2011 US Nationals - Big Spring, Texas

After an abominable world championships in Italy, I was excited to be heading to the US Nats in Big Spring, TX. This area offers the most consistent conditions in the country. I have flown there for at least 5 years now and cannot recall more than a day or two that was cancelled during the entire period. Interestingly, it rained from Dallas to Big Spring on the morning of the practice day. This was the first rain received in over 6 months. The area is very dry which is very good for us hang glider pilots.

Day 1 I am on the task committee. Davis is doing the weather. It looks pretty weak for today with quite a bit of wind. We call a 110km task northwest to Ackerly, then northeast to Gail and west to Lamesa. Unfortunately, we never got very high and no one made goal. Joe Bostik flew over my head high just past the first turnpoint and almost made it to goal. I landed in the same field as Davis Straub but squeaked past him to take second. With nobody at goal, the point values were very low. I am happy with second though.

Day 2 The good conditions return and we call a 164km slight dog leg to the north. The dog leg will keep lesser experienced pilots away from unlandable terrain before going the last leg over wide open farm fields. It has been so dry here that ½ the fields are barren. If you don’t irrigate you don’t have a crop. I took the second start at 1400 and had two nice climbs to 9000’msl on course. I left the group I was with and headed to an excellent cumulus cloud. I flew right under it but found no lift. I saw smaller cu’s on courseline to the north and headed to their way only to see them dry up just as I arrived. I now was down low in rough terrain (how ironic) and lost a turbulent climb down low finally putting the glider down in one of the few open fields in the area. Years ago, I would have been very upset with such a bad flight but my attitude has changed somewhat. I came to this competition with the objective to win it. I flew hard on this day and perhaps just a tad too fast as I never was in synch with the thermals. Of course as I was packing the glider, I looked up to see a number of gliders fly over my head thousands of feet higher! My nephew Zack is driving for me, Tom McGowan and Dave Proctor. He picked me up before I was finished packing (Excellent job!). Both Tom and Dave made goal. I couldn’t have been happier for them with just a few remorseful pangs for my pitiful performance. I finished 29th today and am in 24th overall. Davis won the day flying very fast.

Day 3 The task committee calls a record 380km (236mi) task to Parma and a backup task to Muleshoe (yes we are in Texas) of 242km (150mi). The reason for two tasks is that the weather models aren’t consistent. They all predict good strong winds but are not in agreement about the cumulus clouds. Some pilots are grumbling about calling such a big task because we won’t get back until very late. The committee changed the task to Muleshoe when the expected clouds didn’t materialize. I takeoff around 1300 and leave on the third start clock at 1400 in a good climb to 8700’. I hold the hammer back a little after landing early yesterday and find myself struggling again in the same area. I finally claw my way back up to 9000’ and connect with three good strong thermals at 700fpm as I follow the courseline north. There are no clouds to mark the lift but there are huge dust devils in the barren fields below that show where the good climbs are. Just past Lamesa I catch a group of gliders from an earlier start. They are flying around a huge dust devil but I don’t find the strong climb and decide to leave. A couple km’s later I hit a strong thermal over 800fpm at one point and top out the lift at 9500’. After a long glide, I spot Davis circling down low to my left and fly to him. I eventually catch 600fpm and get to 9700’. There are cumulus clouds to our north marking the way and I fly to them. The climb rates stay the same but it is obvious cloudbase is much higher. I take three climbs to 11000’ and one last climb to 13000’ before going on final glide to Muleshoe. I arrive at the airport to find no one there! Woohoo, I win the day! When asked to describe my flight at the pilots meeting the next morning, I tell the group that I flew the same as I did the previous day (when I finished 29th) only this time I made it to goal. I move up to 9th overall today.

Day 4 The winds are much lighter today so the committee calls a 143km task to the northwest to Patricia then due east to 11T and finally south back to the airport. Gary Osaba reports from his sailplane that the conditions are the best yet. I launch and get to 10000’ just before the 1320 start. This was the highest I had been this early. I thought I needed to leave early today to get around the course before the conditions started to wane. This was a miscalculation on my part as conditions stayed strong late into the evening. I flew with Mitch around the first turnpoint where I got low and had to dig out above a football field. The lift turned on to the best climb of the day at over 1000fpm to 10500’. Two more excellent climbs put me under a building cloud street. I was flying east to the next turnpoint into a south crosswind. Although the clouds looked better to the north, I was worried about drifting too far north and then having to struggle upwind to get the 2nd turnpoint. I elected to fly to the southeast where there were fewer clouds. This was my mistake for the day as I struggled in two climbs before finally getting up high again. I made the last turnpoint and headed on to goal. Two more good climbs put me on final glide to the airport. I finished 11th for the day and maintained 9th overall. Dave Proctor also made goal today climbing in one last thermal at over 700fpm at 1900 in the evening. Unbelievable!

