Diary of a racing glider pilot

About to depart for Lithuania !!!

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Tue, 19 Jul 2016 02:51:00 +0000

Well race fans, the time has come for Team EY to transform into Team YU for the 34th WGC in Pociunai, Lithuania. I leave beginning tomorrow for the 24 hour trip to Prague to meet up with Paul Weeden, then a couple days of learning the glider and trailer, then a buddy road trip of about 1,000 km where the competition can begin. Wish us luck.

Tim EY/YU

At Sports Nats in Parowan, Utah

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Thu, 17 Jun 2010 05:41:00 +0000

Susan is blogging daily from Parowan: http://susanmcallister.blogspot.com

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 06:01:00 +0000

Good Evening Race Fans:

Despite the rather dire weather prediction for today, we actually got some soaring in. After a tow from Siskiyou County airport to 6500 msl on the top of Gunsite Ridge instead of to the top of Craggy Peak at 5200 msl, pilots were greeted with 4-8 knot thermals to about 10,500 msl. Phew... what a relief. If we were to believe the soaring forecasts, the best we were going to get all day was maybe 3-4 kt lift to maybe 9,000 msl and ending by 4-5 pm local. Still, the winds aloft and on our return to Siskiyou were predicted to be quite strong out of the north and it looked pretty bleak for the short wingers - i.e. me!

So off we set out on a 4 turn TAT with 5 miles circles around each point. The Sparrowhawk continues to prove itself an equal to much bigger, more traditional gliders. Today was no exception as the "little yellow bird" did a great job of extracting energy from the sky on the runs to give terrific interthermal L/D's. Many a pilot has said how impressive this ship has been on side by side runs under real world, competition conditions.

I was able to get out of the start at about 9900 msl for the run to China Start. As has been the case with all the tasks we have flown in the Scott Valley area this contest, Duzel Rock was the place to tank up before going for the turns. if you missed the good climbs at Duzel, your day was done. My flight was made when I was able to get on top of the ridge to the east of Quartz Valley TP and then was able to follow Ray Gimmey (7V) to a terrific climb on Forest Mountain for the run into and out of Grenada.

I missed the climb everyone else got on Antelope Mtn so off I went getting lower and lower as I just squeaked into the edge of China Start to get the last TP. Then it was a very nervous bit of ridge soaring back to Antelope Mtn where I was able to dig a climb out of the rocks and trees to get home. Easy...

I guess despite the winds and unpredictable thermal strengths, the day was really meant to be for me as I brought home a 2nd place on the day for the Sparrowhawk. While not enough to materially change my overall placing, I think I changed some minds about the racing characteristics of the Sparrowhawk over the course of this often difficult weather contest. I will write up a pilot's/racers report of this little machine when I get home from being on the road. So check back.

So Who won? Our 2008 Sports Class National Champion is Rick Walters who used his knowledge of the area to stay out of trouble and to fly a great contest. With yet another new name added to the Hal Lattimore Trophy, Sports class continues to show it is one of the most competitive classes out there.

Good luck to Rick as he goes overseas to go after another title in the next few weeks. Go Team USA!!!

That's it for Team EY for this racing season.

See Ya!
EY

July 7 - Day 6

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 05:28:00 +0000

Good Evening Race Fans:

Day 6 of the 2008 US Sports Nationals has come and gone. After a well deserved rest day yesterday, all competitors were ready to get back to racing for the national title. We’ve lost the Region 11 Sports Class competitors (their comp is over) so the grid is down to 31 competitors. With the very efficient line crew and great coordination with “Siskiyou Tower”, the field is getting launched in well under an hour now.

The weather situation for today was for completely blue conditions with the possibility for some small wisps if the temps got high enough. The west coast is seeing a large ridge of high pressure build in with rapidly increasing temperatures for the next 3-4 days. What this means for us here at the contest site are predicted highs of 100 (today), 101 tomorrow), 103/4 Wednesday, and then upper 90’s for Thursday. As a general rule the locals say that the first day or two of a building ridge make for very stable and erratic flying. But that with the passing of a couple days, the conditions should really begin to cook and get some great soaring in. We’ll see.

Gary Kemp, CD, called for a TAT “A” Task consisting of China Start (5 miles), Dry Lake (15 miles), Butte Valley (7 miles) and Mt Hebron (5 miles). With the day totally blue and many of us experiencing difficulties just getting to around 8-9,000 msl in the start cylinder (and that after many struggles to make the “commute” to Gunsite Ridge), it was looking like the day would be very difficult.

With Rick Walters (88) taking over as task advisor from JJ Sinclair (JJ), both 88 and the other advisor, Walt Cannon (NT), prevailed upon the CD to change the task to the backup – our old favorite this year of a 3 hour MAT, China Start as the first and only turn. This looked a lot more fair from my short-wing perspective.

This was actually a pretty fun task for me as I got to get a great view of the mountains in the western task area AND I was actually able to see the terrain out ahead of me for leg planning purposes. My day was pretty much a three lap race of China Start, Duzel, Lefko, and then back to China Start. I threw in one extended leg to the Scott Valley airport after a 6-8 knotter at Duzel, and then eased out of the mountains to get Grenada and then Montague to add a few miles before coming back to the field. The day was basically spent shuttling from the thermals at China Start (on the ridge) and the thermals around Duzel Rock. For me, the thermals just appeared at the right places at the right times and I never got stuck and just flew fast all day.

After taking a quick glance at the score sheet, it looks like the Sparrowhawk, or to quote Roy Cundiff “the little yellow rabbit”, took 3rd for the Day. That will earn some points back!

In a recap of Day 5, once again I gave up another 93 points by missing a TP - only my second penalty I’ve ever gotten in a soaring contest, the first being a couple days ago. Winpilot apparently does not use attributes given to turnpoints in a logical way. One would think that the waypoints designated as FINISHES, would be the only ones to have a 2 mile radius drawn around them. Ah… but one be wrong about that since apparently if you have any TP as the last TP in the task, then that will be marked as a finish, and therefore Winpilot will draw a 2 mile ring around that TP. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!

Gee, if I had the 204 points for missed TP’s back, then add another 300-500 for my boneheaded Day 1 landout, where would that put me???… and the Sparrowhawk???

And in closing, Team EY’s thoughts are with our US Club Class Team (and Standard Class/World Class) competing on Day 1 of the World Championships in Reiti, Italy.
GO Team USA!!!

See Ya,
GC (EY)

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:41:00 +0000

Video of fire bomber

Susan took this video and managed to send it directly to the blog. You can hear her talking to line crew about our weak link during the film.

Day 4 - Fourth of July

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Sat, 05 Jul 2008 05:37:00 +0000

Good Evening race Fans:

Well that one was tough! For only about 4.5 hours in the air and a 3 hour TAT, I don’t think I have ever had to change gears so drastically, so many times in one task.

The day dawned a little less smoky and with cu all around by about 10-11 am. However, the high temp of the day was still forecast for only 83 degrees. Lucky for us the trigger was to be about 77, and this happened early on in the morning. But the rub here was that the cloudbase by launch time had only risen to about 7700 msl.

But we still launched into the best looking cu of the contest with all hopes of a great flight. The task call was a 3 hour minimum, TAT (Turn Area task) with the first turn China Start (5 mile radius), way out east to Dry Lake (20 mile Radius), then back in to radar (10 mile radius), and finally, Restaurant (10 mile radius) then back home … to the welcoming arms of ATC (Air Traffic Control).

For a short winged Sparrowhawk, and even some of the “big wings”, making the “commute“ from Craggy to the Gunsite Ridge was very difficult. I, along with Boyd Willat (JP), got into some shear wave that let us get above cloudbase at Craggy and then transition over to the Gunsite Ridge.

I thought I had it made… until I was unceremoniously flushed off Gunsite and into the valley for a very probable off-field landing at Montague. At least that was how it looked for a while. I was able to dig out very slowly and eventually work into the start cylinder and up to a little less than 10,000 msl (the top of the start cylinder). But this was still 2 miles short of the cylinder wall with nothing much in the way of clouds until Antelope Mtn (slightly off track to the first turn) ahead. Time to get out of Dodge for the little yellow glider.

Interestingly, I think I make the tower controller’s day when I come into the pattern because they can actually identify me. “Are you the yellow one st midfield on downwind?” Otherwise they are pretty limited to viewing all gliders as “the white one over there, the other white one over there” etc. It’s kind of funny despite the weirdness of it all.

Just remember all you glider pilots out there: Study up on your proper radio phraseology for when an FAA Tower drops in on your contest.

Back to the task…

The run to China was alright but hardly anything to crow about. But at this critical transition point, the highest I was able to get was about 8500 msl. But in keeping with my former status as the CSA (Colorado Soaring Association) “Duck Head” Award winner, I struck off across the valley into blue skies. By poking my way across the valley I was able to transition onto the best looking clouds of the day running from Whaleback Mtn (just in the lee of Mt Shasta) into the turn area at Dry Lake. While bumping along the cloudstreet I was able to work thermals, shear wave, and convergence up to about 12,500 msl to get into the turn area and then strike off toward Radar where Rick Walters proclaimed to me that “there is always a thermal there to get you back up” Hmmmm.

