- Pete Lehmann's daily account from the World Competition in Australia.
Saturday, January 31, 1998
Hi Guys,
I can't remember when I last wrote, but in the interim Team Yank (or Team Jurassic, in deference to our collective 'maturity') have sucked the big johnson, collectively and individually. It ain't pretty, though the team is slowly pulling itself upwards towards medal contention after a truly humiliating first day. Jim Lee, Gibbo, Nelly, and Brad are flying decently, but not better than that. Larry Tudor and I have sucked to this point. It can't last forever, but it is humiliating.
Yesterday the Yanks again had no pilots in goal (95 miles NE towards Wellington). It was, surprise, another blue day, but one where cirrus began to develop with the predictable result of damping down the lift. Only six people made it, with some of our guys getting reasonably close, JL the closest some15km short. It is hard to believe, but after four rounds not one American has yet made a goal. NOT ONE!
I have switched flying modes, and am simply looking for opportunities to have a fun day of flying which might help the team score. The astounding gaggles, and the imperative need to fly with gaggles has driven me out of competition hang gliding. It is simply unpleasant and I won't do it anymore. At one point yesterday Jim Lee was asked if he'd noticed something happening up ahead, and he answered, 'No, I have been too busy watching my wingtip'.
Hi All,
Yup, after a great drought the Team all made a goal...along with virtually the entire field. It is a great change. What is silly is the task-calling in this meet. After drastically overcalling the previous tasks, yesterday the bright bulbs undercalled one so severely that it isn't even fully valid due to the vagaries of the GAP scoring system we're using. Amazingly enough it seems as though the meet directors don't understand the scoring system and the implications of some things they did with it prior to the meet (pre-selecting 15% completion rate, 3hour task, and long distances).
Anyhow, I had a reasonable run yet was shockingly behind the winner who did it in something like 140 vs my 206 for the 58.6 mile task. I don't understand how he/they're doing it. The Team moved up a spot to fifth (I think), but we're still deep down in the shit. At least the clouds allowed us to display our racing strength, with five pilots in the top twelve. Pray for more racing conditions.
Greetings all,
Well, after yesterday's task I have almost certainly gotten out of the 100s. I was 102 going into yesterday, and did quite well for the first time in the meet,finally scoring some points for the team. The day before yesterday we had a raging race day of nearly 100 miles to Tottenham to the NW, and 7 of us made it, Mike Barber decking it early. I was a bit slow, but happy to be there after a rough start when I went down to 400 feet before the start gate. I wound up dribbling far off course line towards Parkes before getting high and fighting crosswind to get back onto course line. The other guys did well with Gibbo blazing and others doing well for the team score.
Yesterday we went back to Bodangara, 95 miles NE near Wellington. It was a really tough beginning as there was a high deck of cirrus that was rapidly thickening as the launch window opened. The meet officials dithered in calling the task, should have opened the window much more quickly. The result was that one had to get out of the paddock as quickly as possible to have a chance, and I was suited up and on the launch dolly 5 minutes before the window opened. As the green start flag was raised Shane cranked over the tug's engine and I was in the air as the day's first competitor. Even I struggled for a bit, but later launchers had a hellacious time in the early going with half of our team landing within 20 miles of the paddock. Jim Lee pulled an epic save at the start gate, taking his picture from 400' and then getting up to do well for the day. Larry Tudor made goal, and Gibbo was very close so we likely benefited as a team.
Hi All,
Yesterday was an awesome day. People were getting to illegal altitudes, and lift went up over 1000fpm. Larry Tudor registered a 93mph ground track while burying the bar downwind in an attempt to keep himself out of the clouds. Excepting me, the entire team made the 134 mile goal with Jim Lee doing best of the Yanks. Over 87 pilots made one of the longest goals ever called in a hang gliding competition.
