2005-03 - Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada

Transcription

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AIR Magazine • March 2005 • Volume 19, Issue 01
photo by Janet Winbourne
Contents
Stephen Kurth looks down while taking Dave Jones’ paraglider for a test flight.
FEATURES
Cover
09
Fly for a Cure the second-annual fundraising competition
gears up to healp MS and breast cancer by Ralph Herten
10
Work and play in Guatemala Stewart Midwinter travels
to Central America for the CIVL plenary
12
Chasing Golden records Mark Dowsett tries to set a new
personal and national record
19
Barrier broken Dale Moore unearths a story about his
first 100-mile flight — in 1988
24
Mt. Seven in the snow Scott Watwood proves Mt. Seven
is good for more than holding snow during the winter
25
2004 XC summary the results from Muller Windsports’
XC database by Vincene Muller
Jason Biggins high above
Australia in a recent flying
trip to the land down under.
See story, pg16
photo by Jayson Biggins
REGULAR
04
05
06
07
From the president
From the business manager
In brief
Compete
08
09
27
29
Regional
Classifieds
Accident/incident report
HPAC/ACVL membership form
AIR MAGAZINE | DECEMBER 2004
3
FROM THE PRESIDENT
MICHAEL FULLER
PRESIDENT
H
Looking ahead from the top
HPAC/ACVL’s new president looks at moving forward
and building on past successes
ello pilots and friends
Well, there’s a blizzard in the
forecast, and I haven’t been in the air in far
too long a time. The days are getting longer.
Spring is on its way. I understand you West
Coast pilots have had some nice thermal
flights already, and my flying buddies at
home had a rare late winter sea thermal
flight here on the east coast the other day.
The season’s changing, and soon we’ll be
doing some serious flying again.
Things have changed a bit with your association, too.
Doug Keller has retired as the Alberta
rep and president. He did a great job and
passed on a healthy organization to the
new executive. Your association is currently
4 AIR MAGAZINE | DECEMBER, 2004
free from crises. We have a good insurance
policy in place, AIR Magazine is enjoying
the consistent attention of the new editor and will for the foreseeable future, the
instructional standards review is nearing
completion and the rating system will soon
be overhauled.
On the business front, we’re enjoying the
benefits of John Burke’s hard administrative work. We’ll also soon be registered as
a charity and able to take donations, bequests and corporate support.
The web team has established a wonderful website which is second to none. We are
now able to offer you more online services than ever before, from renewing your
membership to discount subscriptions to
other flying magazines, and there will be
more services in the future.
Your directors have recognized the fragile nature of our sport with respect to flying
sites and have taken steps to help you build
strong relationships with the landowners
you depend on. We have recently developed
the Solid Ground Award, which was drafted
specifically to help you honour your A+
landowners. It’s a national award and your
nominations will be gratefully accepted.
Strong landowner relations are so important that we would encourage you to
send this magazine to them. Let them see
how important they are. Make them a part
of your community. We can’t do without
them.
FROM THE BM
One cannot look at the sea without
wishing for the wings of a swallow.
– Sir Richard Burton
HT TP ://H PAC .C A
888-348-3356
Editor: JAMES KELLER
air@hpac.ca
HPAC/ACVL OFFICERS
President: MICHAEL FULLER [hpaac@hpac.ca]
Vice-president: GERRY GROSSNEGGER
[mhga@hpac.ca]
Secretary: MICHAEL MILLER [bchpa@hpac.ca]
Treasurer: CHARLES MATHIESON
[Charles.Mathieson@telus.net]
Safety & Accident Review: FRED WILSON
[safety@hpac.ca]
HPAC/ACVL BOARD OF DIRECTORS
B.C. & Yukon: MICHAEL MILLER
Alberta & NWT: BRUCE BUSBY [buzword@telus.net]
Saskatchewan: CAS WOLAN [shga@hpac.ca]
Manitoba & Nunavut: GERRY GROSSNEGGER
Ontario: PETER DARIAN-VARZELIOTIS
[ohpa@hpac.ca]
Quebec: JACQUES BLANCHET
[voiles4saisons@yahoo.fr]
Atlantic Canada: MICHAEL FULLER
Business Manager: JOHN BURK [admin@hpac.ca]
Éditeur du Survol: SUZANNE FRANCOEUR
AIR is available through your regional
association or club for any landowner you
wish to honour. Get in touch with your rep
or John at the business office for the details.
On the competition front, we are just
putting the finishing touches to an endowment fund which we hope will help us give
more substantial support in the future to
our Olympic athletes in hang gliding and
paragliding as they compete internationally
for Canada. Should you wish to contribute
specifically to this fund and help it grow
faster, please contact the business office.
Obviously, we offer a tax receipt for this as
well.
What are we currently working on? We
are very aware that a healthy association is a
growing association. We are exploring various ways to raise the profile of the sport in
Canada and attract more people to it. More
people wanting to fly means more students
for our schools and more people to share
the cost and work of running your association.
We are currently soliciting help from our
members. We would like to see new people
become involved in all aspects of the association. We have many committees that
would benefit from the attention of more
than just one person. If more people help
JOHN BURK
[survol@hpac.ca]
Competition Commitee Chairman: BERNARD
WINKELMANN [bernard_winkelmann@hotmail.com]
Observer: VINCENE MULLER
[fly@mullerwindsports.com]
FAI/CIVL Delegate: STEWART MIDWINTER
[stewartd@midwinter.ca] & VINCENE MULLER
Instructors Advisory Council Chair: PETER
DARIAN [peter@flyhigh.com]
Insurance Committee: GREGG HUMPHREYS
[insurance@hpac.ca]
Legal Advisor: MARK KOWALSKY [lawyer@hpac.ca]
XC Records: VINCENE MULLER
Transport Canada Liaison: ANDRÉ NADEAU
[andre.nadeau@rogers.com]
Web Team: PHIL DEON [pdeon@rogers.com],
JUDITH NEWMAN [jnewman@eastlink.ca], GERRY
GROSSNEGGER & CHARLES MATHIESON
AIR is published four times yearly by the Hang
Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada/
L’Association Canadienne de Vol Libre, and is mailed
under Publication Agreement Number: 40735588.
Undeliverable copies should be returned to:
120 Ottawa Street North
PO Box 43082
Kitchener, ON
N2H 6S9
B U S I N E S S
M A N A G E R
W
then burnout is less and less of a problem
and we benefit from fresh ideas and energy.
Finally the flying season is soon upon us,
and as we take to the skies in numbers once
again keep in mind that we have a responsibility to our sport, to our friends and to
ourselves to fly safely. We still have a closeknit community here, where we know each
other for better or worse.
Look after your community and it will
look after you. Fly safe, don’t be stupid.
Remember, too, that we’re self-regulated
— so long as we fly responsibly, so respect
air space and air regulations and get a rating appropriate to you goals. We don’t need
Transport Canada coming down on us because of a brain fart.
So that’s it. I’m looking forward to helping our association grow and serve our
membership better and better. I am proud
to be the first East-Coast president, and I’ll
“give ‘er” as long as it works for me and for
you.
If for any reason you would like to talk
to me about where we’re headed and how
you can help, please feel free to get in touch
anytime.
– Michael Fuller,
HPAC/ACVL President
Give a little bit
HPAC/ACVL goes for charity status,
reminds members to keep info current
e have finalized our insurance policy with our provider for the 2005 season. The cost was up
slightly, but so was membership overall. A
big “Thanks” to Gregg Humphreys for his
work on this issue.
This year will see some positive changes
for HPAC/ACVL with our Board of Directors meeting taking place in Paarsboro,
Nova Scotia April 15 – 17 with lots of good
ideas on the table to discuss. We have applied for Charitable status as a Canadian
Amateur Athletic Association under the
Income Tax Act. Once approved, we will be
able to issue official donation receipts for
income tax purposes — more on this later.
So make sure your ready for the flying
season when it arrives. Check your information online at www.hpac.ca, and, instructors, don’t forget to get your First Aid
updated so your remain current. I still get
a lot of returned AIR Magazines every issue due to unknown address changes.
Great time of year to repack that parachute, pre flight the gilder, harness and if
you use a cart, give it a check too. Fly high,
and fly safe.
– John Burk,
Business Manager
5
IN BRIEF
New deals and lost equipment
Solid Ground Award
for landowners
K
eeping flying sites open is not always
an easy task, and the pressure seems
to be building now more than ever.
Although it’s not epedemic in Canada,
we have begun to feel the threat of having
our sport banned from flying sites.
To recognize the need for good communication with landowners, and to create a way to underline how important their
contribution is to the welfare of our sport,
the Solid Ground Awards were born.
The Award is granted on an annual basis to an individual, landowner, organization or official who has contributed in an
outstanding way to the sport(s) of hang
gliding and/ or paragliding in Canada.
If you are filled with a burning desire to
bestow this award on your favourite landowner here’s how you can do it. Ask your
local club/organization to forward the
nomination to the HPAC/ACVL office care
of John Burk as soon as possible. By having
your local organization endorse the nomination the BoD will know for certain that
the nomination is of regional or local importance.
Please make certain that your nomination has been sent in by the end of February. As yet the award is not designed however we do want to see an award presented
that will remain in the hands of the recipient forever. A framed print or graphic that
can be re-issued annually would be just
the ticket. Any ideas? We’re quite open to
suggestions.
If you would like to read the entire policy and regulatory directive (PRD), visit
hpac.ca.
HPAC teams up with
Paraglider Magazine
B
y the time you receive this edition on
AIR, you should be able to subscribe to
Paraglider Magazine through the HPAC/
ACVL website or with your membership
renewal. Regular price of the magazine is
$34.95 US, but as an HPAC/ACVL member,
your cost will be $29.95 US or $37.00 Cdn,
for airmail delivery add $20.00 Cdn.
Sam Gaylord, the editor, is excited with
our agreement and hopes to solicit some
Canadian content (articles from Canadian
pilots, site reviews, club stuff for the Group
Therapy pages, etc.).
Check out www.ParagliderMagazine.com.
Equipment stolen in
Wasaga Beach, Ontario
T
his is list of equipment stolen from
the Air Vision Adventures shop in
January.
Most of it was used equipment for teaching paragliding. This must have been done
by somebody in the “businessm” as some
of the paragliding bags that did not contain
paragliding equipment were left behind. And
other gear except for two traction kites was
left here also.
Our rear entrance was smashed, and the
rear door completely damaged. Somebody
took quite a bit of time to get in. Luckily, police were able to retreive some finger prints,
so there’s a hope. This is a really sickening
experience. If you can help us retrieve the
equipment please let us know. Our season is
over.
Reserve Parachutes
Perche Annular 22 (new)
Perche Annular 24 (new)
Harnesses
Charly basic used
Perche Magic used
Lubin “M” blue/new
Lubin “L” blue/new
Paragliders
Airwave Logic L, white/red (used)
Apco Prima 24, turquoise (used)
Apco Prima 27, yellow (used with markings)
Apco Prima 30, turquoise (used)
Apco Supra 28, blue (used)
Perche Graffiti XL, blue (used)
If you have any information, contact Air
Vision Adventures, Ltd. at 1-888-850-9995 or
by visiting www.airvisionadventures.com.
