Back to Main Page Back to Archive 2004

Index to weather maps

Hangola January 22 - 27, 2004

Flight Reports

Recently two of my students, Ken Swingle and Wesley Comerer completed their Hang 2 requirements. I look forward to taking them to the mountains when the weather gets nicer!

- john middleton

Well, the flying here at the Bogong Cup has been spectacular up till yesterday. The last task we did saw close to 40 pilots in goal. Overall it was a consistant and strong day with clouds and lots of pilots marking lift. Cloudbase at the start was 8,500' and I got a great start being at base less then 1k away from the start circle. I quickly squandered that with a bad courseline decision. That was a trend for the day that seems to haunt me. There are the choices to go with a group on courseline, or take an alternative that looks better but is longer and requires going slower. At least now when I make the wrong decision I correct it faster ;). So the first leg involved some playing catch up. With a good start I wasn't too far behind and stayed in contact even making up some ground. The glides were very long and I couldn't help but quote Tommy Boy over and over...."Fat guy in a littel coat...Fat guy in a little Coat" for some reason that reminds me of my relatively high wing loading and how on my glider that gives me such a huge advantage on glide. It was cool getting to the next one highest every time but the tradeoff came in sweat and work to try and outclimb the gaggle traffic. Sometimes it works, sometimes I just stay even. At the second turn point I favored a line over a small ridge that only looked 15 degrees off courseline to the left. Doh, it turned into a much greater deviation once I got a few K's that direction. That turned into a huge mistake because once back on course I was now a bit low entering a blue hole. Some upper level cirrus had suppresed an area about 10-20k across. I joined a gaggle in weak lift low and wasn't high enough to leave when they did. I scratched for about a thousand precious feet before crossing my fingers and praying. The long glide was scary. I found stuff to dolphin in but nothing worth more then an investigative turn. At 22k from goal I spoke my magic words to Belinda, "Kevin, 22k out from goal, getting low." I only like to use the radio for 20-30 min updates on progress or reports when I am low in case I drop out of radio range. The I'm Low announcement seems to be the "I'm about to hit a boomer" call because it seems to happen regularly that I find my best thermals after that message. I prayed hard as I glided in under a gaggle at less then 2,000' and no clear trigger visible below. With full VG I got sucked into a 900 ft/min monster that even allowed big flat turns! With this late blooming thermal now pumping I milked that sucker for all it was worth! About another half dozen pilots joined my group of 4 and the 6 or so above us. I kept the VG tight and worked it hard because I knew this would be the last one. The work payed off and a group of us finally left with my vario ordering me to fly FAST! So here we are about a dozen gliders dashing for the goal line. Glide speeds were around 50-60 depending on the lift line. Slowly the higher pilots dropped lower and inched ahead. The level pilots crept downward. In typical fasion I searched for a goal line several K's past the real one and the better pilots slipped in a few seconds ahead of me but hundreds of feet below. The last few kilometers my instincts were screaming "We are going to FAST! Were not going to make it!!!" but if I had only trusted the vario I would have speed up ! GRRRR! Pulled off a good landing and watched about a dozen guys demonstrate a wide range of landing skill as I walked to the break down area (In other words, lots of whacks in L&V).

Fun FUn!

Kev C

So I didn't fly yesterday because the competition task was called off. Bo on the other hand decided he wanted to free fly and show us it was "doable." Uh Oh. But I gotta back up and mention our drive up. We have this poor beat up old wagon we cram 4 pilots, one driver, and a ton of gear into. We call ourselves the Ukranian American Friendship Team. Ever since we got the poor car it has been riding low and rough in the back. I wanted to do something about the right height back at the beginning of the trip but had to settle for new shocks from a shop Davis one a gift certificate for. That helped a bit but we were still riding on the bump stops in back. Bo decided to tear up the rugged dirt road to launch and a speed that had my teeth rattling and kidney's crying. We begged him to slow down and he just cackled. As we unloaded the car a flat tire was staring back at us. Unloading the gliders revealed damage to the back rack. That same corner suffered damage from Davis aka Evil Kineval's Launch a week or so back. The bar was just hanging off the side and the mount had stripped away some paint. Luckily there was a spare and we just jammed the rack back on for a temp fix.

Once the day was canned Bo set off for his flight. Winds were strong but he couldn't seem to get out of the bowl. One strong thermal got him close to 6k but drifted too far back to make the jump across the valley to Mt Buffalo. After maybe 45 minutes of the same stuff he charged left to clear a spine that usually has good lift. It didn't work out and with many Gasps from the crowd of pilots breaking down I knew something wasn't good. I looked up with horror as Bo's glider did the lee side flush plumet. Now this is a steep mountain he is running from and his wing is just flying/falling parallel with the face gaining no clearance for close to 800'! Finally lower in the canyon he was able to punch out and around a finger behind him to head towards the bomb out field. In true Bo style he opted for a cricket field rather then a low downwind glide to a turbulent bombout. The western australia crew figures he scored 6 points for a final between the uprights. His safe landing earned a round of applause from about 100 pilots up on launch.

With the afternoon off we found a junk yard with alternative springs for the poor car. She glides like a Caddy now.

Kev C

From: Tjadenhors

"For those who haven't been reading the OZ reports, Kevin has made goal every day, and after the last task (on day three, I think) he was in 12th!!! I MEAN 12TH overall, not after that particular task. This is a BIG deal. (hopefully I have the details right, you all will just have to read the OZ reports and check)

Hope you enjoy every second, Kev."

That is correct Lauren, and I have been salivating over a chance to slip into the top 10. Those mistakes were big enough to prevent that on task 3. The scores are tight and with a few tasks to go some shuffling is very likely.

Its no secret I want to get 4 high scoring meets in just one year rather then spread out over the 2 year standard. The fields this year are a bit weaker so that affects NTSS scoring somewhat. Either way, cross your fingers for me! No bombing out allowed!

Kev C

	previous page	back to top	next page

This page last updated February 2, 2004