The entire main street of Manilla was closed to traffic for the closing ceremonies. We started off with a free steak BBQ at Vic and Tom’s, and then moved outside to the street party for the awards:
1st Nation: Czech Republic
2nd Nation: France
3rd Nation: Switzerland
Canada 19th Nation
1st Women: Petra Slivova(Czech)
2nd Women: Viv Williams (Australia)
3rd Women: Harmony Gaw (New Zealand)
1st Men: Bruce Goldsmith (UK)
2nd Men: Jean-Marc Caron (France)
3rd Men: Tom McCune (USA))
Canadian rankings:
Keith McCullough: 51st
Will Gadd: 77th
Nicole McLearn: 114th
All in all Canada did better at this Worlds compared to Brazil. All of us made goal at least once, and the conditions here were very difficult compared to the usual Manilla flying. I learned a lot more about comp flying and am very glad I came, but now I’m ready to go back home and fly for fun. Everyone is leaving tomorrow; I’ll be in Sydney for a few more days and then back in Vancouver next week. Hopefully by then the rain back home will have ceased!
Nicole
Friday, March 9, 2007
Oodles in goal, but not me
It was pretty easy to cancel the day yesterday…pouring rain all morning and early afternoon, probably as much as 2” in the end. We took David and Lee out to lunch since they’ve been so nice to us, and they returned the favour by making a farewell party (also Will’s birthday party) in the evening. Lots of drinking ensued, and later on ridiculous games. All in all a good time was had by all.
This morning it was sunny and those pilots who were hemming and hawing about leaving had an easy choice to stay and fly the final day. The task was a 53 km downwind dash to Gulf Creek, past Barraba. Cloudbase was extremely low, about 1300 m, and the lift was light to nonexistent. Once again the launch gaggle grew and grew, and nobody was able to leave, until well after the first (and second) of the start gates had come and gone. A few pilots even left at basically ridge height, since getting high around launch was practically impossible.
I think the highest I got was around 1200 m at one point, and had I known what was to come, I would have left with that height, regardless of the start gates, if the gaggle was going, or if people were getting low ahead of me. But I thought I could get higher so I stuck around launch in that hope, but in the end I got flushed and landed in the west bombout.
Now I have been here for 1 month and never bombed out, and I was quite proud of that fact (given that Mt. Borah is only about 1000’ high). So I was really annoyed that this happened on the last day. But the Basher was there to take me back up to launch, and I relaunched before the window closed. But fate (or bad luck, or lack of skill, take your pick :) decided I should land there again, which I did, about 5 minutes after the launch window closed. So after 1 month of no bombouts, I get to do so twice in one day.
So no chance to relaunch for this task since the window had closed by then, and it means I’m officially the suckiest pilot for today’s task. I certainly didn’t see any other comp pilots land there after the window closed! But looking at the bright side of things, I got to pack up on nice green grass (thanks to the rain) and have a leisurely drive back to Manilla, and not have to rush back like the oodles of people that made goal today. And when I downloaded my GPS I didn’t have a huge lineup of people, since I was back first :)
Apparently, if you were able to stay alive past Tarpoly, it got easier and whole bunches of people made goal today. Will (even hung-over), Keith, Josh, and Tom all made it. Kari and Bill went down about 20-25 km downrange. Brian Webb and Steve Ham went down in the same general area too. So the standings will change once again; today was yet another example of survival in light lift while avoiding mid airs, absolutely no racing involved, and huge amounts of luck in who stayed in the air and who didn’t. Tom has a shot at the podium since he was 5th going in, and word is that Crigel didn’t make goal today.
Will report on the overall standings and final party later!
Nicole
This morning it was sunny and those pilots who were hemming and hawing about leaving had an easy choice to stay and fly the final day. The task was a 53 km downwind dash to Gulf Creek, past Barraba. Cloudbase was extremely low, about 1300 m, and the lift was light to nonexistent. Once again the launch gaggle grew and grew, and nobody was able to leave, until well after the first (and second) of the start gates had come and gone. A few pilots even left at basically ridge height, since getting high around launch was practically impossible.
I think the highest I got was around 1200 m at one point, and had I known what was to come, I would have left with that height, regardless of the start gates, if the gaggle was going, or if people were getting low ahead of me. But I thought I could get higher so I stuck around launch in that hope, but in the end I got flushed and landed in the west bombout.
Now I have been here for 1 month and never bombed out, and I was quite proud of that fact (given that Mt. Borah is only about 1000’ high). So I was really annoyed that this happened on the last day. But the Basher was there to take me back up to launch, and I relaunched before the window closed. But fate (or bad luck, or lack of skill, take your pick :) decided I should land there again, which I did, about 5 minutes after the launch window closed. So after 1 month of no bombouts, I get to do so twice in one day.
So no chance to relaunch for this task since the window had closed by then, and it means I’m officially the suckiest pilot for today’s task. I certainly didn’t see any other comp pilots land there after the window closed! But looking at the bright side of things, I got to pack up on nice green grass (thanks to the rain) and have a leisurely drive back to Manilla, and not have to rush back like the oodles of people that made goal today. And when I downloaded my GPS I didn’t have a huge lineup of people, since I was back first :)
Apparently, if you were able to stay alive past Tarpoly, it got easier and whole bunches of people made goal today. Will (even hung-over), Keith, Josh, and Tom all made it. Kari and Bill went down about 20-25 km downrange. Brian Webb and Steve Ham went down in the same general area too. So the standings will change once again; today was yet another example of survival in light lift while avoiding mid airs, absolutely no racing involved, and huge amounts of luck in who stayed in the air and who didn’t. Tom has a shot at the podium since he was 5th going in, and word is that Crigel didn’t make goal today.
Will report on the overall standings and final party later!
Nicole
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Another light lift task day
The day didn’t start out looking great, lots of high cirrus clouds and more clouds expected to move in, but it wasn’t windy and that was good enough for us, so we went up. On the east launch a task to Baanbaa was called (60.8 km) with multiple start gates to allow people to choose when to start the task. After the hoopla over the 1st TP on the last task, I didn’t really want to be involved in a massive gaggle right over launch in light conditions (which they were, according to the wind dummies not getting very high over launch), so I opted to wait until almost all the other competitors had launched and gotten away from the hill, even though by doing so I was pretty much shooting myself in the foot as far as keeping up with the lead gaggle. But I figured safer was better, and yep it was a good decision since there were 2 mid-airs over the mountain in the gaggles that did form up. The first one I witnessed while still on launch; a Japanese pilot on a Boomerang 5 and an Omega mid-aired right over the south launch. It took a very long time for them to separate, while those of us watching were saying under our breaths “throw, throw, throw”. Eventually they separated and the Boom flew away cleanly, but the Omega was in trouble and Caroline from France ended up throwing her reserve. It opened cleanly and she controlled her main glider as she drifted very slowly behind launch onto the west side, where she landed gently part way down the west launch slope (and OK). The other mid-air I didn’t see, but it was Renata from the Czech Republic and Tracey from South Africa that mid-aired right over the east launch. They both tossed their reserves and landed at the split rock hairpin turn up to launch; Renata was OK, Tracey was taken to hospital with a back injury.
There was also a treed pilot right off the east launch, and a pilot that broke their leg landing at Godfrey’s (not a comp pilot). So there was a lot of carnage in the beginning, which made me glad not to be in the air right then.
When I did launch, I did so with Bill and then we chose the 3:30 pm start gate. The going was slow since the climbs were weak and disorganized, and nobody really wanted to land out on the plateau to the NW. We actually stayed more to the south, and finally got a good climb to 2000 m just as we hit the Boggabri Gap. But the shade was coming, and there was a storm cloud forming just to the north of the Gap, and rain was coming out of it. I could see some pilot diving underneath that cloud in an attempt to find lift, but I didn’t feel like playing that game and stayed well away from it. Unfortunately all around that cloud was a lot of general shade, and a bunch of us spent the last few minutes searching for little pieces of lift just before the Gap. It didn’t work, and about 6 of us landed in the same field at about the 28 km mark.
Turns out all of us were women; after we took off our helmets and realized this it was quite funny. Then a guy landed in the field with us and destroyed the symmetry of it all, but he seemed pretty happy to have chosen that particular field to land in :). And just as we were packing up and leaving, Russel Ogden came in and landed too.
Keith and Bill landed a few fields over from us; a lot of people went down in the same general area. Adrian from the UK team and Brian from the Oz team also landed nearby. Petra didn’t do so well today so she will drop in the standings too. In fact a lot of rank-swapping is going to take place after this task! Josh and Will landed 1-2 km short of goal and walked the last bit as penance, while Tom and Kari made goal (yay!).
All in all, it was another non-typical Manilla day, with lots of weak climbs. With every day being non-standard, flukey, and practically no racing taking place, there is more than the average amount of luck being involved. No clear winner is emerging as far as consistency goes. Definitely not what the Worlds are usually about!
The Aussies hosted a party at JJ’s tonight for all the English-speaking pilots…$5 for a BBQ steak and all the fixings, and then we watched episode 16 of Heroes on the big screen. By the time we get back to Canada we’ll be all caught up!
