FOOTLAUNCHapril

The truly international newsletter

 

What a brilliant Easter weekend! Andy Wallington has run-in his new hang glider in just one flight. Several PG pilots have been wafting over my house and I have rotovated my garden.

 

Next club meeting; on Wed 12th April at The Pheasant, Welland… Richard Sheppard is talking about in-flight photography…. Why not bring along the other half for an evening of f-stops and focal lengths… What fun! Do come along!

 

Thanks to Simon for his antipodean thoughts – Bonza! More to follow I hope.

Safe flying, Richard

SAFETY MATTERS and other stuff

 

Comps and meetings

Registration is now open for the 2007 season BPCup!

Follow this link for the entry form. www.bpcup.co.uk/entry.php

For those that haven't heard of the BPCup, we're a UK based comp running five rounds this summer in various locations. If you're pilot rated and want to learn about flying proper competition tasks or like a drink and a social along with your flying then sign up.

Read about the new discount system we have in operation on the FAQ page. Also, the round location we still have to announce is almost certainly going to be SE Wales. Don't forget to mark your bank transfers with who is paying to make the new treasurer, Mal Grace's job easier.

See you this summer and happy thermals. Richard, Pete and the rest of the '07 BPCup team.

Lakes Charity Classic

Entries for the 2007 LCC are now open. Full details for the event, its organisation and an entry form can be found under the 'Lakes Charity Classic' link on the CSC website homepage (http://www.cumbriasoaringclub.co.uk)

The LCC has a long history of attracting pilots from all over the country who join together to have a good time in a fantastic part of the country and, at the same time, raise a good amount of money for charity. We hope that this year's event will be as successful as last year's.

Many thanks, Simon Raven CSC Contact / Secretary / Membership Sec.

 

Dear Doreen,

Do you have a problem? Whenever I was worried I remember my wise old uncle used to say to me “ Put the kettle on Doreen and make the world nicer place.” He made kettles for a living so I think his view was a biased one. Can tea solve the world’s problems?  Looking at my postbag I would say it must be worth a try.  Ask me anything – yes anything! 

 

 

Dear Doreen,

How come, every time I go flying, I end up covered in chip oil and batter?

Yours, Jon Wishbone

 

Dear Jon

I believe you are getting flying and frying mixed up.  Go to see a speech therapist.

I hope this helps, Doreen.

 

 

Dear Doreen,

How come, every time I go frying, I end up covered in cow dung and snot?

Yours, Daniel Tuneless

 

 

Dear Daniel

See above.

I hope this helps, Doreen.

 

 

Dear Doreen,

Why don’t they make a paraglider with aluminium tubes in it? I for one would be the first in the queue to buy one.

Yours perplexed, Dobie Vinyleffect

 

 

 

Dear Dobie

This has been tried but all the test pilots ended up concussed or badly dead after the wing fell on them upon landing.

I hope this helps, Doreen.

 

 
Dear Doreen,
I read with interest Bob Lossfactor’s letter to you last month where he stated that he was worried that he had nothing to worry about. I can help with this as I’ve just started a company that deals in what I have termed ‘Worry Credits’. Bob can get in touch with us and if he lets us know what he thinks he should be worried about and pays us some money, we can get a person in the Third World to worry about this for him. This really does help people in the developing countries to catch up with the west in terms of lifestyle and social anxiety and at the same time will help people like Bob to lead a more fulfilling and guilt-free life. It will obviously be more economical for Bob if he can find a number of worrying subjects to have us deal with at any one time. 
Yours sincerely, Peter Surfturfer, fret4you.com 
 
 
Dear Peter,
You sir, are a genius!
I hope this helps, Doreen.
 






 
News – mostly bad

 

Hang glider dies in accident in Hunter Valley

 

A Sydney  man has been killed in a hang gliding accident in the Hunter Valley in New South Wales.

Police say the 49-year-old man's hang glider clipped trees as he launched off Mount Sugarloaf, near the town of Kurri Kurri, approximately 145 kilometres from Sydney, early yesterday afternoon.

He fell up to 40 metres to the ground and despite efforts by his friends to revive him, he died at the scene.

Police say the man, from the Sydney suburb of Chatswood, had more than 20 years experience as a pilot and hang glider.

 

 

Man injured in hang-gliding malfunction


Ellenville - A man was injured yesterday afternoon when his hang-gliding landing gear malfunctioned and he crashed through several trees on a mountain near Route 52.
The man, who was not identified by Ellenville Rescue, was taken by helicopter to Westchester Medical Center with leg injuries.
It took 20 minutes for rescue and firefighters to make their way into the woods to his location, said rescue paramedic Arthur Nodar.
The man had been gliding with a friend who saw him lose control and pointed rescuers in the direction where he fell, Nodar said.
The man was taken out of the woods in a pickup.