I needed 4 tows to get out, including one broken static-line, and a trike-tow that went into severely rowdy conditions so I got off tow in the interests of safety. Once I got out I just barely got the start picture and went on course at a couple of grand. By the time I got high it was late, and I was way off course, having drifted downwind. After getting the turnpoint (low again; see a pattern developing?) I went down to 200-300', unzipped to land before catching a fast drifting little thermal. I climbed slowly for a considerable time, but it never took off and there were no clouds around to organize the lift. I was eventually back down to 200' ridge-soaring a finger of a small mountain. There I spent 10-15 minutes struggling to stay in the air before slowly getting up onto the mountain and out. In the end I topped out an 11,000' climb at 12,700'. I measured on a map that I had drifted 30 goddamn miles from the low spot at the turnpoint. Of course I was now massively downwind of course line at 6pm and still 70 miles from goal. I decided at that point to end the flight on my terms, and flew to a town, located the pub from the air, and landed 80 miles out and still 58 miles from goal.What a day.
Hi All,
Yesterday, the 9th straight flying day, the paddock reached a new level of heat and dust, if not yet quite the level of Hay. In town it was 102F 'in the shade', and lord knows what it was in the paddock. In an attempt to expedite our launches we arranged to have a second trike available. As a result we got the entire team out of the paddock in 35 minutes despite one relaunch and an unlaunchable period due to a strong tailwind.
The flying conditions were fairly ordinary, with an ambitious task of 90 odd miles called despite an increasingly thick overcast layer and stiff southwest breeze. The route took us south to Grenfell, southwest to Stockingbingle and northwest to Barmedan goal. No one made it even half way, although 5 of our guys did fairly well for the day (Gibbo, Jim, Larry, Glen and Mike). One person having fun is Chris Muller the 22 year old Canadian. On the previous 12,000' day he was reported to have been doing loops out on course while at cloudbase. Gotta love it.-
Greetings All,
Day 10? I think. Today looked like there was going to be a short window of opportunity before the cirrus shut things down. As I am the last ranked Yank, and therefore last in the regular launch order, I was looking at launching late in deteriorating conditions. However, we have a rule that if no one is ready to launch in the order, anyone else can launch if they're ready. So, I got ready and launched first. The tow was one of the nastier ones I have ever had in wickedly thermally conditions, but when Shane the tug-driver gave me the 'fuck-off card' (as the Aussies say) I pinned-off into 700up and beamed out. After a while I found 1000up to 9K with Tudor and went on course hoping to beat the cirrus deck. I was somewhat wary at first, fearing that conditions were shutting down, but in the end it was a raging good day and I made goal. I was low only once, and otherwise saw great lift and got to almost 11K at 800fpm for final glide. All 8 Yanks made goal, but the only one I beat on time was my early launching colleague Larry. The later launching members of the team all had better runs. However, the GAP scoring system may actually give Larry and me decent scores because it rewards both early launchers and early finishers, and I qualified on both counts. Guido the German smoked again, solidifying his hold on first and is very likely to walk away with the World Championship. It is a delight to see a 22 year old kid fly that well and with such manifest enjoyment.
Greetings all,
Today dawned overcast and with indications that it had actually rained here last night. That brought up the thought that perhaps we wouldn't fly today due to possible rain or because the tow paddock would be wet, muddy and unavailable for towing. It was, of course, folly, and we did indeed go flying. It began with wet-looking, low-cloudbase cumies. Our expectations were low, and they were re-inforced by the forecast of 200fpm best lift. Despite that the day's task call was an ambitious 76 mile route with two turnpoints. In effect it was a triangle that didn't quite get us home. We were to fly 25 miles east, then 25 miles north, and, finally, 25 miles southwest to Eugowra.