Nicole
There was also a treed pilot right off the east launch, and a pilot that broke their leg landing at Godfrey’s (not a comp pilot). So there was a lot of carnage in the beginning, which made me glad not to be in the air right then.
When I did launch, I did so with Bill and then we chose the 3:30 pm start gate. The going was slow since the climbs were weak and disorganized, and nobody really wanted to land out on the plateau to the NW. We actually stayed more to the south, and finally got a good climb to 2000 m just as we hit the Boggabri Gap. But the shade was coming, and there was a storm cloud forming just to the north of the Gap, and rain was coming out of it. I could see some pilot diving underneath that cloud in an attempt to find lift, but I didn’t feel like playing that game and stayed well away from it. Unfortunately all around that cloud was a lot of general shade, and a bunch of us spent the last few minutes searching for little pieces of lift just before the Gap. It didn’t work, and about 6 of us landed in the same field at about the 28 km mark.
Turns out all of us were women; after we took off our helmets and realized this it was quite funny. Then a guy landed in the field with us and destroyed the symmetry of it all, but he seemed pretty happy to have chosen that particular field to land in :). And just as we were packing up and leaving, Russel Ogden came in and landed too.
Keith and Bill landed a few fields over from us; a lot of people went down in the same general area. Adrian from the UK team and Brian from the Oz team also landed nearby. Petra didn’t do so well today so she will drop in the standings too. In fact a lot of rank-swapping is going to take place after this task! Josh and Will landed 1-2 km short of goal and walked the last bit as penance, while Tom and Kari made goal (yay!).
All in all, it was another non-typical Manilla day, with lots of weak climbs. With every day being non-standard, flukey, and practically no racing taking place, there is more than the average amount of luck being involved. No clear winner is emerging as far as consistency goes. Definitely not what the Worlds are usually about!
The Aussies hosted a party at JJ’s tonight for all the English-speaking pilots…$5 for a BBQ steak and all the fixings, and then we watched episode 16 of Heroes on the big screen. By the time we get back to Canada we’ll be all caught up!
Nicole
Tuesday, March 6, 2007
World Championships, Day 9
As predicted, today was very windy from the southeast. We’ve been told that when it’s SE it’s very rarely blown out here, but today seems to be the exception (it’s the Worlds after all :). We were all very surprised when we were told to be on launch by noon, since it looked pretty obvious that it was not taskable, and barely flyable. But we went up anyways...yep it was windy.
We waited all afternoon in the hopes that it would die off enough to allow for safe enough launching conditions off the east launch. A few wind dummies did indeed fly earlier on in the ridge lift, before it got too strong, and during the wait period Crigel flew too, although that seemed to be more a photo op than anything else. Most other people opted to not even open their glider bags in the 35-40 kph gusts. Finally the official word came at 3:30 pm that the day was cancelled, and we all breathed a sigh of relief that now we could go back down the mountain to some shade and a shower. But at least we weren’t rained on!
On a different note, both David and Lee Menzie have been absolutely fabulous towards us...last night they made us a huge dinner, and will be having another farewell party before we all leave. But it may only be a temporary farewell...they are making noises about coming to Canada next summer, to coincide with the PG Nats in Golden. They want to come out and visit, and help out with the meet!
Nicole
We waited all afternoon in the hopes that it would die off enough to allow for safe enough launching conditions off the east launch. A few wind dummies did indeed fly earlier on in the ridge lift, before it got too strong, and during the wait period Crigel flew too, although that seemed to be more a photo op than anything else. Most other people opted to not even open their glider bags in the 35-40 kph gusts. Finally the official word came at 3:30 pm that the day was cancelled, and we all breathed a sigh of relief that now we could go back down the mountain to some shade and a shower. But at least we weren’t rained on!
On a different note, both David and Lee Menzie have been absolutely fabulous towards us...last night they made us a huge dinner, and will be having another farewell party before we all leave. But it may only be a temporary farewell...they are making noises about coming to Canada next summer, to coincide with the PG Nats in Golden. They want to come out and visit, and help out with the meet!
Nicole
World Championships, Day 8
The day dawned cloudy with showers, so we weren’t optimistic about flying. At the team leader briefing we were told to reconvene at 12 noon, and by then it looked worse, so we were very surprised when we were told to meet on Mt. Borah for a 1:30pm meeting. Oh well, get the gliders ready and up the mountain we went, in time to see a nice rain cell form and start shooting lightening out of it, to the SW of Mt. Borah. That put an end to any ideas of having a task, and back down the mountain we went. Tomorrow is not looking good, but Wed/Thurs/Fri are all looking good, so we may yet end this meet on a positive note!
Nicole
Nicole
Monday, March 5, 2007
Days Go By
It has been a while since my last confession. We have been doing everything but flying here it seems. So what that really means is we have been doing nothing. The weather is not on our side so there for we have had to take up other tasks. I have choosen eating, sleeping and internet. Yes, for all of you that know me well this is not working so well for me. Boredom and I have had a very much love hate relationship over the years and this last fortnight is testing it yet again. We have had 3 days here since the World's started and now we only have 3 left to go. The forecast dare i say looks good for the next few days but I will wait till they are here before I get my hopes up on some racing conditions. I still sit in the Top 50 overall so I am not going to shed a tear about it but I still wish we could test ourselves with some real flying rather than surfing every bit of lift we can find.
So until I have something more postive to say I have decided to say nothing at all.
K
So until I have something more postive to say I have decided to say nothing at all.
K
Sunday, March 4, 2007
World Championships, Day 7
We flew today! It was sunny and very hot (37 C), and not too much wind. Up on launch it was blowing up on several launches so I chose the west launch, even though people were launching off all launches. Once in the air it was an easy climb to cloudbase (2300 m) and we thought it was gonna be a fast race day. Boy, were we wrong!
The task was to Tamworth (57 km, via a couple of turnpoints); it being a weekend we had special permission to fly into Tamworth, provided we stayed out of the controlled airspace and to the east of the highway (there is a major airport in this town).
Once at cloudbase we had a 30 minute wait until the race started, and of course just as the start approached the lift died, and we were all scrambling for lift as the start came and went, meaning a lot of people had a late start. Had the start been 30 minutes earlier we would have had an easier time of it!
Anyways, after getting the start it was off to Manilla town for the 1st TP at the sports fields. In contrast to the abundant lift right over launch, once over the flats it was hell, with practically no lift and lots of pilots in your way. Our gaggle spent about 1 hour over the 1st TP at about 1000 m (and the ground is about 370 m), in 0’s mostly, with the occasional 0.5 m/s, followed by a –0.5 m/s. People were yelling at each other, turning all sorts of directions, and generally being very rude to each other in the game to get the most lift out of the “thermal” (I hesitate to even call it that, it was so random). There was at least 1 midair; I heard it and looked down to see the gliders separating, with one glider with a big cravatte (or broken lines, it was hard to tell), spiralling down until he threw his reserve. It opened OK and he landed in the sportsfields in a tree next to the river, and was apparently OK. The other person continued flying so I guess their glider was OK too.
After a midair you’d think people would smarten up, but no. The shit show continued until some sort of general consensus was agreed upon that this was about the best we were gonna get for this climb, and we went on glide (from about 1600 m). Another gaggle had been in front of us, in the low hills, and were having much the same problems as us, but just a few km away. We chose a line that was closer to the highway, but over the low hills, since it was obvious the flats weren’t working that well (they’re all green and still have standing water in them) and the hills were the only things with clouds over them (but even the clouds looked anemic, unless you were 100 km to the east, where they were going off).
The gaggle never really got small, and every little piece of lift was taken advantage of, so the going was slow. In this fashion we made our way to the next TP at the Attunga Mines. Up to now we had stayed in hill country in an attempt to stay high, but the Mine is out on the flats, so we had to venture out to tag it. By this time we had been flying for 4 hours and it was getting late, and it was obvious we weren’t going to make goal based on the fact we were flying so slow and the task ended at 6:30pm. We got as high as we could and made the dash to the Mine, tagged it, and tried to get back to the relative safety of the hills. No luck, and just about everybody (including me) dirted it about 1-2 km SE of the Mine. There must have been 50 people who landed in that general area during the afternoon!
In the end about 13 people made goal (and it took them over 3 hours to do it!), with 15 or so just short, and most people landed near the Mine. That is about the 40 km mark, and after 4 hours of flying (plus the 1 hour flying while waiting for the start), it meant 10 km/h. Pretty much the slowest XC I have done in a long time, and we are just bone-tired after that kind of day: both physically (we spent most the flight low, in the extreme heat, wearing way too many clothes) and mentally (keeping an eye out for potential midairs, calculating who was climbing better, what line to take on glides, etc.). So, since nobody from Teams Canada or USA made goal we are all going to have eat a package of Vegemite tomorrow morning (see Will’s blog for the explanation), as penance!
Nicole
The task was to Tamworth (57 km, via a couple of turnpoints); it being a weekend we had special permission to fly into Tamworth, provided we stayed out of the controlled airspace and to the east of the highway (there is a major airport in this town).
