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Hangola Flytec Report, 2002

Flight Reports

Random thoughts on the comp:

It was great seeing everyone and even though I had to work 3 days it did not take long to get into the swing of things. Helping behind the scenes gives one a strong appreciation for the mammoth task of running a meet or even a local fly-in. With more tugs than last year 23 both the Wallaby Open and Flytec Championships could boast being the world's busiest airports, during some stretches, a takeoff and landing every 8 seconds.

Twice before the start the tug pilots all got up in a large vortex doing their best ww1 flying ace routines, truly amazing. Chad was in the thick of things of course with the standout red baron tug, winning the climb test one morning (although he has yet to face the ultimate challenger the slate blue stealth turbine tug)

He gained mythic rock star status the last evening. Everyone stopped what they were doing to take in the show, borrowing Bo's glider and knocking off a few loops from 3 grand (oh about 20 something) all the more impressive considering the glider had a turn in it. When he finished up some of the disappointed Green Team members ( a really tough audience ) shouted approval and then taunts from below as Chad flew over the field, them questioning his manhood etc... as if on cue he dove for us and tipped it over once more to a chorus of holy s*** looping then wanging into his approach for a perfect landing. 'Twas heard in the lz that "this guy is goooood" which is as we know well deserved praise. Obvious that he has been spending more time in the weight room instead of losing to me at poker but then of course we all lost to Erica anyway...

Helping stuff the red baron into Bobby Bailey's trailer was an interesting dilemma in defying the laws of physics and when almost finished Bill Moyes saunters by to check on things and pronounces how bad a rig this was and that "you'd do better getting another trailer there mate..." vintage Bill and I think he enjoyed ribbing us.

The comp was amazingly safe considering the air miles and launches a testament to good judgment and more diligent aerotow training by the pilots. There were a few quality whacks for entertainment such as Heiner Beisel rigid wing cross goal cross wind belly flop eliciting cries of "clear the wreckage" as he lay their waving to the crowd. Marion Moody was fortunate in escaping with a safe kiss the ground out landing after dodging unseen from above sprinkler poles from an old grove, an ever present danger here. Jim Paige not so fortunate in landing in a drainage canal and breaking his arm. There were many stories of pilots landing out in trackless wastes some told to me by retrieve driver extraordinaire Fred Permenter, but for the most part negotiating locked ranch gates and a stamina building hike were the penalties.

Gerolf had a tough few meets almost single handily calling off a day of Wallaby in the air and experiencing zipper problems during in air defueling and of course then failing to get upright in the harness to land due to the appendage en traction a quality whack resulted, and possibly explained his aggressive early tendencies at Flytec.

Local boy Curt Warren flew well winning a day and edging a charging Gerolf at the finish by a 30 feet at 10 feet off the deck. Their wings continued to overlap and when Curt had to flair the faster Gerolf reacted by diving his glider into the ground and blowing apart his $carbon$ control frame and taking out some of Curt's battens. Quite spectacular actually and a gallant exit from a problem he, Gerolf, alone created.

First to get to Gerolf's fetal bell rung body I heard "enough of these comps for me" from the Litespeed designer in a bit of pain from a bruised foot but more I think from bruised ego. He was a non factor after this in the meet with Chris Arai calling him on the radio at Quest turnpoint #2 on the last day where they both would land complaining of beer suck but not complaining too loudly. The last day task had an upwind 20 mile leg and was definitely not a barbecue task.

Some noted lapses in judgment were evident on the last day, perhaps from the exhaustion some of the competitors had been expressing, can their be too much flying? Brian Porter pulling up the Swift hard vertical at goal and nearly clipping the tree by the lake was a heart stopper for him and the peanut gallery.

Manfred flew the Swift and waxed Brian and the field in the space ship. Manfred's strategy session was a version of fly early and get early bird points, fly late and use the gaggles, fly fast it is easy. Disappointing the throngs of eager pilots. However, Bart a Wallaby instructor and first time competitor, had a chance encounter with Manfred who waved him over to follow then set him up 2 miles later in perfect position to follow a street from the start circle to the first turn point, class act. Bart seemed to think, by virtue mostly of skill but also tweaked equipment the big dogs had learned to think 3 steps ahead while he was just concerned with thermalling well enough to climb and not get hit.