 

Two animations released by Nasa allow viewers to "hang-glide" over the terrain currently being explored by the US space agency's Mars rovers.  http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/6449031.stm

 

Yeh, right… just like hang gliding.

Canberra Calling

“What's this?” I hear you ask.

“It's the first of a regular series of Footlaunch articles” I respond.

After I demonstrated an ability to string a sentence or two together in a vaguely coherent manner with my reports from the PG Worlds, Richard asked me if I would contribute to Footlaunch each month. The remit he gave me was to supply some thoughts on life over here in Oz from a flier's perspective, but he said that it I can ramble on about anything I want so long as flying is mentioned somewhere in the text!

So here goes with edition one of my random ramblings. I should probably begin by introducing myself to those of you who don't know me. I'm a pilot from Cheltenham, who's life officially begins later this month. (Gulp!) One of the perks of my cushy job as a government scientist is the occasional opportunity to take up secondments to departments in other parts of the world. A couple of years ago I managed to be in the right place at the right time to be offered a posting working with the Australian government here in Canberra. It would have been rude to refuse, so here I am two thirds of the way through my posting to the convict colony.

I had my first go on a hang glider about 18 years ago and was tempted to sample the dark arts of paragliding about 12 years later. My flying career to date has been characterised more by the large amount of space in between flights than by the air time in my log books, I have been committing too much of my life to work and pursuits other than flying. This has left me a long way from sky god status in spite of my years of experience. However the Australian weather and the lifestyle change brought about by my move here is allowing me to stay current on both of my aircraft (a Moyes Litespeed rocket ship and Airwave Wave DHV1 safe 'n' steady)

Having mentioned flying in the paragraph above, I guess I now have a free rein to select a completely off the wall topic for the remainder of the article. Nevertheless I think I will stick with flying. Let's return to the PG world Championships for a while. Having offered my services as a driver and general gopher to the British team, I was lucky enough to get to stay in the team house with Bruce and the rest of the boys. When the flying was happening I was in the thick of the action sorting out radio problems on launch, helping to carry kit between launches when the wind shifted then dashing off to goal so that I could feed information to the guys as they made their final glide to glorious victory (or so the theory went) In the slow, scratchy conditions, I had plenty of time to practice my already finely honed parawaiting technique while observing the experts trying to get away from Mount Borah.

If I remember correctly, it was the beginning of the fourth task when things got rather too exciting in the sky above the mountain. Most of the competitors had taken off and it seemed that all 120 of them had gathered in a single thermal over launch. Fantastic for those, like me, on the ground armed with cameras wanting to take photographs but hard work for those in the air trying to avoid accidents. In the space of about twenty minutes some things went wrong and three incidents took place where the safety of the pilots involved was most definitely not assured.

The first event was a mid-air high up in the main gaggle. The higher pilot had suffered a collapse and descended rapidly into the canopy of the lower pilot. By the time I had spotted what was going on, both were dropping out of the sky at an alarming rate with canopies doing a lot of flapping and not generating much lift. After a few seconds the gliders separated, one re-inflated with the pilot ultimately going on to land 60km away at goal with friction damage to one riser and an urgent requirement for a clean pair of underpants. The second pilot deployed his reserve and landed relatively undamaged on a road behind launch.

While most of the gathered masses were watching one descent under reserve, another was happening in front of launch. Two pilots had been scratching low, desperately trying to avoid the bomb out. They failed to see each other, collided and pulled their reserves. One walked away unscathed, the other sustained the “usual” paragliding injury, a compressed spinal fracture. Remarkably, she was out of hospital within 24 hours and was walking around at the closing party a couple of days later.

The final incident was a stuffed-up launch. The wind had intermittently been turning tail as thermals in front of take-off sucked in air. The pilot had picked the wrong moment to go for it, hadn't checked that his wing was properly inflated before running over the edge of the steep drop-off. Not many seconds later he found himself dangling from a tree with his feet just off the ground. He was only scratched, but all of the lines from one riser had been broken..probably contributing some useful energy absorption in the process.

What I found particularly worrying was not that the incidents had happened and that I had seen them or their aftermath, but the way I was feeling as the drama was unfolding. Here were 5 fellow aviators who perhaps I had said “g'day” to that morning, with a bit more bad luck they could have been within seconds of their demise. Meanwhile I was stood on the hill primarily worrying about taking photographs. I found myself strangely unconcerned about the people falling out of the sky, it seems to me that I should have been more worried. Have I just made a very public confession to being a completely heartless b*****d? Or is it my way of dealing with the fact that I could do nothing that would change their fate and that it could “never” happen to me or anyone I know well. I certainly don't know the answer to this one. Perhaps if you have witnessed a similar event, you could share your thoughts too.  Simon Dillworth

 

 

 

I put this in again to fill in space… sorry, in case people missed it.