Once at cloudbase we had a 30 minute wait until the race started, and of course just as the start approached the lift died, and we were all scrambling for lift as the start came and went, meaning a lot of people had a late start. Had the start been 30 minutes earlier we would have had an easier time of it!
Anyways, after getting the start it was off to Manilla town for the 1st TP at the sports fields. In contrast to the abundant lift right over launch, once over the flats it was hell, with practically no lift and lots of pilots in your way. Our gaggle spent about 1 hour over the 1st TP at about 1000 m (and the ground is about 370 m), in 0’s mostly, with the occasional 0.5 m/s, followed by a –0.5 m/s. People were yelling at each other, turning all sorts of directions, and generally being very rude to each other in the game to get the most lift out of the “thermal” (I hesitate to even call it that, it was so random). There was at least 1 midair; I heard it and looked down to see the gliders separating, with one glider with a big cravatte (or broken lines, it was hard to tell), spiralling down until he threw his reserve. It opened OK and he landed in the sportsfields in a tree next to the river, and was apparently OK. The other person continued flying so I guess their glider was OK too.
After a midair you’d think people would smarten up, but no. The shit show continued until some sort of general consensus was agreed upon that this was about the best we were gonna get for this climb, and we went on glide (from about 1600 m). Another gaggle had been in front of us, in the low hills, and were having much the same problems as us, but just a few km away. We chose a line that was closer to the highway, but over the low hills, since it was obvious the flats weren’t working that well (they’re all green and still have standing water in them) and the hills were the only things with clouds over them (but even the clouds looked anemic, unless you were 100 km to the east, where they were going off).
The gaggle never really got small, and every little piece of lift was taken advantage of, so the going was slow. In this fashion we made our way to the next TP at the Attunga Mines. Up to now we had stayed in hill country in an attempt to stay high, but the Mine is out on the flats, so we had to venture out to tag it. By this time we had been flying for 4 hours and it was getting late, and it was obvious we weren’t going to make goal based on the fact we were flying so slow and the task ended at 6:30pm. We got as high as we could and made the dash to the Mine, tagged it, and tried to get back to the relative safety of the hills. No luck, and just about everybody (including me) dirted it about 1-2 km SE of the Mine. There must have been 50 people who landed in that general area during the afternoon!
In the end about 13 people made goal (and it took them over 3 hours to do it!), with 15 or so just short, and most people landed near the Mine. That is about the 40 km mark, and after 4 hours of flying (plus the 1 hour flying while waiting for the start), it meant 10 km/h. Pretty much the slowest XC I have done in a long time, and we are just bone-tired after that kind of day: both physically (we spent most the flight low, in the extreme heat, wearing way too many clothes) and mentally (keeping an eye out for potential midairs, calculating who was climbing better, what line to take on glides, etc.). So, since nobody from Teams Canada or USA made goal we are all going to have eat a package of Vegemite tomorrow morning (see Will’s blog for the explanation), as penance!
Nicole
Saturday, March 3, 2007
High winds cancel the day
Today was cancelled due to high winds…it’s a beautiful sunny day and hot (36 C), but the winds on Mt. Borah are gusting to 40 kph, and to the SW it’s 50 kph. So no task today. While we were waiting for the official word on this, pilots amused themselves with a paper airplane contest. Best glide, time aloft, and accuracy. It was quite funny to see pilots lining up in the HQ with their creations, tossing them, and then retrimming them. Gin was the expert at this by retrimming his airplane often enough so that he was getting the most distance on most of his tosses. And he also won the accuracy contest by tossing his airplane directly into the lens of the video camera (the target) so he wins a free beer :)
Nicole
Nicole
Friday, March 2, 2007
Were Flying
Yeah so today the storms finally stopped and we actually woke up to no clouds. The original thought was it might be windy but once arriving on launch it was the opposite. We had no idea which launch of the four to go to as it was really not blowing up any of them. Gadd and I sat on the east launch as the first start time went by with both of us behind a solid 20 or so other gliders before we could even get a chance to get into the air. After sitting for what seemed like ages we finally chucked ourselves into the abyss. In front of launch there was marginal to no lift at all. I promptly sunk out and landed at the bottom just in time to get a ride back up top as everyone climbed out. I was now behind the entire field of 145 pilots. It was time to get my ass in gear. I launched the West launch this time and climbed straight away up to almost base where I decided to head to the first turnpoint which we were told was a massive sink hole. It was. I was so far behind I had a great view of the field of pilots in front of me. We had a group climbing just before the turnpoint to the right and few to the left. I choose left and it worked. I was now with the pack. We went back in the direction of launch were we all got very low waiting for the lack of lift to become something useful. I finally climbed back to base and went on glide towards launch. I was now in the lead gaggle and charging hard. Just at the end of the ridge before turnpoint 2 Josh Cohn and I climbed to base and headed out to the flats where the turnpoint was located we timed it perfect and were now leading with me being first to tag the turnpoint. We tagged it and headed east over town to a small and I mean very small ridge hoping for a quick climb that would allow us to tag the final turnpoint and head to goal. We slowed down just enough that a few other pilots including Tom from the US to help us. We waited for another what seemed forever before we climbed back out. I turned left well Tom turned right and he got the climb and I missed it. I then waited longer turning in zero lift now giving up my lead to 5 pilots. I was still in the game so I hung in there. The next group was none other than PWC champ Chrigal and we quickly climbed up enough to tag the final point and head into the wind to Goal. Goal was right next to the Caravan park where were staying so very close to home. I believe I made goal in about 13th place. As I was packing up we watched many pilots in the gaggles after us dirting just short into the headwind. The speed section ends 1 km short of actual goal but if you do not make it across the physical goaline you get all your speed points taken away. So it should be a nice spread of points between those that made it and those that dirted. There are rumors of 35ish pilots in goal on a 60.7 km task. So I am headed to bed to prepare for tomorrow. We entertained ourselves with another episode of "Heroes" tonight to chill out. It has become a great tradition watching the laptops in our caravan. Well all for now.
Cheers
K
Cheers
K
Sunshine!
Yesterday was another cancelled day (more downpours), but today dawned blue and sunny so we knew we’d be flying today! It looked like the winds were a bit high according to the clouds, but once on launch it was light and variable winds, which made picking a launch very difficult. The briefing was held on the west launch for a 60 km task, out to Tarpoly, back to the Chickensheds, over to Namoi Park, and finally to the Manilla East sportsfields. This time there were 3 start gates instead of individual elapsed time, or a mass race start, to allow for people to bombout and get back up in time for a relaunch (or multiple relaunches, like some people had to do!).
When the launch window opened (1:30 pm, kinda late for Borah) nobody was really launching since none of the launches were showing up-cycles. It was dead calm everywhere. The wind dummies had taken forever to get over launch and above, so nobody wanted to be in that, struggling with 150 other pilots (Lee, the co-owner of Rivergums, and not a pilot, said it was quite obvious that pilots were struggling to get up). People were laying out on the west, south, and east launches, and nothing was happening. Most people had congregated on the east launch, and apparently it was “officially a cluster” (according to Will) since people were laid out and not launching since the cycles weren’t reversible and they didn’t want to forward launch. The launch queuing system wasn’t in place on any launch (since no one launch was obviously better than another) so those of us with priority launching didn’t get to take advantage of it (and I was looking forward to that!). It was kinda annoying actually that after all the discussion about a proper queuing system, it wasn’t used. I was still on the top of the mountain and decided to head to the north launch with Bill since it looked to be blowing up over there and that launch was still pretty deserted.
Once over there Bill launched and promptly sunk out to the east bombout. He was retrieved (relaunches are OK); there were dozens of people bombing out all over the place. I heard one pilot say he was on relaunch #3!
Eventually the north launch sucked (no thermals out front, and then it started blowing over the back) and I got Dave to take me to the west launch where it was blowing in quite nicely. But nobody was getting up over on the west side, so when I launched I flew over to the south launch, past to the east launch, and over to the north launch! Over the north launch I found a nice thermal which was good, since I was really too low to make the east bombout at that point and I would have landed in the “short east bombout” instead. In fact the Borah Basher was down there getting bombed-out pilots all day.
By this time most pilots had launched (from the east, south, north, and west launches) and I was mostly by myself (a tactical mistake, I will admit). Had I been with other people the next job would have been much easier, but I had the sky to myself on the way to Tarpoly. Tagged that TP and the returning gaggle (who had already gotten it) passed beneath me, back to the ridge). But by the time I tagged the TP that particular thermal was gone and it was scratching on the ridge down into a paddock on the east side of the ridge (the easy-to-retrieve side of the ridge!). On the way down to my paddock I got to fly over some kangaroos who were dozing under some trees on the ridge, and scared them into hopping away from my shadow as I passed overhead.
A nice short hike to the nearby farmhouse (I got to see some amazing huge ant nests on the hike out, with the stinging type of ants, so no stopping for me!), where Dave was waiting for me, and then off to pick up Will, who had landed short of the 2nd TP at the Chickensheds. After that it was to the goal field to pick up Keith (who had made goal) and see the hoopla. Josh and Tom had also made goal from the USA team.