New events website
By MARK DOWSETT
I
have just finished developing a new web
site for the flying events that I host. The
new URL is events.dowsett.ca. I’m pretty
proud, ’cuz I did it all on my own!
I hope it turns into a great resource for
everyone to keep up to date with what flying events are going on so more people get
involved. It won’t just have info and scores
on the events I host (as it does now) but a resource for all pilots and spectators to watch,
get involved and communicate. Here are
some of the features it has or will have in the
near future.
 register for hosted events;
 online payment for events;
 ability to help other event organizers have
a web presence and take advantage of comarketing of events;
 spectators can subscribe to events and get
a reminder when the events are taking place;
 a great resource for sponsors to get the
exposure they are looking for with statistics
sent to them;
 discussion forums;
 document collaboration (ie. Comp Rule
Book);
 individual photo galleries that can easily
be added to during events;
 personal pilot blogs (web logs or journals) for pilots to report their own take on
the comp as it is going on or while they are
traveling to international events. The Oz Report is a good example - I love the Oz Report
as it offers a timely write-up on what Davis
sees while he is flying but it can’t report on
what he doesn’t see. The Blogging allows all
competitors to post how they seen the day.
Registered users (not necessarily just competitors) can subscribe to other users Blogs
so they can be notified when their “Buddies”
post new stories — choose the pilots you
want to here write-ups from;
 eCommerce - for entry fees, extra services
(meal plans) and other products; and
 competition and XC performance/learning resources.
The site will be focused on Canadian
events (mostly on the West Coast), but there
is no reason it can’t be used North Americawide by meet organizers.
COMPETE
Compete from coast to coast
Canadian Nationals
T
he Nationals for 2005 has been approved by the HPAC/ACVL and will
be in Lumby, British Columbia for the
fourth straight year.
Last year, we moved the dates to June
,which brought amazing weather. (We had
11 of 14 valid rounds and altitude gains of
more than 11,000 ft — what more could
you ask for?)
Lumby is a great venue for pilots of all
levels. If you are looking to race and become the next champion, the conditions
are great. Strong but smooth climbs and
challenging terrain will let you race across
the many valleys. If you are looking to improve your XC skills, what better venue is
there?
Courses are often triangles, so you can
see the leaders on course for more of the
task as often they pass you on their way
back from a turnpoint. I have also had
participants come looking for their very
first taste of XC. Despite the many valleys,
the winds are very light and the climbs are
smooth, giving ideal conditions for you to
cut the elastic bands that hold you to your
launch site.
It is also a learning experience from the
technical side of things. We host GPS seminars to teach you how to navigate and perform better with your instruments (GPSs
are required), and also do all the computerized scoring in front of everyone in the
Blue Ox Pub over beers every night.
The dates are:
June 5 – 11: Hang gliding
June 12 – 18: Paragliding
If you plan on attending or just want to
watch the event unfold, please visit: www.
dowsett.ca/cdnnats
Fly-In in Parrsboro
H
PAAC
(Hang
Gliding
and
Paragliding Association of Atlantic
Canada) holds its annual Fly-In in Parrsboro on the “two-four” weekend (as it’s
known locally), falling on May 20 – 23 this
year. The town of Parrsboro has caught
the flying fever and will hold an annual
Festival of Air Sports, inviting all types
of Aircraft from Balloons to Ultralights
to Model Aircraft flyers for a weekend of
aviation enthusiasm. The HPAAC will
do its part by putting on flying and towing demonstrations of both paragliding
and hang gliding, and we will have a raffle for introductory flight lessons. If you
are in or near the east coast (or if you’re
able to fly-in) for this event, it would be
great to see you. There is a small lake
in front of the town, known as the Abiteau, which is a possible LZ for most float
equipped aircraft (contact Christopher
at cbifilms@istar.ca for more info), and
conventional aircraft could fly-in to the
nearest airport at Debert (in your Canada Flight Supplement). We also have a
number of good flying sites for paraglider
and hang glider pilots that are listed in
our website: www.lupinworks.com/hpaac.
Come out for a fun weekend of Aviation.
Spring and summer
comps in BC
A
pril 2 – 3, and April 9 – 10: Fraser Valley
XC Series hang gliding weekends one
and two. Contact Nicole at nicole@westco
astsoaringclub.com for more info, or visit
www.westcoastsoaringclub.com/events.
A
pril 16 – 17, and April 23 – 24: Fraser
Valley XC Series paragliding weekends one and two. Contact Nicole at nic
ole@westcoastsoaringclub.com for more
info, or see www.westcoastsoaringclub.
com/events for the details.
J
uly 23 – Aug. 1: Willi Muller XC Challenge in Golden, BC. The past two years
have been fantastic; last year we were flying
100-200 km each day, easy! Both open distance and out-and-return formats. More
info coming soon.
A
ug. 6 – 7: Lakeside Event, Inveremere,
BC. Hang glider pilots aim for an
inner tube anchored a few feet offshore;
Paraglider pilots aim for a kiddy pool on
the beach. Last year, the splash rate was 50
per cent for paraglider pilots and 90 per
cent hang glider pilots. See www.lakesideevent.com for more details.
Bridal Falls Air Races
D
ate: June 25 and 26, 2005
Location: Bridal Falls, near Chilliwack,
British Columbia.
Fly the beautiful Bridal Falls flying site,
probably the most consistent thermal site
in Canada! XC’s of 40 km are common,
and altitudes of 2,500 m are possible.
Eight-hour flights have been done in June.
Come for the flying and epic scenery, and
introduce a friend to flying via a tandem
flight!
Events include:
 Discounted paragliding tandem flights
 Fun flying events, such as longest flight,
closest to 1 hour flight, highest altitude,
kiting wars, turnpoint accumulation, and
match racing.
 Party the night of June 25: dinner, prizes,
music, and other stuff -Camping available
that weekend
For more information on the event or
booking a tandem flight, e-mail Nicole@we
stcoastsoaringclub.com, or visit the WCSC’s
website: www.westcoastsoaringclub.com.
Longest Day
L
ongest Day Celebration
June 25, 2005 (weather day: June 26)
Open distance XC, follow the leader
and try to break the site record; 103 miles
northbound; 107 miles eastbound; 156
miles south-east bound; 31 miles westbound (flights are usually O&R); free entry); trophy for open and recreational class,
(sponsored by McClintock Engineering &
Door Controls Canada).
John McClintock: 250-751-9596 or
jmceng@ocis.net
Jeff Remple: 604-594-2530
7
REGIONAL NEWS
Coastal flying in New Brunswick
BY MIKE FOUGERE
I
f you’re vacationing on the East Coast and
want some good relaxing airtime, ASHAK
on the Bay can offer you cottages with your
front lawn as a private launch site.
These new, fully equipped secluded cottages overlook the bay of Fundy, less than
10 minutes from Fundy National Park, with
its huge 37-foot tides and fantastic view of
coastal Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.
The 80-foot, shrub-covered bank with
3 km of flyable shore offers plenty of flying room with its wide-lift band and landing zones, even at high tide. A grassy bare
spot below on the slope can be used for a
paragliding launch when the breeze gets
strong at the top.
The Bay of Fundy develops a circulating
sea breeze that is predictable as clockwork.
Depending on the strength and direction of
upper prevailing winds, it will determine a
steady 30 km/h breeze for paragliders or 50
km/h or more for hang gliders.
Keep in mind: this is a private site and there
are no other locations on this ridge with permission to launch from, other than renting
the cottages (please respect the landowners).
For more information, contact Mike
Fougere at mike4g_air@yahoo.ca.
West Coast Soaring Club awards
BY NICOLE McLEARN
T
he WCSC had their 2004 Christmas/
Awards party on Dec. 11. Recipients of
the 2004 awards are:
Presidential Cup: Don Smith
Don was instrumental in getting our
Woodside launch improved, first by alerting
the club that logging was to take place in the
vicinity and we should take advantage of that
fact, and then by acting as the liaison between
the logging contractors and the WCSC. He
drove up the mountain many times, with no
intention to fly, to make sure the work was
progressing smoothly and correctly.
In the end, the launch area was made much
safer for paraglider and hang glider pilots by
removing the trees to the south of launch and
down the slope. Also, the launch itself was regraded and access was restricted to foot-only
traffic (to keep vehicles off launch).
side Project, and helped co-ordinate the various goings-on. Finally, just before stepping
down, Margit offered the WCSC’s services to
the Pemberton flying group to get the MacKenzie launch tenured, deemed essential as
the Whistler/Pemberton area is undergoing a
major commercial boom. The tenure should
(hopefully) pass in the spring of 2005.
Rookie of the Year: Diane Sather
The wife of another WCSC pilot, Diane
was a familiar face on launch and was always
cheerful, even when relegated to “driver” status, chasing us on XC’s. That changed this
year when she finally continued her postponed paragliding lessons and become a pilot. While pursuing her requisite number of
flights, joined a flying vacation in California
and got in some valuable flying experience.
That experience earned her the WCSC’s
September “Eagle of the Month.” Now, she is
finally signed-off and on her Novice Rating
and shares the skies with the rest of us.
Most Valuable Member:
Margit Nance
Driver of the Year: Joe Miles
As the 2004 President, Margit was the driving force for getting several of our flying sites
improved. With the income from our annual
Bridal Falls Air Races, Lower Bridal Launch
was reshaped this fall. We’ll test it out in the
spring to see how much the airflow is improved over the lower part of launch. She also
kept in touch with Don Smith on the Wood-
Joe has lived at the base of Woodside
Mountain for about a year now, and was always entranced by the gliders flying over his
house on the way to the Riverside LZ. Since
his property lies on the path out of the Riverside LZ, he has had many opportunities to
talk with us. Eventually he decided to start a
shuttle service up the mountain (he’s retired
so is always around when we need a lift up),
and he is a big hit with the local pilots. He
loves watching us fly, and finally took the
plunge and had a tandem flight this past fall.
Now we just have to get him to drive after us
on XC.
The following awards are based on the
2004 British Columbia XC League:
 First Place: Mark Dowsett, West Coast
Soaring Club
 Second Place: Keith MacCullough, Muller
Windsports Ltd.
 Third Place: Nicole McLearn, West Coast
Soaring Club
 Best-placed Veteran: John McClintock,
Kamloops Valley Racers
 Most-improved Newcomer: Christine
Nidd, West Coast Soaring Club
The 2005 BC XC League commenced Jan.
1. All flights originating in British Columbia
count. You just input your flight information
(date, distance flown, etc.), and the software
calculates your points for that flight.
Only your best five flights count.
Go to www.westcoastsoaringclub.com/
comps/xcleague/xcflights.php to add your
flights. There is a handicap system in place,
so both hang glider and paraglider pilots of
all skill levels, and various types of XC flight
(out and return, open distance, triangle), are
accounted for. Entry is free.
Nicole McLearn is a paraglider pilot from
Vancouver, BC.
