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WA “Smoke
Free” State Soaring Competition 2000
by
Bomber
Introduction
The Western Soarer’s Hang Gliding Club hosted the
inaugural Western Australian State Soaring Competition that combined both the
sports of Hang Gliding and Paragliding in a single competition. The success of
such a competition has already been demonstrated in the NSW State Titles in
1999. The Western Soarers have hosted the Western Australian State Hang Gliding
Comps since 1991 and last year had the honour of hosting the Australian Hang
Gliding Competition.
This years competition was run in the same manner as all
previous years with the emphasis being on providing competitors with a
challenge, whilst maintaining safety and a sense of humour.
The competition was hosted in Wyalkatchem (Wylie) situated
200Km North East of Perth. The
competition format was towing with a mixture of ground and aero towing.
31 Pilots registered on the practise day of the competition with a total
of 7 teams poised to fight out the coveted “Andrew Humphries” memorial teams
trophy. This year the competition included Paraglider pilots who lived up to the
competition motto of “get some air, smoke your opponents instead” – by the
end of the comp the floppy boys had char grilled a few of us stiffy’s. This
year also saw the return of a strong novice representation with 6 pilots
competing for the first time.
Pre-Comp Weather
We were in “Gordo’s World” – great weather leading
up to the comp and two days before we start we had the 2nd heaviest
rainfall in history. I leave sunny Sydney on Saturday morning and arrive in
Perth were the ducks have taken over. Despite the strangle hold of “Gordo’s
World” most pilots make the 200 Km trip to Wylie on Sunday – you can
conclude from this that we are either very dedicated or either extremely dumb.
At the briefing and registration we decide to delay the comp until the Tuesday
to give the comp paddock two days to dry out – it needed it.
Day 1: Wylie – Calingiri 91 Km
The day looks good but what will the paddock look like. We
meet at the paddock at 11.00 am and proceed to watch Yappa drive up and down the
paddock and then get bogged. We eventually sort the tow strips out set a task of
30 degrees cross tail wind to Calingiri. Sam Blight is the first to leave the
paddock at 1.45pm, and starts a mass stampede to get into the air. I launch
shortly after Sam followed by a paraglider pilot. With only a few pilots away
the window is closed when Jamie Oorshot turns his glider into a paddock plough a
breaks his arm. Jamie was quickly given medical attention, both he and his arm
are doing well. By the time the wind is opened its late but a few pilots still
manage to make good distance on the day.
The climbs are good with a cloud base of 4,500 feet. The drift is strong but not along the course line which requires adaption of the “Z” factor. I win the day getting into goal in 1hr 45 mins. Second and third place goes to the paraglider pilots Mike Dufty and Dennis Smith. Karl Ruckreigel who left the paddock late made over half the distance. The day is worth 233 pts.
Day 2: Did Not Fly
Tooooooooooooooooooooooooo windy – spent a pleasant day in the paddock bagging each other before canning the day and heading to the pub for some hydraulic sandwiches.
Day 3: Wylie – Goomalling - Northam 100 Km
On reflection this was the best day at the comp in terms of pilots making distance on the task. The task comprised a 60 Km downwind leg to Goomalling and then a 45 degree 30 Km/hr cross wind task to Northam airstrip. Today we flew without clouds which is the norm for WA but climbs were strong and went to 5,000 feet. Five pilots made it past turn point with the rest of the field scattered between turn point and launch.
I land 15 Km short of goal and beats Frilly by 600 m to win the day. Kiwi Dave is just 2 Km further behind. Andrew Holmes “Chucky” who leaves the paddock late makes it to turn point to secure fourth for the day. Jason Kath has a great flight and lands just short of turn point to lead the novices and place sixth for the day. Dennis Smith has the best flight in a paraglider landing only 9 Km’s short of turn point.
King of Dummy Spit Nomination was Gordon “Flatch” Marshall – loosing his cool and threating to alter a fellow team mates jaw for borrowing the “fun bus” for a short period of time. Complete Dummy Spit including the smashing of doors, spitting of siliva when talking and general shouting a lot.
Day 4: Wylie - Bollgart 85 Km
Flatcho wear the Dummy Spit award on the ground, in the air and at the pub – but his lead is challenge by a fellow dummy spitter – the race is on.
Today was not the day miss out on goal or have problems in the air – more on this later. Again another good day with most pilots making good distance on the task. A down wind task to Bolgart is called – we don’t want to fly to Calingiri again.
I have some problems today, my harness line supporting my angle of dangle breaks in flight – slightly off putting. I spent most of my flight in hang.
Kiwi Dave wins the day by making goal in 2 hours. Also in at goal we have Phil Wainwright and Frilly. Mike Dufty in his paraglider makes goal followed by Andrew Holmes at the end of day. Best placed intermediate pilot is Des Hill, who make 40 Km on the task. Bradley McDougall is the best placed novice at 28 Km.