It was very scratchy around the last TP, and many pilots didn’t make the goal field, landing either a couple fields short, or just a few meters short! A lot of disappointed faces from those who landed 50-100 m short. It looked like not that many people in goal (compared to the 1st task) and lots of people were scattered throughout the course. As 6:30 pm rolled around (the task end time) we could see the last group trying to make the goal field, but they were too low and didn’t make it.
Even though I didn’t make goal I still had a nice flight. But it was very Brazil-like flying (blech), with very soft and gentle thermals, and if you left the thermal thinking there must be something better, you were wrong! It was definitely not typical Manilla flying! With all the rain from the previous days the fields are very soaked and greening up (the area got ¼ of their annual rainfall in the past 2-3 days), and the thermals just don’t have the punch they had a couple weeks ago. We are hoping the fields dry out soon so the thermals are more Manilla-like!
Tomorrow is a weekend day so the public crowds on launch should be quite large. It is predicted to be hot and sunny (36 C) for the next 2 days so it will probably be quite flyable (hopefully not windy, we haven’t had that yet). Now that both Keith and I have made goal at this comp, it’s Will’s turn tomorrow!
New photos at http://mclearn.ca/gallery/
Nicole
When the launch window opened (1:30 pm, kinda late for Borah) nobody was really launching since none of the launches were showing up-cycles. It was dead calm everywhere. The wind dummies had taken forever to get over launch and above, so nobody wanted to be in that, struggling with 150 other pilots (Lee, the co-owner of Rivergums, and not a pilot, said it was quite obvious that pilots were struggling to get up). People were laying out on the west, south, and east launches, and nothing was happening. Most people had congregated on the east launch, and apparently it was “officially a cluster” (according to Will) since people were laid out and not launching since the cycles weren’t reversible and they didn’t want to forward launch. The launch queuing system wasn’t in place on any launch (since no one launch was obviously better than another) so those of us with priority launching didn’t get to take advantage of it (and I was looking forward to that!). It was kinda annoying actually that after all the discussion about a proper queuing system, it wasn’t used. I was still on the top of the mountain and decided to head to the north launch with Bill since it looked to be blowing up over there and that launch was still pretty deserted.
Once over there Bill launched and promptly sunk out to the east bombout. He was retrieved (relaunches are OK); there were dozens of people bombing out all over the place. I heard one pilot say he was on relaunch #3!
Eventually the north launch sucked (no thermals out front, and then it started blowing over the back) and I got Dave to take me to the west launch where it was blowing in quite nicely. But nobody was getting up over on the west side, so when I launched I flew over to the south launch, past to the east launch, and over to the north launch! Over the north launch I found a nice thermal which was good, since I was really too low to make the east bombout at that point and I would have landed in the “short east bombout” instead. In fact the Borah Basher was down there getting bombed-out pilots all day.
By this time most pilots had launched (from the east, south, north, and west launches) and I was mostly by myself (a tactical mistake, I will admit). Had I been with other people the next job would have been much easier, but I had the sky to myself on the way to Tarpoly. Tagged that TP and the returning gaggle (who had already gotten it) passed beneath me, back to the ridge). But by the time I tagged the TP that particular thermal was gone and it was scratching on the ridge down into a paddock on the east side of the ridge (the easy-to-retrieve side of the ridge!). On the way down to my paddock I got to fly over some kangaroos who were dozing under some trees on the ridge, and scared them into hopping away from my shadow as I passed overhead.
A nice short hike to the nearby farmhouse (I got to see some amazing huge ant nests on the hike out, with the stinging type of ants, so no stopping for me!), where Dave was waiting for me, and then off to pick up Will, who had landed short of the 2nd TP at the Chickensheds. After that it was to the goal field to pick up Keith (who had made goal) and see the hoopla. Josh and Tom had also made goal from the USA team.
It was very scratchy around the last TP, and many pilots didn’t make the goal field, landing either a couple fields short, or just a few meters short! A lot of disappointed faces from those who landed 50-100 m short. It looked like not that many people in goal (compared to the 1st task) and lots of people were scattered throughout the course. As 6:30 pm rolled around (the task end time) we could see the last group trying to make the goal field, but they were too low and didn’t make it.
Even though I didn’t make goal I still had a nice flight. But it was very Brazil-like flying (blech), with very soft and gentle thermals, and if you left the thermal thinking there must be something better, you were wrong! It was definitely not typical Manilla flying! With all the rain from the previous days the fields are very soaked and greening up (the area got ¼ of their annual rainfall in the past 2-3 days), and the thermals just don’t have the punch they had a couple weeks ago. We are hoping the fields dry out soon so the thermals are more Manilla-like!
Tomorrow is a weekend day so the public crowds on launch should be quite large. It is predicted to be hot and sunny (36 C) for the next 2 days so it will probably be quite flyable (hopefully not windy, we haven’t had that yet). Now that both Keith and I have made goal at this comp, it’s Will’s turn tomorrow!
New photos at http://mclearn.ca/gallery/
Nicole
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
World Championships, Day 4
The day was cancelled again today, due to impending thunderstorms all around us. Last night we had part 2 of the monsoon, where we could see the light show from the approaching storm cell for 2 hours as we watched more episodes of “Heroes”; it was continuous lightening as the storm approached, and when it got closer, the winds picked up as the gust front moved through. But we could see it approaching ahead of time so everyone in the campground prepared for it, staking down tents, putting laundry away, closing windows, etc. When the rain finally hit it was coming down horizontally and in typical tropical downpour style. It lasted all night and apparently the whole storm cell was about 250 km long. Up on Mt. Borah the windtalker recorded winds of 140 km/h, and all the tarps, sunshades, Astroturf pieces, etc. were torn down by the winds and scattered all over the hillside. This morning another huge storm moved through, with some impressive cloud formations over town (see http://mclearn.ca/gallery/ for a photo). It was pretty obvious from then that we wouldn’t be flying today!
Results from yesterday are still provisional, since the British Team filed an official complaint (not a protest, that comes if the complaint doesn’t go their way) since the scoring program only gave the winner 850-ish points, rather than the 1000 the organizers intended. Supposedly the scorers are trying to import elements of 2002 into 2000 to allow yesterday to be rescored as a 1000 point day (since all the nominal parameters were met), but if that happens, I’m not sure the results will stand since I’m sure another nation will file a counter-complaint that the new scoring system is not the original scoring system mentioned in the official rules. I’m not quite sure why 2002 wasn’t used in the first place…Godfrey says it’s because FAI said it had to be 2000, and FAI is saying he didn’t have to choose that system, etc etc etc.
Nicole
Results from yesterday are still provisional, since the British Team filed an official complaint (not a protest, that comes if the complaint doesn’t go their way) since the scoring program only gave the winner 850-ish points, rather than the 1000 the organizers intended. Supposedly the scorers are trying to import elements of 2002 into 2000 to allow yesterday to be rescored as a 1000 point day (since all the nominal parameters were met), but if that happens, I’m not sure the results will stand since I’m sure another nation will file a counter-complaint that the new scoring system is not the original scoring system mentioned in the official rules. I’m not quite sure why 2002 wasn’t used in the first place…Godfrey says it’s because FAI said it had to be 2000, and FAI is saying he didn’t have to choose that system, etc etc etc.
Nicole
Tuesday, February 27, 2007
Great Ideas
Yeah I started with what I thought would be such a great idea. I launched right behind Will and we slowly got to base. I spent sometime in the marry go round at base in bigears trying to stay out of the clouds with about 100 of the gliders that had launched. I worked my way to the edge of the circle which was 2km around launch. I dedcided if I go I could probably drag at least a few gliders with me but no luck. I was about half way through my glide to the next climb when I turned around to see that I was all alone in the middle of nowhere with no help to find the next climb. I did find my next climb and got back to base thinking at least the gaggle will be chasing soon then I can have some help. Once at base i headed to the ridge in fornt of me and continued alone again as there was still know one with me so it was time to just go it alone for the day. I got to the Turnpoint and got base very quickly. I turned for the big glide to goal and hit the headwind hard. I glided to the next ridge where I managed to get up a bit to the next ridge where I knew I just needed about 500m climb to get high enough to get over the ridge before goal. I searched and searched but no luck for me today. I landed happy but a little frustrated to watch everyone fly over my head. It was a great effort to get it alone but next time I think Power in Numbers is the way to go. Today is looking very suspect as we just had about an hour of some of the coolest thunderstorms I have ever seen. It is rumbling still as I write this. It is 10am here on wednesday and I believe we will be watching more episodes of "Heroes" which by the way is the best show on TV I believe now. Its very entertaining for us to hang out in Franklin and watch american TV together. So hope your all enjoying the snow back home...grin.
Cheers
K
Cheers
K
Yaaay, a task!
