Blown out. Moyes storyteling night with lots of funny stories.
Today looks better with lighter winds in the morning, the forecast is still a bit on the strong side. We’ll se what happens, I guess it will not be cancelled in the morning like yesterday.
The wind switched to NE and became quite strong last night. We had a pilot meeting at 18:00, and then went for dinner with Finn and Truls. We got in to the Thai resturant without a reservation, and had some really great food.
Today is windy, the task commitee think it will be blown out. We wait until 12:00 to get the final message. The task is set to a 117km downwind task.
Update
It was blown out, we went to Sun’n Fun, the second largest airshow in the world. It was huge, thousands and thousands of airplanes, some impressive aerobatics shows, and huge crowds.
Here’s a question for my international readers;
– In your nationals, do you have a official team competition between clubs in addition to the individual scoring?
– If so, how is it scored? 3 best in the team, as normal in RACE? Other ways?
We have been discussing for the last 3 years how to solve this part of the Norwegian nationals, and it would be nice to have some fresh views.
Update: Seemed like no one had club comps…
Congratulations to Oleg, our new world champion! He was the favourite, and came through as a worthy winner.
The day after Robin’s accident we had a memorial for him at the crash site. We invited all pilots and crew from the Worlds to join us at sunset in the paddock. We marked the spot with the windsock that had the Norwegian flag, and put down flowers during a silent memorial. It was a very beautiful ceremony, in the right environment. I think everyone was out there with us to say goodbye to Robin. We have some pictures and video of the ceremony that I will put online when they are ready.
All the pilots and crew that we have talked to have supported and helped us in any way they can. The accident has really shaken everyone here and has sparked off many improvements in towing safety for this competition. The day after the accident was cancelled out of respect, and was used to work on safety and brief all the pilots.
The Norwegian team has withdrawn from the competition, from emotional, moral, and practical causes. Some of us will travel home as soon as possible, some will stay behind as planned and continue flying in other competitions in Australia.
There is an official investigation taking place by the Australian HG federation, it is not finished yet, and so we cannot conclude what was the cause of the accident. We have been presented with some preliminary findings, these have been reported with varying degree of accuracy by other sources. I write about this now, so you will have some picture of what happened. This is only my personal view, but I hope it will answer some of the questions and discussions that are bound to follow. Please wait for the official report for any conclusions.
Johnny, Otto, Nils Åge and I witnessed the whole accident from the ground. There is also video of the whole accident from takeoff to impact, this tape is held by the police, Johnny have seen it, and it confirms our view. From the information available from witnesses and video it seems that a lockout occurred at approximately 15 to 20 meters altitude during the tow, the glider crashed with the left wing and nose into the ground at high speed. Massive head injuries seemed to have caused instantaneous death. The paramedic was there very quickly, but nothing could be done.
The preliminary findings list pilot error as the first event, when Robin took off by footlaunch in weak crosswind, and dropped the left wing during the takeoff. He attempted to correct the left turn that followed, but never got the glider completely under control resulting in a lockout some seconds later.
The second event listed in the preliminary findings was the pilot weaklink that did not break, because it was too strong. The weaklink material was too strong, and did not break even as the rope and release wire attaching the release to the harness broke.
The third event listed in the preliminary findings was the pilot release mechanism that failed to release properly because of the wrong application of the weaklink to the release mechanism. The spinnaker type release he used is only safe when used with a large steel ring instead of hooking directly into the weaklink. It seems like Robin did pull the release, the release did open, but the weaklink stuck to the release because of the construction of the release, resulting into an extremely quick lockout. The video and our recollection of the event shows that he let go of the upright with his right arm to reach for the release just before the lockout occurred.
What is quite certain is that a chain of events caused the accident. As is the case in most accidents, all events may have been avoided and the accident prevented, but hindsight is a very precise science.
We had the correct weaklink material, and steel rings in the car. Robin had tied and was wearing new weaklinks from the correct material the same morning he crashed, why he did not use it we will never know.
Robin in his element
Windy and blue day. Weatherman called inversion at 600 meters this morning, and probably no lift above 1000 meters. It was a 35km/t wind from the south west this morning, but it calmed down a little. We got a nice and easy start with a 182km task to Ivanhoe :-)
I towed up and got out of a windy and turbulent paddock without much drama. I hung around the start circle for a while with Jon and Robin. Taking the first start gate we got lifts to 1800 meters, and got going. The timing was not the best, but it was too windy to wait more.
I flew with Nils Aage and Jon for a while, and we met up again before goal. Jon was first in, me second a minute behind, and Nils 5 minutes later again. Robin came after one hour, and Otto was the last pilot to goal. Johnny landed 45 km before goal.