Well the run to Radar went really well for me and put me a little bit above the radar dome on the top of the hill… where I found exactly nothing for the next 20-30minutes. The clouds weren't working and the day seemed to be dying off. Oh boy. I decided to hang on until the cavalry caught up with me to give me some help in getting back up. Sometimes the best thing to do is just wait for some more thermal detectors to show up and let everyone save each other. Sure enough here came the main pack screaming out of the good conditions coming out of Dry lake and into the area of desperation.

Many pilots got very low getting into and out of Radar. Many landed out at Butte valley and a few in fields and the airport toward Klamath Falls. The rest of us just struggled in very soft and pulsing lift to get up to about 9,000 msl around Copco Bridge before going out into the blue again to try and get the last turn area at Restaurant.

I was sure glad I took the extra couple turns at Copco, because it was quite marginal getting in to touch the radius at Restaurant before heading for home. Topping up with MH about 8 miles out got me into the finish cylinder without a rolling finish, almost exactly on time, and with some extra energy to comply with Siskiyou Tower instructions.

I do not know how I did but there is a growing chorus amongst the pilots here that “Boy, can that Sparrowhawk climb And go!” Hopefully I can do Greg Cole’s terrific design the justice it deserves as the contest progresses.

See Ya!
GC (EY)

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 06:34:00 +0000

Heres that fire bomber.

This message was sent using the Picture and Video Messaging service from Verizon Wireless!

Day 2-3 - 3 July 2008

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Fri, 04 Jul 2008 06:26:00 +0000

Good Evening Race Fans:

Well, we’ve got ourselves a race going here in Northern California. We’ve gotten in three out of the first three days and are looking at flyable weather the rest of the next 7 days. The CD, Gary Kemp, told us today that he would evaluate the need for a rest day based on the look in our eyes.” Might we have a 10 day contest?

The weather forecast for the foreseeable future… Incredibly smoky soaring conditions with a chance of spatial disorientation. Seriously, last night’s social and this morning’s pilots meeting were filled with tales of spatial disorientation, incipient spins, and just flat out scary conditions. Only the very professional conduct and very high skills of all the pilots so far has prevented anything other than concern over the situation. We are all here to race and that’s what we intend to do.

With a major fire burning just to our west at Happy Camp, it looks like the western part of the local task area (Scott Valley area and ‘The Marbles’ mountain range) will remain problematic. The days are dawning with flecks of ash on my truck’s hood, somewhat clear skies, but then rapidly going to smokier and smokier conditions as the task opens up about 2:30 pm and then getting worse as the afternoon goes on.

For a pilot like me flying his first contest here (and in a new-to-me glider to boot), it’s been like trying to race/navigate in a foggy phone booth when going even a little bit west into the start area (Gunsite Start). This is a terribly technical place to fly fast in and it is super difficult when you can’t see the clouds and terrain more than 2-4 miles ahead of you. Especially in a 30/1 glider like the Sparrowhawk, if you want to make a big jump into a new soaring area over these wide valleys, you need to have some visual assurance that there is lift working where you are going before you make a major strategic move.

The visibilty to the east of the airport (Butte Valley area) have been better. However, this better visibility has not prevented many a pilot from either landing out or being caught very low and having to laboriously dig oneself out of deep trouble in this eastern part of the tasking area.

We’ve got a cooling period for today and tomorrow (July 4th) with highs going from the mid 90’s to 90 to a forecast high of only 83 here in Yreka tomorrow. The temps should begin to cook back into the mid to upper 90’s by Sunday and Next Monday. Odds are this will improve the soaring – but also stoke the fires.

Steve Northcraft (SN) has won the first two days and is really showing his knowledge of the site gained by racing here over many years. Day Three results are not up yet, and all results are going to be tweaked a little bit as the handicaps have not been adjusted for over/underweight competitors.

I’ll just give you a little feeling for how I’ve seen the days play out:

Day One 3 hour MAT, Gunsite Start, China Start TP, Medicine Lake…
This is an odd contest in that the center of the start cylinder we are using (Gunsite Start) is about a 17 mile “commute” (in the words of one pilot) from the Siskiyou County airport.

The release area is on top of Craggy Ridge. There you can expect to get to between 6-8+ thousand MSL before the start opens. It is then up to you to pick your way over to the start cylinder and then get up over the higher mountains and ridges to the west of Yreka.

The release area seems to have very pronounced cycling and it is not uncommon to have to hang out on the ridgetop for quite some time before getting enough height to get over into the start cylinder. So far this initial climb and transition has been pretty kind to me in the little yellow glider.

The pattern that held true on this day has held true the next two days: Everyone out of the cylinder in good shape at the top of the cyclinder (10,000 feet Msl for this contest so far), pretty decent runs to the China Start TP on the ridges at China Mtn., then get a good climb here to set you up for the rest of the day. Then the decisions…

This day (and the next) a LOOOONG glide across the Shasta Valley in the lee of the mighty giant Mt. Shasta (14,000+feet msl) ensued, hope to hook into a climb at Deer Mtn or Whaleback Mtn, and then off to the next (and last) mandatory TP. This day saw altitudes of up to 12-13K being achieved at China, then glide over into the Lee of Mt. Shasta where a lee side thermal and or weak wave enabled most people to tank up, then a long flat glide into the Medicine lake Tp. Medicine Lake TP is at about 7300 feet Msl and saw many competitors get too low for comfort over unlandable terrain. But it was the last mandatory Tp and there was no option but to go for it. Most dug out a decent thermal just short of Medicine Lake and then were able to get going north onto a relatively good shear line.

I followed the crowd and put my head down in my 11 meter ship and was going along doing my thing when I got caught a little low when the Butter Valley are “cycled” off. For about 40 minutes I searched and searched and searched… and then landed out at Butte Valley airport. Not the most auspicious start to a contest! An easy aerotow back home and I was home for a grand total of 300-ish points. How good is the Sparrowhawk’s handicap???

Day 2, 3 hour minimum MAT, China Start TP, Three Sheds TP…

This day saw pretty much the same thing as Day 1 saw. This time there was a fair amount of high level wave/rotor/rotor induced thermals happening. Most had an easy run to China Start TP, then the long glide to three sheds began for most of us.

I was able to get a good run across the valley and yet still found myself low at three sheds looking for a thermal. Eventually I dug out a one knotter that got better with each ascending thousand feet, eventually ending up as a good 9 knotter on the averager in the last thousand feet of the climb. From there I just played out the lift lines and had a good flight of about 150 miles (raw).

I should mention here that I am flying Greg Cole’s personal Sparrowhawk. In the keeping with my new theory of keeping it simple. I elected not to install my instruments in the plane. Can anyone offer me any hints on how to use Winpilot more effectively???

All I know is that my entire flight was spent doing battle with Winpilot and the Ipaq. So much so that I missed the Three Sheds TP by about .85 of a mile. Ooops! So what was a 924 point, 6th place day ended up a 813 point day for 13th place. I’m starting to feel a little more comfortable with the task area. But it sure would be nice to see the area at least once while I am here.

Day 3, 3 hour minimum MAT, China Start TP first turn.

This day began smoky and only got worse as the day went on. In keeping with my new outlook on contest score sheets (As per Uli Schwenk, multiple time German national team member, who does not look at them), I do not know any of the results since I, too, am not looking at them this contest.

I had a really great flight going on while keeping relatively close in until I ran out of Turnpoints sitting over the home field at 4,000 feet agl. Argghhhh! I should have probably extended a little bit more into the western mountains. BUT, with the smoke, being as bad as it is, the commitment to go for the next mtn range west without being able to see what was going on there would have been a huge gamble. I think I put about 140 miles in the box and we’ll see how that scores

Remember that portable FAA control tower the fire bomber operation requested a few days ago? Well, it showed up while we were out on Task today. So for about 20 minutes this afternoon, the Siskiyou Country airport was a little bit like ORD at rush hour. For me, this was one of only a handful of times I’ve ever had to talk to a tower. And this time it was under the pressure of a contest finish. Fun. There were many looks of utter amazement on the faces of the pilots at tonights social hour.

Stay tuned for more news on the wackiness of the 2008 Sports Class Nationals.

See Ya,
GC (EY)

Sports Class Day 1 - July 1st

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 06:00:00 +0000

Good Evening Race Fans:

Team EY is here at the US Sports Class Nationals in Montague, California enjoying the “smoky” hospitality of Northern California. Unfortunately, I’ve had to shelve my “Echo Yankee” ID for yet another contest. But fortunately, this time is for a very good reason.

With the Sports Nationals returning to Northern California in 2008, I got an email from Greg Cole back in December offering his personal Sparrowhawk for me to fly. Having heard a lot about the potential of the new technology in this glider (all pre-preg carbon fiber construction, very light weight, brs (ballistic recover system), etc.), I jumped at the chance. So Team EY will be competing as team GC – “Golf Charlie” at this contest.