Day 5 We call a bigger triangle task of 202.6km. The committee discusses the current world record speed for the course. The conditions are going to be so good that we think the record could fall. It is held by Attila Bertok from Hungary at 42km/hr. Gary reports from the air that the conditions are better than yesterday. Wow, how can it get better? This time we fly northeast 66km, west to Lamesa 65km and southeast to Big Spring 70km. I’m in good position to start at 1340 but Zippy signals me to hold back for a later clock. The start clocks are 20 minutes apart. At 1400 we start right at cloudbase at 10500’ which is the best start of the week for me. The course is long, I expect it to take about 5 hours so I pull the bar in and fly fast from thermal to thermal to the first turnpoint. Zippy gets out ahead of me but on the second leg to Lamesa I hit 5 climbs around 1000 fpm and catch him and many others at the 2nd turnpoint. I hit 800fpm at Lamesa and top out 2000’ above ten other gliders. I continue on as I’ve had excellent luck on my own this flight. The headwind is significant, up to 15mph as I glide toward goal. I climb up in three more good thermals and have the numbers (10:1) to get into goal. I pick up the speed but end up plummeting in strong sink and have to slow down to find another climb. Eight km from the airport, I’m down to 1500’ searching and hearing David Glover in my head saying “It’s better to come in a few minutes late than it is to land short”. I finally find a climb that eventually turns on to 700fpm. I take it up until my instrument shows that I have a 7:1 glide into goal. I turn on the afterburners crossing the finish line at 600’. I am the first into goal by 10 minutes; only five pilots make it. My task time is 4:20 which equates to 46.6km/hr possibly a new world record! I now move up to 5th with two days to go.

Nearing cloudbase over west Texas

Day 6 We poll the pilots this morning to see whether they want a short (2hr), medium (3hr) or long (4hr) task. The group is split so we opt for a short to medium task north to TBar and then northwest to Levelland airport. It takes me awhile to get in good position before I start on the 5th clock at 1440. Zippy and Davis take the same start and we are off to the races. Zippy gets a good line and leaves the rest of us behind. I miss a climb and end up behind the rest but continue to push north. There are no clouds to mark the skies but there are many dust devils in the fields. Half way to TBar I hit 1100fpm and take it to 11000’ and catch Davis and Bill S. I am now catching pilots who took an earlier start. I glide toward the turnpoint and just before it hit another 1100fpm climb. There are a number of gliders below. The final glide is off to the northwest and I have a tailwind. Two more solid climbs and I have the numbers to make goal. I race in as fast as 88mph and finish 2nd for the day four minutes behind Zippy. What a fun day. I made good decisions and pushed myself to fly fast. I moved up to 4th overall.

Day 7 Windy, windy windy this morning. I saw one of the planes that tows us up get a wing lifted and it took three guys to pull it down. The spot landing contest was to take place at 0900 and many of the locals were out to watch. The winds were just too strong so it was delayed to 1200. The task committee picked a couple reasonable tasks but the winds continued to blow hard. At 1300, the Safety committee decides to cancel the day. The conditions were just too strong to guarantee that the 30+ pilots could safely launch and land. An hour later the winds did die down some but they were predicted to ramp back up in the evening. I was charged up to fly as I was climbing up the rankings very steeply after my day two fiasco but alas it wasn’t to be. You can’t be a national champion by blowing a day. All was not a loss however as my poor start motivated me to push harder than I ever have before. I now know that I can compete with the best in the world whereas in the past I only believed that I could.

Recap for the week: I finished 1st twice and 2nd twice, accumulated over 21 ½ hours and 930km (575mi) in the six days of flying. Big Spring is the best hang gliding site in the US and possibly the world.

Prepping for the World Championships

Over the winter I modified my 4 Fight full face helmet by removing the existing finish (and scratches), filling in cracks and dents with bondo and adding new paint. 



How about that Killa Bee!



When I debuted it at the Rob Kells Memorial in May, one of the pilots stated that the mod probably negated the EN966 certification and that I would need a new helmet to fly in the worlds.  Rather than go through the hassle of having to buy a new helmet in Italy and then haul both of them home, I bought a new 4Fight LT Jet (half face) from Highland Aerosports.  The problem with a chinless helmet however is that the radio headset must have a flexible mic boom that is secured to the helmet and can be moved into position close to one's mouth.  I contacted Steve Prater (PTT) who builds all of my headsets hoping he had a flex boom however, his mics are only built for full face helmets.  He did mention that Ricker Goldsborough uses his equipment and had made a boom for his Jet helmet.  Ricker was very helpful and stepped me through what he did to make a reliable boom. I went to the hardware store, Staples and Walmart looking for a gooseneck tube similar to what is used on a flexible lamp that I could use as a boom.  I bought a lamp at Staples ($17), copper wire at the hardware store ($2) and found a flexible Onn mic stand at walmart ($8) that is used for a desk PC.  I ended up making two booms in case I needed a spare in Italy.  The first one uses copper wire, heat shrink and foam.

