PWC Superfinal - The Final Task

The PWC Superfinal's final task was a very fast 76 Km. task.  The winners were almost 40k/hr. and the top-60 into goal all flew faster than 35k/hr. average speeds.  Josh and Nick were running in the lead gaggle and accrued many leading points, placing 22nd and 23rd.  Eric found a hole and was slower, in  49th for the day.  Scores for the final task can be viewed HERE.

Cumulative results are HERE.  Josh maintained his hold on 5th place with Nick and Eric placing 22nd and 25th overall.  BZ had some tough tasks in the last few days placing 95th and Jack sat out the last two tasks after landing under canopy on task 7.  He finished up at 81st.

The US team placed 5th in the Nations standings - Congrats guys!

And finally, Big Congratulations to Peter Neuenschwander for flying well all week!

 

Click for larger graphic

Here are a couple of great videos from Task 8 - yesterday -



Valle task 8 part 2 from broers philippe on Vimeo. Official sites 3D Tracking  Official PWC site
Organiser's website
Paragliding World Cup TV
Pilot list
Live tracking
Taskboards
Live Leaderboard
Retrieve map
Results: Task 1 | Task 2 | Task 3 | Task 4 | Task 5 | Task 6 | Task 7 | Task 8 | Task 9 | Overall
Task Tracklogs: Task 1 | Task 2 | Task 3 | Task 4 | Task 5 | Task 6 | Task 7 | Task 8 | Task 9
Task Animations: Task 1 | Task 2 | Task 3 | Task 4 | Task 5 | Task 6 | Task 7 | Task 8 | Task 9
Twitter (in test): https://twitter.com/#!/ParaglidingWCup


Blogs:
in English: Nicole McLearn | Brett Hazlett | Nicky Moss | Andre Rainsford | Gin Team Blog
in French: Gin Team France | Team ABAC | Elisa Houdry & Ludovic Sivignon | Maxime Bellemin | Charles Cazeau
in German: Swiss Team | German Team | Pepe Malecki
in Russian: Russian Team
in Portuguese: Claudio Virgilio
in Slovenian: SFFA news
in Czech: PGweb.cz/Renata Kuhnova
in Italian: Italian Team 



  

2011 FAI PG World Championships - Task 2

Click for larger graphic

Task Two at the PG World Championships was a 77Km task to Avila.  Conditions were forecast to be a bit lower top-of-lift than yesterday.   This will come as a relief to those pilots who were buoyed over the 10000' ceiling during yesterday's task and received a "0" score for their efforts.

Here are two graphics showing the airspace issues that the task setters and pilots are working around.


The LIVE LEADER BOARD shows the provisional ranking as scoring is tabulated.  Scores for Task 2 will be posted at http://www.piedrahita2011.com/piedrahita2011/taskReports. . . 

At this moment (1400 PDT) the Competition website has been taken down.  A request to the PG Forum was made to lock the world championship thread.  This was done (and has since been relaxed) due to the extremely unfortunate occurrence of two separate accidents (separated by 70K and 2 hours) that resulted in the death of pilots from Argentina and Chile.  In a release put out by the Piedrahita Staff they wrote:  

2011, Piedrahita

It is with great regret that the organisers have to announce that there were
two serious accidents during the competition task today. The first accident
occurred at approximately 14.00. Argentinian pilot, Francisco Vargas
crashed into the hillside a few kilometres from launch. Emergency services
were called to the site, but the pilot died at the scene.

The second accident occurred at approximately 16.00 in the Avila area.
Chilean pilot Eitel von Muhlenbrock lost control of his paraglider and crashed.
Emergency Services arrived swiftly, but the pilot died from his injuries.

Next of kin of both pilots have been informed.

We do not yet know the cause of either of the accidents, but an investigation
to determine the sequence of events is already underway by the event
organisers, together with Safety representatives of the FAI and the local
police. As soon as we have further information, we will issue another
statement.

There were three further minor incidents today, involving the deployment of
reserve parachutes. All three pilots landed safely and were uninjured.

The organisers wish to extend their deepest sympathies to the families and
friends of both Francisco Vargas and Eitel von Muhlenbrock.

Jose Luiz – Event Director
Steve Ham – Competition Director

My heart goes out to those who are left behind by these great pilots. Tomorrow will surely be a day of mourning on the hill in Piedrahita.