We weren’t quite sure if we were going to be having a task today…lots of big cloud around but Godfrey said there was a bunch of blue holes forecasted to come through mid-day, so we went up the mountain for a 1:15 pm briefing. We gathered on the north launch and watched some wind techs flying around, not really getting very high, but a task was called anyways. A 46 km flight to the east, and then back to Manilla to land at the goal field at the Rivergums campground. It was an individual elapsed time start (no race start) which meant people could leave on the task whenever they wanted. Of course this meant a gigantic merry-go-round formed right at cloudbase over launch for the longest time, since nobody wanted to leave first and everyone wanted to chase somebody.
The wind switched while the window was open so a bunch of us reconvened on the west launch where I got off. By the time I got to cloudbase it was about 3 pm and a gaggle had already left on course, so I radioed to the USA/Canadian team that I was leaving, and left with about 6 other gliders. Of course as soon as we did that another huge gaggle formed behind us and chased us down, but that was OK as we needed the help finding lift.
There were big clouds all around, and a rain cell to the NW of launch, but to the SE it was OK (our direction of flight). Our gaggle flew across the valley to the ridge to the east of launch, where we found a nice thermal to cloudbase (2000 m, pretty low for around here!) and we were gone again. We eventually made our way over to the 1st TP (Halls Creek church) and after tagging it, had to turn around for Manilla. The flight up to this point had been pretty easy, but when we turned around it was a bit of a headwind for a couple of km or so, so the going was slow initially. But after we got out of the hills and back towards Manilla the headwind lessened.
Up ahead was Josh saying he had goal on glide at 8:1, and I was a few minutes behind. I found a nice thermal with our gaggle and I took it quite high, letting my glide to goal get to 5:1 before leaving, since I had seen some of the 8:1 pilots landing short of goal by about 1 km and I didn’t want that to happen to me. On the way to goal I passed a gaggle of late-day pilots headed for the TP and they were way behind me at that point (they were going the other way), so I didn’t worry about them.
In the end it was Harmony and me flying next to each other, both flying our Magic 4’s, and we were talking to each other and taking each other’s photos on the final glide. It was very boaty and we actually arrived at goal with about 2000’, so there was plenty of time for playing around over goal. My time into goal was 2:09. I guess I took that last climb too high, but given the day’s conditions I think it was a good idea and I wanted to actually make goal and not land short (many people were landing short, or not making the transitions between thermals successfully).
Will landed out on the way to the first TP, way in the boonies, and had about a 2 hour hike out to the main road. Keith landed about 6 km short of goal (he needed one more thermal). And Bill and Kari landed out also. Tom made it in about 1:55 or so, and the leader was about 1:42.
That gaggle that I passed on the way to goal (going the other way) ended up being most of the Swiss Team (they had waited over launch for a long time before leaving), and none of them made goal. A band of shade came through as we could see them in the distance desperately trying to make it to us at goal, and they all dirted it short, or arrived at goal after it was closed (6:30 pm). The day wasn’t really a racing day, it was more of a survival day, and staying with the gaggle day. Venturing out on your own didn’t work today, so I’m glad I stayed with a group the whole way around the course. It looks like about 45 people made goal. One pilot barely made goal by landing on the actual goal line on his final glide, but the FAI officials said it was OK since the line (strip of white tarp) was about 1 m wide and he landed in the middle of it!
There was one accident I witnessed at goal: a pilot was trying to lose lift over the goal field and was doing wingovers, when he slowed the glider down too much, stalled it, and then spun into the ground (he did about 3 rotations before hitting). The ambulance was there immediately (Godfrey had arranged for them to be waiting at goal for such an eventuality) and took care of him. It looked like a hip injury since he landed on his side quite hard.
It was quite satisfying to make goal on the first day of the Worlds; at the last Brazil Worlds I actually never made goal once. So already I’m ahead of myself compared to last time. And it was also very nice to land in a goal field right next to our campground, and not hundreds of km away!
Nicole
The wind switched while the window was open so a bunch of us reconvened on the west launch where I got off. By the time I got to cloudbase it was about 3 pm and a gaggle had already left on course, so I radioed to the USA/Canadian team that I was leaving, and left with about 6 other gliders. Of course as soon as we did that another huge gaggle formed behind us and chased us down, but that was OK as we needed the help finding lift.
There were big clouds all around, and a rain cell to the NW of launch, but to the SE it was OK (our direction of flight). Our gaggle flew across the valley to the ridge to the east of launch, where we found a nice thermal to cloudbase (2000 m, pretty low for around here!) and we were gone again. We eventually made our way over to the 1st TP (Halls Creek church) and after tagging it, had to turn around for Manilla. The flight up to this point had been pretty easy, but when we turned around it was a bit of a headwind for a couple of km or so, so the going was slow initially. But after we got out of the hills and back towards Manilla the headwind lessened.
Up ahead was Josh saying he had goal on glide at 8:1, and I was a few minutes behind. I found a nice thermal with our gaggle and I took it quite high, letting my glide to goal get to 5:1 before leaving, since I had seen some of the 8:1 pilots landing short of goal by about 1 km and I didn’t want that to happen to me. On the way to goal I passed a gaggle of late-day pilots headed for the TP and they were way behind me at that point (they were going the other way), so I didn’t worry about them.
In the end it was Harmony and me flying next to each other, both flying our Magic 4’s, and we were talking to each other and taking each other’s photos on the final glide. It was very boaty and we actually arrived at goal with about 2000’, so there was plenty of time for playing around over goal. My time into goal was 2:09. I guess I took that last climb too high, but given the day’s conditions I think it was a good idea and I wanted to actually make goal and not land short (many people were landing short, or not making the transitions between thermals successfully).
Will landed out on the way to the first TP, way in the boonies, and had about a 2 hour hike out to the main road. Keith landed about 6 km short of goal (he needed one more thermal). And Bill and Kari landed out also. Tom made it in about 1:55 or so, and the leader was about 1:42.
That gaggle that I passed on the way to goal (going the other way) ended up being most of the Swiss Team (they had waited over launch for a long time before leaving), and none of them made goal. A band of shade came through as we could see them in the distance desperately trying to make it to us at goal, and they all dirted it short, or arrived at goal after it was closed (6:30 pm). The day wasn’t really a racing day, it was more of a survival day, and staying with the gaggle day. Venturing out on your own didn’t work today, so I’m glad I stayed with a group the whole way around the course. It looks like about 45 people made goal. One pilot barely made goal by landing on the actual goal line on his final glide, but the FAI officials said it was OK since the line (strip of white tarp) was about 1 m wide and he landed in the middle of it!
There was one accident I witnessed at goal: a pilot was trying to lose lift over the goal field and was doing wingovers, when he slowed the glider down too much, stalled it, and then spun into the ground (he did about 3 rotations before hitting). The ambulance was there immediately (Godfrey had arranged for them to be waiting at goal for such an eventuality) and took care of him. It looked like a hip injury since he landed on his side quite hard.
It was quite satisfying to make goal on the first day of the Worlds; at the last Brazil Worlds I actually never made goal once. So already I’m ahead of myself compared to last time. And it was also very nice to land in a goal field right next to our campground, and not hundreds of km away!
Nicole
Sunday, February 25, 2007
The World's Start
Or do they? They were suppose to start yesterday and as of now Monday Afternoon we still have not had a task. The weather has been epic since I arrived almost 2 weeks ago. But yesterday things went bad weather wise. We went to launch yesterday and watched as the clouds got bigger and bigger around us. I got already with my flying clothes and walked into the line up to launch when they delayed us for about 5 minutes then called the day as cancelled. I was a little displeased that I got ready for nothing and voiced it loudly out of frustration. I quickly calmed down and packed up my gear and drove down the hill. We were really happy to be down as a few hours later one of the biggest thunderstorms I have ever seen dumped loads of rain on the town of Manilla.
We had a very nice dinner of pasta made with Peanut Butter, Thai Curry Paste and Coconut Milk. (VERY TASTY). Were eating on a budget here as it costs a lot for food were finding. Après dinner we chilled with friends and retreated to Franklin (Will's & Keith's Caravan) to watch an American TV show called "Heroes". Ok James you win its a good show...grin. We watched the first two episodes before crawling into our beds to read for a couple hours. Yes, I do know how to read.
Today we have been chillin in various capacities from Jogging to coffee drinking to napping and some computer work. I have arranged for a couple us to go to Sydney on the way home and my brother has got us tickets to some Australian Rugby which should be crazy fun. The forecast I have to say is not great for the next few days as a tropical storm sits in the North of Australia pulling moisture from the south towards us. But hey if you have a drought book a paragliding meet to get rid of it. Well enough of me rambling and I hope all is well for everyone wherever they are.
Cheers
Keith
PS. Cross your fingers for things to improve for us until then bring on "Heroes"
We had a very nice dinner of pasta made with Peanut Butter, Thai Curry Paste and Coconut Milk. (VERY TASTY). Were eating on a budget here as it costs a lot for food were finding. Après dinner we chilled with friends and retreated to Franklin (Will's & Keith's Caravan) to watch an American TV show called "Heroes". Ok James you win its a good show...grin. We watched the first two episodes before crawling into our beds to read for a couple hours. Yes, I do know how to read.