After having paid some $250 for a second trike on one of the previous days, Mike Barber and I volunteered to car-tow as a cheaper way to speed our team's towing turnaround. When the window opened Larry Tudor aero-towed, and I string-towed behind him. To my surprise I pinned off into 300fpm lift that soon turned into 600fpm. So much for forecasts. Off we went under the rather OD looking clouds, at first finding similar lift enroute. By the first turnpoint things had become less easy with the virtual overcast shutting down the solar heating and creating rather difficult conditions for the second leg northward. After scratching for a bit things became quite good for a short while, but having gotten stuck meant that all the later starters had caught up to me. That included the big boys, Tomas Suchanek, Manfred Ruhmer, Guido Gehrmann and several Yanks, Jim Lee and Nelson Howe. We all raced along for a bit approaching the next turnpoint which was located in an ominous blue hole amidst the clouds. I and a couple of the big boys tried to be a bit too cute by detouring around the hole, but in the end we had to go into it fairly low to shoot the turnpoint . It was an absolute Times Square traffic jam at the turnpoint. I would guess that there were 50-60 gliders struggling in the two blue gaggles after the turnpoint. Unfortunately for all concerned the the gaggles were climbing at only 100-150fpm, and weren't going very high before petering to zero. The gaggles would then displace themselves latterly to join the poor bastard who'd found a bit of lift nearby. This process continued until, finally, the whole area began to go off and clouds began to form in the hitherto blue sky.
I finally wandered off towards a promising bit of cloud which turned on into an 800fpm climb to base at 7,500'. Now this was hang gliding. After that things became almost anticlimatic. The overcast had dissipated and the individual cumies were working well. All of the Yanks made goal, though with decidedly different times. Glen, Larry and I were the slow ones, with the later launching guys being considerably faster. All in all, though, I was damn happy to be there as was Larry who said he had pulled off his lowest save of the meet back at the second turnpoint. Better yet was the fact that Nelson's dad and my mom were present at goal after driving six hours from Sydney. It had proven to be a bloody good day's hang gliding...and tomorrow promises more of the same. What a magnificent contest this is.
Hi All,
Well the meet's over. After 12 straight days of flying the weather finally got us. Yesterday's task began under a spectacular cumie-filled sky that was forecast to deteriorate as the day went on. And sure enough the sky became increasingly cirrused and in the distance a forboding, dark wall began to approach accompanied by ever stronger winds. The 115 mile task had been called to include 3 legs 60 downwind, 40 crosswind and 20 miles upwind. The downwind leg was stone easy with lift anywhere up to 800fpm and base at 7,500' accompanied by a 20mph tailwind. The only minor tactical problem was crossing the Weddin Mountains. They really aren't too big in either height or breadth, but last year they acquired an evil reputation for lee side turbulence, a reputation strongly influenced by the first ever topless-tumble that occurred there. As a result we all tiptoed over the mountains as high as possible in deference to the high winds which were likely to create a strong rotor chopping-up the powerful thermals. No one had any problems there, but after the first turnpoint people began to struggle against what was now a strong crosswind under an increasinly overcast sky. Those pilots who managed to achieve the last turnpoint were finally confronted by a howling headwind. Jim Lee went to 9,400' at the turnpoint, and glided a mere 3.5 miles into the wind to land. He and all other pilots then broke down in a big hurry as a dark wall was rapidly approaching and becoming increasingly ominous in appearance.
Today was to have been the last flying day, but the weather is still poor and, in any event, the tow paddock is unusable due to the mud resulting from yesterday's rain. Instead, we began drinking (1030am), accumulated spare parts, gathered for the participants' photograph, and then began to break down gliders for shipping, clean vehicles, prep gliders for sale (pulling off personal hang straps, speedbars, etc), and generally preparing for departure. It is amazing how much equipment we drag around with us in the sport of un-powered foot-launched aviation. After two weeks in one spot it all seems to spread out into other people's rooms, harnesses and vehicles. Over time we've borrowed radios, downtubes, chargers, winglets, GPSs and all manner of clothing and personal items. So the last days are spent sorting it all out and balancing financial accounts.
Tonight will begin the formal celebrations, events likely to dramatically increase the local consumption of Vitamin I (Ibuprofen). Wish us luck, Pete
