Ecuador pics

Just got back from the annual Canoa ridge race/Guayas rally tour. This one was even better than the last two. This year our group skipped all the peripheral distractions and headed direct to the beach from the airport. It was nice to miss the dirty air and oppressive heat of Guayaquil, but I think you can't fully appreciate the coastal flying without the obligatory toiling in town first. We managed somehow. The first day began with Jamie, Mike, Jack and me unpacking our wings in the grassy courtyard of Joab's hotel/boarding house.



It was slow going but after a breakfast of fish soup..mmmmmmm...we all got off the Cruzita launch, an eroded cliff launch about 30 cross to the prevailing wind set back from the main ridge in a strong rotor. Everyone made it off unlike last year and it was off to the races.




This was the pre-race psych out session where we sized everybody up for the upcoming race. The Canoa race is a course of calculation. You fly it correctly or incorrectly. Once you have got the tactics down, only your glider can make the difference. For some reason, once off the hill I could rarely find Raul or Mikey for a comparison.....



This was the first flight on my new glider and it flew straight and was almost where I wanted it just from the hasty tune at the factory. Cruzita was nice both of the days we flew there, a little cross but still great soaring and good decompression from the all night drive to get there. Landings were tricky at high tide and some ended up in deep surf but had a huge rescue crew waiting so there wasn't too much drama.

Here I am coming in right around high tide.



The next day we spent the entire day travelling to Canoa. This is less than 100km if you flew it but we waited around 5 or 6 hours for the ferry that crosses the inlet dividing us from the Canoa cliffs. The day was spent in shops and bars and eventually we were across and on the road again.





We settled in at the Sol y Luna hotel like the regulars we are, and from that night until the day we left a week later, there was not a second night or day that it did not blow onshore. We basically flew until we were tired every day including the race days. Most practice days and some race days ended with an extra twenty miles tacked on for a north cliffs tour. We were able to visit the lighthouse again this year which is the northern extent of the ridge, way, waaay into unretrievable beaches. The ceiling was 400 meters almost every day which made the trip less stressful than last year's. Our videographer once again had camera problems and the north cliffs remain a legend to all those who haven't made the crossing. One day early on we all slightly overdosed on tequila, not quite intending to. The double shot catches you off guard. There was at least one day that I was completely useless, and fortunately that doesn't seem to matter at the beach. There were several days of tandems on the beach with Raul Guerra's tandem falcon on gear and Raul Larenas' 582 trike that climbs like a rocket at sea level. Just enough each morning to loosen up the arms for the race. There were some great views over the cloud deck that I wish I had captured but that will also remain legend.






These guys really know how to hold a comp. The awards ceremony was all out of proportion to the size of the race. The comp is actually the Ecuadorian nationals but is no more than a friendly gathering on the beach when you see it.



We were all full of pilsener by the time we hit town on the last night and the double shots were going down unnoticed until around 3 a.m. when Eduardo Senior backed the Toyota into a "hole" in the road in town which swallowed his truck. He unded up on the roof with an engine comartment full of sand and basically a totalled body. This allowed our crew a few extra hours the next morning to short pack the wings while he ran a bunch of oily gas out of the engine and cleaned things up. There was no longer a windshield so the 8+ hours home was with goggles and a lot of luck. Night fell and he needed us to run escort since he also lost his lights in the incident. That night in the Howard Johnson was the best shower I believe I have ever had. Even payed to have the clothes washed since I was on about round 4 with the shorts and shirts by then.



Our group this year was by far the best ever. It was hard to leave new and old friends and I'm already plotting my next trip. Hope to see everyone soon.

classic but not flying related

http://tubearoo.com/articles/92137/Family_Guy_Stewie_Kills_Colin_Farrell.html?autoplay=true

Igrejinha video

Found this vid on you tube. I put this huge, heavy camera out at the sidewire to do a spot for this action tv station out of Brasil back in January. Thought I would never see the footage. There is more but I don't know where to find it.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNKB87D5H6s&mode=related&search=hang%20gliding%20hanggliding%20flying%20drachen%20fun

Project

It's about 2 meters span.