Today we have been chillin in various capacities from Jogging to coffee drinking to napping and some computer work. I have arranged for a couple us to go to Sydney on the way home and my brother has got us tickets to some Australian Rugby which should be crazy fun. The forecast I have to say is not great for the next few days as a tropical storm sits in the North of Australia pulling moisture from the south towards us. But hey if you have a drought book a paragliding meet to get rid of it. Well enough of me rambling and I hope all is well for everyone wherever they are.
Cheers
Keith
PS. Cross your fingers for things to improve for us until then bring on "Heroes"
World Championships, Day 2
We had a hell of a monsoon last night! After the day’s task was cancelled the storm clouds moved in, and it was only a matter of time before the deluge arrived. We got about 34 mm of rain in 3 hours; it was so wet that huge puddles were forming since the ground couldn’t absorb that much water so quickly and we had to rescue Conrad’s tent from the rising waters (actually Will ventured out to rescue it, along with Bill; the rest of us watched from the dryness of the camp kitchen and cheered them on). Fortunately for those of us in caravans we just had to close the windows and ride it out, watching episodes of “Heroes” on Will’s computer.
The morning actually dawned cloudy (!) (the first cloudy-in-the-morning day since getting here) with super-high humidity, so there was no rush to get up the mountain (apparently the road up is susceptible to rain, becoming very slick, so when it rains, you have to get your vehicle down asap or else risk having to leave it up there until the road dries out enough to drive it down safely). However it’s still 30+ degrees here, we’re all wearing shorts and tees, and everyone’s tans are coming along nicely (gloat gloat J.
The team leader briefing this morning consisted of discussion about the whole end-of-speed-section issue, GPS error when calculating who came in 1st, 2nd, 3rd vs. visual confirmation, etc., and the launch pre-queue methodology. Despite the flavour of the team leader briefings (with lots of politics), I’m actually learning a lot about international comp flying issues, since the viewpoints being brought forward are coming from a variety of nations. It’s very interesting to see exactly what issues the Swiss, French, Germans, Brits, etc., have, and how they go about presenting their arguments and defenses. Once a protest gets submitted (and I’m sure there will be several over the course of this comp, there were several brought forward at the Brazil Worlds) it will be very interesting to see what the energy in that room is like. (PS the daily morning briefings are open to everyone, but most pilots are happy to leave that job to their team leaders, and sleep in a bit longer, and do other things with their morning. So pilots interested in that kind of stuff are certainly welcome to listen in.)
OK, so the day has just been cancelled, due to impeding rain and embedded cu-nims in the surrounding area. The overriding reason for this wet weather is a bunch of low-pressure systems forming way to the north of us, one of which is predicted to develop into a typhoon (hurricane) in the next few days or so. These weather systems usually pass through northern Oz in Dec/Jan, but this year they are late. A comp must be happening in the area! The Canadian Team is glad we got a solid week of flying in already during the XC Open, so the possibility of a few days off here and there does not irritate us as much as pilots that only just arrived for this comp.
Nicole
The morning actually dawned cloudy (!) (the first cloudy-in-the-morning day since getting here) with super-high humidity, so there was no rush to get up the mountain (apparently the road up is susceptible to rain, becoming very slick, so when it rains, you have to get your vehicle down asap or else risk having to leave it up there until the road dries out enough to drive it down safely). However it’s still 30+ degrees here, we’re all wearing shorts and tees, and everyone’s tans are coming along nicely (gloat gloat J.
The team leader briefing this morning consisted of discussion about the whole end-of-speed-section issue, GPS error when calculating who came in 1st, 2nd, 3rd vs. visual confirmation, etc., and the launch pre-queue methodology. Despite the flavour of the team leader briefings (with lots of politics), I’m actually learning a lot about international comp flying issues, since the viewpoints being brought forward are coming from a variety of nations. It’s very interesting to see exactly what issues the Swiss, French, Germans, Brits, etc., have, and how they go about presenting their arguments and defenses. Once a protest gets submitted (and I’m sure there will be several over the course of this comp, there were several brought forward at the Brazil Worlds) it will be very interesting to see what the energy in that room is like. (PS the daily morning briefings are open to everyone, but most pilots are happy to leave that job to their team leaders, and sleep in a bit longer, and do other things with their morning. So pilots interested in that kind of stuff are certainly welcome to listen in.)
OK, so the day has just been cancelled, due to impeding rain and embedded cu-nims in the surrounding area. The overriding reason for this wet weather is a bunch of low-pressure systems forming way to the north of us, one of which is predicted to develop into a typhoon (hurricane) in the next few days or so. These weather systems usually pass through northern Oz in Dec/Jan, but this year they are late. A comp must be happening in the area! The Canadian Team is glad we got a solid week of flying in already during the XC Open, so the possibility of a few days off here and there does not irritate us as much as pilots that only just arrived for this comp.
Nicole
Saturday, February 24, 2007
World Championships, Day 1
After several rest days we started getting ready for the World Championships. The campground is now completely full of pilots…so every morning it is pilots getting their stuff ready, and then the campground completely empties out for the rest of the day. For this event our retrieve driver is David Menzie, one of the owners of the campground. A local who knows all the back roads and has his own 4x4 vehicle to find us. As a surprise to us, David went out one day and decorated up the retrieve vehicle with sticker-banners: a big “Team Canada” on the front windshield, and a Canadian flag decal and our 3 names on both sides of the vehicle. Very smart-looking, and we were touched by his thoughtfulness (he’s also wearing the Vancouver Canucks cap I brought for him, he’s a fan). He’s totally into being the Canadian Team driver for this event, thanks Dave! Pics of the vehicle are on http://mclearn.ca/gallery/. After the other countries saw what our vehicle looked like, they copied us by putting flags etc on their retrieve vehicles, but I think ours is still the best!
My brother and his girlfriend came up from Sydney to cheer us on and be our groupies. At the opening ceremonies we started with a Parade of Nations down the main street of Manilla to the showgrounds, and then an airshow over the showgrounds with a variety of aircraft, and then the official FAI speeches, and finally a fireworks show. Estimated cost of the whole event was something like $400,000 (probably a large part of that was getting the fighterjets to come overhead and do aerial manoeuvres for the crowd).
This morning there were some clouds already developing at 8am, so I was thinking it would get big and OD later on. But after the team leader briefings (which will happen every morning, where issues like rules, protests, scores, and general bitching by some nations will happen; eg. today it was the issue with FAI not allowing the extra spots that are available to be given out, since the pilots wanting those spots were not registered by the deadline, but they couldn’t register unless they were allowed in by FAI, kinda like the chicken and egg) we went up the mountain.
Up on launch it was pretty busy with all the spectators, officials, news people, pilots, and support staff, but the organization is excellent and everything was clearly signed and people knew where to park, where to lay out gliders, where to find food, and where to watch. Godfrey has put an enormous amount of effort into this so far and it shows in the quality of the organization.
Task committee is Kari Castle, Steve Ham, and Craig Collins. Safety committee is Adrian Thomas, Brian Webb, and Andrew Horchner. The task for today was a short 48 km triangle-type task, to the SW, then the E over town, and back to Godfrey’s for the goal field (which was slated to be an actual physical line, rather than a virtual line or a virtual goal cylinder, so you actually had to fly over a line on the ground to make goal). After the task was announced everyone got ready, but the sky was looking big and after a few minutes of everyone standing around in their gear (cooking in the heat), the safety committee decided to cancel the day due to the extremely big development around, and the 3 rain cells that were visible all around the mountain (and they weren’t just in one direction, but all around us, so it was pretty obvious the conditions were getting worse and worse). Most of us were pretty glad to see the safety committee doing their job and keeping us safe, although there weren’t many pilots actually laid out waiting for the window to open (which usually happens at a comp, this time the launch was virtually empty as the launch window start time approached).
So the first day was cancelled, but we got to get our electronics sorted out, get mentally psyched, and basically do a dry run. So tomorrow if the task goes ahead (whatever that may be) we’ll be ready for it!
Pictures are at http://mclearn.ca/gallery/ and click on “World Paragliding Championships, Manilla 2007”.
Nicole
My brother and his girlfriend came up from Sydney to cheer us on and be our groupies. At the opening ceremonies we started with a Parade of Nations down the main street of Manilla to the showgrounds, and then an airshow over the showgrounds with a variety of aircraft, and then the official FAI speeches, and finally a fireworks show. Estimated cost of the whole event was something like $400,000 (probably a large part of that was getting the fighterjets to come overhead and do aerial manoeuvres for the crowd).
This morning there were some clouds already developing at 8am, so I was thinking it would get big and OD later on. But after the team leader briefings (which will happen every morning, where issues like rules, protests, scores, and general bitching by some nations will happen; eg. today it was the issue with FAI not allowing the extra spots that are available to be given out, since the pilots wanting those spots were not registered by the deadline, but they couldn’t register unless they were allowed in by FAI, kinda like the chicken and egg) we went up the mountain.