Rumor has it that there may have been many more than the "three" reserves thrown in what the Piedrahita note called "minor incidents" today. This will undoubtedly rekindle the simmering debate about 2-liner wings that are rock-solid until they stop flying, but become unrecoverable. This necessitates the use of the reserve which is a "last-chance" option. If the rumored number of reserves were actually used during today's task, it would indicate that we had about a 5-7% usage of this last chance option, on this day alone. No details about the accidents/incidents today are available, and it would be irresponsible to speculate on the causes at this time.

Provisional results indicate Josh Cohn was the top US pilot at 13th, and Jack Brown was next at 41st. Brad was 58th. Melanie landed at 34K for 12th in the women's class.

Fly Safe -

Tim

2011 FAI PG World Championships - Task 1

It sounds like the first task was a doozy - 153Km! The conditions provided for some fast XC with final glides over 110KPH and average speeds over 45 KPH. Airspace bit more than 30 pilots who either clipped some of the airspace protecting arrival and departure paths to airports, or exceeded the 3048M ceiling.

Josh Cohn tied for third place (and racked up the highest leading points for the day) while Brad Gunnuscio scored 902 points for 28th place. Jack and Melanie had disappointing flights, landing before goal.

Read the play-by-play at http://usaparagliding.blogspot.com/

Scores are at:
Day 1 Task Provisional Results

• Open Provisional
• Team
• Women

I'm looking forward to some great flying by the US team - they are in 3rd place.

Tim

Good flying going on in Dunlap -

A number of NorCal folks headed to Dunlap this weekend and conditions were reasonably good compared to Woodrat, OR and here on the coast, where the winds were howling. I was unable to get to Dunlap due to work commitments.

On Saturday Josh Cohn, on his new Ozone R11, flew South well beyond the distance anyone prior had flown - almost to Bakersfield.

Monday, a day with only 4000-5000' top of lift in the valley, was the day everyone was heading back to the Bay Area after flying.

Josh decided to fly.   He launched around 11AM and flew for almost 7 hours and covered around 85 miles. 

Two great flights - setting site records.   Nice flying Josh!  His Track on Leonardo can be viewed here: http://paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/458312




The California distance record is held by Dean Stratton - 147 miles from Walt's Point in the Owens, North into Nevada.

Tim

2011 U.S. Paragliding Team Fund-Raising

The U.S. Paragliding Team Inc. is a non-profit corp. set up to help subsidize the expenses of our U.S. PG team.  They have made it easy to make tax-deductible donations to the team and the fund raising has begun.

The team consists of Brad Gunnuscio, Josh Cohn, Jack Brown, Nick Greece, and Meredyth Molocsay.  Team Leader is Rob Sporrer assisted by Jeff Huey.  Our standing in the international stage has been improving over the last few years and these pilots are the standouts in US Paragliding and responsible for much of the improvements in our US ranking. 

If each of us threw $20 in the pot it would take a large bite out of the costs and overhead incurred by the team as it attends competitions in Spain this Summer.  To make a tax-deductible donation go to www.usparaglidingteam.org and click the 'donate' link.

Fly Safe -
Tim

Paragliding World Cup 2011 Roldanillo, Colombia - Task 6

Today must have been some serious racing.  Speeds today were over 30KPH and there were 87 in goal.  Marcus Malmqvist was first on the UP Edge XR, followed by Yassen Savov (Boom 8) and Andreas Malecki (Mantra R10.2) and Josh Cohn (Niviuk Proto) and Charles Cazaux (Mantra R10.2).

Overall leader Michael Sigel placed 21st today, scoring 891 points and holding on to his cumulative lead.


No tasks will be dropped during this PWC so what you see is what you get.


Cumulative results are In this .PDF file

Paragliding World Cup 2011 Roldanillo, Colombia - Task 5

Today's task was 123Km and conditions were finally suitable for some racing.  The top pilots had average speeds of  28KPH. Today's Top-10 were:

1  0051 Russell OGDEN GBR
2  0147 Xevi BONET DALMAU ESP
4  0017 Andre RAINSFORD ZAF
5  0039 Primoz SUSA SVN
6  0053 Russell ACHTERBERG ZAF
6  0020 Michael SIGEL CHE
8  0101 Lucas BERNARDIN FRA
9  1717 Primoz PODOBNIK SVN
10 0009 Raul PENSO VEN
10 0319 Yassen SAVOV BGR



Nick Greece is the top US pilot at 9th, and Josh Cohn is at 13th in the cumulative ranking.
With two tasks remaining, this is proving to be a great opening competition for the 2011 season.  The top-10 pilots are on Gin Boom 8's and Ozone R10.2s.  Niviuk is represented by Josh in 13th and Stefan Wyss in 14th.  This year is looking like a very competitive year for the manufacturers who are striving to push the performance limits.



