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Flatter than the Flatlands 2002 For a nanolight version of the competition from John Reynoldson follow this link: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~aerial/misc/birchip_2002.htm For Wesley's story go to http://weshill.customer.netspace.net.au/birch02.html Scott Barrett's take on things follows: Birchip
2002 Easter
Flatlands Hang Gliding Competition By
Scott Barrett Birchip
2002 was the most fun, sociable, easy going, easy flying comp that I have flown.
Birchip is in the Mallee of NW Victoria, where wherever you fly the
probability is that there will be a large flat wheat field below you, and at
this time of year either ploughed or stubble.
I was invited to do a write up and immediately said yes, I just had a
ball there and wanted to say so. The
comp is a flatlands towing event run over the Easter weekend, the tasks are
elapsed time from tow release, directly to a down wind goal.
A GPS or camera is not required to compete and the benign nature of the
area allows pilots of all ratings to participate.
It is a very popular event that draws heaps of pilots out of the
woodwork, some who only fly the flats in the west I had not met before.
There was also a considerable number of South Australians who competed.
The Victorian Vs South Australian challenge is also held as an additional
section of the Birchip competition. The
caravan park accommodated the majority of competitors and provided a great
atmosphere, it was sort of festive in a quiet way with a lot of talk, jokes,
eating and drinking as you would expect from a bunch of hangies, family and
drivers who have congregated for a good time.
The entertainment was supplemented by the film night (The Blue Max) with
drinks put on for free and the CFA cooked us up a nice BBQ on presentation
night. Other features of note were
the morning briefings where the Meat Head; Warwick wore a propeller hat and
Nicky his lovely assistant wearing Bunny ears, handing out day prizes for pilots
and drivers. For
the first two days, the wind strength prevented a task being called.
Towards the end of the second day there was a significant amount of free
flying. I had a fly for fun; it was
short but gave me a chance to ensure that my equipment was working well. The
third day was Easter Sunday. Easter
egg prizes were given out (they were very big eggs). Then small (and hard) eggs were thrown to all in the crowd.
The place got a little excitable at this, with kids, still on a high from
a chocolate breakfast dived amongst the sea of legs following eggs.
Hats became catchers’ mitts and with sufficient ammo gathered, the
crowd returned fire. It was quite a
raucous. The day turned out to be a
good blue flying day; the task was set to Warraknabeal, 72.1km.
It was late by the time the window opened. Given the time that the previous day shut down early, I was
keen to get on course early despite the day being blue and a little harder to
read with no one ahead, I wanted give myself the opportunity for a tow or two
and to get to goal. Two of us towed
up side by side, we were the first two into the air.
The other guy got the better core, I moved into it, climbed out and flew
to goal, without seeing another glider again.
Looking
back on the third day, it was blue and inverted at 2800’ increasing to 3100
over the day, average climb rate was in the order of 100 to 150 fpm as lift was
difficult to work at the lower levels. I
was flying alone with no thermal markers, had slow average climb rates and all
combined with the blue sky made my flying particularly conservative.
I can climb my glider well and at least keep up with anything else which
helps particularly when spending so long in long slow climbs.
I am flying an 1991 model Moyes XS 142, a very accomplished and capable
machine, it is capable of keeping up with other king posted gliders, but I would
not like to bet on it against an equally well flown modern king posted racing
machine such as the Moyes Litesport. The
XS will take a lot of pitch on surges to slow right down and turn tightly, but
this day it was over banking one way. This
unfortunately made it tiring maintaining turns and following cores efficiently,
handicapping me when mapping out and holding on to narrow and moving cores down
low. It had me changing direction
when the cores became solid and predictable so that I could maintain strength
for the next thermal. I was surprised that it was misbehaving since the day
before and I have it well preened with regularly profiled battens and the sail
tension adjusted for shrinkage and stretch. Goal
was a little hard to find as we did not know quite where it was until we got
there. The GPS coordinates could
not be relied on and so after adding some extra search height onto my final, I
was able to gas it a bit when I eventually got a visual on it.
In the first five arrivals, we had Wes Hill, Trevor Sangster, Ian Rees
and myself all in our team, in goal. Trevor
Scott, also in our team made an admiral effort in the air and drove the rest of
the way to join the celebrations at goal. It
was a happy day for the team. By the end of the day nine pilots made goal, Rohan
Holtkamp had raced fast enough to win the day, I was in second place and Wes
Hill in third. Rohan got to wear
the superman outfit being in the lead in the competition. The
day was stronger and worked for longer than the previous day as it was a blowing
more gently from the east instead of the previous southerly. My last two
thermals were the best, so I resolved that the next day I would leave a bit
later, use some gaggles and to keep an eye on Wes so that he did not get an
opportunity to get a score too much better than me for the day. I wisely decided
Rohan could do his own thing and first place could sort itself out.
That night I did a batten profile finding one tip batten was too flat.
Then relaxed and had a great night out with the crew. The
fourth day was blue with a north wind. Our
task was Laen North 64.8 km away. My
departure was ¾ hour later than planned, way behind Wes, following a weak link
break and rope break on my attempts to get away.
I was last in our team to leave, I still felt quite good, although not
able to do much more about getting away quickly as I was eager to do. On
my next launch, I got a low save by the boundary fence, committed to it and got
away; it was a long time before my priorities allowed me to zip up my harness.