Full length D-tube, flat center section, a bit of dihedral on the tips.

Here is the top view, left out the last center sheet until I install the radio.

After I left Brasilia and sold my wing two weeks ago, I picked up where I left off on a project started in June. My friend Matt had mentioned an airfoil plotting program he was using to make templates for foam core cutting and I took a look at it one day. It not only plots airfoils, but it allows you to basically build the entire wing in 3D with all the cutouts for spars, webs, sheeting, te, le, etc. I just started screwing around with it until I had this sweet looking planform and I just had to build it.

Well the *free* trial of compufoil is sort of bs, as you will find the moment you click print. One sheet of ribs will print on the 100% scale, while the next is purposely skewed to prevent you from getting anything useful, especially on a tapered wing like this where every rib is different. It took quite a bit of time, but after a lot of print screen, save, print screen, resize, ......I finally manipulated the second page to print on the correct scale.

And that was the beginning: two sheets of paper with 15 airfoils for each wing half. I used airfoils that were in the compufoil database, RG15 at the root, transtioning to SD8000 at the tip. RG 15 is fairly common for thermal models, and is not at all pitch stable for a flying wing. SD 8000 is a symmetrical stabilizer airfoil, pitch neutral. I think I stretched them a little to make a thinner profile also. So the wing's stability will come entirely from twist, zero reflex. The wing was built flat but the twist will be added with the covering. My last flying wing was based on twist as well, so I should be a little closer with my twist guess this time.

Some of the simplest materials that are so easy to acquire in the states can be difficult or impossible to find here. First, at the hobby shop, which is actually a really decent store, I was only able to find balsa, no hardwood, and the balsa was only of the worst quality. It took an hour of digging through every sheet they had to pick a dozen pieces that would work. Second, I still don't know where to find epoxy. Although I know it's around, I just haven't worked out where it is sold. Number 11 Xacto blades...nope. My favorite building board, those suspended ceiling tiles used commonly in office buildings....not a chance. And finally, wax paper.....I would pay 50 bucks for a roll of wax paper right now. So the wing was built on a sheet of white styrofoam with a layer of some poly-whatever that was non stick and see through and held in place by seam pins...no T pins available. And, surprisingly it all worked great. Actually the total cost of materials to date is around R$55. $30 usd. Pretty incredible. So the entire wing has been built with only balsa and CA, not a stick of hardwood or a drop of epoxy. You get pretty creative trying to make things strong enough when you're limited. The D tube is key, but the vertical grain, full span shear webs do all the work that hardwood spars would have.

I plan on using 2 HS 56 servos in it, hitec feather receiver, and a tiny battery pack. I will ebay them back in AZ and bring them with me next time around. There are some beautiful places around here to huck this thing so it will be nice when it is finished.

Brasilia comp behind, next up Canoa

Just finished the comp in Brasilia that went pretty much perfectly except for a couple windy days. I was flying better than I ever have in a comp, although not every day. Some things clicked since the worlds and I don't even know what it is exactly except maybe I am making slightly cleaner decisions about when to top out, when to leave, how fast, left or right or straight, and I am trusting some of my own decisions more when the gaggle decides differently, and it is paying off huge. The conditions were flatlands, strong, light winds, clouds. These are my best conditions so I am still aware that I will struggle on odd days or in the mountains. The turbulence was mildly intimidating on a couple days but nothing crazy. On the worst day an Aeros pilot did an outside loop followed by a tailslide and multiple tumbles resulting in him going home the next day with a crooked glider bag full of broken shit. I was low in the same area but didn't experience that air, however I do remember having to glide with about 1/2 vg for a few miles to feel comfortable near there. Chris Smith got a front row seat and it seems that the parachute took a bit of time to open before finally popping cleanly and lowering him into the hills. Most other days were excellent with high cloudbase and good racing.