Cumulative Results are  in this .PDF file

Paragliding World Cup 2011 Roldanillo, Colombia - Task 4

Another tough day in Colombia.  113Km. task with no one in goal..  Michael Sigel was the only pilot to make 100K, which will cinch first position for him.  Since today's results aren't out yet, this is speculation, but some quick computation yields this unofficial ranking overall:

1. Michael SIGEL
2. Russell OGDEN
3. Peter NEUENSCHWANDER
4. ?????


I'm not sure of the ranking below third place, since so many were around the 86Km point. It looks like Nick Greece and Josh Cohn are hanging in there, and both may be in the top-10 when Cumulative Scores are up.




Cumulative scores are in this .PDF file


Tim

Paragliding World Cup 2011 Roldanillo, Colombia - Task 3

The third task was considerably shorter than previous tasks at 60 Km.  This allowed all but 13 pilots to make goal.  The top-15 all had average speeds of around 20KPH so it looks like it was a slow day.

Yasson Savov and Russ Ogden are emerging as the most consistent leaders.  They were third and fourth in the cumulative rankings and placed first and third today, so it looks like they will be at the top of the leaderboard.

Jack Brown was second today, and the only US pilot in the top 20.  Nick Greece was in 25th.

For results you can go to http://www.paraglidingworldcup.org/htmlrequest/results/t/1/3/1 .  Cumulative scores seem to be a secret.  There may be cumulative scores in the comments on THIS PAGE.

Tim

Paragliding World Cup 2011 Roldanillo, Colombia - Task 2

Another tough day, from the sound of it.  123K task and it looks like everyone has landed short of goal.  Looking at the 'Live Leader Board' Eric Reed placed second a few km. short of goal. Nick Greece, Josh Cohn, and Jack Brown landed around the 116k point.

No official cumulative results are out as of 2100 pst.  But here are some links for your useage:

The retrieve map and general task map are at  www.fastretrieve.com/mapping

The Live Leader Board can be found at Live Leader Board

Results are in the window below and available at http://www.paraglidingworldcup.org/htmlrequest/results/1/2/1.

Paragliding World Cup 2011 Roldanillo, Colombia

The first task of the Colombia PWC was a 94 kilometer zig-zag that had as many pilots landing near the 1/2 way point as it had in goal. With the pilot caliber that these events attract, it must have been a tough day.

The Top-10 for the day were:

Rank ID Name        Nation    Glider            Score
1 0020 Michael SIGEL CHE   Gin Boomerang 7       997
2 0051 Russell OGDEN GBR Ozone Ozone prototype   987
3 0077 Jean Baptiste BERLIOUX FRA  Boomerang 7   976
4 0305 Peter NEUENSCHWANDER CHE Swing prototype  973
4 0319 Yassen SAVOV BGR        Gin Boomerang 7   973
6 0059 Nicholas GREECE USA        R10.2?         968
7 0002 Jurij VIDIC SVN      Ozone Mantra R10.2   965
8 0015 Jacques FOURNIER FRA   Ozone R10.2        964
8 0147 Xevi BONET DALMAU ESP   Gin Boomerang 7   964
10 0107 Adrian HACHEN CHE ? ?                    962

Jack Brown and Josh Cohn are in 15th and 16th respectively, and Brad Gunnuscio, Eric Reed, and Brett Zaenglein, all scored around 350 points, landing mid-task.

Results can be viewed in this .PDF file.

2010 PWC Superfinal Results and some News

The US team is heading home from Turkey and they can hold their heads up high.  After 7 tasks in 11 days, the US pilots all flew well and brought home 5th place in the Team standings, of which Cross Country Magazine says, "In fifth place was Team USA. The seven pilots flew strongly to show that they are now a true force on the international stage."