Up on launch it was pretty busy with all the spectators, officials, news people, pilots, and support staff, but the organization is excellent and everything was clearly signed and people knew where to park, where to lay out gliders, where to find food, and where to watch. Godfrey has put an enormous amount of effort into this so far and it shows in the quality of the organization.
Task committee is Kari Castle, Steve Ham, and Craig Collins. Safety committee is Adrian Thomas, Brian Webb, and Andrew Horchner. The task for today was a short 48 km triangle-type task, to the SW, then the E over town, and back to Godfrey’s for the goal field (which was slated to be an actual physical line, rather than a virtual line or a virtual goal cylinder, so you actually had to fly over a line on the ground to make goal). After the task was announced everyone got ready, but the sky was looking big and after a few minutes of everyone standing around in their gear (cooking in the heat), the safety committee decided to cancel the day due to the extremely big development around, and the 3 rain cells that were visible all around the mountain (and they weren’t just in one direction, but all around us, so it was pretty obvious the conditions were getting worse and worse). Most of us were pretty glad to see the safety committee doing their job and keeping us safe, although there weren’t many pilots actually laid out waiting for the window to open (which usually happens at a comp, this time the launch was virtually empty as the launch window start time approached).
So the first day was cancelled, but we got to get our electronics sorted out, get mentally psyched, and basically do a dry run. So tomorrow if the task goes ahead (whatever that may be) we’ll be ready for it!
Pictures are at http://mclearn.ca/gallery/ and click on “World Paragliding Championships, Manilla 2007”.
Nicole
Wednesday, February 21, 2007
Manilla XC Open, day 8, and final results
The day started out blue, which around here means it’s gonna be a good day! Winds were SE so our course line was to the NW, towards Weewa. Since this was the last day of the comp and they needed us back early for scoring, the stop time was set to 4 pm, to allow people time to get back to Manilla and report in, get the scoring done, and calculate the 4 best scores for each pilot and announce the winners at the awards ceremony.
The Boom 5’s showed up today so there were a lot of new gliders in the air. The sky was looking good by this time so I launched early off the east launch (before noon) and joined the pilots skying out above launch. With the SE winds we were being pushed towards the hill country that we’ve flown over many times, so I wanted to be over that part as soon as possible. I was with a group of pilots at the narrow canyon where it opens up onto the flats when I got flushed and was forced to land just on the other side of the canyon where the flats begin. I was kinda annoyed at my early landing and short distance made (38 km), but I had landed near a road so it was no big deal to get Dan to pick me up and chase the others.
When 4 pm rolled around most pilots landed asap next to the main road for the easy retrieve and quick ride back to Manilla. Keith made it the farthest of our group at 116 km. Tom and Will were at 106 km or so. Many pilots were around the 100 km mark or so.
Back at HQ in time for the final scoring and the evening party. Steak dinner at the RSL club and then it was time to see who had won. First off the organizers gave out free t-shirts to all the pilots who had made personal best distances. This amounted to about 75% of the competitors I think; it took so long to get through all the names!
Awards were given out for 1st, 2nd, 3rd place for the women’s, master’s (over 45 years), serial class (DHV 2-3 and below), and overall. Pics of all the winners are at http://mclearn.ca/gallery/.
Team Durka Durka did reall well…we came in 2nd, sandwiched between the Austrians in 3rd place and the Germans in 1st place! A case of beer for us, which we gave to our driver Dan.
PS for any pilots wanting to fly Manilla and looking for a kick-ass retrieve driver, email me and I will pass Dan’s info along. He was a great driver: a local pilot with intimate knowledge of all the back roads, able to use a GPS, eager to help out on launch with laying out gliders etc., helping pack up, and making sure cold drinks were in the vehicle and there was ice in the cooler. Great job Dan!
Team Durka Durka results:
Will Gadd 8th overall
Tom McCune 13th overall
Keith MacCullough 20th overall
Nicole McLearn 74th overall
As for my own result, I had hoped for a better one, but given that I was using this comp as practice for the World Championships, I think I achieved my objectives. I now know a lot more about the local countryside, where the good thermal spots are, where not to fly, and most importantly for around here, low saves are extremely common and you can never scratch too low! Also, the field strength for this comp was unusually high, due to the proximity of the Worlds happening next week, and the pilot quality will likely never be quite so high for an XC comp (unless it’s held right before or after a PWC taking place in the same area). The FAI points for this comp should be good enough to hopefully bump Canada up a few spots in the WPRS nation-ranking.
Official results are at http://www.xcopen.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=43&Itemid=75
Now that this comp is over, we are taking a rest day. Josh and Bill from the American Team are showing up today, and we are planning on doing absolutely nothing for the balance of the day, except for maybe some lounging around the local pool and lots of nap-taking. So no more pireps for the next day or so, until the official practice days for the Worlds happen on Friday and Saturday.
Nicole
The Boom 5’s showed up today so there were a lot of new gliders in the air. The sky was looking good by this time so I launched early off the east launch (before noon) and joined the pilots skying out above launch. With the SE winds we were being pushed towards the hill country that we’ve flown over many times, so I wanted to be over that part as soon as possible. I was with a group of pilots at the narrow canyon where it opens up onto the flats when I got flushed and was forced to land just on the other side of the canyon where the flats begin. I was kinda annoyed at my early landing and short distance made (38 km), but I had landed near a road so it was no big deal to get Dan to pick me up and chase the others.
When 4 pm rolled around most pilots landed asap next to the main road for the easy retrieve and quick ride back to Manilla. Keith made it the farthest of our group at 116 km. Tom and Will were at 106 km or so. Many pilots were around the 100 km mark or so.
Back at HQ in time for the final scoring and the evening party. Steak dinner at the RSL club and then it was time to see who had won. First off the organizers gave out free t-shirts to all the pilots who had made personal best distances. This amounted to about 75% of the competitors I think; it took so long to get through all the names!
Awards were given out for 1st, 2nd, 3rd place for the women’s, master’s (over 45 years), serial class (DHV 2-3 and below), and overall. Pics of all the winners are at http://mclearn.ca/gallery/.
Team Durka Durka did reall well…we came in 2nd, sandwiched between the Austrians in 3rd place and the Germans in 1st place! A case of beer for us, which we gave to our driver Dan.
PS for any pilots wanting to fly Manilla and looking for a kick-ass retrieve driver, email me and I will pass Dan’s info along. He was a great driver: a local pilot with intimate knowledge of all the back roads, able to use a GPS, eager to help out on launch with laying out gliders etc., helping pack up, and making sure cold drinks were in the vehicle and there was ice in the cooler. Great job Dan!
Team Durka Durka results:
Will Gadd 8th overall
Tom McCune 13th overall
Keith MacCullough 20th overall
Nicole McLearn 74th overall
As for my own result, I had hoped for a better one, but given that I was using this comp as practice for the World Championships, I think I achieved my objectives. I now know a lot more about the local countryside, where the good thermal spots are, where not to fly, and most importantly for around here, low saves are extremely common and you can never scratch too low! Also, the field strength for this comp was unusually high, due to the proximity of the Worlds happening next week, and the pilot quality will likely never be quite so high for an XC comp (unless it’s held right before or after a PWC taking place in the same area). The FAI points for this comp should be good enough to hopefully bump Canada up a few spots in the WPRS nation-ranking.
Official results are at http://www.xcopen.org/cms/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=43&Itemid=75
Now that this comp is over, we are taking a rest day. Josh and Bill from the American Team are showing up today, and we are planning on doing absolutely nothing for the balance of the day, except for maybe some lounging around the local pool and lots of nap-taking. So no more pireps for the next day or so, until the official practice days for the Worlds happen on Friday and Saturday.
Nicole
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Manilla XC Open, day 7
Everyone was tired this morning, but we went up to fly anyways :) The sky wasn’t looking epic in the morning, lots of high cloud, but when we got up to launch it was clearing out. Started at the east launch, then it turned north, so we all went to the north launch. After getting all our gear ready it switched east again, so off to the east launch again where people were climbing out, where we finally got off launch.
When I launched it was super-rough between the east and north launches, and I had a hell of a time getting up over launch. Finally a boomer of a thermal came along, and I rode it all the way to cloudbase, with parts of the glider missing at times, but hey I’m going up so it’s OK.
Once at cloudbase I took off to the north. The courseline for today was the same as yesterday, but the winds were more easterly, so we had a crosswind to deal with. All the climbs were taking us over the west side of the Mt. Borah range, and that’s where all the good clouds were, so that’s where we went. The going was slow at first since we were behind the Mt. Borah range (in the lee) and the climbs weren’t that great, and the winds were making northerly progress slow. But eventually I got to the end of the range where it flattens out a bit and was able to fly more comfortably within glide of the main road.
A few times I got low, but I was with a gaggle, and of all of us, somebody would eventually find something (sometimes it was me, other times it was somebody else) and we would all head over and take advantage of it. I got really low at the Ponds, between Barraba and Bingara, and was able to finally climb out of there after a few tense minutes grovelling in the heat, but by then everyone else had either gone onwards, or landed.
