Forbes, day seven, task free

The results.

The day is blessed with light winds and plenty of cumulus clouds. A good day for a triangle or out and return task after many days of substantial winds. Plenty of people were doing out and returns. Scott said that he found 600 fpm to 1000' with lift streets. You could fly 5 km and lose 300 to 600'.

Leroy got caught by a dust devil on the ground and it flipped the tug. He saw it coming at the last minute but couldn't fly away as he had pulled the tug over to the trailers. Minor damage.

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2009 CIVL Plenary agenda and bids

http://www.fai.org/hang_gliding/meetings/plenary/2009

Turkey bid (zip file containing Word document)

The following are PDF's:

Oz bid

German bid

Italian bid

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Bobby's high lift wing Dragonfly

Just before they came out to Forbes from Rylstone, a strong wind blew through there and picked up Bobby's special new tug and put it in the trees after ripping the engine off it's engine mounts. When the wind died down the Dragonfly landed back on the ground on its wheels. The Dragonfly was tied down to buried concrete cylinders that were pulled out of the ground. The other regular Dragonflies that were also tied down outside were not ripped from their moorings, nor were their moorings ripped out of the ground. A high lift wing indeed.

The new Dragonfly is designed for very slow (15 mph) flight. The wing has a higher camber and a wider cord than the regular Dragonflies. It's designed to fly slow enough to tow paragliders.

Bobby says that he has a lot of test flying yet to do on it because he is not comfortable with its flying characteristics.

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Flying with Blay

You can find the IGC files here (Davis) and here (Blay) from the fifth task.

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Steve on Trent and Nick

Steve McCarthy <<email>> writes:

As the pilot of the tow plane that towed Nick into the dusty/grass devil I had less than two seconds from seeing the severity of this wind to take decisive action. I decided that it was best to hit the dusty square on rather than risk having a glider on tow turning on entry. Nick agreed that this was the correct decision.

As for what happened after the guys got kicked of line it is hard to say just what action was possible for Nick and Trent to take. It is easy to say they should have flown out the back and landed up wind but I can tell you that I had to wrestle the tug to get away from this mass of intense swirling air.

In something as light as a hang glider you would have been thrown around to the point that maintaining any degree of control would take a huge effort and in the end when it really matters Trent did the best he could do. With a huge tail wind and a massive sink rate he continued to fly the glider, maintaining as much speed and control as possible all the way into ground effect hitting the ground as flat as possible. By following this rule of regardless of what happens, RULE 1 fly the glider, has undoubtedly saved his life.

Trent and Nick put in a great effort in a very difficult situation and I am very relieved to have both Nick and Trent still with us.

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