A poll has been created on the HGFA site here. HGFA login details required.

The following proposal has been put to the Comp Committee.

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Hi Competitions Committee,
I would like to put a proposal to the Competition Committee for Forbes 2011.

That we run 2 competitions at Forbes this year both with AAA rating and both registered as Cat 2 events with the FAI
The competitions would be two 5 day competitions with a rest day in between.

Dates Comp 1: 2 – 6th January 2011
Rest day 7th January 2011
Dates Comp 2: 8-12th January 2011

This idea has several upsides over a single long meet.

• We get a rest day in the middle of the flying, where you actually want it for safety reasons.
• We get everyone you would get anyway, plus those people who can time-wise, money-wise or fitness-wise only do one or the other comp.
• Pilots who stuffed up the first or second task, get a fresh chance for the second comp and have no need to just hang in without much chance for a good result.
• We will get 2 triple-A events.
• We will get 2 FAI sanctioned events for World Ranking.

I am contacting you all as the first step in the process to making this happen for Forbes 2011 which is in 5 ½ weeks time.
I would need your approval to move on this as soon as possible.

Let me know your thoughts.

Best Regards,
Vicki Cain
Organiser
Forbes Flatlands Hang Gliding Championships

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As it stands, Dalby Big Air has not yet requested sanctioning but may be encouraged to apply for AAA.

At present, the comp committee has approved the dividing of the Forbes into two separate comps with one being AAA and the other AA (both CIVL Cat 2 pending approval). This has been identified as a less than ideal situation as neither of these 5 day comps fulfil the minimum day requirement suggested by the Competition Manual. However, it is in the interests of the sport to have at least 5 AA & AAA competitions each year to determine the national team. With the current lack of clubs/individuals expressing an interest to organise such events this goal would not otherwise be achieved.

With this poll we are aiming to canvas the idea of the second Forbes comp also being AAA with competition pilots.
Please let us know which option you would prefer. The results of this poll are not definitive but will be taken into consideration when the sanctioning process takes place.

Cheers,
Trent

Scores are up at http://www.soaringspot.com/agc2010/results/flex/total/day3.html

123km Gulgong > Wellington > Yeoval > Cumnock

Nice clouds on course so most of our team take the first start. Jonny and I drop everyone else about 15km on course and fly together for most of the task. We get slow around Yeoval and the blue hole we had just crossed filled with clouds which allowed the others to get close to us on the last leg.

Pete, having learnt to fly his new Atos, lead the charge and passed me like I was standing still with 16km to go.

Jonny was first in followed by Pete, then Enda. Scott Barett came in next and won the day as he took the second start. I was in next followed by most of team TATS.

There were some notable exceptions from the heap party at goal today including Curt, Cam and Rohan.

The scores will be shaken up a little tomorrow but at a glance it should be Jonny, Scott, Blinky, Grant then Dave.

A great week flying so far and it’s only looking better for the rest. Awesome!

A 167km dog leg task to Tomingley then down the hiway to Alactown.

It proved pretty tough to get away from the airfield with many weaklink breaks and a lot of sink around the airfield.

Eventually, I was in a position to leave but not until 15mins after the last gate. Dave and flew most of the first leg together. A real buzz!

We were separated around the turnpoint. I tried to get back upwind of course on the second leg. This tactic, though logical, did not pay off. I landed 12km short.

Dave, getting blown a fair way down wind faced a headwind final glide into goal. He pulled it off with a real nice 8:1 glide line into goal despite the 25+ k/h headwind. Nice work mate.

Though we had some nice clouds today it was not a day to be on your own. Having company on the last leg would have made life much easier.

Another fun day at Gulgong.

Gulgong task 1 saw us heading to Yeoval via the airstrip at Wellington for 101km. 15 or so in but no scores yet. Surprise surprise.

Curt won the day with the usual suspects making it in.

While wind turbines allow us to harness the power of the wind to create a renewable source of energy, their spinning blades can also serve as a potential danger to wildlife. But a group of researchers in the UK may have found a solution to keep birds and bats away from the blades: by painting them purple.

According to the report, the reason that so many birds and bats flock to the turbines is that they offer up a feast of bugs to feed on. But by painting the turbines a different color, as opposed to the standard white or light grey, it may deter insects from landing on them, which in turn would keep birds and bats safe from the blades.

"Our major conclusion from this work is that turbine paint colour could be having a significant impact on the attraction of insect species to the structure, both during the day and at night," PhD student Chloe Long told the BBC. By testing various colors, the team determined that purple was the least attractive to insects and that white and grey where two of the most attractive colors.

"If the solution were as simple as painting turbine structures in a different colour this could provide a cost-effective mitigation strategy," explained Long. However, there may be other factors that make the turbines attractive to insects, such as the heat they give off.

Well, yes, it certainly does make him less attractive… But to Eagles?

More here:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/earth/hi/earth_news/newsid_9067000/9067721.stm

Get on to Twitter. It’s where a lot of the flying talk is happening these days you will be missing out on the flying action if you are not on board. I even got retrieved after a tweet the other day. How’s that for service!

Just to get started, follow the local guys on the Dusty Demons list. From there, you will get the idea and start to work out who else to follow.

A reasonably smart phone is the best way to use Twitter. Most phone operating systems have applications to run twitter. If you will be accessing it from a PC there are also many clients available. I use TweetDeck which I find quite nice.

If it all seem to complicated, ask any of the guys who are currently on there and I’m certain they will be able to get you setup in no time.

It appears that the organizers of the classic have “over looked” the now common practice of uploading the competition area controlled airspace into competitors instruments. This omission leans the odds greatly in favor of the local pilots who deal with the exact locations on these areas on a day to day basis.

Maybe Attila has a point?

Luckily though, the punters have come through and posted the airspace files on the Canungra Cup website. Whack these files into each of you instruments and we might even be able to give those local boys a run for their money without getting smashed with airspace penalties this year.

I take no responsibility for the data being correct so don’t come to me if you get zero for the day because of using these files – I probably got zero too.

Also, their map seems to be a bit better than ours so grab that as well.

Good luck!

Peter Dall

How am I to follow such an insightful monologue? Let’s just bow our heads and acknowledge that winter can hit us all pretty hard.

Sorry about the lack of updates here guys, the net access here is super flakey so blog post have proved to be somewhat of a patience testing procedure.

Here’s the first few days in a nutshell anyway…
Day 1 canned due to wind

Day 2
A great look around the local area. I land out near the really scenic old town of Gubbio. The savage airspace restrictions around the area are realized with a couple of the top guys receiving zero for the day (a protest was lodged but the original decision was upheld.

Day 3
We went expected to get high today so a task up and back along the ridge was set. Conditions proved to be better than expected and it ended up being a fairly easy task with 80 pilots in goal. I took the second start not realizing that the guns had already taken the first.

It was Wolfy, Mario and I pushing trying to catch to guys in front. We got a bit low just past the first turnpoint. After scratching together for a while Wolfy landed and for the first time this week I was happy not to have any lead in my harness.

Mart and I flew the rest of the way together coming in at 60th for the day.

Day 4 canned due to rain on launch. Things fined up later in the day and a few managed to fly but we would have been pushing it to get a task in the small available flying window.

Day 5 sitting at HQ now. Looks ok outside. Tomorrow looks a little dodgy so fingers crossed for a task today.