ONLINE CONTEST // CLASSIFIEDS
Competing with the world — online
A quick guide to making your flights count in
the Online Contest
BY DOUG
T
he Online Contest (OLC) is a
world wide cross country competition for soaring pilots including
sailplanes, hang gliders and paragliders.
The contest is based on pilots submitting GPS track logs of their flights to the
OLC website and after authentication,
points are awarded based on distance.
Results are categorized by discipline and
by country, continent and world wide.
For countries with more than 10 pilots
registering there is a fee of 6 Euros per
pilot to cover server costs, bandwidth,
etc. More detailed information can be
found on the OLC website at http://
www2.onlinecontest.org/
To encourage participation by Canadian pilots the Board of directors accepted
a proposal to administer Canadian OLC
entries. The Canadian OLC will be administered to allow entry in a sanctioned
points version of the OLC as well as the
Submit your ad:
air@hpac.ca
standard OLC event. The entry fee for
the standard OLC event will be $12.50
for the 2005 season. This will cover the
6 Euro fee plus a small buffer that may
cover trophies for the hang gliding and
paragliding winners if there are enough
entries.
The two events will be identical with
the only difference being that to enter
the points event, pilots will have to pay
the $5 World Team Fund levy in addition to the standard OLC entry fee.
This additional fee will be added to the
World Team Fund account to help fund
the HPAC World Championship Teams.
You can enter online when you do your
membership renewal or by sending the
registration fee to the Business Manager.
The rules for the two events will be as
follows:
OLC Participation
The standard OLC rules apply plus:
 HPAC/ACVL membership
 Payment of OLC registration fee
 Flights count only after the pilot has
registered with HPAC/ACVL and the
$12.50 OLC fee has been paid for the applicable season.
OLC Points Event
Above rules plus:
 Flights count only after the pilot has
registered for the points event and the
$5.00 World Team Fund fee has been
paid for the applicable season.
 Best three flights in Canada count for
total score
 Event score is the points assigned by
OLC for the best 3 flights,
 Results must be submitted to the
competition chairman within 30 days of
the end of the OLC season.
 For points calculation the number of
pilots will be the number of valid registered pilots with at least one scored
flight.
Doug Keller is a hang glider pilot in
Calgary. He topped the OLC in hang
gliding in Canada in 2004.
AIR CLASSIFIEDS
HONDA 250 ELITE Scooter winch with
trailer, needs some tlc, $500. Unique rotating
swivel base so line pull is always straight. Contact John Burk 519-894-6277, birdman@gto.
net
WILLS WING Z5 Hang Gliding Harness.
Good condition, blue and red, $600 Cdn.
Contact Steve@Naturalhomes.ca or 403-2377377.
WW FALCON 170 in great condition with
2 spare down tubes & quick safe wheels.
$1,700. Matt: 250-261-1044
LITESPEED 3, new style tip wands, easy
to everything, very good condition $3,500
with spare downtube. John: 250-751-9596
137 BLITZ – Airborne from Auz, easy to
land, all original parts, excellent condition
$1,000. John: 250-751-9596
$10 or free for members
Next deadline: May. 15
WILLS WING 147 ULTRASPORT, approximately 50, only one owner, sail and frame in
excellent condition with no crash damage
at all. Great performer and the handling is
exceptional. Won the 2001 SOGA Cup XC
competition and the year-long XC Challenge
in 2002.
Comes complete with: hall wheel kit, incl
“A” frame corner brackets; standard “A” frame
brackets (spare); manual; batten diagram;
spare parts kit; and spare down tube. $2,800.
gjticknor@rogers.com or 519-742-9351
ASPEN XS: DHV-2, weight range 60-75 kg.
90 hours. In excellent shape, well-taken care
of, accordion-folded, etc. Gray top surface,
white/blue bottom surface. Has XC line set
on it, but you can get beefed-up line set for
acro version. $2,000 Cdn. Nicole@westcoast
soaringclub.com.
POD HARNESS, parachute, vario, altimeter,
aero towing release, hall wind speed indicator, and more. $500. Albert: 519-650-5322
WILLS WING SUPER SPORT 163, good
condition, 20 hours airtime, extra down tube,
extra speed bar, wheels, fin, aero tow release.
Located in Cambridge, Ont. $2,000. Albert:
519-650-5322.
UP KENDO M performance paraglider in
good cond. w. Flight Desin harness, chute
& Flytec 3005 vario. $1,500. Matt: 250-2611044
ADVANCE SIGMA 5-23: DHV-2, weight
range 60-75 kg. 200 hours. Yellow with purple leading edge. $1,000 Cdn or offers. nicol
e@westcoastsoaringclub.com
WW Z4 HARNESS w. LARA 250 chute.
$850. Matt: 250-261-1044
9
Your Association Needs You!
Do you have a skill or an interest that will help your association grow in size and efficiency?
HPAC/ACVL could not exist without the dedicated contribution of the many volunteers
who generously give their time toward issues of everything from safety to international
liaison. Like every organization, though, a few people do the work and the members
benefit. This causes burnout in well meaning people. Your directors would like to
address this situation by asking for volunteers to help share the load. There are many
commi�ees that could benefit from your contribution.
If you can help out in any capacity please call John Burke , your business manager,
at 888-348-3356 or email him at admin@hpac.ca
SAFETY - current chair - Fred Wilson
This commi�ee is responsible for the collection and
analysis of accident/incident statistics, working with
event or competition organizers as the on site safety
officer and the development of safety policies that will
help us all fly safer. Work load - seasonal
INSURANCE - current chair - Gregg Humphreys
This commi�ee is responsible for negotiating the best
possible contract for our pilots insurance needs and to
be available to interpret the insurance policy.
COMPETITION - current chair - Bernard Winkleman
This commi�ee is responsible for establishing and
maintaining competition standards and procedures
and in overseeing our international teams.
TRANSPORT CANADA - current chair - Andre Nadeau
This commi�ee is responsible for keeping a watchful
eye on the policies and direction of Transport Canada
with respect to air space and other issues which may
effect our freedom to fly. Periodically a member may
be required to a�end meetings
LEGAL - current chair - Mark Kowalsky
This commi�ee is responsible for legal opinion with a
focus on waivers and litigation avoidance.
FAI/CIVL - current chair - Stewart Midwinter
This commi�ee is responsible for international liaison
with the FAI regarding competition regulations and
medals.
INSTRUCTION/RATING - current chair - Peter Darian
This commi�ee is responsible for the periodic review of
instructional standards and our rating system and acts
as the watchdog on ethics in instruction.
BADGES AND RECORDS - current chair - Vincene Muller
This commi�ee is responsible for the collection and
storage of all personal, regional and Canadian record
flights and the recommendation of badges for those that
a�ain the qualifications
PUBLICITY AND MARKETING - New
This commi�ee is responsible for the promotion of our
sport in Canada and for public relations.
WEB TEAM - current chair - Phil D’eon
This commi�ee is responsible for the construction and
maintenance of our ever changing and sophisticated
web site.
FLY FOR A CURE
The Fly for a Cure event
was a huge success last year,
raising over $14,500 for
multiple sclerosis research
and the United Way. The format was based on a cash pledge
per kilometre for participating
pilots, and it was great to see
such a great level of support
from the business community,
individuals and pilots.
As well as raising money for
a good cause, we found that the
fundraiser added to the excitement of the event and improved
our public perception and support. We are hopeful that this
year’s Fly for a Cure fundraiser
photo by Ralph Herten
will build on the success of last
Fly for a Cure and the Western Canadian Championships will raise money for multiple scleyear, and we encourage all pirosis and breast cancer research.
lots to get involved and raise
pledges from employers and
friends. My employer, PCL
Construction
Management
Inc, is once again sponsoring
the competition and the fundraiser, and
BY RALPH HERTEN
early landing.
The Western Canadians this year will will get things started by pledging a base
reparations are once again un- be scored based on kilometres flown, amount for each competitor. Proceeds
der way for the Western Canadian with a bonus structure to encourage out- raised through Fly for a Cure will be forHang Gliding Championships to and-return and triangle flights. An addi- warded to the United Way, with portions
be held at the Double Dam tow site in Al- tional bonus will be awarded for landing being designated towards multiple scleroberta this Spring.
at a designated goal LZ, which will likely sis and breast cancer research.
The HPAC/ACVL-sanctioned event is include our home base, the Double Dam
Thanks to the support of the Alberta
being organized by the Rocky Mountain Golf Course.
Hang Gliding and Paragliding AssociaHang Gliding League and will be run in
This format is similar to the Willi Mull- tion, corporate sponsors and volunteers,
conjunction with the second annual Fly er XC Classic and
we are able to
for a Cure fundraiser campaign. The com- Chelan
Classic
subsidize the enpetition will be a nine-day event, running and should result
try fee and proMay 14 – 22, with every pilot’s best four in happier drivers
vide a great value
days being scored.
with fewer long
for competitors.
Pilots who attended the tow meet in retrieves. All tasks are chosen by the inThe entry fee of $90 will include free
2004 will know that the Camrose area in dividual competitors and we are hopeful tows (for the first 20 paid entrants),
May offers some of the best XC poten- that the flexible competition structure competition website, scoring, T-Shirts,
tial in Canada. 2004 wasn’t a particularly will encourage pilots to pursue new Ca- entrants package, trophies, day prizes,
good Spring in Alberta, yet every one of nadian records.
welcome dinner and awards banquet. Anthe nine days was soarable and hundredThe meet is open to all levels of pilots ybody who wants to volunteer to drive or
kilometre flights during that week were and we hope to attract newer pilots as well to help out in other ways is asked to concommonplace.
as seasoned pro’s. The basic prerequisites tact the meet directors.
Over the years, the area has proven itself are that all entrants must be fully compeAlso, if any company or individual
to be stellar this time of year and many tent with platform towing and must carry wants to contribute towards the event
pilots have broken the magic “100 mile HPAC/ACVL insurance.
(prizes) or fundraiser, it is much apprebarrier” from Double Dam. I was amazed
We are dividing competitors into class- ciated. Check out our new and improved
at the consistency of thermals and the es based on their skill level and will be website for more details, registration info
presence of dustdevils even on overcast running a team category where newer pi- and to download your Fly for a Cure
days. The dustdevils were reminiscent of lots are teamed up with more experienced pledge form: www.flyforacure.com.
Chelan, Washington, albeit on a smaller pilots to compete for the coveted Rocky
Ralph Herten is a hang glider pilot
scale, and there were many days where Mountain Hang Gliding League Team
in Calgary and the co-director of the
these little cyclones helped me avoid an Trophy.
Western Canadian Championships
Flying for a cure in Alberta
P
11
FEAUTRE // GUATEMALA
WORK AND PLAY IN
GUATEMALA
Stewart Midwinter heads to Panjachel to represent HPAC/ACVL
in the CIVL plenary and, of course, to fly
First, the flying
W
hen I travelled to Panajachel, Guatemala, for
the CIVL Plenary meeting in mid-February, it was also a return to the land of my
birth, and a chance to revisit a town I first
saw as a toddler 48 years ago.