I’ll have more to say about the Sparrowhawk, and maybe even about its much-anticipated big brother the Duckhawk, as the contest goes along. But so far, I am enjoying the ship very much.

So what’s going on here at Montague?

With the very active wildfire season here in Northern California, the Air Tanker base at Montague is quite active. With 2 ex-Navy P-2 Neptune firebombers and a couple of turbo commander “lead planes” based here, the contest is definitely prepared for the possibility of conflict. Rex and Noelle Mays had done a lot of prep work for this contest which specifically included working out a plan to work with the firebombers. Well on practice day one, the plan went out the window and the firebomber folks both would not work well with us AND made an official request to the FAA for a portable Control Tower to be brought in here. Argghhhh! With the fires stabilizing a little bit in the past couple days, the threat of us being run out of here has gone down. But you never know.

We’ve got a great field spanning the full gamut from quick young hotshots, to really quick old wiley veterans. Add in US Team members tuning up for Lusse, Germany next month, ex-US team members, those pushing for the US Club Class Team, past US National Champions in many different classes, and you have the makings of a great race.

We flew both practice days with pretty good weather as long as you could deal with the effects of all the wildfires here in Northern California. Practice day one saw few pilots flying the task and many taking local familiarization flights. The smoke was so bad that I was over Duzel Rock (well known local thermal source) at about 10K msl and I could not really see it!

Day 2 saw better conditions, especially to the Northeast (Klamath Falls area) and more pilots starting to sharpen their racing skills. Unfortunately, my loggers had some “issues” and I was not able to turn in a score for day 2. I pushed the little yellow Sparrowhawk pretty well and probably won or came close on the day. In the end, Practice Day 2 was won by Ed Salkeld (5S) followed closely by Seam Franke (HA) at around 58 mph (handicapped).

Today, the first official contest day, dawned a little less smoky, but with the threat of quite a bit of cirrus moving in off the Pacific Ocean throughout the day. Today’s Day 1 task was a 3 hour MAT with China Start (53) and Medicine Lake (?) the first two called turns. Then we were free to go wherever.

One thing that the reports about flying at Montaguie do not make much of is that cirrus is a VERY big factor in contests at the coastal (or relatively so) sites like Montague. Today was a perfect example. When the sun was able to hit the ground the day really cooked. I got one terrific 10 knot climb around the China Start turnpoint enabling me to tank up before setting off across the Shasta Valley to Medicine Lake.

But before then the day was very slow getting going and the gate did not open until 14:21 pm local. The very smoky skies, combined with the cirrus shelves movingo into the area had drastic effects on the heating of the day. The run to China Start was pretty straight forward. Then the fun began as the field crossed the Shasta Valley in the lee of 14,000+ foot Mount Shasta going for the Medicine Lake TP. With hints of wave in the upper atmosphere, the field slowly got across and pulled into turn at Medicine Lake quite low. From there, the most logical thing was to run the convergence going up toward Radar facility (40) and the Klamath Falls. Oregon Area. Then some ran back down the convergence south before heading home.

That’s what I tried to do as well. I found myself on a marginal on a glide from Radar to home, with 1 hour 20 minutes left to go and I went back to Butte valley airport hoping to work the convergence line I had used to get there, get up and then go home. But with the sun angle catching more and more smoke and the bands of cirrus coming and going, I found myself stuck and had to land out at Butte Valkley Airport. The day just died where I was and that was the end of Day 1 for me. A very expensive aerotow back to home and GC was returned to its box safe and sound.

It seems the day was none too kind to the Sparrowhawks, with Bill Thar (G8) also landing out on the strip at Longbell Ranch coming out of the first turn.

I have not looked at the score sheet, but I am hoping that a combination of many people under time and the new scoring rules making landouts less of a total disaster will enable me to stay in the race to some degree. We’ll see.

That’s it from Montague.

See YA,
GC (EY)

New soaring podcast

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 04:49:00 +0000

There's a new soaring podcast by Boulder, Colorado pilots Doug Weibel and Colin Barry. They interviewed me about the GP experience for their second episode. Hear it here.
There's also a comprehensive article about the contest in the Feb/March issue of Soaring NZ, Jill McCaw's new magazine.
Tim

December 28, 2007 - Last Day of Air Games

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 11:04:00 +0000

All of the pilots pose for their official portrait.

Friday December 28, 2007

Gidday Race Fans!

After yesterday’s wash-out, today dawned crisp and clear for the second, and last day of the New Zealand Air Games. In view of some of the scheduling conflicts with even yesterday’s shortened program, all the leaders of the individual airsports got together and hashed out a new timeline for today that worked pretty well.

The GP Task was a 178 km drag race from Wanaka to Cotters (midway up the Dingle Burn), south to Tomsons (back south of our old favorite from last week, Goodger), down to the most southern turnpoint of Cromwell (at the bottom end of the Dunstan range), then back home with a steering turn at Tarras. The weather was pumping pretty good by the time we launched at 2:30 p.m.

The launch at this new site went very well with everyone getting up on the Pisa range (or Pizza Range in Brian Spreckley-speak). There is a fair amount of airspace around Wanaka due to its proximity to Queenstown, so we were capped out at 7,500 feet MSL before the start. The max start height was 6,000 feet MSL. Lucky for us the working band was not much above 7,000 feet anyway. This start line was an even smaller 3 km and it provided quite the spectacle as we roared out onto course right above the fair sized crowd and live on the internet.

The scheduled air service taxis by our "dummy" grid.

The crowd watches the action on the bog screen. They paid NZ$18 each for entry.

Everyone got onto the course within maybe 200 feet of vertical separation. The run down the Hawea Ridge to Timaru Creek and Dingle Mountain was fast and aggressive, with many gliders getting right into the rocks. There was a a lot of high speed bobbing and weaving with everyone trying to eeek out the best possible lift from the craggy mountains, wind and sun angles we were given.

TM was able to pull a nifty little move with DW and MS to go into the dingle Burn on the downwind side of Dingle Peak. Pucker-factor high, but it worked and got me caught back up. A quick transition to the range separating the Dingle Burn from the Hunter River Valley led us all into the first turn and then onto the Dingle Ridge (downwind).

It was here that the field spread out a little bit with many gliders trying different cruising altitudes (some on the rocks, some up at cloud base) and ground tracks. TM went cloud hunting and had a pretty good run down to the end of the Hawea Ridge.

At this point, I was pretty much alone and had gotten down to about 4,000 feet MSL (less than 1,000 feet above the terrain). Or so I thought! Suddenly the camera helicopter appeared to be descending to my altitude and coming toward me. As I ground my way out of this minor hole, the helicopter positioned itself about 1 km away from me and stuck with me. Look ma, I’m on T.V.!

It did not immediately click that I might be with the leaders. Instead I thought, “Oh no, here goes TM giving the broadcast crew another hard luck “save.” Had I pushed a little harder at this point, I might have been able to make a little more headway. Oh well!

The “black rocks” at the end of the Dunstans around Cromwell worked like a charm with a 4 knot thermal building to 8+ knots both on the way into the turn and back out of the turn. At this point in the task more than a few of us should probably have taken and extra hundred feet in that 8+ knot thermal.

If you were just a hundred feet higher or 20 knots faster at the last turn at Tarras, you had a pretty easy go of the final glide. But, if you we on the backside of that energy curve, then you had another Pucker-factor high final glide. As I was slowly sinking under my polar on final glide, a caught site of Petr Krejirik (CZE) rapidly descending and then landing out right ahead of me. Yikes – better slow down and hope to get home.

It was about this time when I was really wishing for a better glider, as old tired TM was just not performing with the new ships. As Christophe Ruch (FRA) came past me about 20 knots hotter I was seriously considering the field at the bottom of the end of the runway if I got any lower on energy. Just then a little energy line formed ahead of me and I was able to make the field – not handily, but safely. It was quite a sight to see about ten other gliders waiting at the far end of the runway and me entering the flare with Giorgio Galetto (ITA) blowing past me at 50 feet about a wingspan to my right. Manage the energy, roll to a stop, and this GP is over!

The satellites that brought you the webcast. www.r2.co.nz

The final exhibition race went as follows: 1st Sebastian Kawa (POL), 2nd Mark Holliday (RSA), and 3rd Michael Sommer (GER). Unfortunately, the first pilot back to the field, Ben Flewett (NZL), was not the winner today. The GP format really lets fans see who wins at the end of the task, but even that winner has to make all the turnpoints! Ouch…

With most people on tight timelines to get back home. Peter Harvey (GBR) and Oscar Goudriaan immediately took tows back to Omarama. Most of the others will grid up again tomorrow at about 10 a.m. for the aerotow back to Omarama. TM will be returning to its snug hangar, while all the other Europeans who brought their own ships face the daunting prospect of loading the shipping frames back up with gliders and getting the frames into the containers before they leave for home. Once again there is some trepidation on the part of the glider pilots as the holes for the GPS aerials are going to be fixed tomorrow AND the gliders need to be loaded tomorrow before most pilots leave for Europe.