I just read a story from a blog where a pilot claims to have been climbing poorly, was advised to raise his sprogs as this would help him, and afterwards began climbing like a rocket! This and other misconceptions about how to tune a glider can have bad outcomes if taken to extremes. In this example, obviously he hasn't compromised his safety since he is raising his sprogs, but raising the sprogs and improving the climb are completely unrelated assuming he doesn't climb with full VG, just as lowering the sprogs beyond a certain level is completely unrelated to bar pressure. I see a lot of gliders with way low sprogs and questionable setups. Perhaps it is time for a compilation of the collective knowledge of comp pilots, designers, and manufacturers in a format understandable and useable by all pilots of comp wings. The wings are so similar now that almost all techniques can be transferred between different gliders. It would be great to see it on a cd with video from inside and outside the sail, all vg positions, tip wand positions, mid section concentric changes, cg changes, ballast, varying amounts of reflex/flaps, etc, all in a controlled condition with the same pilots on the same gliders, maybe gliding against each other after one makes a change and the other does nothing, and so on. I think an intelligently edited version of this would be a huge hit with people buying racing gliders.

Sold the wing here so I will be coming home with just a harness with clothes stuffed in it. That will be a nice change. I'm picking up the new wing, tuning it up, and heading down to the Ecuadorian coast for a week of ridge racing at one of the best coastal sites in the world. I think I could live there, the flying is so good. Sounds like the normal crew will be there plus a few other top pilots to spice up the racing event. I heard the launch was improved recently making the airflow up the dirt ramp much cleaner. Should be a great time.

back to AZ

Here are a few pictures I lifted from blogs, emails, etc. I broke a tip on the landing but borrowed another one and won 300 dollars on the next landing. Jonny would have walked with 500 dollars but had already decided to split with Kraig... Texas is over, Brazil is ahead, and right now I am getting some great flights in Arizona between storms and 110 degree days.

pic Mark Knight


This is from the other night over at a local hill in the middle of the city. Flew till I couldn't see the ground anymore and landed by the lights of a city park. While everyone else is losing sites and airspace is closing in, the FAA recently altered the airspace in Phoenix and the change goes into effect Ocotber 25th. We are gaining 1000 feet at one site, 2000 feet at another. Pretty sweet, too bad I'll be cruising the cliffs in Ecuador when it all goes down. Working on a ticket to Brasil right now, cutting it close but hope it works out and I should be flying in Brasilia by this Sunday

Itamonte, MG, Brasil

Last week I went 800km north from Curitiba to fly in the 4th edition of the Brazilian circuit. Itamonte has the only true mountains I have ever seen in Brasil, at around 2500 meters altitude.

Flying was nice considering we are in the middle of winter here. Even on the blue, inverted days we were able to do between 60 and 80 km, 2.5 hour tasks over cool terrain. Landings were almost all hillside rotor affairs but winds remained light all three days so it was pretty mellow. Takeoff was more like what I'm used to with a prevailing over the back wind only blowing in because of thermal and rotor. Even with little to no wind, the launch ridge was very turbulent by my standards. As soon as we left it became very smooth with light consistent thermals and big gaggles.

Goal was always in town which was cool since it's in the bottom of a valley circled by small hills. If you clear the ridges, you make goal. Some pilots would come in super low and have to turn to follow the backside of a ridge, pop out a small side ravine, then squeak it in over trees and houses. Others pushed a little too far. I had one slow day after I misread my borrowed gps and went the wrong way for about 10km, then got back on track and had a decent finish. The second day I simply fell down after wrongly assuming the day would be as good as the day before even though we didn't have clouds. Lesson learned and day 3 was a great experience and really good practice for my weak point: weak days. I got a late start but had the patience to lead a small gaggle around the course rather than run off and try to win the race on every glide and every decision. Final glide was cool.