This town of 11,000 is located a long
three-hour drive from the capital along
the north shores of Lake Atitlán at an elevation of 1,500 m. On the other side of the
lake that stretches 13 km across are three
volcanos, Atitlán (the tallest, at 3,500 m),
Tolimán and the smaller San Pedro. The
lake is surrounded by highlands that are
about 2,500 m high.
There are lots of accommodation options, from camping, to $5/night pensionstyle rooms, to $80 resort-type hotels. I
stayed in the Tzan Juyu, dating back to the
1940s and clearly having seen better times.
It’s great because it has no radio or TV, and
a superb view of the lake. It also has a landing spot on the edge of the lake, adequate for
paragliders and smallish for hang gliders.
You can glide across a small bay to this LZ
from a ramp (for hang gliders) or slope (for
paragliders) 400 m up the side of very steep
mountains on the road out of town.
The main launch spot is 3 km west of
town via an 18 km winding, paved road,
then onto private property via payment
of a 10 Quetzales (about $2 Cdn) fee. The
takeoff spot is a steep clearing on a treed
hillside. It’s large enough for one glider at a
time to launch, though several could set up
at once. It sits 500 m above ground level.
You can’t see the LZ from launch, as it
sits in a bowl, but you can easily glide to
in a paraglider. The main LZ is where
the dried San Francisco River meets the
lake, and is easily large enough for both
paragliders and hang gliders. If you can’t
get to it, there’s always the beach.
In addition to this launch, there is another launch used by hang gliders, further
along the mountain road.
I’ve been told that on the good days,
you can get up to 4,500 m above sea level,
and possibly cross the lake, but the few
days available to me only allowed only
local soaring (one day, a pilot did get really high, but I was busy). The winds here
are quite predictable. The sea breeze first
enters around noon from the southwest,
through a low gap on the west side of the
Atitlán Volcano.
This wind, which can be turbulent when
I
it first arrives, is called the San Lucas, after
the town in that low spot. Later in the afternoon, the wind enters from a low spot
between Atitlán Volcano and San Pedro
Volcano, and is called the Santiago wind. It
blows from the south and allows consistent
soaring until dark.
The days I was there, the wind came in
like clockwork each day, allowing for lots
of good soaring. You could easily rack up
20 hours or more in a week there, if you
set your mind to it. The only fly in the
ointment is the possible arrival of the Xocomil, a strong outflow north wind, and a
rare gale from the southeast that is easily
detectable by the low clouds it creates on
the far side of the lake.
While I was in Panajachel, it was flyable
six of seven days, with just one day lost to
the Xocomil. Not bad odds for a winter flying holiday.
If you do get a non-flying day, there’s
plenty to do, from shopping in the native
markets in nearby Sololá or Chichicastenango, bathing in thermal hot-springs 5
km from town, taking a boat ride across the
lake to visit Santiago or hike up San Pedro
volcano, or just hang out in the numerous
Internet cafés and watch the tourists.
Anyone want to go next winter?
Badge propsals and bids for the world championships:
CIVL plenary
attended the 2005 CIVL Plenary
meeting in Panajachel, Guatemala
for a couple of reasons. One, I had an interest in bringing forward some proposals for
creating a more fair and accessible badge
system accessible to all pilots (not just those
that live in distant deserts), a desire to help
simplify the Sporting Code to enable GPS
units to be used for badges and records,
and to represent Canadian pilots, especially
in competition selection. And — oh yes
— visit the land of my birth, which I hadn’t
seen since I was two years old.
Panajachel is relatively straightforward
to reach. I flew Calgary to Houston to Guatemala on Continental, leaving my home
around 10:30 a.m. and arriving at the airport there at 10 p.m. I was greeted by the
president of the Guatemala Hang Gliding
Federation, Giovanni Vitola, and his international coordinator, Luis Escotto (who I
later learned lives in the United States).
My paraglider failed to show up, but I
got it the next day. After a night’s rest in a
Hyatt Hotel (thanks to a sponsor), the next
day I met up with some other delegates and
we boarded a shuttle bus for the three-hour
ride to Panajachel. Along the way we picked
up Xavier Murillo in Antigua, oldest city in
Guatemala, cowering under the active El
Fuego volcano.
Panajachel sits at 1, 500 m above land on
the northern shore of Lake Atitlán, 20 km
wide by 13 km across from three volcanos,
and surrounded by highlands 2,000 – 2,500
m above sea level. The town has 11,000 people in it. And three flying sites!
I stayed in a cheap hotel ($12 US per
night) and spent a couple of days flying.
More on the sites and flying elsewhere in
this issue.
Thursday, the meeting began with committee meetings. There is one for hang gliding, and one for paragliding. I couldn’t be
in two places at once, so after a half hour in
the hang gliding session chaired by Dennis
Pagen, I switched over to the paragliding
session chaired by Xavier Murillo.
Later, I discovered that many of the same
issues had been discussed in both venues.
There was great concern about accidents
at the last hang gliding world championships and discussion about what could be
done. The recommendation that resulted
was two-fold. One, every Category 1 meet
(world championship and European championship) must have a safety director who
will oversee all aspects of safety. And two,
world championships will not be awarded
to organizers who do not have extensive,
relevant experience. This had immediate
implications in the meeting, as we’ll see
later.
In the late afternoon, there was a meeting
to discuss the badge and record proposal I
had worked on with other committee members including Scott Torkelsen of Denmark,
Agust Gudmundsson of Iceland, Oyvind
Ellefsen of Norway and Martin Henry of
Canada.
In the world today, 6,500 gold badges
have been issued to glider pilots, zero to
rigid-wing pilots, four to hang glider pilots
and 24 to paraglider pilots.
The system is not working for us! I analysed more than 4,000 flights submitted to
the world Online Contest to learn how far
we as pilots actually fly, and discovered that
it’s a lot less than wishful thinking would
have it. The mean flight by hang glider pilots is only about 100 km, around 60 km
by paraglider pilots, and 125 km by rigidwings.
This information was used to set the levels for the new badge proposals. After considerable discussion, it was agreed that the
proposal fairly reflected levels that could
be achieved by a range of pilots all over the
world, and the proposal was approved for
submission to the full plenary meeting.
Included in this proposal was wording
to simplify badge and record-filing procedures, making it easier to use GPS, and
eliminating the use of official observers for
badge flights filed through OLC.
The next day was the first of two days of
meetings for the full plenary.
This is a mini United Nations, where each
country has one vote and one representative (with some countries carrying a proxy
for other countries that could not attend
— Japan, for example, carried a proxy for
Korea, and Australia for New Zealand).
We spent the first day working through
the recommendations coming out of the
13
In this arial show, you can clearly see the horizontal slash of the river bed. The Tzan Juyu is at the far end of town where the
lake meets the cliffs.
previous day’s committee meetings, and
going through reports of all of the committees.
(You can read all of the details on my blog
at midtoad.homelinux.org/wp under “Flying”.)
We also dealt with the other big issue at
the meeting, which was the selection of bids
for the 2007 world championships.
In hang gliding, there were bids from the
United States (at Big Springs, Texas) and
from Slovakia (at Pedbrozova, Low Tatras).
In paragliding, there were bids from Australia (Mt. Borah, Manilla, NSW) and from
Austria (at Greifenburg, South Tirol). I had
heard from a few pilots suggesting that I
should support the United States and Australia. I went with this in mind, but retained
an open mind for the other bids.
In paragliding, the experience and preparation of Godfrey Wenness was unassailable. He has been meet director for a total
of 9,000 competitor flights, with only two
minor injuries. Over 90 per cent of the days
have been flyable at his proposed site. By
comparison, the Austrian organizers were
not paraglider pilots, but hang glider pilots,
and were felt to lack the detailed knowledge
that would allow them to create safe tasks.
In hang gliding, David Glover could
point to numerous endorsements from
the world’s top pilots, superb and consistent weather (35 straight flyable days), but
the Slovakian organizers had an alternative
that was appealing to European federations.
They pulled out the stops by sponsoring a
cocktail party at a local art gallery hosted
by an attractive woman from their Tourist
Bureau.
There were two other bids that were uncontested. The first was from Villeneuve,
Switzerland (near Geneva), for the first
world Aerobatic Championships. The second was from Lithuania for the 2007 World
Paragliding Landing Accuracy championship. Yes, that’s right — a world champion-
ship in spot landing!
Scott and I presented our badge and
record proposal to the full plenary. We
were amazed and elated when it was passed
unanimously. It seems that after many years
of inaction on this issue, the time had come
for CIVL to take a huge step forward in creating a badge program that will serve all of
the world’s pilots, not just a rare few.
The badge system (shown in the attached
table; the “proposed” changes are in fact “approved”) is graduated in difficulty, so that
the lowest badges are easy, and the higher
ones are progressively harder.
But not just the badges are easier; it will
also be more straightforward to apply for
them. If you join the on-line contest, you
will not need an official observer, and all of
your flights will be automated assessed by
their software. I spent some time discussing this aspect with the OLC director, Rudl
Berger, and he has agreed to make the OLC
capable of validating badge claims.
BEFORE AND AFTER
Previous Badge Requirements: PG
Distance (km)
Approved Badge Requirements: PG
Bronze
Silver
Gold
Diamond
15
30
100
200
open
any
any
1000
2000
3000
Task open
alt. gain (m)
500
duration (h)
1
have to complete: any one
5
5
all
all
Task 1
Bronze
Silver
Gold*
Diamond+
15
50
300
500
open
open
open
open
200
300
OR, FAI
OR, FAI
Distance 2 (km)
Task 2
Distance 3 (km)
400
Task 3
alt. gain (m)
Task
alt. gain (m)
Silver
Gold
Diamond
Diplomas
30
75
125
200, 300, 400, 500
any (3TP, TRI, FAI)
open
open
any
any
500
1000
2000
3000
3
5
all
all
duration (h) 1
any
Current Badge Requirements: FW, RW
Distance 1 (km)
Bronze
Distance (km) 15
any
any
Approved Badge Requirements: FW
Bronze
Distance (km) 15
Task
alt. gain (m)
Silver
Gold
Diamond
Diplomas
50
100
150
200, 300, 400, 500
any (3TP, TRI, FAI)
open
open
any
any
500
1000
2000
3000
duration (h) 1
3
5
all
all
any
any
Diamond
Diplomas
goal
500
duration (h) 1
1000
5
all
note
note
* For gold, Task 1 + Task 2 (OR or FAI)
+ For diamond, any of Task 1, 2 (OR or FAI) or 3
Current Badge Requirements: Sailplanes
Distance 1 (km)
Task 1
Silver
Gold*
Diamond+
50
300
500
open
any
open
Distance 2 (km)
Task 2
alt. gain (m)
1000
3000
duration (h)
5
5
all
all
have to complete:
Current Badge Requirements: RW
Bronze
Distance (km) 30
Task
Silver
Gold
60
125
200
200, 300, 400, 500
open
open
any
any
any (3TP, TRI, FAI)
3000
300
alt. gain (m)
500
1000
2000
OR, FAI
duration (h)
1
5
5
all
all
5000
any
any
any
* For gold, any task (open, 3TP, TRI, OR or FAI)
+ For diamond, any of Task 1, 2 (OR or FAI)
The new edition of the Sporting Code,
effective May 1 of this year, will contain
simplified and clarified procedures for
using 3-D GPS units for badge and record
claims.