I ran a length of copper along the mic wire and covered both with two different sizes of heat shrink to keep the two firmly bonded together. I also cut a small piece of heat shrink that would just fit over the microphone and cut a hole in it to expose the mic then heated it until it was tightly bound.  Finally, I cut a piece of foam and attached it to the mic with a tywrap. Although functional and no doubt strong enough to withstand the normal abuse from a hang glider pilot, it is not as clean as the mic system I found at Walmart (I'm taking the lamp back to Staples).

I used the boom and the grooved disc that holds the boom in place. I cut the wires on the boom and hooked them up to my existing headset to ensure the mic would work with my system. It did so I cut off my old mic and soldered on the new one.  The disc has sticky tape on the back side so I stuck it into the back end compartment of the helmet.  I compressed the boom onto the disc and routed it between the shell and the compression foam then through a slit in the ear pad out to the front of the helmet.

I needed to test this configuration so I stuck it on my noggin and had Sue drive me down the highway at 25 mph (more like 40) while I stood through the sunroof keying the mike to check for wind noise. The tip of the mic has holes in it and is removable so to make sure there would be no problems when I was blasting toward goal, I added a small layer of foam over the mic and then snapped the cap back in place. I am now race ready!

Covert Boot Modification


I now have over 80 hours in my new Covert harness. I love the streamlined profile and compact fit; I feel like I’m gliding much better as a result. My longest flight in it to date is 7:01 which wasn’t tough at all. Oh sure, there was some neck pain involved but at this stage of my life (57) I have come to accept the fact that every day there will be pain. My philosophy is to accept the pain and get over it. I put it out of my mind as it is only a distraction that could impact my flying.

I adjusted the harness to make it more comfortable by letting the shoulder straps out all the way as it was a tad too short for my height. This allowed me to relax my legs however the rake on the boot was creating some discomfort in my ankles. My feet were falling asleep on long flights so I would have to tap them frequently especially just before landing to get the feeling back. On my last flight at the Flytec Race and Rally, my feet were still numb on landing and it felt like I had two sprained ankles when I landed. I talked to Jeff shortly after and he sent me instructions on how to modify the boot to change the rake of the foot box and also to allow the shoulder straps to be tightened to a normal position.

I modified the boot before the East Coast Championships and am pleased with the result. Here are the steps for modifying the boot:

1. Remove the retaining screw from the end of the harness and take the boot out of the harness.

2. Untie the bungee cord and remove the door from the boot.

3. Tape a black sharpie flat on the table and spin the boot (pointy side up) flat on the table so that you draw a black line approx. the height of the marker tip (about 1/8" off the table).

 

4. Mark 1.5" back from that black line, in the center seam behind your heels and mark on the toe seam at about .5" back from the black mark. Connect the two marks around the circumferance of the boot so that you have a clean taper from the heel side mark to the toe side.

5. Use a composite wheel on a Dremel tool and cut off the "ring" (1/8th” line) that your door rests against.

6. Cut off the wedge (2nd line) to take off the length and change the angle.

Ring and wedge removed: Note how the ring is larger than the new circumference of the boot.

7. Tape the "ring" to the boot so that it's centered and the grommets for the door bungy are still clear.

8. Apply 5 minute epoxy (from a 2 barreled syringe) to the seam on the outside of the ring boot interface using a popsicle stick and let it dry.

9. Apply a strip of painters tape on the inside of the boot ½” above the new joint to mask off the area.

10. Mix epoxy resin (30 minute) with micro balloons so that it is the consistency of peanut butter and apply it to the inside of the boot around the seam so that it squeezes through any gaps left from the glue.

11. Use a gloved finger to make a smooth radius or this "peanut butter mix" around the inside edge of your new seam and let it dry.

12. Use the Dremel to trim off the excess from the ring and sand the outer edge smooth.

13. Sand the inside fillet to make sure there aren't any sharp edges to catch your bags.

14. Replace the door and make a mark around the door to cut off the excess. Use the Dremel to cut off the extra (should be about 3/16-1/4") and sand the new edge smooth.

Finished boot sans final sanding.

15. Replace the door and install it back in the harness.

The boot is stronger than the original and is the perfect length and rake for my stature. I have over 20 hours in the new configuration and love the increased comfort! Thanks Jeff for your support!