JZ our esteemed Momma Yooshaga President spoke with me at length Sunday night about the meet, his aggressive tendencies in the air, not giving way once to a pilot from below and having a midair and fortunately a successful deployment and getting the FLA flight parks to work together to get the World Meet in 2004. It might happen if Malcolm wants it to though JZ admitted under prodding that Quest or Wallaby alone, with shared resources and 25 tugs could probably manage the 160+ pilots. It will be interesting to see if they, being the official bidder USHGA, can pull off a successful bid.
Look for the nonsensical "priority pilot" staging to be done away with soon btw.

We all had a scare at last day finish when someone yelled broken glider and in the distance we could see the wreckage spinning down, prayers were duly offered and tugs went on chase to find a glider cover size piece of white fabric thermalling, whew.

One notable gaff was me working the line holding my hand up in front for a lower time tug pilot to take the slack out of the tow rope and hearing him gun the throttle, a miscue that will sharpen one's reflex, since I was standing in front of the cart at the time, no worries as I tried to make my hitting the dirt look casual and nonchalant, the 4 time preflighted pilot took off without a hitch.

2nd to last day went zooming around after everyone left per usual couple hours at cb 5,200' dashing out of suck into the blue and going up some streets 5-6 miles a few more then misjudged my glide and I came up short and could see the roiling caldron of thermal marks on a lake I could not quite get to safely. Pretty hard sometimes to nail the next thermal even when you know it is there if you are getting drilled.

Black sucking cloud and ospreys taunting me in the near distance as I set up my approach in the freshening sink breeze but yet this was one of my dreams landing on the manicured sod of a golf links and no one was going to take this away from me. Well no one did.

Slightly uphill stifi 10 I cranked a SACable rlf approach and yelled mind if I play through in my best Grey Poupon voice over the driving range as flags wafted true every 50 yards to a perfect no stepper on the 17th fairway! And then silence, deafening, perhaps they did not know a had rock star landed in their midst?

Then I remembered having hit a few and caddied the shack and know how much golfer's resent the thought of having to give way to a faster player and especially one 100' above them that these guys hate me for screwing with their game. I probably cost some poor fellow the backside Nassau. Of course everyone else in the land of 80 year old retirees could not see me and so also ignored me.

The polite pro came out to see that I didn't crater on the course but it was far from my vision of juleps on the verandah entertaining the waiting throng of nubile ... er well you get the ahem idea.

Damn fine place to leisurely break down a glider though I remembered something else just as I stowed my gear in the cart barn as a cell blew up east and west of me cracking a few close. ALL 40 plus retrieval drivers were heading S to the aggressive Avon Park task 85 some miles away from Quest. Being 7 miles NE was not helpful this day so off I walked back watching 3 pileus form on 3 boomers and at sunset seeing the clouds light up within with streaks of lightning as a few tugs danced in the air, sweet and I may have worked off a few lbs. so if I ever do that again maybe I'll make it up...

Harper lands by the bar, Beck lands on campus, even Buffam lands to an appreciative audience, taped no less, guess I need some advice on the fine points of destination xc flying.

Meanwhile other notes: Oleg and Paris fly consistently well and their placing changes little as the field standing whirl around them, they will finish 1-2. Heart break when Mike Barber landed 250' short of goal and relief when Revo later floated over goal with inches to spare. Mike later stormed back from that disappointment winning the final day.

Dennis Pagen had a pretty good meet and Claire Vassort flying with focus and new equipment also flew very well, as Raean said "she stepped up her level of flying" which was good to see. After Kari Castle and Claire the solid third place US woman was Raean who overly modestly me thinks downplays her accomplishments. Granted the US Women's team will have their work cut out for themselves fielding a full team flying against the likes of Tish and Francois et. al. but Rae will clearly bolster the strongest core group the USA has had in awhile.