A malfunctioning electronic gate at the house where I left my harness last week left the garage open suddenly in the middle of the night on the weekend. Three kids came in and left with bicycles and my harness bag. They were confronted by the owner of the house a couple blocks away where they dropped the harness in the road and ran away with the bikes. Unfortunately they had already found my Flytec 5030 and the third kid was long gone with it. So this comp was flown with a regular gps and simple vario, both borrowed from generous locals. My confusion the first day was compounded when I checked the track log mid flight to find it was 100% full. I assumed that I had just lost the day but continued to fly anyway just in case. Fortunately it was on 'wrap when full', which saved the day. Still hoping to find that 5030, going to try a door to door hunt this weekend. We know their faces.

Some recent shots

Test flying new leading edge configurations over San Bernardino captured by Dave Freund.

Photo by Dave Freund

Universal "you lead out" signal, usually followed by the other pilot doing one more circle as you glide away. My current wing is gliding *well*. Photo Dave Freund.

Jeff Shapiro in Montana on the wing I flew at the pre worlds last year.

On glide with Konrad on a flight from Andradas to Campinas. We had an amzing final glide after a super cool winter flight of 80 km.

More stories later.

27, 28 May 2007

Looking out toward Francisco Grande from 12K over table top mountain.

Table top off the tip.

The Vekol valley. I've never gone down this way into the reservation but it is probably the most consistent cloud and dust devil producer within hundreds of miles.

Table top.

Typical.

The local hill was closed by the park service yesteray so I ended up giving a ride in the Grob instead. Lift was 8-900 average to 13,600 and we did an 80 mile triangle at tourist pace (40mph), while in the southeastern corner of the state on the same day, Tony Smolder won the day in the local comp with a 428 miler at 94mph.

Today at our local hill I was lucky to hop off in between over the back cycles and catch a nice climb to get the hell out of there. I don't want to wear out the Francisco Grande welcome mat, so today I cruised out southeast to Pegasus airstrip, an airport community in the making. Pretty much a dustbowl with a couple very small grass yards that I took advantage of for breakdown. Air was typical sweet sonoran desert honey. Brisk west winds made landing a bit tricky but got it down next to a grass yard in between dust devils. So I feel great having racked up over 180 miles over the holiday weekend without ever leaving town.

Next stop, Wills Wing for some testing and glider short packing. Then, catch a flight down to Brasil for the next two editions of their comp circuit, first in Porciúncula, then in July it will be in Itamonte, two places I have never seen and I am really looking forward to it. I was seriously thinking about the east coast comp, but I am in a rush to get some quality practice in for the worlds and I really had to go with the stiff competition down south. I think I can learn a lot from these guys, just wish their weather was a little more reliable this time of year. Hopefully we will fly the majority of the days and I can make some progress.

http://superrace2007.blogspot.com/ for more info on the brasilian calendar.

26 May South Mountain

Went out today to see if I could have a little fun off the local hill. The combination of visiting pilots and locals today assured me of having a ride if I decided to go long.




Here we have Allen and Ross setting up, my two wind dummies for the day. Don't launch first: work smart, not hard.

Anyway Ross hops off and climbs right out and I launch 5 minutes later and just get worked by snaky, turbulent crap all the while sinking lower and lower. I finally get a tiny little thermal about 600 feet over the dirt and take it up to join Ross. Both of us were cruising around at 4K dodging airspace and waiting for Allen to take off. The plan was to drag Allen along for a short XC but after he plummeted I was on my own. The goal soon became Francisco Grande and the margarita vortex was very strong however I was able to overcome the pull after stumbling into a 1200 average climb on my final glide which took me to 14K and cloudbase. This was incredible since I couldn't previously get over 7K. Suddenly clouds were popping all over the Santa Cruz task area and my eyes got bigger than my driver arrangements. I headed southeast to the Eds turnpoint, got up to base again, and contemplated the situation.....13:1 to get to Marana-an 80 miler, not bad. Or, I could take advantage of the 10:1 glide into Francisco Grande alcohol and pool resort for a 74 miler. Well all I can say is the margarita was tastier than all my previous beverages today but it sure seemed quiet at the pool without all you guys there.