That evening, we were treated to a Mayan
ceremony asking the wind gods for blessing.
It was an interesting cultural performance
in the Kaqchikal language, and a moving
experience for a number of participants. Olivier Burghelle and Max Bishop were given
special honours as part of this ceremony.
The following morning, the suspense was
broken as we voted on the contenders. In
hang gliding, the United States bid won by
a razor-thin margin of one vote, 14 to 13. In
paragliding, Australia stomped on the op-
position, with the vote being 19 to 4 (if I recall correctly). This result should be pleasing for Canadian pilots since, as we receive
no government funding, we want to ensure
a maximum of flyable days on our expensive international trips. Both of the winning
locations should be relatively cheap to stay
in while competing.
Olivier Burghelle stepped down after seven years as CIVL president, a world record
of his own. He is succeeded by Flip Koetsier
of Netherlands.Agust Gudmundsson joined
the Bureau as a new vice-president, and all
other positions remained unchanged.
The Guatemalan federation did a topnotch job of organising the meeting, the
first in recent years that actually featured
flying.
Next year’s meeting will be in Lausanne
Switzerland, in February.
The meeting finished soon after noon,
allowing delegates to join free-flyers for a
paragliding and hang gliding spot-landing
competition by the lake.
Appropriately enough, by the time I left it
appeared the Lithuanian delegate was leading in the paragliding section.
As always, if you have any questions,
please write or call. I’ll be writing more
about badges and badge procedures in the
next issue of AIR.
Stewart Midwinter is the HPAC/ACVL
FAI/CIVL delegate.
15
COVER // AUSTRALIA AND HAWAII
IN 1999, while pursuing my
degree in philosophy and
environmental studies, I went
on exchange through my
university to Australia. I enrolled
in all of my requisite classes and
prepared myself for exploring a
place I assumed would be similar
culturally, if not ecologically, to
my native Canada.
WELL, MY MIND was blown.
Now that I’ve safely graduated,
I’m free to admit that I attended
those university courses only
when it rained. What I really
took back home with me was
a “degree” in paragliding, the
beginnings of what has become
one of my life’s main passions,
and a deep love for “down
under.”
Five years later, luck and some good planning combined for another
PAN-PACIFIC PARAGLIDING EXTRAVAGANZA
A
fter the usual last-minute details, and
a kiss good bye to my sweetheart,
Anna, I was south Pacific-bound,
happy to leave the snowy capital of British Columbia behind. I hate flying (in airplanes), but I was willing to handle half a day
of contortionist torture for my love of flying
(paragliders).
So, with my knees around my ears, I settled in for 17 hours of excited, anxious anticipation.
It had been a while since I was last in
Australia, and I was a little worried that my
memories might be better than reality, hindsight being what it is.
Several bad movies and some questionably edible food later, I found myself, jetlagged beyond belief, in the Sydney airport,
galloping down corridors towards another
plane bound for Hobart, Tasmania.
Tasmania, an island just off the southeastern coast of the mainland, is Australia’s
least populated and most misunderstood
region. Home of the infamous Tasmanian
Devil (which, by the way, barely resembles
the Warner Bros. cartoon creation), it hosts
a plethora of other wildly named and, to the
outsider, bizarrely behaving creatures, not to
mention a similar shocking number of poisonous snakes and spiders as found in the
rest of the country.
It has been inhabited since the last ice age
by aboriginal Tasmanians, but was first spotted by (Dutch) Europeans in 1642 and originally named Van Diemens land.
Peppered with the ruins of former penal
colonies, Tasmania has spent the last hundred years struggling to shrug off its reputation as a tough and backwards holding tank
for incestuous thugs. Unfairly, it hasn’t quite
succeeded according to many mainlanders
(a strange case of the pot calling the kettle
black, if you ask me). Today, the island’s capital city, Hobart, is a picturesque spot, somewhat similar to Victoria, British Columbia,
with its harbour and small-town, historic
capital feel.
This is where I found myself, an hour and
a half after leaving Sydney, vigourously shaking hands with my old buddy Rob Steane. I
met Rob, a keen pilot and true blue Aussie,
while living in Tassie (as the locals call it), five
years earlier. As we threw my gear into his
Land Cruiser, he said it was “flyable.”
Jet lag would have to wait.
The main flying site in southern Tasmania
is about 25 minutes out of town in Brighton
township at a 350 ft inland ridge site called
Winton Hill.
It was from this site, only two weeks earlier,
that Rob had flown over 60 km (no small feat
on this tiny island state) and, in doing so, set
the foot-launched paragliding/hang gliding
XC distance record for the state. Usually the
site is fed by southern sea breezes that race
up the Derwent River, but on that particular
day the sea breeze held back, allowing the
thermals to cook up and for Rob to harness
their energy and produce his record-setting
flight.
Winton was where Rob and I mostly flew
over the next two weeks, although we also
pioneered a new site up the northeast coast
in a small beach-side town called Scamander. Rob and I had some sweet flights, and it
was great to soar around with him again after so long, but I never did get to chase after
his record as the sea breezes were too strong
while I was there — hopefully next visit.
In the meantime, there were two other flying sites that I really wanted to get to in Australia, both of which have world-class reputations: Manilla, in New South Wales, and
Bright, in Victoria.
Rob was itching for some more XC flying,
so it wasn’t hard to convince him to join me
at one of the sites. He jumped up and called
the locals at both sites to see which one was
looking best. It was nice to see that his enthusiasm for this crazy sport hadn’t waned at all
over the years.
Manilla seemed to be the best bet and,
after looking into flights, we invited Rob’s
paragliding cousin, Pete, to join us as well (he
is a school teacher and only had a week until
the end of summer break so he jumped at the
chance).
After only an hour and a half’s flight to
Sydney, a scenic six-hour train ride to Tamworth (Australia’s country music capital),
an hour bus ride, and then, lastly, a twenty
minute drive, we were there.
During the final hours of our trip, we had
all been commenting on the rolling hills and
large fields that looked ideal for XC flying
(not to mention the beautiful cloud streets
that filled the sky). We settled in right away
at Manilla Paragliding — home of Godfrey
Wennes (past Paragliding Open Distance
world record holder, with 335 km).
Godfrey lives to fly and he has put himself
in a position to do that pretty much every
single day of the year. After years of searching, he heard about, and then purchased,
Mt. Borah, the site of his world-record flight.
Manilla is a sleepy, small, hot place that Godfrey has put on the international map of
paragliding, and with good reason. If you
want to achieve a personal best for distance
or flight time, odds are pretty good that Manilla will be the place.
Mt. Borah has launches in all directions
except northwest, and there are numerous
places to land. Flying is fairly consistent,
and just a few weeks before we arrived, the
Manilla XC Open saw 14 pilots fly over 100
km on the first day. Unfortunately for us, the
weather wasn’t in our favour, and we only had
one fairly decent day out of five (two weeks
would have been a better length of stay).
While we were there, Jockey Sanderson
(SIV expert, well known for videos such as
“Security in Flight” and “Speed to Fly”), was
conducting a tour with some British pilots
(“Pommies” as Aussies like to refer to them).
Kari Castle (Champion hang glider and
paraglider pilot) was there as well, guiding
an older, sweet woman named “Cookie,” who
17
had, the day we arrived, flown her personal
best of approximately 40 km.
I asked Kari where her hang glider was,
and she replied, “my hang glider?! I rarely fly
it any more. It is a pain in the ass compared
to paragliding!”
There you have it.
On the day we flew, I was actually heading
for the west launch bomb-out alongside David (a relatively new pilot from Sydney), when
I felt a little bump, so I turned. And turned.
And then turned some more. On what was
a blue sky day, I ended up flying over 65 km
(southeast past Tamworth) before deciding
to land (hungry, tired and, to be honest, feeling guilty for having Rob and Pete chase me
in the car for more than 100 km after bombing out themselves).
Looking back on my flight, 100 km was
achievable, but at that point I was happy to
spiral down and hit the pub (pubs in remote,
country towns are something you shouldn’t
miss).
After the train ride back to Sydney, Rob
and Pete boarded a plane back to Hobart
while I flew to Australia’s other big city, Mel-
bourne.
Melbourne is an artsy city, and it was
proudly displaying its latest piece, Federation Square (a focal point for contemporary
cultural and civic activities).
I liked the city; it teemed with cute cafés
and shops, older architecture and an aura of
creative and intelligent easy-going prosperity. I found it surprisingly easy to get around
(great Tram system), and, like almost everywhere in Australia, the people were super
friendly.
After spending some time there, as well as
on the coast with old friends, I took yet another train three and a half hours north of
Melbourne to a small alpine town nestled in
the Victoria Alps. With a population just over
6,000, Bright is a great size for our sport. The
town is very welcoming to pilots, and it was
there that I first learned to paraglide.
Bright is a paraglider’s paradise. I only
spent three days there, but I flew at the main
site (Mystic) to my heart’s content each day.
Like in Manilla, the launch itself is huge and
well maintained and the thermals are consistent. Many of Australia’s top pilots make
Bright their home in order to continually
hone the skills required to compete at their
level.
I was happy each day to thermal up high
over launch and then glide downwind to find
another thermal to ride back up to cloud
base. It was great to be able to fly around the
valley and then make my way back to town
for a simple walk back to where I was staying.
The largest and most active paragliding club
in the country is based in Victoria (the state
where Bright is found and of which Melbourne is the capital), and there are many
low key, fun paragliding events planned
throughout the Australian summer (Canadian winter).
I can’t begin to say enough about Bright.
It is a place that I am happy to call my
paragliding home-away-from-home.
From Bright, I travelled to Sydney where
I met up again with David who I had flown
with in Manilla. I was only in Sydney for one
full day and he suggested that we head to the
Northern Beaches for some ridge soaring.
I found my way to the harbour ferries and
cruised along under the famous Harbour
Bridge and past the Sydney Opera House to
where David was waiting. By the end of the
day, we had flown our fill at two excellent
ridge sites, soaring high over the headlands,
enjoying views up and down the coast — not
a bad way to spend my last day in Australia!
Just over a month after my arrival, I left,
saying goodbye to the intoxicating, resinous smell of the gum trees, to the kangaroos
and wallabies at dusk, to the wombats and
possums and echidnas, to the artists in Melbourne and the bustle of Sydney harbour, to
the kookaburras that sound like monkeys in
the trees, to the Tasmanian Devils and the
history of Hobart, to the Aussies who are always up for anything, and to the great flying
in the warm sun (of course).
While I was looking back and missing
Australia already, I was also anticipating a
more relaxed but equally enjoyable time on
Oahu, Hawaii, my next destination. I have
spent some time there in the past and I have
to say that it is quite a magical place.
Before I ever visited Hawaii, I thought that
it would be too touristy, and indeed Waikiki
is a seemingly endless strip of tacky, expensive, well-oiled concrete tedium. Waikiki,
however, is only a tiny fraction of Oahu, and
Oahu is only one island of many in Hawaii.