With the GP family breaking up, I will have some more thoughts on the GP when I get back stateside. But I will leave you all with the final and most fitting glider activity of this event.

At the end of the task the four remaining German pilots did not dump their water and landed short on the runway. After a short time back on the ground, all four took off, organized themselves into a trailing line abreast over the field, then made a high speed pass down the length of the field in front of the crowd, dumping water, and then peeling one glider way in the missing man formation in honor of Herbert Weiss, “29”

Herbert, you are missed.

That’s it from here in New Zealand. Team TM will be going back to Omarama tomorrow and then off for some sightseeing in the day and a half we have left in country. We’ll catch you all back in the states in the new year.

Happy New Year to all and See Ya! Tim/TM

December 27 - Wanaka

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Thu, 27 Dec 2007 10:24:00 +0000

December 27, 2007

Gidday Race Fans!

Well, the GP has packed up and hauled itself to Wanaka and the New Zealand Air Games. Billed as the largest air sports event ever in the Southern Hemisphere, this event is basically the FAI’s attempt at a dry run for the 2009 World Air Games in Turin, Italy. Run by the New Zealand Aero Club, the event provides a venue for the other 9 air sports that will be at the next WAG to come up with media-friendly “games”/competitions.

This event, as well as the concluded World GP Championship, is being backed financially by AirsportsLive, Peter Newport’s company designed the event to bring all the FAI sports to the world through new technology and outreach to the media. This appears to be the only game in town for the FAI and all of our airsports as we begin the journey to modern day sponsorship in our sports.

As a jumpstart to a brave new world of sponsorship for our sport, and others, Airsports paid for the GP pilots’ airfares here, some of the glider costs, some food and hotel, and tows for the GP Final and this Exhibition in Wanaka.

So basically we are obligated to indulge in this “exhibition” here in Wanaka as part of the “sponsorship” we all received.

The Sailplane Grand Prix concept is by far the most mature of any FAI airsports here and is in fact the only event here that is officially sanctioned by the FAI as an event. So, while we come with a working product, the other sports are basically making things up on the fly (Ha-ha…).

Hopefully all this will go safely and prove out the bigger concept for all the airsports. We are racing for “fun” and have been requested to make a show rather than race with our elbows out. The looks on my fellow GP Pilots at the briefings have been amused to say the least… some of the world’s best pilots throttling back?

This event, which is basically being anchored by the gliding element, is a real tricky thing with every event programmed into a very tight schedule for safety and efficiency reasons. For example, gliding is working with all the other airsports, a daily scheduled ATR flight that arrives at 2:45 p.m., as well as the local skydive operators – or “meat bombers” as they are colloquially called in these parts. This makes for a very complicated ballet of moving ships and crew vehicles on and off the runway.

So did we fly today? No. We watered up and pulled all 18 gliders on to the “dummy grid” for a move to the real grid en-mass at about 1:30pm, for a scheduled launch at 2:30 and a start at about 3 pm. Had we launched at about noon, the 181km wave task would probably have been a fun little run around the local wave system as we had strong NW winds and were surrounded by stacks of Lennies. But by 1:45, the weather was closing in on Wanaka from the NW and the Makaroa/Hunter Valleys were in heavy mist and rain.

Brian Spreckley, CD, made the wise decision to pull the plug on things and hope for better tomorrow. He did offer a number of pilots the chance to launch and demonstrate final glides with water dumping for the crowd. But after 4-6 gliders had towed down to the real grid, the rain really started and even they came back to the tie-downs without flying.

Team TM took the opportunity to go touring to Queenstown. Like most touring for glider pilots, the awesome mountain views were obscured by rain (remember, rain = rest day), but we did get a feel for the very touristy nature of the “capital of extreme adventure”, as well as a very cool view of the snow frosted Remarkable Range from the highest sealed road in New Zealand!

Tomorrow’s weather looks like a great, post-frontal thermal day so I hope we can put on a good show for the crowd while getting in some more, and our last, “fun” racing of this competition. Wish us luck.

See Ya! Tim/TM

P.S. It has come to my attention that some GP-style racing has, in fact, taken place in the U.S. That’s great! Then maybe we can get some resources going for organizing a US Qualifier like the IGC DESPERATELY wants, for next year (2008). If you like the concept, give it a thought and get in touch with Eric Mozer,the U.S. IGC rep.

Dec 24th - We have a winner!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Mon, 24 Dec 2007 05:15:00 +0000

Gidday Race Fans:

While all the detaisl of the score sheet are still being worked out, Sebastian Kawa (POL) drove his Diana 2 around the short course and won the day and the title of World GP Gliding Champion!!!

The day was very late getting started and then ended up being an undercall, IMHO. We left the line sometime after 3pm local, and the sky was still cooking with convergence lines, thermals and even hints of wave when we raced home form the far turnpoint at Mt. Hayes (near Burkes Pass).

TM managed to resurrect myself after yesterday's poor choices and poor flying. I was right in the running at the first turn and thought the decision to go back to weak wave was the best one for the glider I was flying at the time. Everyone really had the hammer down the entire wayua roudnhte course. The thermalling was som of the tightest, unforgiving I have ever done. It was really like thermalling with your "elbows out". But things were safe and we got a great race in.

I will be continuing my blog for at least a few more days as the GP Circus packs up for the Exhibition Racing (more on this later) at Wanaka and the NZ Air Games. Whether or not I go to Wanaka is a bit up inthe air right now as the really do not want us doing real racing for the public, but instead want staged finshes for the media. That's jsut not my style. I wish we had some more days to go racinginthis wonderful paradise of Omarama - but htat is the GP Format: Short and Sweet!

See Ya! Tim/TM

All the GP

December 23 - Day 4

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 08:15:00 +0000

Good Evening Race Fans:

Today was another race day for the GP pilots here at Omarama. After issuing an A & B, then a C & D, then an F task we were able to go racing. I joked that the F task meant we were all F'd - funny that the joke was on me.

I hope I gave all the fans of the Stars and Stripes a bit of an adrenaline rush as I drove the Ventus C hard on down the course out of the start line. For the first two legs I was going pretty well and hanging with all the top dogs. Then the long cross-wind traverse to the third turnpoint in the Grampian Mountains (to the East-Northeast of Omarama) got the better of me after I lost sight of basically everyone in the field.

Day Winner Bruce Taylor (2nd from left) with Uli Schwenck and Giorgio Galetto. (Tim Timoshenko (our Russian crew friend) is on the far left.

Left to my own devices, I was looking at running a convergence line north and then getting on another to cross the Mackenzie Basin to the turnpoint. Had it worked, it would have caught me up with the leaders - or so I thought at the time.

Not known to me at the time, Uli Schwenk had gotten out to a 25 km (!) lead on the hard-driving Aussie Bruce Taylor and Sebastian Kawa in the Diana 2. However he did this by ridge soaring (!) the entire way from the second turn Tomsons to the eastern shores of Lake Benmore (!!!) For anyone who has flown here, the wind was a strong northerly. The ridges do not really line up, but somehow Uli made it work until he was stuck for a long while.

Uli Schwenck ended up 2nd on the day. The day winners were 1) Bruce Taylor (AUS), 2) Uli Schwenck, (GER) and 3) Ben Flewett (NZL). This brings us to the overall leaders of 1) Ben Flewett (25 Points), 2) Steve Jones (GBR)(24 points), and 3) Uli Schwenck (23 Points)

My personal flying day went from really good to really slow in about 20 minutes. Once I realized I had lost sight of the leaders, I saw a few guys down on the ridges going into the helicopter-only retrieve valley at the base of the St.Bathans range. After the loss of Herbert Weiss two days ago, I decided the better part of valor was to stay safe and to not go for broke low down on the ridges. Well the staying safe part was held partly true, but the thermals just did not work well for me after that decision. I basically ended up stuck on the local mountain Little Ben and then having to ridge fly my way up to the peak of Big Ben, just eat of the field, transition into pathetic thermals and then tiptoe out into the Mackenzie basin in search of lift under some very ragged looking cu’s. Me and Vladimir Panafutin (RUS) in our old ships (Ventus C and LS-6c) just did not have the performance for the drag race today. We met up going into the Grampian turn, but my heart was just not in it at that point in time and I let him get away to finish ahead of me. No points for 18th place.

So basically, after the brilliance of the first 1/3 of the flight, and the desperation of the middle 1/3 of the flight, the last 1/3 of the flight, while not easy, was just focused on getting home in one piece. As the lead 9 gliders blew past me coming out of the Grampian turnpoint, I figured I should just slow down. Once the lead 9 gliders are home, there are no points under this GP Format. It is harsh, but in the scoring my pathetic 95 kph was worth just as much as Giorgio Galetto’s11-something something kph– exactly 0 points.