Frilly gets the Dummy Spit award today for a philosophical
discussion with Yappa (who lands miles away) regarding the exact location of the
goal paddock.
Day 5: Wylie - Beverly 107
Km
Today the day looked fantastic, by 12.30 pm the sky was full
of puffy Cue’s. As soon as the window opened towing starts immediately. Most
pilots seemed to get getting away with the exception of the aero tow team (my
team) – the tug towed pilots round and round the paddock without finding much
lift. The paddock seemed to be go through long cycles in which no thermals could
be found. However, once away the lift was strong and easy to find.
However, further down the course line a 50 Km square blue hole developed south of Cunderdin. Most pilots got their last climb north of Cunderdin and had a smooth glide south to the deck.
The Prof (Andrew Sanders) wins the day making 75 Km on the
task. Closely followed by Max Browne and Phil Wainwright. David Humphrey was the
best placed paraglider pilots flying 50 Km.
Day 6: Wylie - Quairading 86 Km
Last day today and the final chance to improve your placing. The sky like the previous day was full of clouds but they had much more vertical development. A straight line task to Quairading was called to keep pilots on main rods to allow for a speedy pick up (all except my team).
Again, like yesterday the first 50 Km provided racing condition whilst the last 30 Km required a change in gears just to stay up. 15 Km from goal and down to 2,000 feet I found a mixture of 50 to 100 up and spent an eternity climbing to my final glide height.
I made goal with Frilly 12Km short and Kiwi Dave 18 Km short. Great flight today by Gary Spraniatus who flew over half the course and gained personnel bests for distance, height and flight duration. The best placed paraglider pilot was Mike Dufty.
An hour after landing the gust front from the storm hit Quairading, all pilots had been on the ground for over an hour and safely packed away. However, some of us did not find any shelter and suffered the rain, then the blasting of the storm front – Frilly’s teeth could be heard chattering over the radio.
Thanks to some superb navigating by Flatcho and Karl landing close to a road the Thermal Dynamics arrive back after the award ceremony to pick up the remaining trophrey’s, say some quick good byes, and head home.
Overall Results
The overall results were as follows:
Western Australian State Soaring Open
1st – Mark “Bomber” Thompson (Moyes CSX 4)
2nd – Phil “Frilly” Knight (Moyes
SX 5)
3rd – “Kiwi” Dave Wellington (Aeros Stealth)
Hang Gliding – Advanced
1st – Mark “Bomber” Thompson (Moyes CSX 4)
2nd – Phil “Frilly” Knight (Moyes
SX 5)
3rd – “Kiwi” Dave Wellington (Aeros Stealth)
Paragliding
1st – Mike Dufty (Proton)
2nd – Dennis Smith (Response)
3rd – Dave Humphrys (Advance)
Hang Gliding - Intermediate
1st – Des Hill (Enterprise
Wings Rage)
Hang Gliding - Novice
1st – Jason Kath (Mission)
Teams Event
1st – Test Eagles (paragliders)
2nd - Flying Under Cumulus Kings
(hang gliders)
3rd - Thermal Dynamics (hang gliders)
4th – Cosmic Mind F*ckers (hang gliders)
5th – Outcasts (hang gliders)
6th – Raw Prawns (hang gliders)
7th – Sky Pigs (hang gliders)
Turkey Award
This years winner of the turkey award for the act of
greatest stupidity was:
Gary Spranaitus – following his own shaddow in a thermal and finally catching
it when he landed.
Shenanigans Award
This was the first year that this award was introduced. The basis of the award comes from “South Park” and it involves “sticking it” to the other teams.
The hot favourites for this award was any members of the feared and respected Thermal Dynamics for their cunning team tactics. However, this year all the other teams had signed a peace pack and let the Thermal Dynamics take their frustrations out on each other.
The award was presented for a daring midnight raid the CMF’s (Phil and driver) in which shaving cream and flour was presented to the Thermal Dynamics for their consideration. The reaction by the Thermal Dynamics (namely Flatcho and myself) was both valiant and impressive but the CMF had the element of surprise.
Thank U’s
Special Thanks go to Daryl Speight and Sam Blight who shared the role of comp director. Thanks also to Daryl, Sam and Phil Wainwright for all the work required to organise the State Competition.
During the comp invaluable assistance came from Phil Wainwright (scoring) Phil Knight (weather report and task committee), Mike Dufty (Task Committee).
Thanks also goes to Healthway “Smoke Free” and HGAWA for their continued sponsorship for the state comps.
Feedback from all pilots was they had a great comp and I hope to see them all again next year for an even bigger comp.
Mostly I’d like to thank the town of Wylkatchem for their support, not only during the competition by for the last 4 years. The town has been right behind our sport and our club in particular, and we hope for a long association with them.