As the task committee and the weather calls gets more sophisticated, and the weather cooperates, the tasks seem racier and getting harder than before, it will be interesting next year if I fly my Xtralite in the comp for grins. Clear advantage to the rigids even over most tweaked topless on the longer upwind tasks and the pack pilot with less state of the art has a tougher time still. Yet most everyone I spoke with said they enjoyed the experience and learned from it and a good many went equipment shopping.

I decided to wind dummy last day and watch the chaos from above for a change. Stiff S wind some punch to the lift cb 2,900' to start at 12 and Rob the other 1/2 of Flytec in his Litespeed and I venture up. Within 10 minutes the field is buzzing as we are on an obvious street and have little problem staying up and moving around. As the sky gets crowded pilots find my lift and as 5-6 come in I move off and find more then more come and more a quick count of 11 tugs in the air near me. I have a good core and am outclimbing a few flex wings near me, perhaps they don't see me yet so I crank it over on a tip and soon Atilla's Litespeed?, Zwicky's Laminar and Rohan Holtcamp in his Airborne Climax come in just below or even.

Surprised that I recognize these guys and more surprised at how well they climb I leave to mark more lift and do grab a few thermals but am feeling a bit claustrophobic. Probably missed my chance to get out to the start gate without interfering since most of the good lift is taken, I'm sure I save one pilot who comes to my now light lift at 1,500' and off again but steadily sinking and am watching carefully the tugs releasing. Definitely have to step up ones game just to fly in this gaggled air. Seems to me it would be less stressful to launch earlier rather than late and if one could get high you could relax quite a bit more. Maybe relax is too strong a word.

I land help and launch 10 the last dozen pilots and go up again after the few relights and get a couple hours but rue the headwind and maybe just tired decide against xc even though I have a driver. Land in plenty of time to see the finish line as 10 flexies and about 5-6 rigids come across in 2 separate flights. Pretty inspiring stuff happened during the meet and GW caught a good bit of it on film, Final Cut Pro and a Mac and he had copies of the stirring video for each participant by the time of the awards ceremony.

Dave Glover ran the meet pretty well and was very funny at the awards.
Awesome Bob's band cranked up the volume well into the night.

Jabin gave Ric back some mojo and he flew well for his first comp, it was a joy to visit with his family. Mitch Shipley relaxed for once he said and really was more patient this paying off in his march up the standings. Quite a few pilots raced themselves to the ground. Perhaps as common a comp mistake as it is in running a foot race too pumped up and going out too fast. But then how often does one "race". Seldom even on the ridges back in PA did we race. The day pre comp pilots were in groups of 3 -4 screaming around the sky together test flying and blowing me away as I would use Ellenville laundry as pylons. safe but a bit of a gut check being in the air with these fast wings.

In an odd "who knew" twist almost the entire top 10 of flexies on the Avon Park task landed 8-10 miles short due to previous rain on the course that cleared up, but they all knew they were doomed when they could smell the wet earth at 400' as they decked and watched the B team fly over their heads 20 minutes later into goal. It tightened up the standings. Actually some of the later pilots drivers were alert enough to give them a heads up but the first gaggles drivers were perhaps behind and not communicating this crucial bit of info.

One of the most consistent issues for most competitors I spoke with those across the standings was to know just when to race and when to survive.

A few pilots did the task that was first called, out to Chalet Suzanne and back, laudable but wrong. It seems some glitches like this nailed a few pilots, along with some instrument problems but to my mind less "support issue" mistakes happened than in the past, a good thing.

SOOO many folks I know were here but it was especially nice meeting and working the line with Bruce, and flying with him, and seeing Steve and Tom and Dave also. Soon to be Floridians Fred and Raean I visited with Sunday night.

Sun. Andreas Ohlson bases at 6000' for hours but many clear out, pack or relax, 4 pilots fly, boo wah and everyone bails for the lake or jacuzzi.

There seems to be rough parity now on glider performance among the various makes close enough that no one seems to be unduly suffering because of their wing at least amongst the top rated pilots.

Hundreds of stories made up this meet but good fellowship and sportsmanship seemed to prevail.

FYI more on Oz Report http://www.davisstraub.com/OZ/
or flytec.com

Life is too good, tank is full.

Best Air,

Robert
Quest Air

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This page last updated May 12, 2002