It would sure have been nice to be able to find and ASW-27 or Ventus 2ax to fly in this comp. The GP Start (all gliders together at one time), does really show the difference in performance of the older vs. newer ships, and even between the new ships and the other new ships. When you start together, a Ventus or LS-6 are going to have to take just a few more climbs of x-meters, when put up against a new ship, to get around the same course. When the time comes to top of the tank, the newer ships , in the hands of superior pilots, have the opening to squirt away from the older ships. Given that all 18 ships are being flown by very proficient pilots, it is no wonder my Ventus C comes up just a bit short.

In the race between the ASW-27, the Ventus 2ax/bx, and the Diana 2, I would have to give the advantage to the small fuselage Schempp-Hirth product. Most of the pilots were flying these, and were it not for Ben Flewett’s local knowledge, the Ventus 2 would have shown its superior speed in the hands of these world class pilots. If we get in a fifth day tomorrow, then maybe the V2’s can take the title. The Diana 2 can be a spectacular machine in the right hands, but investing in one is a game for very wealthy racers as it will never be a “fun flying” ship for the local club pilot.

IMHO, given the desire of the GP Organizers and the FAI to have this media friendly format that really tests and shows-off pilot skill, GP races should be ideally run as one design events like in Nascar with their Car of Tomorrow (COT). By that I mean all Ventus 2, or all ASW-27, or Standard Cirrus’s for that matter. Only when all ships are relatively equal, will the regatta start of the GP and subsequent racing truly be the measure of the pilot.

Maybe this is the opening for a truly successful one design class (i.e. World Class) to emerge from the disaster of the current World Class. Maybe if we could get Schleicher and Schempp-Hirth, and DG (or whoever else is interested) to compete to be the sole designer/supplier of a “new” world class glider for both a new world class at the WGC’s and single design GP events, will GP pilots truly be equal when a GP race starts.

I’ll get off my soap box now.

Tomorrow is the last day of the officially sanctioned GP World Championship. We have 4 of 5 days in the bag and that makes an official contest under GP Rules. Hopefully we will get a fifth day of racing in to close out these championships.

The outlook is for the front that dogged me with overcast as I fell behind the field today, to pull through sometime in the late morning tomorrow. The rate and degree of clearing that we see will determine if we get in this last contest day. Should it clear by noontime, we might be treated to a wave task. But if the forecast of the clearing is off by just three hours later in the day, then the contest will be over.

See Ya! Tim/TM

South Africans Oscar and Mark

Me with Marc and Rod, friends from Southern Soaring

December 23rd - Back to racing...

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 22:35:00 +0000

Gidday Race Fans:

This one will be short as I need to get to the grid quickly. We expect a 12:30 pm launch time due to weather concerns.

The weather is basically being influenced by a strong low pressure system sweeping a cold front toward us from the west. High above us, we are being influenced by two VERY powerful jet streams - one about 200km to our east and one about 200 km to our west. What we have here in the Omarama Task Area is strong Northerly winds (20 knots+ at 5,ooo feet, and 25-35 kntos at 10,000 feet). In Gavin Wills' words, this one will be a "quite difficult day". The task setters have already scrapped their A, B, and most likley the C and D tasks for safety reasons. We await the E-F tasks by 12 pm local - in about 19 minutes.

The mood is very somber but focused.All piltos appear to be in good form and will honor Herbert with our safe and fast flying today.

Today we add the complication of two helicopters (AS350 - Squirrels) - one for the camera and one for the telemetry relay. Some gliders will have onboard cameras and mic today - so look forward to on task interviews. Interestingly, the responses will be over a secure, encrypted microwave link so that the interviewed pilots do not give away their secrets.

Wish us all luck - this one looks to be a tough one.

See Ya! Tim / TM

December 22 - Rest day Called in honor of Herbert Weiss

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 21:16:00 +0000

Dear Gliding Friends and Fans:

It was officially announced a the 10 a.m. briefing that the pilot involved in the fatal crash yesterday was Herbert Weiss, "29", of Germany. Of course, we all knew who had lost their life, but the family needed to be informed. The soaring world has lost another one of the many special people that make our sport so interesting. Today will be a rest day as the consensus of he pilots was that we should honor Herbert and take time to remember him. International racing pilots are an elite family and our family is one short this morning.

The facts are as follows: While coming out of the 2nd turnpoint, 075 Siberia, Herbert, in his ASG-29 impacted terrain with high energy on a spine about 300 meters from the top of the northern ridge. The winds were out of the Northwest at 5-15 mph, with mild turbulence in the area. The loss of live telemetry enabled Gavin Wills, with Steve Jones (GBR) analysis, to go directly to the crash site once the last competitor was home. Gavin saw the wreckage and Herbert's body thrown some meters from the aircraft. It was immediately apparent that it was probably not survivable. Gavin landed at the Makaroa Airstrip and waited for the SAR helicopter from Queenstown to pick him up. On arrival a the crash site, the -29 was inverted with serious damage to the underside of the cockpit, ground debris on the undersides of the wings, and the perspex and contents of the cockpit strewn in a fan shaped pattern up to 100 meters from the initial impact site. Everything points to a a high energy impact with terrain. These are the facts as we know them. How this happened we will never know and have no right to speculate on.

Speaking as a pilot, I think if I would have to leave this earth, I would prefer it be while flying in such a wonderful soaring heaven as Omarama and to have it come quickly. All indications are that this was the case with Herbert.

Who did we lose? A 59 year old teacher who had been gliding since 1969,(just a little after I first arrived on this earth). He leaves a wife and two children. A two time German National Champion and former member of the German Gliding Team, Herbert had over 8,600 hours in gliders with most of it flying cross country and racing in every type of task area. Herbert was a competitor. He came to New Zealand to win this championship - he told this to everyone at the field here. He was doing what he truly loved when he died.

What can I say about Herbert? I had only known him since I arrived here at Omarama on December 6th, but a kinder man nor a better glider pilot I have not met in this sport. Always with a smile on his face, a friendly "hello Tim, how was your flight?" each morning, a wonderful gentleness with our daughter "Baby Sarah", and a wonderful sense of humour. He was a person we get into this sport to meet. Talented, complex, and focused, Herbert was a great glider pilot.

I will carry away two memories of Herbert on the day he was lost to us:

Firstly, his inadvertent "mooning" of team TM on the grid while changing into his flying gear. It brought a welcome break of the tension in the pre-launch grid for us and the other pilots around him. And yes, he appeared to have on clean underwear :-)

Secondly, my last sight of him was from behind (as usual) and him pressing into the Lindis Ridge and getting away a good few minutes ahead of me and others. His swooping, aggressive style was glider racing perfection.

I am sorry I did not have the time to know Herbert better.

We go into the breach each day racing gliders, confident in our ability to handle all conditions and situations. Sometimes we cannot do justice to the challenges and sights we see while racing gliders, but we owe it to our wives, children, and friends to do our best to come back so we can share these wonders with our fellow racers and our families. Please be safe out there.

Sincerely, Tim McAllister
Team TM
FAI World GP Gliding Championship
Omarama, New Zealand
December 22, 2007

Race Day 3 - Great Racing, but uncertainty...

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Fri, 21 Dec 2007 09:49:00 +0000

Good Evening Race Fans:

I'll keep this short and sweet. Omarama came through with another day of racing in strong, yet tough weather conditions. TM raised its head from the cellar with a run to 11th place on the day - but still out of the points and at the bottom of the overall score sheet. This scoring system, with this caliber of pilots, is brutal to say the least.

After getting on final glide at the last turnpoint and running with Uli Schwenk in a Ventus 2ax for the entire run - I can definitely say that a Ventus 1 is jsut that much worse than a Ventus 2ax. I started out about 400 feet higher than him, but he beat me by a little less than 2 minutes. Oh well! Winners on the day were: 1) Kiessling, 2) Sommer, 3) Galetto, 4) Kawa. Overall it stands: 1) Jones, 2) Flewett, 3) Kawa

Much more troubling was the news that one of our pilots went missing going into the 2nd turn, #075 - Siberia. His tracking device went out - as many of them have done off and on - but after an initial period there were calls to GP Pilots asking if they could report anything gone awry in the area. To my knowledge no GP pilot was able to see anything. Search planes were sent into the area in the early evening hours and an SAR (Search and Rescue) helicopter was waiting on the pad for news of any discovery. By early evening the aircraft had been located. The pilots and soaring community here in Omarama have been asked to refrain from reporting anything before official word is received of the status of the pilot. By sundown the news was "nothing good".

Please say a prayer and stay safe out there.

See ya! Tim/TM

December 21st - Day 2 Re-cap and Day 3 Preview

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Thu, 20 Dec 2007 21:52:00 +0000

Gidday Race Fans:

Well, what can I say about race day 2... DFL- Arghhhhhhh!

Yesterday was the best weather day for at least 12 days here at Omarama. You can look at the official results onthe GP website. However, we have a tough tight race going here. Unfortunately yesterday, I was not a part of it. Apparently I was the one providing some drama with my two rock polishing saves at the first turn and again at he third turn. After I inadvertently dumped ALL of my water going into the first turn, it was just a long slow slog around the course. After I started hearing finishers as I was about 100+ km out, I turned off the radio and enjoyed the beautiful views and flying among the rocks. This is truly gliding heaven - anyone who gets the opportunity to fly hear should absolutely take advantage.