The next part of the northerly route involves flying down a mini valley, with a dip in the middle, where the land slopes away, and many pilots get flushed here. I had been told to get high before attempting this part of the flight, so I made sure to top up before heading over it. The SE winds were actually helping at this point, pushing the thermals up the W side of the valley, making it fairly easy to surf the west end for about 20 km or so. But it was very windy down low and you had to make sure to stay up high or else risk not making the glide to the main road, and being forced to land up on the plateau where the roads are a bit inconvenient.
At this point I was getting a bit tired, hot, and generally wanting to be someplace more relaxing. I was at 2700 m by now and radioed to my retrieve that I was going on glide and landing, since I was getting really tired (flying for 4 hours in really strong stuff, +5.2 m/s up sustained in some thermals, and –4.8 m/s down between thermals). Passed Bingara at the 82 km mark (where about 30 pilots had been flushed) and headed more NW up towards Gravesend. Found a nice field at the 102 km mark and landed, and got picked up shortly thereafter.
I was kinda glad I had decided to land, even though the day was still working and pilots were still flying. The flight had definitely been a workout, and with the long days we’ve been having all week I was glad to be able to relax for a few hours while we picked the other pilots up. Keith flew 160 km, Tom flew 175 km, and Will flew 198 km. But they all landed on main roads so the retrieves were fairly straightforward.
But then we had a 3 hour drive back to Manilla via all the backroads, and got to see all sorts of wildlife. We saw so many kangaroos and wallabies that we now know the difference between them when they jump across the road in front of the vehicle! And of course all the stupid birds…they fly right in front of the vehicle and we hit them (or they fly right into the side it)…we’ve hit 5 so far, so we’ve renamed the retrieve vehicle “bird killer”.
Keith had a really low save at some point in his flight. He was so low that he was talking to the farmer in the field he was about to land in (“Is it OK if I land here?” “Yeah sure”, etc etc etc), when he found a thermal and flew away from the farmer. Low saves (<100 m) seem to be not that uncommon around here; in fact you can semi-rely on them to get you out of a bad spot.
Not too many people flew farther than Will…I think Crigel may have flown 200 km, but not sure if he was on courseline or not (and that’s what counts, flying in the wrong direction doesn’t award you points). So Team Durka Durka did very well today! Tomorrow is the last day of this comp, and then we have 2 or 3 rest days before the World Championships start on the weekend.
http://mclearn.ca/gallery/ for the pics, and http://www3.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/holcparascore.html for the tracklogs.
Nicole
When I launched it was super-rough between the east and north launches, and I had a hell of a time getting up over launch. Finally a boomer of a thermal came along, and I rode it all the way to cloudbase, with parts of the glider missing at times, but hey I’m going up so it’s OK.
Once at cloudbase I took off to the north. The courseline for today was the same as yesterday, but the winds were more easterly, so we had a crosswind to deal with. All the climbs were taking us over the west side of the Mt. Borah range, and that’s where all the good clouds were, so that’s where we went. The going was slow at first since we were behind the Mt. Borah range (in the lee) and the climbs weren’t that great, and the winds were making northerly progress slow. But eventually I got to the end of the range where it flattens out a bit and was able to fly more comfortably within glide of the main road.
A few times I got low, but I was with a gaggle, and of all of us, somebody would eventually find something (sometimes it was me, other times it was somebody else) and we would all head over and take advantage of it. I got really low at the Ponds, between Barraba and Bingara, and was able to finally climb out of there after a few tense minutes grovelling in the heat, but by then everyone else had either gone onwards, or landed.
The next part of the northerly route involves flying down a mini valley, with a dip in the middle, where the land slopes away, and many pilots get flushed here. I had been told to get high before attempting this part of the flight, so I made sure to top up before heading over it. The SE winds were actually helping at this point, pushing the thermals up the W side of the valley, making it fairly easy to surf the west end for about 20 km or so. But it was very windy down low and you had to make sure to stay up high or else risk not making the glide to the main road, and being forced to land up on the plateau where the roads are a bit inconvenient.
At this point I was getting a bit tired, hot, and generally wanting to be someplace more relaxing. I was at 2700 m by now and radioed to my retrieve that I was going on glide and landing, since I was getting really tired (flying for 4 hours in really strong stuff, +5.2 m/s up sustained in some thermals, and –4.8 m/s down between thermals). Passed Bingara at the 82 km mark (where about 30 pilots had been flushed) and headed more NW up towards Gravesend. Found a nice field at the 102 km mark and landed, and got picked up shortly thereafter.
I was kinda glad I had decided to land, even though the day was still working and pilots were still flying. The flight had definitely been a workout, and with the long days we’ve been having all week I was glad to be able to relax for a few hours while we picked the other pilots up. Keith flew 160 km, Tom flew 175 km, and Will flew 198 km. But they all landed on main roads so the retrieves were fairly straightforward.
But then we had a 3 hour drive back to Manilla via all the backroads, and got to see all sorts of wildlife. We saw so many kangaroos and wallabies that we now know the difference between them when they jump across the road in front of the vehicle! And of course all the stupid birds…they fly right in front of the vehicle and we hit them (or they fly right into the side it)…we’ve hit 5 so far, so we’ve renamed the retrieve vehicle “bird killer”.
Keith had a really low save at some point in his flight. He was so low that he was talking to the farmer in the field he was about to land in (“Is it OK if I land here?” “Yeah sure”, etc etc etc), when he found a thermal and flew away from the farmer. Low saves (<100 m) seem to be not that uncommon around here; in fact you can semi-rely on them to get you out of a bad spot.
Not too many people flew farther than Will…I think Crigel may have flown 200 km, but not sure if he was on courseline or not (and that’s what counts, flying in the wrong direction doesn’t award you points). So Team Durka Durka did very well today! Tomorrow is the last day of this comp, and then we have 2 or 3 rest days before the World Championships start on the weekend.
http://mclearn.ca/gallery/ for the pics, and http://www3.onlinecontest.org/olc-2.0/para/holcparascore.html for the tracklogs.
Nicole
Another Great Day
Well the title says it all. It was another long day. It started off a little slow as the motivation of everyone from all the flying has made us very tired. I launched middle of the pack and climbed out fast above launch. I made it to base just in time to see Will and a bunch of others out front on glide. I hurried my ass of downwind after them but of course missed the climb to be able to catch them. So I searched for awhile down low and someothers joined me in my climb back to base. I was now in a big hurry to catch up but every time I felt close it was just to far to get them. I managed at the 60 km mark to get close ofenough to actually ask a farmer if it was ok to land in his field. I was actually around tree top height ready to land and managed a climb back to base to get going again. At this point Torsten from Germany and Anders from Norway joined me and off me went from cloudbase for a very long glide. At the 100km mark the other two took a different route and ended up landing leaving me alone for the rest of the day. After some very low saves and the wind increasing from the East as I had to head North along the route i continued for another 60 km were i finally just decided I was to damn tired of the sun beating me in the face. I landed for yet another 100mile flight or 162km. So far in four flight this week I have close to 600km and something close to 30hours in the air. I feel beaten and battered but I will continue for next week of training for the worlds. Will got 200km's out and Nicole managed a very good 102km so a Great day for Team Durka Durka.
Cheers Keith
Cheers Keith
Monday, February 19, 2007
More Flying
Ok so here it is quick version. We lanuched I got stuck in front of the launch low unable to find enough lift to get me on my way. After close to an hour of that I finally got on my way. I quickly and I mean quickly flew after some other pilots in order to try to get with a group that was moving fast down the course. I just ended up passing most of them and going it alone. As I was alone I figured staying IFR or "I Follow Roads" was a good option. I made a very low save at the 70 km mark where I actually got out of my harness to land. I took that climb back to base and proceeded onwards. I got to the town on the way called Bingara and climbed out again but the storm cells to my right were coming to the right and the blue hole in front of me was going to make it difficult to fly fast enough to out run the storms. I blundered into the blue holw and like I figured there was nothing for lift except a lot of wind trying to push me futher off course into the storms. I landed at the 96 km mark but a little off course so we will see how I shape up. The scoring is still F*&^ed. We have no clue where anyone is ranked. I have had some top 10 days so we will see where I end up. There are 2 days left and I have had 3 solid flights. I need 4 days for the ranking out of 8 so I guess I at least need one more good day to pull off a solid result. Were resting well and not partying at night so it means we can actually function in the air. I have almost flown 20hours and some 400+km of distance in 3 days of flying. Were very tired from this sun spanking us all day. We Canadians just don't understand what sun is till you have been here. It goes through your shirt to burn you and can zap every bit of energy you thought you may have had. But were having a very solid time of it here. Everyone that got me here I have to thank for so far what is turning into the best flying trip. Sorry for not posting pictures but the internet here in town is so slow it would take a month to post pictures. I will post a bunch when I either get to sydney or hopefully for the worlds they will have a better internet area set up. I will be taking rest days thursday friday and saturday to get ready for the Worlds which start Sunday. Once again sorry for no party stories yet and no pictures. Cheers to everyone back home.
Keith
Keith
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