Sweet flight, sweet air, once again higher than you're supposed to get down here but I'll definitely take it.

pics

Just searching through the memory card, found some nice shots. Can't wait to go back down to Canoa. Hope there is a good turnout so we can work on the LAUNCH this year! Or maybe we'll just run off the low ramp over the hotel. Whatever.

Here's a pic from Canoa that I just found on Jamie's memory card.

Jonny's mantra!!!!!!!!

A windy day at Quest blew several boxes over and this is the second one that impaled itself on a this finpost, cargo-company-forklift style. I think it gusted up to 45 that day.

My landing spot this afternoon. The old greyhound track in Black Canyon City, AZ. Had it to myself except for this old crotchity lady that came out and gave me shit. Rough day today in the mountains, I am so happy that I got those miles in the flats last week. When I landed in the 100 degree heat today, my hands were still ice blocks from the miles of snow I flew through at 16 grand under the one and only cloud line of the entire flight. Shooting for Phoenix, but got pinched out of the mountains by my altitude and zero landing options, and once you find yourself over Black Canyon City, you are there to stay. At least in all my experiences there.

One more shot, a classic Canoa sunset. Gliders everywhere. I think I was drunk before I got out of my harness. Beer delivery was spot on.

the NuGget

This is the GOLD nugget I found at the end of the 283 mile rainbow. SNAG!!!

So I'm at the bank and this is the first deposit after months out of the country and two expensive comps. I ask the girl at the counter for my balance after I deposit the check. She looks me in the eyes: before or after this deposit, sir? So she's cute and has a sense of humor, sweet! I went for the after version, it sounds cooler. $500.34

Thanks Wills!

Florida records and AZ margaritas

I gave myself time to think about going long in Florida and now my head is filled with visions of the Arizona meet. Jonny and I were recounting the flight in between at least fifty margaritas last week and the new impressive fact is the odometer vs. number of breakdowns on our gliders. We both came to AZ to have our very next flight after the Florida record. Well Jonny broke down his glider only once - at the end of this meet. I decked it on Saturday so I had to tear down one more time than him. So after 460 km on the big flight and almost exactly 700 km during last week's comp (1160), I have broken down three times and the Aussie twice. Good for wear and tear on the wings!

Well, although I may have seemed like I didn't care, I really was concerned about how my comp was going to work out...to the point of dreaming about it. I went away after the last day feeling like it just couldn't have gone any better. I wish I could go to a meet that gave such a spectrum of conditions with zero concern for safety and such perfect tasks. Besides Saturday, I would say every task was a very stimulating blend of racing, scratching, relaxing, and views. Not to stroke my inner task setter here - it was without a doubt all luck but wasn't it great?

Back to the Florida flight, I gave Davis my patchwork tracklogs from the dying 5030 and it seems that it was just a data mess. Maybe I will hear more later about that. It was out of character for me to commit to such an undertaking with not one second of forethought or any preparation. As Jonny mentioned, he simply strolled up the Quest clubhouse stairs to see if he could pressure me into going along with him on his record attempt. I must have sounded way less than enthusiastic because he simply walked out, stepped on a dolley, and flew away without me. After replaying my answer to him back in my head, it occurred to me that I sounded like some old, worn out has been. And he was hung over from the night before while I was fresh as ever. So in the end it was not his pressure but mine that got me. I ran out, turned on the vario which was reading less than half battery, and turned on my borrowed radio - wait - it was already turned on. Since the day before. Sweet, that will just take a little more time to borrow another radio while Jonny races off without me. I basically layed on the dolley and was off circling in lift about 7 or 8 minutes after sitting around having cereal in my underwear.

