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The two tasks on Tre Pezzi were in comparatively strong wind and it was the punch back into wind from the first turnpoint that claimed many gliders of both disciplines. During my struggles it often seemed that there were rigid wings cruising by above!

It was a different story groveling across the gaps in the ridges, however, where it was clear that in close company and near the ridge, the planks that pushed too low often lost out to the faster turning ragwings.

After several days with tasks shared by both classes, it became clear that the spoiler controlled planks were not showing much of an advantage over class 1. There were even stories of Manfred gliding past some of them, (strangely unconfirmed by Mr. Ruhmer himself, though his employer is selling ATOSs!).

My impression was that the better spoileron planks did have a slight edge on glide, and also in climb in the smooth thermals, but the climb advantage was easily lost with too much pilot input, and this was always the case in the rougher or more crowded thermals. When things became desperate and we were in and out of the rocks and trees the planks really struggled and lost out - the sort of conditions that paragliders claim to win against us!

Of course the Swift and Utopia were different again with an obvious performance advantage - at least half as fast again as ragwings on the glides, with similar climb.

The two machines seldom flew close together so it was hard to see which went best, but it seemed Johnny Carr’s Swift was faster but Brian Porter's Utopia climbed better. The Utopia has rudders coupled to the ailerons to control the low speed adverse yaw, something that Johnny reports makes the smaller thermals difficult on the Swift. While both machines were foot launched (no mean feat with the heavy Swift in nil wind) neither foot landed and their landing approaches were very sailplane like, needing a lot of room. Thankfully Johnny made it to goal every day, while Porter landed out only once. Unfortunately Porter's result was hampered by loosing a days score after launching without photographing the task board.

While it was clear that these gliders had a huge performance advantage it was also obvious that they had to fly very conservatively over the rougher terrain, even more obvious if you could hear Johnny Carr on the radio having kittens every time he got low!

There is a new draft of Section 7, redefining the classes as follows:

1.4.2.2 Class 2: hang gliders having a rigid primary structure with movable aerodynamic surfaces as the primary method of control in any axis, and which are able to demonstrate consistent ability to safely take-off and land in nil-wind conditions

For the purposes of demonstration, «nil-wind» shall mean a headwind of less than 1 m/s (3.6 km/h ; 2.2 mph).

This, if adopted, will effectively remove the Swift, Millennium and Utopia from class 2 unless the pilots are willing to take the large risk of demonstrating foot landing.

There is no doubt that by failing to provide the required photographs on one uncut film Johnny Carr fell foul of the rules as defined in section 7. However Johnny's films did prove beyond all reasonable doubt that he had completed the set task. I can understand why the single film rule exists in the case of record attempts, where the pilot might make repeated attempts at the same course. In a World Championships when the films are collected each day and each days task is revealed only on the day, it would surely be impossible to produce the photos without flying the course - especially when each film must show that days task board at the beginning!

There is already an exception allowing world record claims without barograms* if the course forms part of a task during an FAI category 1* competition. Perhaps the same could apply to the single uncut film rule.

Hopefully we'll be using GPS track verification soon, then we can have a similar argument when someone has part of the trace on one GPS and the rest on another!

*FAI sporting code covering hang gliding CIVL. If you want to read it download it from the documents section on the league web page and have about 100 sheets of A4 handy before you press print!

** Barogram. Documentary evidence from a barograph showing altitude vs time – proving the pilot hasn’t landed.

*** FAI Category 1competitions are World and Continental (eg European) Championships at which CIVL (FAI) officials are present.

Organization and task setting.

Taking part in a World Championships always highlights the fact that our own League organizers do a remarkable job with just 4 or 5 regular people in the organization. When it comes to a worlds there always seem to be almost as many organizers as pilots, but only very few of the are involved in the essential flying organization. The others are making packed lunches, publishing newsletters, and a whole host of other mysterious tasks!

The first few tasks in East winds were set with consideration that the convection might dominate and the wind turn west. The organizers were so concerned about a possible switch to tail wind on launch that the window and tarp times were set very early. It became a desperate rush to get ready after briefings that tended to drag on a bit long (with 150 pilots asking questions!).

The pilots of course, generally waited for the fastest conditions available before they started the course, so inevitably on these early tarp days very few set off before the final tarp. This meant that the early window times merely forced everyone into the air in indifferent conditions to play at staying up while missing everyone else.

Part of the competition is for the pilots to choose the best time to start, and the best time to launch. In my opinion it would have been better to have many start tarps and a long launch window, letting the pilots decide when to go. Provided the window was opened early enough there would be enough "launchable window" to make the task valid even if quite a few pilots made the mistake of getting stuck in a tail wind! That would have been better than testing the pilots ability to miss each other in unduly crowded airspace!

Everyone was relieved when the wind changed and we were able to fly the SW side and return to a more relaxed schedule!