Low Air Time Malvern Members At Kettle Sings

 

At the committee it was raised how we often do not get to see new low airtime members. And consequently they do not get involved with the Club. A problem that arises because of the 15 hr minimum limit that applies to Kettle Sings. So just when they could do with some help, we leave them to their own devices at not a particularly easy site, Castle Morton.

 

So we have decided that on selected days, under certain conditions, they can fly from KS. Apart from a couple of reasons; spine back and houses underneath, a much better site. It has a much better take off, a reasonable top to bottom, and huge bottom landing.

 

How will the days be selected? Well this will pretty much be up to you. If you want to fly, even mid week, give me a call.

 

01684 572723

 

But I will also flag up days that I think will be good on the mail list.

 

If you need any more information, or are not sure about something, give me a call.

 

Conditions:

 

1    A Malvern club coach must be on site.

2   You must be a full member.

3   You should have some airtime achieved recently, say 5 or 6 hrs

4   You should have a working 2 meter radio.

5    A reasonably modern glider, good glide angle, with speed system.

6    And on the day you must report to the coach before flying.

 

See you there, Bryan.

Oiyitsmytubesobuggeroff

 (Editor’s selections from Youtube – Send in your own favourites)

Interesting spin footage here.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z40_2oue374

What a pushy father. If my kids want to be golfers… so be it…

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9o4Itv7oAcw







Going to the Swiss Alps this year? Plan your Cross Country route here. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4qMRl57t1aU
 






 
He’s having a heck of a job centring on that thermal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CUo6YKw6UJQ
 
 






They get everywhere
 
 
“PGs off the starboard bow Cap’n”
 
 
 
 






Go4IT

WIN WIN WIN!
 


READ THIS AND DON’T                                                                  anything of monetary value

Entries to Tim Crow to be in within one month of the flight.

Rules

1.    UK flights only.
2.    No infringement of airspace.
3.    Must have Pilot rating or be under instruction from one on the day.
4.    Flights between 01/12/04 to 30/11/05.
5.    Co-ordinates for T/O and landing required plus distance from point to point in Km as a

       check. Flights will be scored to nearest 100m.
6.    Defined flights (BHPA rules, see below) Coordinates for turn points in addition. Bonus

       distance awarded provided 60% of flight outside ridge lift.
7.    Stone’s throw award for smallest flight submitted (or known about) provided
       distance 5km or greater.

 

 

 

 

Go4IT Flight Types

Open Distance (score = distance)
Open Distance flights do not have any turnpoints. Open distance flights will score the straight-line distance from the start point to the end point.

 

Dog-Leg (DL) score = distance
Dog-Leg flights are open distance flights with a single turnpoint. The turnpoint does not need to be declared beforehand. The turnpoint is permitted when pilots are forced to make a substantial change in direction.

Out and Return (OR) score = distance x 2 when the majority of the flight is out of ridge lift.
Out and Return flights commence at a start point, go round a single turnpoint, and return to the original start point. The coordinates of the start point and finish point are therefore identical. The start/finish point may be different to the actual launch/landing points but the flight distance is only measured from the start, to the turnpoint and back.

 

FAI Triangle (T) score = distance x 3 when the majority of the flight is out of ridge lift.
An FAI Triangle is one which satisfies the FAI’s 28% Rule (shortest side must be greater than, or equal to, 28% of the distance flown). To fly a triangle you must round three turnpoints, and return to the original start point. The coordinates of the start point and goal are therefore identical and for declared triangles and local records, must be one of the turnpoints. The start/goal point may be different to the actual launch/landing points.

 

Special Rule to encourage pilots to attempt triangle flights
Note that for non-declared triangles, using GPS verification, you can fly a loop and you will be scored the best triangle which can be fitted inside it. Your track log points must cross to complete the loop. This means you don’t have to start and finish at a turnpoint but may start midway along a leg. This is to encourage pilots to try triangle flights.

 

Flat Triangle (FT) score = distance x 2
A Flat Triangle is a triangular flight as above, except that it does not conform to the FAI 28% rule. Completed Flat Triangle flights score the distance multiplied by 2 when the majority of the flight is out of ridge lift.

 

Failed Triangle (score = distance)
A Failed Triangle is an attempt at a triangular flight in which the pilot fails to make it back to the start point. Failed Triangles score the total distance from the start, around up to two turnpoints and back towards the finish point.