I've just been handed the task sheet for today's task day 3.

Task A: 034 Goodger, 075 Siberia, 033 Glentanner, 122 West Control, and Finish 271.7 km

Task B: 073 Scrubby, 057 Neck, 051 Morven, 039 Huxley, 122 West Control, and Finsh 254.9 km.

As you can see, Task A is basically yesterday's task in reverse. Maybe I can get it right in reverse B is another backup in case the cloudbases do not go up.

As you can see, the weather is pretty stable. Thus we are getting the same tasks day after day. Oh well.

Gotta go as Brian Spreckley is beginning the briefing.

See Ya! Tim/TM

P.S. - FD this Ventus has the same lag in the instruments as yours did.

PS PS - Does anyone have anything good to say about the Borgelt B-100??

Day 1 - December 19

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 05:34:00 +0000

Gidday Everyone:

Let the racing begin! Today dawned with a heavy overcast and another day of cold winds - this time from the southwest. The weather man promised a soaring day and the weather gods delivered. it was not the boomer of a day we all hope(d) for but the flying was the toughest in my racing career.

We launched, then almost immediately went from the A tot he B task. The B task was Makaroa, Moven, Gen?-Station, West Control, Finish for 221 km. The launch went very quickly with only 18 pilots and 6 tow planes - talk about luxury. Most everyone ended up on the top of Big Ben in a great persistent thermal that went about 1000 feet higher than any other cloudbase in the local area. All 18 pilots came out of the blocks within about 1km along course line and 200 feet in altitude. Pretty tight. All pilots went immediately to Magic Mountain. Yours truly and about 8-10 others were able to get on top and got a good climb. As we came over the top and saw the Ahuriri Valley, we were pleased to see the other 7-8 pilots, who had gone aroundhte corner of Magic well down the mountain and struggling.

Everyone then crossed the Ahuriri Valley and set up for a climb somewhere around Ben Avon to get on top of the South end of the Dingle Ridge. Spying Giorgio Galletto (ITA) going for the ridge well below me, I followed. I figured if he is the "Mountain Rat" of Italy, then I was going to be the "Mountain Rat" of the USA. Giorgio got to the ridge maybe 100 feet below the top, I got there right at ridge height. After it took me probably 10-15 minutes to get away - while watching everyone who finished first climb away - it took Giorgio a Looong Time! Afer I had gotten away and made my way over to Makaroa, I heard Peter Harvey (I believe) wish Giorgio good luck, and Giorgio reporting back that he was just to low! Riveting stuff.

The rest of my flight was a little tough getting into the second turn, but coming out of that turn I was able to pick up a great convergence line taking me from the Lindis Pass area to the third turn without stopping. From there it was getting on the Ben Ohau Ridge and hoping it worked in order to get home. It was about this time that I began hearing the radio calls and switch-overs to the Omarama Airfield frequency. In the Grand Prix format, you immediately start counting to see where you stand. As soon as you get to 9 you know you are out of the points. I think I was something like 14th. Close but no cigar!

But the great news was I actually beat Sebastian Kawa (for the first time in my career) and Giorgio Galletto, among a few others. In a Ventus 1, this is a victory for me. Like I said, there is every possibility that World Champions will end up at the bottom of the score sheet on any day or even on the final overall scoresheet. Keep tuned!

The top four were: Schwenk, Jones, Krejirik, and Flewett. I am sorry I do not have the full list, but as the first finishers were crossing the line, I was ridge soaring the Ben Ohau range with a wind straight up the valley (yikes). Luckily I got a great climb to get home on the mountain named Ben Ohau, right at the bottom of Lake Ohau.

For the top finishers (in the points), the critical climb came in the Ahuriri Valley in the lee of the mountain Ben Avon. If you got out of there quickly, you were in to better air and got the speed up.

The problems with the internet feed were that they lost the satellite for 20 minutes. Sorry everyone missed the critical first km's of the task. But they promise to have it working at full tilt tomorrow.

That's it from a tired Team TM.

See Ya! Tim/TM

Entering, then changing the task.

Today's winner, Uli Schwenk (Schwabia/DE), gets interviewed for the webcast.

Tuesday December 18th - Humbling practice day...

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Tue, 18 Dec 2007 07:58:00 +0000

Gidday Race Fans:

Or I should say goodnight race fans. Today the GP Pilots woke up to a solid cloud deck that looked to make soaring problematic at best. Combined with a very deep layer of wind from the Southeast, things looked to be very interesting for the non-local pilots. The weather briefer said that things should be soarable by 2-2:30 p.m. While the pilots all looked skeptical, the skies did clear and the Mackenzie Basin began to cook. Mind you it was not going like gangbusters even a the end of the day, but it did afford the GP pilots the opportunity to take advantage of the last practice day.

As I write to you now, the wind is strongly out of the east at the airfield in the typical sea breeze. Usually this is a pattern created by the strong thermals of the interior of the South Island. It is now un-typical to find yourself facing a 20-30 mph head wind below about 1000 feet Agl when coming back into Omrarama at the end of the day from the west due to this phenomenon. But today, the winds aloft in the basin were pretty steady at about 4-8 knots from the Southeast. Just enough to make things very tricky.

Practice Days at comps are funny things and today was no different. Practice days afford both the organizers and the pilots the chance to get their acts together and hopefully have everything (scoring, gridding, weighing, etc.) humming in fine tune when the 1st official contest day comes around.

For the organization, it is often a time to get all the personnel into town and to throw some sort of organizational system against he wall in the hope it sticks. Usually the contest organization just hits its stride when the comp is ending. Here at Omarama, add in the extra complication of fitting the gliders for their real-time telemetry and getting the live broadcast team and setup working and you can see what a project this might be at the best of times. It puts how the "big" sports like the NFL, etc. put on their grand shows every week in perspective.

For pilots, these days are a chance to make sure their ships are in good working order and a chance for non-local pilots to survey the task area. For a pilot, you need to balance the desire to get racing, with the caution to husband your resources for the days that really count coming up. It is good to keep in mind that no matter how heroic or well you fly on any practice day, it means absolutely nothing on the final scoresheet.

The GP format is a little bit unusual in that the scope of the contest is greatly reduced. A normal World Gliding Contest (WGC) is schedule for 4 days of practice, then 14 days of flying. A GP (Qualifier or World Championships) is limited to a maximum of ten days total (I think...) This contest was scheduled for 2 practice days, six competition days, and then two reserve days in case the original six are not enough to name a champion. The idea is to shorten the length of the contest to make it into a more sellable event.

Having lost the first official practice day to the horrible weather, today's second practice day would be all everyone had to get things right for tomorrow's first official contest day. Today's practice day was the typical charlie foxtrot that practice days can be. Add in the sometimes marginal weather and the technology at work and many pilots had frustrating days. Then add in the various broadcast elements (Animation Research, R2, AirsportsLive) and it begins to look like a circus. As I write to younow from the briefing room at Omarama Airfield, I am surreoundby people moving in banners and signs and computers and microwave dishes and.... I am gettign tired jsut looking at all this stuff.

Now to the flying:

Brian Spreckley (CD) set up and A and a B task. The A task was around 220km, and woudl ahve taken us Southwest to Morven, then over to Makaroa, then across a number of moutnain ranges to Stewarts, north of Lake Pukaki, and then home. The B task was a more leisurely 159 km, and took us to the Dingle Valley then Stewarts and return. After all the gliders were launched and with Gavin Wills advising from the air in a Duo Discus, Brian, IMHO wisely opted to cancel the day. By 15:10 (Local) the cloud bases were only 5,000 MSL (just over 3600 feet AGL) and both tasks looked difficult. Not impossible , but definitely risky. With all this testosterone going at this contest, the wise thing was to not force us pilots into anything.

However, in order to give the black boxes in every glider a chance to do their thing - and more importantly to see what they did, if anything, to the pilot's glider instruments, Brian ran a practice start just to get the procedures clear in the pilot's minds. With this setup, most pilots took starts in the adrenaline producing 10 second countdown to line-open. Think the America's Cup start - only in 3-d and with 18 sailboats at speeds up to 120 mph.

The generic rules for the GP pre-start maneuvering are: All gliders must be behind (relative to the first leg track) the extended start line 1 minute prior to the line opening. The actual line to get a valid start is 5 km in length, running 2.5 and 2.5 km to either side of the start point and perpendicular to the first leg's track. There is a maximum start height of 45oo MSL at the start line. And there is a maximum speed limit of 170kph (ground speed) as you cross the line. Then off you go racing.

Easy... Right? Not so much. I myself forgot to input the B task in my computer system which made it almost imposible to start over the correct start line. This is what practice days are for aren't they? A few other pilots had interference from their broadcast boxes that disabled their GPS navigation systems - making getting a good start really difficult. Luckily TM's nav and logger systems worked perfectly. Now if only my brain would. Still other gliders had some radio issues that complicated the entire task change.