My glider was handling sweetly in turns following the tune up, the tip
was not stalling so that I could pitch and turn hard without it stalling and
making me high side, I was now climbing with ease.
Soon I had jumped two gaggles and caught my teammate Trevor Sangster, he
marked a good thermal and we climbed out together.
Trevor and I pulled in a couple of well spaced gaggles by doing some good
team flying together. The lift in
places was very widespread with some cores in there somewhere.
While on glide and searching we were quite well spaced and we shared lift
strength information that helped the two of us to use only the best of the lift.
It is heaps faster to work as a team as you can sample so much more air
as a pair. Wes
was already home and hosed and gave us a goal description as we called for it on
the radio. Goal was in the general
area indicated at briefing (the goalies choose a good paddock somewhere near the
GPS coordinates issued). We were
close but there was one last piece of drama awaiting me. We
were looking for our last thermal and I was calculating my observed glide angle
on route. I do the calculations because I fly with a standard analog
vario with positions to fly marked. I
added 60ft/ km onto my required height and I already had a bit of speed up that
made it a conservative calculation to ensure I got there. We took a good thermal to final glide height before the last
gaggle, both confident of making it Trevor had about 200 ft on me and was going
to make it in a bit faster. Monitoring
my progress on final glide in 1 km samples, my glide was consistently worse than
previously. I slowed down to best
glide and had it in the bag again, after another km I was still going to make
it, just. But best glide is the
best you can get and now I had nothing more up my sleeve except for the last
gaggle. I did not plan to go to
them before going to best glide, because it was a small diversion but now I
needed it so that I would not risk telling a there I was, I almost made it
story. Steve
Townsend was in the last thermal and was banked up hard marking what looked to
be a strong core. I gassed it,
raced over there, flew through some good lift nearby and joined straight into
the circle that Steve was turning (at a tangent to his, as you do, don’t
you!). The core was a good one and
(as I was close to goal) after six turns I was out of there.
I now went onto my absolutely final, final glide at a faster speed (using
positions to fly) corresponding to the 400 ft / minute thermal I just left.
It feels very secure going into goal at speed, it is satisfying to get
there burn up the safety margin that you set, then set up a good landing
approach and land somewhat close to the spot.
Speaking of the spot, Beavo deserves a special mention for landing in his
tail dragger, just meters short of the tarp and rolling to a stop right on it
amid cheers and jeers. I think it
took less than a second before half the crowd was yelling protests about the
rules, but it was all in good fun. There
were 11 in goal already and I was the last of our team to arrive.
Rohan blitzed us all, he was really in his element with base being a bit
higher, the lift a bit stronger and gaggles marking the thermals, it made it
easier to race. Wes beat me in by 1minute 32 seconds and with early bird
points, was enough to take second place in the overall results. I placed third
overall and won C grade. The last
arrival for the day made it 25 in goal which gave goal an incredible ambience
for the final day. Getting there
makes people real happy, late arrivals had a crowd of pilots there to
congratulate them. There were so
many elated people, thrilled with their success for the day.
We saw it all, smiles, handshakes, hugs and jumping up and down.
Packing up takes a real long time as it is way down on the priority list.
Our
team results once again had 4 of us in goal, Trevor Scott bettered his previous
days result, confidently heading out of the paddock and flying 22km.
Our consistency won us the teams’ section of the competition. We
eventually made it back for the BBQ and presentation night.
It was a good BBQ, there was plenty of good food that the local CFA so
kindly prepared for us. There were lots of happy people.
Rohan was still wearing his superman suit and would get to take it home
with him again this year. I
believe that I performed well because of the preparation that I did with my
equipment, my glider is going well and conditions were well suited to its
performance. I maintain a good
attitude to my flying and I am not bothered by having to fly alone as I have to
so much when I practice anyway. I felt confident in the decisions I made and
really enjoyed the gaggle flying when it was there.
Team flying was another highlight of this comp, it is another skill that
I am practicing at every available opportunity. It feels good to have had such a good team result as well.
The flying was conservative, with a low base and slow lift, which made it
important to identify opportunities for racing when they arise.
Rohan did this particularly well. The
area is great, it is always nice if a low save is required to unzip early and
just keep on at it without concern about drift or landing areas.
There are heaps of places to land and a good road network so, although I
have not ever succumbed to it, road suck need not be an issue.
The area loans itself to low airtime pilots and there was a good showing
from them here. There were
many admirable efforts made by many pilots, some personal bests and first time
to goal. Some even made their first
XC during the competition, it is a quick safe and fun way to develop skills at
any level, also to have a good time out with your mates and make some new ones.
There is good company and social events, as the comp runs over the 4 days
of Easter I don’t have to take leave. Would
I go again? Definitely would, it is a great comp that has a great vibe fun, fun,
fun. Thanks
must go to Warwick Duncan, Beavo, Tracey Sandstrom, Wes Hill, Ian Mc Clelland,
Birchip RSL, the local CFA, the land owners we dropped in on and the town of
Birchip which is really happy to have us. Thanks
to our sponsors, Flytec Australia (Eichers),
Clints Crazy Bargains. Dynamic Flight and Moyes. |