Congratulations go to all seven guys:  Nate Scales who was the highest scoring US pilot, at 23rd - Josh Cohn placed 28th - Eric Reed at 49th - Len Szafaryn at 54th - Nick Greece, who was leading after task two, finished at 59th - 2010 US Nat'l Champion, Jack Brown, at 88th and Brad Gunnuscio at 92nd.

Thanks for representing the US Comp pilots and flying well! 

Final Results are HERE

PWC FORMAT TO RETAIN THE SUPERFINAL:

The PWC format, for the foreseeable future, will retain the 'Superfinal' format, with 5 regional tests before selecting the qualifiers for the Superfinal.  This format was overwhelmingly approved and will continue to improve the chances of US pilots to qualify, and participate in, the highest level competitions in our sport.


PMA SAYS "GO SERIAL":

On an interesting note; The PMA has announced:

“The PMA believe that from the material point of view a significant way to improve safety in FAI cat.1 competitions is to restrict them to EN–D gliders. Open Class gliders have their place in competitions but FAI cat.1 is not that place.”

Read the full Cross Country article HERE.

I've gone on record as being in favor of such a move, and I still believe it would help our sport grow and improve the quality and safety of our competitions.  I do believe that there is a place for full-on racing (uncertified) ships for use in the PWC that will provide a venue for the highest performance and R&D for the manufacturers.  Much like Formula One and America's Cup racing, there is a place for the spectacular performance of a "cost is no object" type of class*, but I feel that competing mano-a-mano on whatever performance wing will provide better 'sport' for a larger market.  Admittedly, I am flying an EN-D wing in competitions and this obviously biases my opinion, but my choice of wing is due to my opinion that my EN-D wing provides a increased margin of safety and handling not exhibited by competition wings.

I am not cynical enough to assume that the PMA decision is to boost sales by requiring serious competitors to purchase a Cat 1 comp wing and another to fly in PWC events - I hope they feel it will stimulate the market and expand it.  Am I naive?  I hope not.

Do I think Cross Country Competitions will become safer?  Probably not.  Quite simply, it's the stuff between the ears that, ultimately, provides a safety margin.  You can fly a Cessna 150 into trashy air & the result will be ugly.  Pick your line intelligently and fly safely - THAT's the measure of a good pilot. . .
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* By 'cost is no object' I mean $$ is no object. . . Unfortunately in the sport of paragliding, the cost to compete on the highest performance wings can mean the cost is your personal safety - This I find unacceptable.

Fly Safe,
Tim

BAPA Comp at Dunlap May '10

Dave S. and I headed to Dunlap on Wed. afternoon with the intent to fly 3 days and then participate in the SFBAPA league events over the weekend.  When we arrived at launch the conditions looked perfect for a nice 'shake-out" flight around the valley.  We camped at Dan's LZ and enjoyed a nice dinner up the road at the pub.
Thursday Jug Arrived and we had another fun flight around the valley under great cumulus clouds.  The top-of-climb was low but it was still possible to move around the valley.

Friday was more of the same and I made the decision that I would be flying my Avax XC2 in the weekend comp.  I've decided to fly Serial class in the coming season and have ordered a new Gradient Avax XC3.  The Boomerang 5 is a great wing and I've enjoyed flying it for about 30 hours.  It never did anything squirrelly to me and has great glide performance.  I just didn't connect with the wing.  I didn't trust it and felt that I could actually score better on my XC2 or new XC3.  Maybe I'm not ready for a comp wing yet - I'm OK with that.  I'm firmly of the opinion that we all fly better on wings we are confident in and flying well.  I do know that I can't compete, in the open class, with the latest 2-line wings on a two-year-old Boom 5 so I might as well fly the wings I enjoy flying and that are at the top-end of their class.  


Saturday the troops all assembled at Dan's at 9:30 and we headed up the hill at 10:30.  The conditions were forecast to be good with lift to 6-7000' and a NW wind in the valley.  A task was called from launch to hill 49917 and back, then over Big Cat - and Bald, then a leg to Orosi in the flats for a total of 25 miles.



I had a good high start and barred it all the way to Hill 49917 the lift there was sporadic, but I soon found a thermal pulsing off the hill.  I climbed high enough to get back to launch and caught some lift with the lead gaggle.  We all headed down to Big Cat and then hit the 4km cylinder around Bald Mtn.