Me towing up in Deni, photo shot by Carol Binder.
We had a nice relaxed day in Deni after the comp, driving to Echuca for some shopping and see the movie “Meet the Fockers”, very funny! The day after we drove to Hay, and got our stuff packed out into the houses we have rented. Our driver Carla showed up today, and we managed to get another driver sorted when Tish who originally was driving backed out.
Yesterday was a pretty good day, Rohan Holtkamp flew 456km to set a new Australian record from Hay!
Today is no flying as it is a rest day for the tug pilots. We have the parade through the streets tonight, and a welcome dinner.
Nils Åge was out cycling into town, and was stopped by the police for not wearing a helmet, and cycling on the sidewalk :-) The police here have a roumour for beeing very strict with the rules, but he managed to talk his way out of it without getting a fine.
The comp seems very good organized so far, with 8 pilots per tug it should be quick to get everyone in the air. There is a early bird option for 20 pilots each day.
There is wireless internet at the HQ so I can probably upload some better pictures than in Deni.
It was nice and blue this morning, but driving out to the briefing we saw lots of high clouds move in over the area. The weatherman forecasted a front coming in from the west, with some embedded storms and higher winds. We got an earlier task than ususal, with window open at 13:30, and first start 14:30. It’s been possible to start before first start time in this comp, then your earlier start get added to your goal time. It’s mainly used by kingpost and floater class pilots, but it’s possible to start early for the open class too.
As we set up today the cloudcover became tick, and the thermal activity on ground died out. We quickly got ready and towed up at first possibility. It was dead calm and a very relaxing tow. Grant towed me into a gaggle and I released at 400 meters, to thermal up to 850meters in very slow lift. We averaged 0.3 for a long time. Gradually we drifted out and away from the paddoc, and seemed to stay at around 800 meters. The few brave pilots who went on glides came back to the gaggle quickly finding nothing but dead air.
After spending 45 minutes in the start circle the lift died out completely, and we all glided out to take a 10 minute early start. Even stopping in everything that felt like lift we got lower and lower. I had Steve Moyes below me for a while, it’s very good training to study his technique in the weak lift. Beeing outclimbed by Steve is a good refresher on how much concentration and work it really is to fly efficiently. Looks natural to Steve though, but that’s what 15000 hours in a hangglider will do to you :-)
I landed around the first TP, with Nils Åge just down the road, and Otto landed in the start circle. Robin and Johnny got to the TP, don’t know how far they went. It’s presentation night at the Golf club where we stay later tonight, should be nice with 100 pilots present.
All in all the comp has been a nice warm up for me, it was not until the last two days I felt relaxed and comfortable in the air again. It takes some hours in the air to get used to flying and the heat after the long fall and winter in Norway with no flying. I’ve done about 15 hours in the air this comp. It was fun flying both last days, even with shitty conditions. The earlier days felt more like a struggle to do anything. The real comp starts with the Worlds, I feel a lot more motivated and ready than when we first came down here.
The new Litespeed S
The new glider is different than the last one, it feels more solid in the air, but the handling is still very good. It has more progressive bar pressure but this will probably change as I get more hours on it and move the hangpoint. The performance feels extremely good, escpecially at high speeds, but there is a lot of new Litespeed S’s out here so it’s more the pilot skills that makes a difference. Compared to Robin and Johnnys C2’s we seem to have a distinct advantage on glide.
The glider had a new sailcut, tips look really good now, and the upper surface is tighter compared to earlier, while undersufrace tension is relaxed to keep the handling good. We got some carbon battens and transversals to keep the weight even lower at the tips. The rest of the hardware is the same as always.
We will spend the next two days here and relax, wash clothes, etc. Probably we go to Exhuca tomorrow and do some shopping and see a movie. We drive to Hay on Wednesday, and the first Worlds day is on Friday.
Yesterday was a grey and windy day, it was a delayed day, but at the briefing 11:30 we got the message to go out and set up at Conargo. We were told the lift would go to 1800 meters, and got a 157km downwind task over some quite remote areas.
At first nobody got up, but eventually some pilots managed to hang on to the weak lift and drift with the wind. I was undecided about flying, felt too weak and windy to be fun. I took one tow, and got some very weak lift that I did not want to drift in, landed back at the paddoc, and decided to pack up and stay in the pool instead.
Robin got withing 20 km from goal, Nils Åge just behind. Otto did not fly and packed up, Jon and Johnny got 30 km away from start. Nils Åge said he never got above 1300 meters.
Today looks better, with blue sky and light winds.