The truth is that Hawaiians know that they
have a good thing going, and they are happy
to graciously share it with visitors. The temperature of the air and ocean are so pleasantly warm, the gardens and countryside so lush
and inviting that it’s hard to believe it’s real. If
there was an Eden, it looked like Hawaii.
In Kailua, on the windward side of the
island, opposite Honolulu and Waikiki, tiny
lizards scamper up and
down banana and papaya trees growing in
yards, while birds sing
all day long. There are
no dangerous spiders
and no snakes at all.
The ocean in this area
is largely free from
menace, and after a
refreshing dip you can
make your way over
to a restaurant with a
bottle of wine under
your arm to enjoy a
leisurely meal.
Aside from surfing, eating pineapples, and
visiting volcanoes, there are numerous flying sites (mainly high, ocean ridges) and the
views are spectacular! A few days after arriving, I ended up flying for three hours, covering over 60 km during an out-and-return
from an amazing ridge site called Makapu’u.
It was the first time I had ever gone cross
country without having to glide from one
thermal to another — quite the experience!
For those of you who would like to experience XC without the stresses of thermal flying, definitely put Oahu on your travel list.
Two pilots from Canada have joined me
here in Hawaii, where I am writing this, and
in their first two days they have each flown
for over four hours and are loving it!
I hope that this account has provided
some respite from the Canadian winter (not
to despair, the 2005 season will be underway
soon!). By the way, after such a great time in
Australia, and now here in Hawaii, I am planning to run paragliding tours to both destinations next winter — spaces will be limited
so I suggest you book your holidays now!
Jayson Biggins is a paragliding
instructor/pilot based on
Vancouver Island.
19
LOGBOOK // GOLDEN OUT-AND-RETURN
Mark Dowsett launches in Golden, where
he was metres away
from setting a new
100 km out-and-return record.
Chasing
Golden records
BY MARK DOWSETT
I
t’s been three long years since I have flown
Golden — what a shame.
The last time I was there was for the 2001
Nationals, and since then, I’ve been focusing
my flying holidays on running the Nationals
in Lumby. I almost didn’t go to Golden again
this year due to real work, but I couldn’t resist.
The forecast looked decent, so I cleared
my calendar and left. Donna couldn’t make it
for the week, so I was on my own — not to
fear, though, as I hooked up with Jon Orders,
Charles Mathieson and Clara Rempel for retrieves.
I missed the first weekend of the Willi. I
showed up Sunday evening to get filled in on
the stellar conditions on Saturday, but found
out I didn’t miss anything on Sunday due to
high winds. Charles was skying out when I got
there, though, in smooth evening conditions
and landed after 9:00 p.m.
The Willi is a great tradition. It is such a relaxed event, but still organized enough to allow any pilot of any skill and drive to have a
great time. Many pilots show up looking for
first flights, first soaring flights and personal
bests — I don’t think many go away disappointed.
I wanted to focus on two things: first, I
wanted to do well in the Willi, which involves
using your longest three flights from the nineday event against all others, and also getting
bonus multipliers on your mileage for doing out-and-returns and making it back to
Nicholson.
My second goal was to try for one or more
Canadian records. The requirements for submitting successful record flights have been
eased up to try to increase participation. You
still need to have an FAI Sporting License
(an annual $40 fee; see Vincene Muller); you
need to have an Official Observer to witness
your flight; and there is some paperwork to
fill out prior to your attempt. Before now, you
couldn’t use a GPS to officially record your
flights; you had to use a data logger (which
were a bit pricey for the most of us). Now everyone can use a GPS, and everyone that goes
XC has one — or at least they should.
Most of the records haven’t been beat (or
tried for) in well over a decade, so most are
just sitting there, ripe for the picking. There
is no reason why most of them shouldn’t be
able to be beaten easily with the performance
of the gliders we are flying these days — of
course, the idea is to mark them with paces
tough for your peers to beat!
Tue., July 27 came around and conditions
looked great. I was itching to try the 100 km
out-and-return, since it looked attainable that
day and the current record was done in just
over three hours. I knew it would be rather
easy to beat, but I wanted to shatter it.
I wasn’t all that prepared for the flight. I
hadn’t even looked at the forms before that
day. I had some turnpoints picked off my digital maps and loaded into my GPS, but I didn’t
know exactly where they were as I hadn’t
flown here in years and the previous day was
a short soaring flight and no XC.
I only ended up launching at 2:10 p.m.,
which was about 30 minutes or so after Chris
Muller launched on his epic Border Crossing
flight (which you can read about in the Sept‘04
issue of AIR). I knew when I saw Chris climbing out that I was late starting. He made the
same comment about him launching when he
did. By the time I launched and climbed out,
Chris was long gone.
Just as I am climbing up over Mt. Seven, I
hear Scott Gravelle on the radio. He had just
landed and said that the air above Mt. Seven
was “scarier than hell” and he just had a bit
of a rough landing at Nicholson. That scared
the crap out of me, as I was just getting over
the peak. I was really alert, but I found the air
rather manageable. I don’t think landing at
Nicholson mid-day is a fun event, which is
probably what fuelled Scott’s comments.
I assessed the conditions down range and it
looked rather good, so I got high, back tracked
slightly to get my official start, and headed off
LOGBOOK // GOLDEN OUT-AND-RETURN
on course at 2:53
p.m.
I was heading down
wind for the outer leg, so things
were moving quite well, even though
I felt I was playing it a bit conservative
and stopping a bit too often to climb. I took
four climbs on the way down and hit the turnpoint after being on course for 50 minutes.
The turnpoint was slightly on the back range
where it just starts to split, and it probably
wasn’t the best placement — but, hey, I had
no idea what the terrain was down there, as I
didn’t even have topographical maps for this
flight’s turnpoints.
I used my climb I last used before going
for my turnpoint as my first climb on my way
back. Then, I took a longer glide into what was
now a headwind and found myself the lowest
I have been all day, just shy of half the way
back. It wasn’t all that low, but I have sunk out
many times at Golden as soon as I get much
below the peaks.
I had to scratch around for a bit and was
quite concerned that this was going to be the
end of it. I climbed a bit and went on course
searching for something better.
Much to my surprise (and luck, I guess),
I saw that the rest of my course line back
to goal was covered by a nice cloudstreet. I
found some lift that got me up rather nicely
to a height I could head for that cloudstreet.
I also remembered, from previous flights at
Golden, that I have seen pilots climb right to
cloudbase at the start of a cloud-street and
then find themselves having to go around the
cloud to avoid its suck — that is certainly a
waste of time and poses a lot of danger if you
get sucked up.
I left for the cloudstreet with lots of altitude
between me and the cloud to time it that I was
through the street when I was just approaching the far edge. This allowed me to cover 15
km in 13 minutes into a head wind and be at
the same altitude (and more importantly, with
no danger of cloud-suck) I was when I left on
that glide — it sure helped to make up time!
After that it was just a race to the goal line.
The other thing I wasn’t mentally or technically prepared for was the use of FAI sectors,
which are still needed for Canadian records.
In the Nationals, we use cylinders centred
around a GPS co-ordinate, whereas an FAI
sector is a quarter-pie with its sharp point on
the GPS coordinate and the pie is on the other
side of the course line. This requires you to go
right around the coordinate to make sure you
are in.
I had troubles at the first turnpoint of this
flight, as I found it hard to know for sure using
my instruments if I had hit it. The first turnpoint was in an inopportune area, and I ended
up having to hit the outside corner of it (closest to the valley), and thought I had missed
that one.
When I came back for the finishing turnpoint, I still wasn’t thinking clear about how I
could fly through it with the confidence of my
instruments recording a valid point. I was also
concerned about arriving at the proper altitude, since you have to be no lower than two
per cent of your distance below the height you
took your start at (for this flight that was 2,000
m). This is plenty of height, but I did my math
wrong on launch and didn’t confirm it with
anyone, so I thought it was 500 m! (duh!)
Needless to say, I royally messed up my
finish. I was too concerned with where it was
and what height I had to be at. I ended up
thermalling up along side the pie-shaped finish sector and thought I was well into it. Well,
then the visions of the night’s party took over,
and I got too excited to think it out more. I
had tons of altitude and there was lift all over
the place. I ended up flying around for at least
20 minutes, surprisingly, not entering that
sector at all.
The pilots that I left on launch were mostly
still there, since all they heard was Scott’s report and decided to stay on the ground. Once
they saw and talked to me, they started suiting
up and launched into the day’s diminishing
conditions.
I had a great landing and was greeted by my
driver Clara and a few others that were happy
(and surprised) about what I had thought I
had accomplished. I figured I had done the
course in 2:08, shattering the record. My only
concern at the time was that I missed the first
turnpoint. A few people gathered around my
computer back at camp and we were all happy
to see that I hit the first turnpoint and started
to celebrate until I noticed my track at the finish sector seemed to have missed it. I zoomed
in as far as I could and initial measurement
showed that I was something like 19 m short
of the sector, but when I measured it at a later
point, it showed that I was a mere 2 m short of
crossing it.
I was quite disappointed in myself, but it
was my first attempt at any record and I certainly learned a lot. For the rest of the week,
I was waiting for similar conditions to try it
again, but that never happened. I even moved
my turnpoint out to an easier area and actually hit the turnpoint during the week, but
couldn’t get back.
I also plan on choosing two sets of turnpoints for future out-and-return record attempts. The first ones will be the official points
to set up the pie-shaped sectors. Then, I’m going to use my software to choose another set
of turnpoints in the middle of the FAI sector
and figure out the radius around it that will fit
into the FAI sector. I will navigate to those coordinates and use them to know the distance
within which I have to come to the coordinate
to be in the FAI sector. It shouldn’t be too far
into the sector to affect my time, but I can be
sure I am in there and can continue on the
course (or celebrate) with peace of mind.
That will be a monkey on my back until I
can go back to Golden and claim that record
properly — or until someone else does it successfully and beats my time. (Yes, that is a
challenge to all pilots out there.)
See you at the Willi in 2005 with determination.
Mark Dowsett is a hang glider and
paraglider pilot in Port Moody, BC.
21
LOGBOOK // 100 MILES IN GOLDEN
BARRIER BROKEN
100 MILES IN 1988
Dale Moore wrote the following almost 17 years ago, a week
after reaching a much-soughtafter milestone.
IN
1984, I walked into the liquor
store on North Albert Street in
Regina, Saskatchewan, and purchased a
bottle of champagne. When I got home,
I put a piece of masking tape on it and
labelled it “100-mile Champagne.”; not to
be drunk until I flew more than 100 miles
in a hang glider.
Through the years, when flying crosscountry, when I would get tired or weary
or if I was really cold, I would chant or
shout “100-mile Champagne, gotta drink
that 100-mile champagne” and it would
drive me on.
Well the truth is that by today’s standI know the reason I hadn’t broken the I was low drifting with some really weak
ards, flying 100 miles isn’t impossible. But 100 mile barrier wasn’t a question of my lift into No-man’s land. My last glideable
if you live in Saskatchewan and spend all capability as a pilot, it just always hap- landing zone was slipping away and the
your time flying there, it almost is.
pened that every time I got near that 100 clouds had dissipated, things were lookI came painfully close to breaking the mile mark, the weather shot me down.
ing pretty stable.