A few wings turned directly to Ruth Hill and were struggling low in the shade, so I was looking for alternatives.  To my right (the wrong way to Orosi) was in sunlight and I thought about heading there to poach a bubble off the low hills.  At that same moment, I noticed Josh coming across low to the same area.  He began to circle low in weak lift and I came in on top of him.  The lift was weak but soon bloomed and we climbed together to over 6000' which made it possible to pick our way past the shade at Ruth Hill  and start a relatively straight forward flight to Orosi.  The clouds were working well and lift was often 500-600'/min.  Josh pulled ahead when it was obvious that the flight was going to be easy and beat me to goal by 3 minutes.  Fredric and Steve made it to goal about 30 minutes later and Hoop made a great effort, landing 1km from goal.

Lesson reaffirmed: Don't follow others into conditions that are obviously NOT working.  Look for viable options and try to capitalize on the opportunities they present.

Sunday's task was started in conditions that included low cloudbase and some forecasts of convective activity.  We built a 19 mile task that would put more pilots in goal and keep them in the Dunlap Valley.   After looking over the conditions I decided to launch early to sample the lift and make sure that the convection was reasonable.  Climbs were plentiful and the lift didn't increase in intensity as the cloudbase was approached.   As the start time approached conditions felt better and as we made a glide into Hill 49917 the trend was obviously better.  At that point I just concentrated on the race since I was in the hunt with Josh, Eric, and Fredric.   By the third turnpoint I was in 4th place and the flying was fast.  Josh had stopped to take a climb after Big Cat, on the way to Airstrip, while Eric and Fredric continued into Granny's Knob low.  It looked like they had gotten stuck on the knob, so I took the next 400'/min climb and topped out at around 5500'.  This gave me sufficient height to overfly the guys while they wrestled with sporadic lift, low over the knob.  I was fortunate to pick a great line that actually provided lift as I tagged and returned from the Airstrip.   All I needed for the last 7 miles of the task was one more climb, which I took just short of Big Cat.  I knew Josh was on final glide and Eric was hustling to catch me, but I took the climb at least 1000' too high and had way too much altitude for the final glide.  A rookie mistake, but I still placed second for the day - 4 minutes behind Josh.

I feel very good about the weekend for two reasons.  Firstly; My indecision regarding how I was going to compete this season (and in future seasons)  was resolved, as I sold my Boom 5 on Friday and ordered a new Gradient Avax XC3 on Thursday.  I'm flying serial class for the foreseeable future.
Second; I left the Boom in the bag and flew my three-yr-old Avax XC2 well this weekend and placed 2nd to Josh in both tasks.  I really feel like some of the effort I've put into studying the game is paying off.  

The league has really flourished due to Jug's efforts.  Introducing the Mentoring program and reevaluating the goals of the league to promote the participation and education of newer pilots has revitalized the league.  It's going to be a great season.

Results are HERE.  
and more photos can be viewed HERE

Tim

Flying with the Eagles

CLICK FOR LARGER PHOTO

The weekend of May 3-4 I headed to Santa Barbara to attend a Paragliding Competition Clinic put on by Rob Sporrer at Eagle Paragliding in Santa Barbara. Josh Cohn & Dean Stratton, both US Nat'l Champions, were the instructors. I didn't really know what to expect from a clinic of this type, but I hoped to get some info that would help me get consistent finishes.

Josh & Dean are not only great pilots. They also are great guys who are generous with their time & knowledge. The class consisted of 5 pilots. Most had not competed in any comps so the GPS and navigating the course were the emphasis. The first day we covered some of the basics and called a task at Marshall (San Bernardino). We continued to talk during the 2.5 hour drive to the site. I'd never flown at Marshall before and looked forward to the new site.

When we arrived at launch it felt a bit brisk but lower on the launch it felt reasonable between thermic cycles so Josh launched first to check conditions. He reported back that things were OK so I suited up & was soon climbing to 6000'. The course was around 25km with a 3pm start time. I managed a good start & flew around the course. The conditions were great & some of the climbs were the best I've seen since last Summer. My flight is HERE. More photos of the group are HERE.

I learned a lot and spent time talking & flying with guys that have skills I hope to someday develop. The grin you see on my face in the photo above says it all - Thanks to Josh Cohn for the pics.

A good couple of days.