoothness and buoyancy of the upper layer.

Later that night, I expressed to my flying buddies, “I feel like a 1000 watts. You could plug a toaster into me.”

Daniel Vélez Bravo<<danielvelezbravo>> writes:

We had twenty pilots flying in the meet. Even with some really bad weather during the first three days, we still managed to put on six tasks out of seven flying days. The tasks distances were from 69 to 112 km.

We also had seven foreign pilots from France, USA and Ecuador. Actually we had France's champion: Luis Rizo, a former USA's champion Dustin Martin, and the Ecuador's champion Raul Guerra.

At the end, Luis Rizo dominated the results, followed by James Stinnet (possible member of the US National Team), and then Dustin Martin.

With all high end level pilots, I conformed myself with fourth place, but had the luxury of winning two tasks.

The final results and every task results can be found here.

Some insight in Spanish, and some pictures can be found on my personal blog http://danielvelezbravo.wordpress.com.

There are definitely a lot of happy US pilots down here, and with luck they will be coming back next year.

If any of you still wants to taste the flying around Colombia, the Hang Gliding Nationals and Open Hang Gliding Championship are on August, and there's another FAI 2 event during June.