But off we went racing. The general gist of it was to try and get over to Magic Mountain with enough height to flop over into the Ahuriri valley, and then hook-up with a convergence line over the Dingle ridge where cloudbase was about 8k. Some were able to do it, some did not. TM chose the path of least resistance and stayed in the local area in the weird southeasterly winds. With the exception of needing to hop a stock fence as I crossed a mountain col (!!!) the day was pretty pedestrian. Tomorrow I promise to unleash the fury!

All of the same stuff that happens when you watch an auto race on TV (minus the rubbin', hopefully) happens at an glider race only no one has been there live to see it all. This race they will thanks to all the tracking technology deployed. Speaking of which, there is still 1.4 metric tonnes of microwave cameras and other gear coming from ABC (Australian Broadcast Corporation) which will let the broadcast team look live into all of our cockpits after Dec 21st. Ever wondered what world champions do in a race. Well this is the first time you may be able to see it unfold live. Sign-up and watch things unfold in a way our sport has never seen before.

That's it.

See Ya! Tim/TM

December 17, 2007

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 00:02:00 +0000

Gidday Race Fans:

New Zealand is serving up some of its finest weather imaginable... not! Today's (Monday Dec 17th) forecast is for a double barrelled frontal passage (cold) from the southern tip of the South Island to the Northern tip by, maybe, midnight local. Tomorrow's (Tuesday Dec 18th) forecast is for bright clear skies and thermals with a Southwesterly wind. This will be another learning experience for the non-local pilots... but then again pretty much everyday should be a learning experience here. Unless your Gavin Wills or my host, Chris Rudge of Southern Soaring.

As I write to you there is a split view in the valley. To the North you can see Little/Big Ben and clear up into the Ohau Range of mountains. To the west, Magic Mountain and Snowy Top (two local ways to get out of the Omarama local area) have just disappeared in low clouds and rain. So far, it has rained nearly every day I have been here, even if only a light drizzle. I guess that is what you come to Omarama for?

What about yesterday, you may be wondering?

Yesterday served up some pretty good soaring weather by any account. There was plenty of thermal action down low and good oportunities to transition into the wave if you wanted. The axis of the approaching rain yesterday was from the west coast over the main range, but very, very slow. It was raining in the upper Ahuriri valley when we were launching at 1pm. But it took until almost 6:30 p.m. for the rain to get to the airfield.

With this axis of approaching rain, the flying axis took most people on to the Nursery ridge here at Omarama, then a transition to either Magic Mountain and Lindis Pass to the West/Southwest or to the Ewe range leading up to Hugo's elevator and then on to the Southwest. Probably one of the better flights was by Ben Flewett up to past Lake Tekapo in the Northern edge of the task area in the wave. Easy... especially after his landing on the road at Haast Pass the day before yesterday. Apparently, he was just able to put it down and get it stopped between two sets of snow polls - yikes! Good thing the ASW-27 has good brakes.

Jeff Campbell, of Telluride and Parowan towing/aviating fame, is here on site for the Austral Summer and offers a welcome Yank perspective. After yesterday's wave flying for me, I took Jeff's advice to get down on the ridges today. This I did... and got the c---p beat out of me!

Basically, I went practicing getting out the basin by the various ways: Nursery to get up, Ewe-Omarama Saddle, Magic Mountain-Lindis/Ahuriri, Benmores-Ohau, Benmores-Grampians. Luckliy all the forms of lift were working. I got hooked into nice wave twice, ran ridges too many times to count, tangled with rotor, and saw some moderate broken up thermals. A very nice day was had by the gliding half of Team TM.

Below: Here is the ground-half of Team TM. Miss Sarah has her first cold (in New Zealand!) but everyone is doing fine at this end of the world.

Bellow: Here is John from Animation Research installing the technical package in our Ventus. Since the last GP qualifier here in January 2006, they have improved the hardware and distilled it into a package about half the size of a loaf of bread. This is complete with Lithium-Something battery (fire extinguisher not provided), and Iridium modem, GPS and GPSR communications technology. As only half the fleet is wired up and there is no flying today, the pressure is on to get hings right so that by day 1 on Wednesday everything works on the broadcast end as well as the glider pilot's instrument end. The last time there were some serious conflicts between loggers (pretty important) and the broadcast gear. We all really hope this is fixed so we can have good racing, with our instruments, and give the on-line crowds something to cheer for.

I heard there was a free Diana 2 lying around here... How much???

Seriously, this is what happens when you have a very unique glider, in terms of rigging and trailer needs, and send it to the other side of the world - without its own trailer. The drill is going to be that should Sebastian landout, TWO trailers will go and get him. One for the fuselage, and one for the wings. Talk about living like a prince! The above and below pictures were just post the fitting of the parts into the borrowed trailers.

This is a view of the broadcast truck being set up by R2. Luckily for us, this rent-a-truck is going to no more nefarious purpose than to broadcast our flying antics to the world wide web. As you can see, this contest is not going to be your normal U.S. contest with somebody bringing their personal laptop in to do scoring...

And for my rowing team back home; Where else can you see the reesults of a rowing race on the front page of the sports section? The glider airfield I am flying from in Omarama is also only about 15 miles away from the site of one of the biggest high school rowing regattas in the Southern Hemisphere. Imagine taking Stotes... then putting it on a lake in the middle of the Nevada desert. These Kiwis are rowing and gliding mad!

That's it for now. All the GP pilots are now in residence on the airfield and our first offcial task is set to be given tomorrow. Here's to great and safe racing beginning tomorrow. Watch for my reports as often as I can get on the computer between juggling baby duties and racing in a world championship.

See Ya! Tim/TM

Dec 15 - Flying, Finally

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Sat, 15 Dec 2007 09:45:00 +0000

Hello Race Fans:

Yesterday was another no fly day with much clothes washing and general tinkering with the gliders. I believe that the Glide Omarama Duo took one flight in the rain and then that was it for aviating. The racing pilots have been regaled with the following words describing the weather here right now: “never”, “worst ever”, “unbelievable”, etc. We are still awaiting Giorgio Galetto, Oscar Goudriaan, and Michael Sommer who are due by late Monday. These arrivals will then fill the 18 pilot field.

But finally, after 5 straight days of terrible to no soaring weather, the odds broke in our favor today and every GP pilot got into the air for some task area reconnaissance. Before the daily 10 a.m. airfield and weather briefing the sky already had cu’s popping over the Dingle Ridge and Ahuriri Valley to our west and northwest, and lenticulars filling the sky to our North and Northwest at high altitude. Pretty auspicious!

The forecast was for moderate to good thermals to about 6,000 feet MSL with the chance for wave with winds aloft from the north at between 20-30 knots. If the winds backed to the northwest, the wave chances would be better but getting into it might be tough.

Since we have officially taken possession of our Ventus TM for the duration of the contest, Team EY will now assume the name Team TM. This seemingly simple switch takes a little bit of getting used to at a contest in a rented ship. As a racing glider pilot, my call sign back in the states automatically flows from my lips. So it is no wonder that with a towplane Mike Tango towing a glider Tango Mike and the pilot thinking he is Echo Yankee… well you can see some confusion on the grid today can’t you? All went well after the initial “who’s on first” routine ran its course.

Team TM took their time getting on the grid and were among the last of the GP pilots to launch. Part of the delay was that we were one of the first pilots to have their glider adorned with sponsor logos. In addition, each pilots name goes on the glider over the wing and behind the cockpit. It’s all pretty “Posh” (Brit for “fancy”) by glider pilot standards. No one is taking all the fussiness of this new racing format too seriously, with much joking and asking me if I was the Tim McAllister I think it is kind of cool myself!

Back to the flying…

For what was supposed to be a day we could “squeeze” in between bad weather patterns, there were an awful lot of smiles on the faces of the pilots, local and international alike, at the end of the day. Many radio calls were heard today to the effect of “it might not be the best ever, but it was pretty easy x-c flying!” Pilots were heard to make position reports from all four corners of the Mackenzie using a combination of thermal, ridge, wave and convergence to explore the area.

The day was pretty much a piece of cake if you patiently worked with what the weather gods gave you. The only exception to this was the only Kiwi in the field of GP pilots, Ben Flewett. A local pilot and very much one of the favorites to win this GP with his local knowledge, Ben came out of the gates flying swift and sure until his wheels hit the ground early in the day.

After getting an early launch, Ben was leading and advising some other GP Pilots on the niceties of the task area when he landed out on the road in Haast Pass – the transition from the northern end of the Makaroa Valley into the Landsborough River Valley. After landing on the road in the pass and getting some German tourists to help him push off the road, he and his glider were none the worse for the wear. Everyone else who he was leading got out of the hole and went onto have a pretty good day of flying after that.