“100 Mile barrier” many times.
Last weekend, July 10, 1988, in Golden,
I swear I heard a voice, someone spoke
I flew 93.5 miles to win the Qu’Appelle BC I launched off Mt. Seven around 1:15 to me, I heard “give up?” Well I can’t write
meet in 1985.
p.m. Nearly 8.5 hours later, I landed 220 my reply but you can guess from this, I
I flew 99 miles to win the Cochrane km or 137 miles from the launch, a very said “F___ no!” let out a growl and milked
meet last year, but I was one mile short of happy man.
by 50 up for about half an hour until I was
the champagne.
37 pilots launched from Mt. Seven that on some producing rock and from there
Well, the Edmonton guys thought fly- day, and the only pilot who flew further things got better.
ing 99 miles
Well my
was a pretty
airbrothcool thing to
I know the reason I hadn’t broken the 100 mile barrier wasn’t a question ers, that’s
do and coined
it, I
of my capability as a pilot, it just always happened that every time I got about
my nickname
thought you
near that 100 mile mark, the weather shot me down.
“Moorski.” Willi
all should
Muller loved it,
know about
used it a lot and
the flight,
it seems to have stuck. Some say that peo- than I did was my good friend Randy since it’s become such an issue.
ple called me Moorski to dig in the fact Haney. Randy flew 18 miles further to the
It’s about a week later, and I’m writing
that I was one mile short. But all you have 155-mile mark, or 250 km.
this at my kitchen table, which is about
to do is hear Willi Muller with his AusThe next closest pilot had flown 90 seven feet from my fridge where a dusty
trian accent say “aaaah Moorski, number miles.
bottle of champagne is chilling. It’s going
ninety-nine, the great one” and it deletes
At one point in the flight, at about the down the hatch tonight, and its going to
any of those negative ideas.
95-mile mark things looked pretty glum. be good.
FEATURE // MT. SEVEN IN WINTER
Mt. Seven
in the snow
photos courtesy Scott Watwood
Scott Watwood lands in the snow after launching from Mt. Seven in February.
By Scott Watwood
M
ost people think of Mt. Seven as a
snowbound, cold, desolate, nonflyable site in winter. For the most
part, they are right.
No doubt about it: there is lots of snow. It’s
cold most days and desolate. Well, we don’t
see a lot of tourists or mountain bikers up
there — but it’s totally flyable, and this winter we’ve done more than usual. The great
weather, among other things, has made us far
more motivated to be out there more often.
Reminiscing over our logbooks recently,
we realized that just this winter alone we have
accumulated many great stories that had to
be passed along.
Getting up the mountain was a challenge
at first, but after putting chains on the Suburban, we were able to drive right to the parking
lot until Christmas. Since then, depending on
recent snowfall, we’ve been able to drive to 12
or 13 km and hike the rest of the way to the
top at 14 km.
We lucked out and had a snowmobile ride
to the top once; another time, a sledder of-
fered to carry some of our gear. Many times
we encountered, almost head on, some surprised sledders shocked to see a truck using
the road. We carried the gear many times on
our backs, post-holing often and trying to
keep footing on the snowmobile tracks.
Then one day we discovered dragging our
gear was easier on a old plastic toboggan.
Later, we ended up improvising with a large
piece of plastic.
One day on our way up we met two guys in
a car from Quebec who had given up around
7 km and were on their way down. They asked
us how far it was to the top, so we explained
and offered them a ride up. Our thoughts
were a little selfish, thinking we might get a
driver out of this. They declined.
As we drove away, we said, “watch for us in
the sky.” In the rear-view mirror, we saw them
rubberneck and heard them say, “you’re flying now?” but we kept going.
Arriving at the parking lot one sunny day
we came across a couple making a poor attempt at lighting a fire, and we stopped for
a chat. They were new to Golden and had
just met each other. They had hiked up the
mountain from 5 km and were enthusiastic
about coming to the top to watch us launch.
There were eight of us up that day and launch
conditions were not perfect, so it took some
time for everyone to launch.
After four or five of us launched, the guy
decided he was cold and hungry, so he took
off, abandoning his new friend. She got a
ride down with our driver and was probably
home before him, anyway. At the landing
field, we were dismayed at hearing that he
had just left her. Shawn said, “he ain’t gettin’
any tonight.”
Once, we elected not to fly because of high
winds. While driving down, we came across
a newer Chevy Tahoe stuck really bad in the
ditch. Luckily, it was on the uphill side. We
thought if he was here we could pull him out
ourselves, but we saw his footprints heading
down the road. The least we could do was
give him a ride down when we caught up to
him, but his footprints disappeared at the 12
km turnoff.
For some reason, he thought it would be a
shortcut even though it was the opposite direction from town. He didn’t get home until
23
FEATURE // MT. SEVEN IN WINTER
Dianne Fiala and Scott Watwood on Mt. Seven.
midnight. The next day, we came across a tow
truck on the way up with him in the passenger seat. When asked if he had a long walk, he
replied, “oh yeah.” His towing bill was about
$500, and Darcy the tow truck driver said
he was never coming back up here again in
winter.
It was not uncommon for us to come across
new dugouts from people who had seen our
tracks and thought they could drive up too,
only to get stuck in a major way. One day, we
saw a chunk of road around 12 km that was
freshly eaten up. It was clear someone spent
a lot of time digging out. Perhaps trying to
lighten his load, he dumped a bunch of garbage out of his truck box down the steep embankment.
A little detective work told us it was a fullsize, short-box truck with fat tires. Further
investigation revealed a signed receipt with
the culprit’s name on it. Aahh, the advantages
of living in a small town. We grumbled while
we cleaned up the mess and headed over to
his house. He wasn’t home, but we had a little
chat with his dad who had this to say about
his teen: “he’s gonna get his ass kicked.”
We weren’t immune to getting stuck, either.
On several occasions, we had to dig and use
the come-a-long to free the truck. One time it
was stuck for several hours, so flying was out
of the question and we just drove down.
Attempts to film some of our flights have
failed. Cameras didn’t work or batteries
were too cold; when they did work, mitts or
thumbs were in the way.
There was always a dilemma figuring out
how to get the little plastic toboggan back
down. One time we just tied it onto a harness
and let it fly behind.
stealthly and surprised some hockey players. In the middle of December, a concerned
motorist reported two ten-year-olds playing
out on the thin ice of Reflection Lake. The
police came looking for the kids, and we had
to tell them it was us. Their concerns might
have been valid, because on another day the
ice started cracking. We decided we should
make two trips to spread the weight out a little more.
After landing, the adventure wasn’t always
over. We still had to retrieve the Suburban.
That meant driving as far as we could without chains and hiking the rest, sometimes as
far as 4 km.
Coming down the mountain, we couldn’t
resist the opportunity to bumper ride down.
But this soon became boring, so we invented
different variations, like using the plastic toboggan and a rope, or skis, our butts, or anything out of the truck that would slide. One
day, after changing the tattered wind sock,
Scott climbed inside the old one like a sleeping bag and bumpered down with that.
We often took the dogs with us to retrieve.
How apt, since two of them are golden retrievers. One evening in the dark, we grew
concerned when the female retriever wasn’t
with us at the bottom. As we called for her, we
could hear the coyotes yipping and howling.
When she finally showed up, we suspected
she had a little “meeting” with them. If only
she could talk.
In previous years, we’ve taken many helicopter rides to the peak of Mt. Seven over the
winter. We’ve only done that once this year
but twice we’ve taken a helicopter to the top
of Pagliaro Ridge. Several of us flew off, but
a couple of us ski-base jumped off the 550 ft
cliff — but that’s another story.
Purcell heliskiing flies their 212 right over
our LZ at Reflection Lake several times a day.
Just as a precaution, we explained to Mike W.
to do some wing-overs if the chopper comes
over since the pilot might have trouble seeing the wing. Sure enough, he had to do just
that and quite a lot until the big Bell finally
changed course.
One of our trickier launches on the tandem was in higher winds with two snowmobilers anchoring us by hanging on to
our harnesses. All four of us got pulled
back, and, luckily, we didn’t get launched
since their mitts had been pulled off and
were stuck in our harness.
By mid-February of this year, the weather
has been fantastic. The mornings dawn cold
and clear at -15 to -18 C, but warm up to 1 or 2
C by 1 p.m. So we’ve had several days in a row
of flights of one hour or more. One day, we
had thermals of 3 – 4 m/s up.
Landings are interesting and fun, as well.
One time Dianne and Jerry landed simultaneously side by side on a small cleared skating area, because the rest
of the lake was quite slushy
and they didn’t want to get
their feet or wings wet. On
two separate occasions, Dianne landed on someone’s
shoulders — once on Jerry’s and once on shoulders.
Her advice on that one: flare
high.
And then there’s the landings where we didn’t flare at
all for the pure pleasure of
sliding across the ice. Another time, we descended Dianne Fiala lands.
Scott Watwood is a paraglider
pilot in Golden, BC.
XC SUMMARY
Canadian XC summary
2004
by Vincene Muller
F
Paragliding
Will Gadd of Canmore topped the
list with three flights over 160 km from
Golden. He had several other spectacular flights, including one from Golden
over the Rockies to land at home in Canmore, Alberta (you probably read about
that one).
His total three-flight average was 525
km. On the first day of the Golden meet,
he completed a 168 km out-and-return.
Keith MacCullough of Calgary had a 160
km out-and-return flight the same day.
Will and Hugo Tschurtschenthaler of
Golden were just short of 200 km a few
days later. Chris Muller wanted a short
retrieve after his long hang glider flight
the day before and tried for 200 km outand-return, but his return trip was slow
photo courtesy Vincene Muller
ewer pilots took advantage of the
on-line XC flight registration on
our website in 2004. I would like to
thank the meet directors, Randy Parkin
and Miles in May organizers for sending
the km’s flown at their Competitions.
These results make up the majority of
the flights reported this year.
Apart from the obvious benefit of the
XC log, this year it had a practical purpose. One pilot who obtained enough
CIVL points to be considered for the
Canadian Team had not competed internationally, and CIVL asked that proof be
provided that the pilot had at least two
flights over 50 km. This simply involved
checking the XC List to find out that the
pilot had three fights over 100 km at the
Golden XC Meet in the one year.A good
reason to enter your flights.
In this summer, the totals are the “best
of three flights.”
Chris Muller ranked first for hang gliding flights within Canada, second for hang
gliding flights outside Canada, fifth for paragliding flights inside Canada and third
for paragliding flights outside the country.
due to strong north wind. He landed at
Spillimachaen 45 km short, but he was
back for dinner. Ian Mitchell of Vancouver was second with 413 km, followed by
American pilot Bob Clem with 347 km.
Out of country flights by Canadian
pilots were mainly from the Pre-World
Championships in Brazil. Unfortunately, conditions were not epic and flights
were short.