There was nothing remarkable during the flight except how the miles seemed to tick off. In the end it felt like we had done a 100 miler on a normal day. But I must stop now and take the little credit that is mine for that day - there was a low spot, well there were two hairy low spots, but during the second and final one, in a really nasty climb, Jonny begins speaking of landing. Not just landing down the road. Or in a while. But landing. Right now, this field, let's go. Honestly, after sampling the low level air I was tempted to agree, but I thought maybe it would be a little more turbulent than I had counted on when I jumped in my harness that morning so I said 'hey, let's just hit base and think about it'. After saying that a few times, he seemed to warm up to it and we were off to the races again.

Now it was amazing how close we had stayed to that point, but the next 200 miles were spooky. No matter what we did, we ended up tip to tip minutes later. I would take a shitty line, lose a solid grand on Jonny, and we would then take two separate climbs at the next cloud which would put us at base - same time, same place. Ah, but that won't keep happening. That's what I thought every time until we were on final.

And it's the final that made it all worthwhile. Most flights end in a whimper of weak air and slow climbs as you race the sun to the ground. Our epic only turned epic during the last 60 kms. The sea breeze, in fact the sea itself was in sight all day just off our right wings. It was only at around 240 miles that it pinched us up against the huge fire we had been surfing all day. Just as we hit base at the beginning of the most incredible cloud street, the sea breeze pushed under us, spawning little scud clouds way under us and to our side. Now the lift became very good and we basically had to run full speed at base to stay in front of the forming scud. As I looked back on our last climb, I could see that the sea breeze had a bit of an angle so it was zippering behind us and to top it off it was zipping up at about our top glide speed. This was all beyond me at the time, I was just in the moment, dipping one wing into tiny rotor looking clouds on my right one second, then into the crisp smoke boundary on our left the next. We glided. And glided. I'm pretty sure we just kept on gliding.

At some point, it wasn't clear exactly when due to the smoke, the clouds ended and we found ourselves high in the blue, but bathed in thick white smoke. Visibility was not happening and thermals were over. I thought. Actually my vario had quit around 150 miles and had only been able to turn on for about 30 seconds at the beginning of each climb to help me get friendly with the core before it decided it would take another nap. Now, 260 out, I am 100 feet over Jonny out of desparation since the vario couldn't be troubled even to turn on for me. The air was so smooth that I nearly missed it when Jonny started a turn under me. I guess we're climbing. He claims it was 150 fpm but I will never know. He grew weary of it and continued our now crosswind glide to the close highway. That was the one, by the way. The 300 mile thermal. We had a 25 mph tailwind by now and that was the 265 mark. But it would have meant a farm landing rather than a highway landing and I wasn't going to say a word, considering my vario was dead and couldn't give a location, and anyway my phone was too so who cares if I had my location!

Well Jonny comes over the headset saying we need to do a couple opposing wingovers over Chris's car when we finish. We were still so close I could hardly lift my finger to press the ptt or I would slide into him. How cool is that after 280 miles? So our baked brains both agreed and we whipped into two huge arcs away from each other right over the car and I'm pretty sure we both realized at around the same time that when our 270 degree heading changes came together we would smack helmets so Jonny, let's go ahead and do another opposing set I thought. He had the same thought and I'm sure we were both shaking our heads the last few seconds in the air. The field was that uphill into the wind, dreamy sort of place that only the lucky pilots get to land in after a long day. We touched down about 5 seconds and a wingspan apart and savored the Georgia air. Actually it smelled of South Carolina a bit.

Chris Smith was there when we landed, not to mention his in flight entertainment. When he was bored we got to sample a little rap over the air, a little pop here and there. As we crossed more or less into the bible belt, we sampled a minute or so of evangelist opinion as he held the mic to the radio, followed by some more relaxing R&B further down the line. There is really no way to convey the impact of the kind of flight we had. I don't mean the distance, I am referring to the sort of endless team flying that branded the day. It was absolutely incredible and I am well aware that it will probably never happen again quite like that.