TM was, at the moment of the landout, working some ridges on the east side of the upper Ahuriri Valley, when, after flying through some “daggy bits” (Kiwi local slang for rotor wisps – and is a reference to the clumps of dirt-like substance on the backs of the local merino sheep), contact with the wave was made. From there it was an easy run to Mt. Cook, back to the Ahuriri, a probe into the Upper Hunter River Valley , then a run back North, then over on to the Benmores for some practice rock polishing and ridge running in the Ventus at max gross weight, before letting down into Omarama. All in all a very nice and uncomplicated flight.

Tomorrow’s weather looks to probably hold for us before Monday’s likely washout. The good news from the weather progs is that the 2nd practice day (Tuesday) on out looks to be good flying weather. The horses and jockeys are about to be on the track for real… Stay tuned!

See Ya! Tim/EY/TM

14th December - Wx Getting Worse....

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 21:51:00 +0000

Hey there race fans:

Well... yesterday (Thursday) was the worst day of the week. From Christchurch to Omarama the same conditions held sway: Low cloud deck, spitting rain to intermittent rain, moderate to strong winds out of the east. All in all terrible conditions to even hope to fly let alone soar.

I picked up my two S's in Christchurch yesterday and we went about touring the city a little bit. Christchurch is very nice little city of about 100k people. The highlight of our day was doing the big shopping trip for food and nappies (i.e. diapers) and then we went to the Antarctica Center at the Christchurch Airport. Being in one of the closest inhabited areas to Antarctica, it is amazing how much the pull of this great white continent to our South is here.

The tourist center offers up all sorts of neat interpretive displays all about the U.S., New Zealand and other international programs going on down on the ice. One of the interactive display involves putting on wellies (overshoes), donning arctic coats, and then going into a big icebox, complete with snow, and experiencing a blizzard with winds of about 30 mph. The tourists around me were impressed, but it was actually warmer and less windy than many of the winter days we operated our ride business in Steamboat Springs, Colorado!

Most everyone in the GP is here now. The only person I have not seen is Team Galletto from Italy. As Marina is usually the life of the party, the party has definitely not gotten going yet :-) The newest arrival is Petr Krejirk and is son.

The weather forecast is dismal. For today, the only hope is a little clearing area behind the southbound warm front. If we can get the clearance in past us by about 2 p.m local, then there is chance (very slim) for some soaring to be done by 3-6 p.m. The hope for tomorrow and Sunday is not much better, but I think there will be some aviating going on both days and maybe even some O.K. soaring on Sunday, IMHO.

That's it from the place of light (dull light , but still light none the less).

See Ya! Tim/EY

Dec 12 - Wx is terrible, but there is always news to report...

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 00:40:00 +0000

Hi Race Fans:

If any of you have kept up with EY's international racing travails, it should come as no shock that I have arrived in an international locale and brought rain. As Gavin Wills said to me the other day, they had 6+ weeks of straight 7 day weeks of flying, flying, flying. Sure, that's what they all say!

Today is yet another no fly day. Sure you can go up and putter on the local ridge in rain showers, but who needs it. Team EY is almost together. Susan and Sarah are currently on the flight from Auckland to Christchurch and I expect to possibly meet them later this evening should the weather stay - in local pilot parlance - charlie romeo alpha papa

Most everyone is getting their gliders sorted out. There are the usual gremlins associated with shipping gliders around the world: Ben Flewett has a wonky radio (new one coming tomorrow) and Mario Keislling's ship arrive without his winglets or support kit (yikes!). I am sure there are other problems but I have not heard about them yet. I've got my Ventus, TM, just about sorted out and am very much looking forward to flying/racing it around this wonderful area as soon as possible.

I have not yet mentioned that EY Racing has added another sponsor to its ranks with the addition of Neilsen-Kellerman. Hooray!!!! As rowing coach, I have known about N-K instruments for the past 20+ years. N-K is the maker of THE state of the art rowing instruments. I never put a crew out on the water to race or take a rowing shell out on the water myself without one of N-K's products on board. With the addition of the NK ClearNav instrument to the portfolio, I can only expect great things to come for us racing glider pilots. Take a look at the ClearNav as it is something special!

As some of you know or don't know, I am also a rowing coach by profession and I think I can add a little color to Nielsen-Kellerman's advance into soaring instruments. There used to be a supposition in the rowing world about what Nielsen or Kellerman must be doing with all the profits from all the rowing kit they sell each year. The supposition usually went that that they both must have really nice rowing shells.

Well, having some inside information into Richard Kellerman's passion for gliding and the fact that his old glider is now sold, I would hazard a guess that all of us rowing enthusiasts are keeping him in new gliders and us glider pilots in a new whiz-bang instrument! So what do you have on order Richard?

Most of the GP Pilots are here at the airfield now. Vladimir Panafutin (and crew) and Christophe Ruch (and crew) arrived late last night. The only one's missing are Sebastian Kawa (POL) and Giorgio Galetto (ITA), but hopefully they are off touring and seeing the sights rather than chomping at the bit here at the airfield in the rain showers.

In news of the truly weird and bizarre, Uli Shwenk recieved an email with the details and pictures of a most bizarre crime in the U.K. a couple days a go. It seems a well known pilot's EB28 (think ASH25 but highly "tricked out") had its box opened up, the engine bay (complete with the engine) sawed out of the glider, and the rest just left in the box. So, if anyone comes across a hot glider engine/engine bay, I can put you in touch with the owner.

I promise to begin putting up more photos when they become available. Photos of GP Pilots huddled around their laptops just doesn't make for much excitement! I will be posting a little bit about the local landout fields tour I took in the Cessna 172 on my arrival. Think few and hard to see ones in certain areas where you really need them, and many not highly visible ones elsewhere.

Please, Please, Please, tell you gliding (and even non-gliding friends) about this blog as I need to keep the sponsors happy and maybe even add another one or two in the meantime. I promise to keep up with all the juicy news and give everyone a real feel for the flavor of the contest as we go forward so stay tuned.

See Ya! Tim/EY

December 11th - waiting on Wx

noreply@blogger.com (Tim McAllister) — Tue, 11 Dec 2007 01:29:00 +0000

Hi There Race Fans:

Nothing much to report from yesterday or today. The same Wx situation remains in place. Basically we have lots of clouds with two or three occluded fronts getting slowly squeezed together over the South Island between two big high pressure systems.

There are signs of wave in the sky, but with no way to get into the wave (other than a very high and very expensive tow) not many are launching. A tow to about 2,000 feet rates as a 7 minute tow in local billing parlance and runs to about $NZ 74. Once you start talking about ranging further afield than the local ridge your tow bill rapidly escalates. The sad thing is that of the $NZ 74 the operation takes in, they only net out about $NZ 8 per tow after landing fees, airport levy, renting the tug, etc.

More of the GP pilots have rolled into town now. Currently on the field, and in no particular order are: Ben Flewett, Diddier Hauss, Mario Kiessling, Pete Harvey, Steve Jones, Irwin Sommer, Herbert Weiss, and myself. Most are getting their gliders set after getting them off the transport frames and rigged. I myself have been sitting in the Ventus and making flying sounds in the hangar while I familiarise myself with the Borgelt B-100 that's in the ship.

I did get into the air for a 3:45 x-c flight in a Duo back on Sunday. To say the day was good would be an understatement. My back seater, Don Mallinson, said it was one of the best thermal conditions he has seen at Omarama. Unfortunately, between the scenery and beginning to learn to fly a new contest area, I did not take a single picture.

After nearly getting thrown off Nursery Ridge, I was able to dig out and get on top of Mt. Cuthbert (the nearest local high point). From that point on, taking anything less than 8 knot average was criminal. 10-12 knot average for 2-3k foot climbs was commonplace it was very good in all sectors. We worked our way over to the Dingle Ridge then up towards Mt. Cook, then south along the Barrier Range and onto the St. Bathans Range. From there we worked our way back to the Omarama Saddle then ran a tremendous convergence line down the Hawkdun range to Naseby and back to Omarama most of the time at 95-100 knots with the airbrakes hanging out to stay clear of cloud. From here on I just circled the basin back into Omarama while taking a look at the many ranch strips in the area. I think I got an OLC distance of something a little less than 300 km, but the whole flight probably covered400+km of flying with very little stopping. Weiss and Sommer did some easy "coast to coast" flying in prep for the GP on this day as well.

The Mackenzie Basin, in which Omarama sits, is undergoing quite a large change in landuse and this may begin affecting the local soaring conditions. Traditionally, this area has been dryland farming and dry land grazing (mostly sheep). However, with a huge demand for dairy products coming from China, the local area is greening up quite a bit. It is hard to imagine a thriving dairy business going in an arid area like the Alamosa Valley in Colorado, but this is the way the Mackenzie Basin is going nowadays. I heard on the radio just last night that the number of head of sheep in the central South Island region is going to decline by up to 3 million over the next couple years in favor of dairy cows. With all the irrigation necessary to green the fields up for dairy cows, the thermal production of the flats is going to decrease. Lucky for all of us economic trends will never transform these mountains or the winds that make the famous wave here.

That's it from Omarama.

See ya! Tim/EY