Nicole McLearn of Vancouver was the
top female pilot at the meet. Together
with her flights at a Pre-World Cup in
the Dominican Republic was top of the
list. She also place eighth overall in the
Canadian list and reported the most
paragliding XC flights for 2004.
Hang Gliding
Chris Muller of Cochrane wrote about
his 327 km flight in a last issue of AIR.
He only had one other hang glider XC
flight in Canada later that week and
tried for the 200 km out-and-return (as
did Stewart Midwinter). He had a very
fast time to Mt. Swansea, Invermere, but
a slow return into a strong north wind
and the flight ended at Harrogate on the
return, 30 km short of the goal. His total
was 495.30 km.
Serge Lamarche of Golden was second
with 419.40 km. Serge reported the most
hang glider XC flights for 2004, however
25
XC SUMMARY
THE LEADER BOARD
Hang gliding XC flights
originating in Canada
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
Chris Muller (AB)
Serge Lamarche (BC)
Armand Acchione (ON)
Stewart Midwinter (AB)
Ralph Herten (AB)
Rob Clarkson (AB)
Ross Hunter (AB)
Jon Orders (BC)
Mark Dowsett (BC)
Steve Best (BC)
Carlos Rizo (ON)
Scott Gravelle (AB)
Doug Keller (AB)
Jeff Runciman (AB)
Winston Hope (AB)
James Lintott (AB)
Gerry Grossneger (MAN)
Leif Hanson (AB)
Steve Pederson (MAN)
Moore Newell (AB)
James Gross (MAN)
Charles Mathison (BC)
Dave Corbin (AB)
Rob Stagg (AB)
Mike Reibling (SASK)
Rick Miller (AB)
Christine Nidd (ON)
Bruce Hanson (AB)
Michael Thorn
Terry Thordason (AB)
Hang gliding XC flights
originating outside Canada
1
2
2
4
5
6
Brett Hazlett (BC)
Eric Paquette (PQ)
Chris Muller (AB)
Bernard Winkelmann (AB)
Ralph Herton (AB)
John Orders (BC)
Paragliding XC flights
originating in Canada
Best 3
Flight 1 Flight 2 Flight 3 Total
327.00
154.40
150.00
148.50
135.00
138.00
144.00
131.00
110.46
125.40
145.10
111.00
118.70
104.00
100.20
64.84
63.50
74.80
69.70
82.00
69.90
67.30
43.00
68.60
41.00
52.20
31.00
37.00
16.00
3.50
168.30
140.00
133.00
146.30
120.00
106.00
117.00
110.00
98.00
101.40
90.30
115.00
111.40
62.80
60.20
59.00
60.10
35.40
64.80
23.70
12.20
12.50
34.00
24.50
10.00
26.20
15.00
-
125.00
118.00
80.10
110.60
104.00
84.80
90.00
98.00
65.50
30.90
21.50
39.8
33.50
58.90
34.90
26.60
-
495.30
419.40
401.00
374.90
365.60
348.00
345.80
331.00
306.46
292.30
266.30
247.50
230.10
206.60
193.90
182.74
158.50
136.80
134.50
105.70
82.10
79.80
77.00
68.60
65.50
62.20
57.20
37.00
31.00
3.50
Best 3
201.44
201.44
201.44
113.44
64.4
138
130.24
117.92
117.92
109
63
122.56
122.56
122.56
103.04
49
Ralph Herten, Rob Clarkson and Ross
Hunter flew XC whenever they had an
opportunity. The longest flights came
from Golden and the Miles in May tow
meet.
Noteworty flights were reported by
Armand Acchione, who placed third
overall, and by Carlos Rizo, who both
showed you can fly 100 km in Ontario.
454.24
441.92
441.92
325.48
176.4
138
1 Will Gadd (AB)
2 Ian Mitchell (BC)
3 Bob Clem (USA)
4 Mike Waddington (AB)
5 Chris Muller (AB)
6 Keith MacCullough (AB)
7 Mark Fraser (BC)
8 Nicole McLearn (BC)
9 Rob Pynaker (USA)
10 Alan Dickey (BC)
11 Barry Phipps (AB)
12 Hugo Tschurtschenthaler
13 Dale Fraser (AB)
14 Stewart Midwinter (AB)
15 Jug Aggarwal
16 Ron Ford (AB)
17 Mark Johnson (BC)
18 Norm Lawler (BC)
19 Guy LeBlanc (ON)
20 Brett Hazlett (BC)
21 Greg Solvbjerg (AB)
22 Greg Hemingway (AB)
23 Peter Bubik (AB)
24 Robin Sather (BC)
25 Alan Polster (BC)
26 Rob Samplonius (BC)
27 Janet Morris (AB)
28 Randy Parkin (AB)
29 Darren Hepple (BC)
30 Lucille de Beaudrap (AB)
31 Mike Spencer (AB)
32 Janet Morris (AB)
33 Kevin McCarthy (USA)
34 Mike Spencer (AB)
35 Marty Brown (ON)
Country
USA
USA
USA
USA
USA
USA
Best 3
197.00
174.00
126.40
150.00
155.00
155.00
103.60
137.00
130.00
114.50
112.00
197.00
73.30
104.00
73.00
150.00
146.00
67.50
42.00
50.00
38.00
40.00
70.00
35.50
44.50
56.00
55.90
28.00
39.57
30.50
27.80
20.00
15.00
13.30
5.00
Paragliding XC flights
originating outside Canada
160.00
90.40
110.40
99.00
107.00
93.00
98.70
75.00
103.70
105.20
48.30
61.60
74.60
67.50
46.00
30.00
37.50
35.00
15.70
15.00
15.00
-
168.00
149.00
110.40
83.90
40.00
49.00
73.50
60.11
55.90
58.00
15.00
28.00
31.00
13.00
-
525.00
413.40
347.20
332.90
302.00
297.00
275.80
272.11
233.70
219.70
216.20
197.00
192.90
178.60
155.50
150.00
146.00
113.50
100.00
81.00
75.50
75.00
70.00
64.20
59.50
56.00
55.90
43.00
39.57
30.50
27.80
20.00
15.00
13.30
5.00
Best 3
1
Nicole McLearn (BC)
42.80
38.60
36.80
118.20
2
3
4
5
Alan Polster (BC)
ChrisMuller (AB)
Jean-Francois Paradis (BC)
Glenn Derouin (BC)
60.90
29.10
23.50
17.60
60.90
29.60
9.70
6.10
7.90
-
86.90
66.60
33.20
23.70
Out of country flights by Canadian
pilots were all in the United States. Florida beat out Chelan for long flights this
year. Pre-Worlds champion Brett Hazlett
topped the list with 454.24 km, followed
by Eric Paquette and Chris Muller, who
were tied for second with 441.92 km.
Eric, who is from Quebec, went to the
Rigid Wing World Championships in
Country
Brazil/
Dom Rep.
Brazil
Brazil
Brazil
Brazil
Austria and placed well at his first international competition.
To register your flights click on http://
www.mullerwindsports.com, XC Flights,
enter your flights on the X-country
form.
This log has been kept since 1984
and serves as a history of XC flight in
Canada.
Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada Association Canadienne de vol Libre
ACCIDENT / INCIDENT REPORT
CONFIDENTIAL
RAPPORT d’ACCIDENT au dÌNCIDENT
INFORMATION
Name / Nom du Pilote
R
E
T
U Passenger / Crew / Victim
R Passager / Équipier / Victime
N
T
O
Address / Adresse
Club / Association
Address / Adresse
Membership #
Membre #
R
e
t
o
u
r
à
EXPERIENCE
Witness / Nom du des témoins
S
E
N
D
E Reported by / Rapporté par
R
Address / Adresse
Level / Niveau
Address / Adresse
Endorsements
Aircraft Make / Marque, modèle et année de fabrication de l'aéronef
Total Hours
Nombre d'heures
Description of Damages and estimated cost to repair.
Description des dommages. Coût estimé des réparations.
Hours Last 90 Days
Heures depuis 90 Jours
l'
e
x
p
é
d
i
t
e
u
r
Total Flights
Nombre de Vol
Harness Make, Model & Damage / Dommage
Marque et modèle du harnais ou de la sellette
Reserve Parachute
Parachute de secours
Weather Conditions
Conditions météorologiques
Wind Speed and Direction
Vent
Date of Accident
Date de l’accident
Nearest Town
Quelle est la ville la plus proche
Parachute Deploiment?
Yes \ Oui
Site
No \ Non
Injuries (Including length of hospitalization and time lost from work)
Blessures (Incluant la période d'hospitalisation et d'absence du travail)
Objective Description of Accident / Incident
Description objective du vol et de l'accident / Incident
On enquête sur les accidents afin d'apporter des correctifs et conseils pour ainsi prévenir la récurrence.
Le contenu de ce rapport ainsi que le dossier s'y rattachant sont CONFIDENTIELS. Il se limite aux circonstances
et causes entourant l'accident. Il n'a pour seul but que la tenue des dossiers et la prévention des accidents.
Page 1
Mail to the Address on Page 2
HPAC / ACVL Form S-02
⇒
Over
Rev. 4 2003-4
27
Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada
ACCIDENT / INCIDENT REPORT
CONFIDENTIAL
Association Canadienne de Vol Libre
RAPPORT d’ACCIDENT au dÌNCIDENT
HPAC / ACVL Business Manager
315 - 85 Henry Lane Terrace,
Toronto, Ont. Canada M5A 4B8
Tel / Fax: 1-416-365-1947
O
F
F
I
C
I
A
L
HPAC Accident Review & Safety Committee
ACVL committee de la sécurite
Fred T. L. Wilson
Email: safety@hpac.ca
U
S
E
O
F
F
I
C
I
A
L
U
S
E
Stage Phase:
Aircraft Damage:
Creation Date:
O
N
L
Y
Site, Location:
Date:
Accident:
Incident:
Injuries:
Blessures:
Expérience:
Published In:
Modification Date:
Insurance
Claim?
File Number:
Yes / Oui
No / Non
CONTRIBUTING FACTORS / FACTEURS CONTRIBUANTS
Include Diagram / Effectuez le Schéma
Action Report / Rapport de l'événement
Recommendations: What would you like other pilots to learn from this?
Que pensez-vous qu'il serait pertinent que les autres pilotes retirent de cette expérience?
Action taken (Club, Association)
Correctifs apportés par le club ou l'association
Report Review
Could this accident have been
avoided? If so How?
Révision de rapport Est-ce qe cet accident aurait
pu être évite? Si oui, comment?
Accidents are investigated to provide guidance toward the prevention of a recurrence.
The content and record of this report is CONFIDENTIAL, is confined to cause-related
circumstances and is for record keeping and accident prevention purposes only.
Page 2
HPAC / ACVL Accident / Incident Report
Form S-02
FILE #
Rev. 4 2003-4
O
N
L
Y
:
NE
I
L
ON CA
W C.
NE PA
E
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New from Apco
THE SALSA
DHV 1-2
Call us to arrange a demo
flight
Muller Windsports Ltd
Box 2018, Cochrane, AB, T4C 1B8
(403) 932-6760
email: fly@mullerwindsports.com

2005-03 - Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association of Canada

Transcription

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