Although we al had our near miss stories there were few accidents and only Christian Chiech deployed his reserve, after tumbling in the gully south of Monte Petrano. He reported that his glider had had reduced pitch pressure compared to normal throughout the flight and afterwards he found he’d left the main under surface zip open. I can confirm that this mistake might make the glider feel pitch unstable having flown my Xtralite 137 like that!

Outgoing world champion Guido Gehrmnan’s accident was more spectacular occurring over a crowded goal field! Like many pilots he flew back to Sigillo from Subasso after the final task was canceled. His glider had a special carbon control frame with the wires anchored half way down the uprights. The wide chord uprights were free to swivel and tended to do so in response to the pitch inputs. It seems the extreme bar pressure pulling up unto a second loop rotated them 90 degrees and then the bar pressure made them bend enough to fail in compression! Guido completed his loop with no control frame before the leading edge broke and he descended onto the hill behind the HQ throwing both his rocket and hand deployed chutes!

Manfred Ruhmer’s Laminar ST looked incredibly good. He’d prepared that machine, and a duplicate spare, over a period of several months. Everything was tuned to the limit. It always looked like Manfred had an edge, but according to him there were several other Laminars virtually identical including that of Reisinger and Wolf. Personally I think the new World Champion just has the knack of keeping the machine going a little straighter and at just the right speed to always get a bit more glide – and then he climbs better too!

The Lamouette and Wills Wing gliders were also very good with the Wills Wing going much better than last year. The new Moyes Litespeed was also very much better than last years model. All the factory pilots had specially prepared gliders with thin wires and carbon control frames, the Wills Wing having a particularly nice version. Only a few pilots had the nose tail wires half way down the tubes though! Just how much of this drag reducing stuff makes a real difference is probably more to do with the pilots psychological makeup than aerodynamics. Pre-Worlds winner Gerolf Heinrichs claimed he could feel his standard downtubes holding him back after wiping out his carbon ones, while Pedro Matos led the comp, eventually finishing 3^rd with standard rubber backed ones!

Steve Cook led the British Championships by some 540 points which looked a big margin given the weather record at Hawes, North Yorkshire. The first day dawned overcast and damp despite the typically optimistic Bank Holiday weather forecast. However once we were airborne things looked a little different – as we were all looking at it from 9000ft over the top of cumulo-lenticular cloud formations!

The task was open distance, but only Allan Barnes was in a hurry setting off from 7500 ft while the rest of us milked it to 9400 ft ASL having jumped back one bar to Semerwater. Our hopes for height records faded when the amplitude decreased further East, and most managed to maintain a bit of progress under the cumulus beyond the A1. In the end thee were just three of us left, Richardson, Rigg and Cook making it to the east coast with Cooky just clearing the buildings at Filey to make an extra km on Gordon.

The second day had more conventional thermal conditions and Barnes, Mr and Mrs Rigg, Needham and many others were in the first gaggle to set off towards the 44 miles goal at Carlton bank.. Despite being dropped by the lead gaggle somewhere near Pen Hill, Allan managed to sneak past us all on a more southerly route across the vale of York. He arrived at goal 8mins ahead of me, a lead cut to 4 minutes as I’d sneaked back for a later start photo! 3^rd on the day was local hot shot Trevor Birkbeck. Strangely late were Cook and Wirdnam who left it much later and had a much more difficult time getting out of the Dales.

After the first day of the meeting scored the most total points of any league task, thanks to the 9000ft start, the last flying day perhaps broke the most aluminium. An ambitious task of over 40 miles was set but the cloudbase remained low and nobody made much progress after Great Wernside behind Windbank. Cloudbase was just 500 ft clear of the second ridge with over 30 mph of drift and it was those who glided down Coverdale who got furthest, and had the most exciting landings! A few of us just reached civilization in Nidderdale but made 5 km less due to the higher ground – it was smoother though!

Meeting results:

Posn No Name Points Glider

1 2 Gordon RIGG 1,839 Laminar ST2

2 7 Ron RICHARDSON 1,787 Cheetah

3 9 Steve COOK 1,653 Topless WC

4 40 Grant CROSSINGHAM 1,523 X-Bow

5 1 Allan BARNES 1,513 Laminar ST2

6 23 Steve MANN 1,426 Topless

7 47 Carl WALLBANK 1,416 Laminar ST

8 17 Ricky YOUNG 1,402 Java Comp

9 5 Malcolm BROWN 1,376 Laminar ST

10 4 Gary WIRDNAM 1,366 Laminar ST

Final results 1999

1 (9) Steve COOK 5,330 Topless WC

2 (2) Gordon RIGG 4,985 Laminar ST02

3 (7) Ron RICHARDSON 4,574 Cheetah

4 (1) Allan BARNES 4,368 Laminar ST02

5 (3) Justin NEEDHAM 4,074 Topless WC

6 (40) Grant CROSSINGHAM 4,038 X-Bow

7 (5) Malcolm BROWN 3,912 Laminar ST

8 (28) Ian MISKIN 3,842 Laminar ST

9 (31) Kathleen RIGG 3,486 Laminar ST

10 (16) Martin PACITTI 3,424 Klassic

Womens Championships

Kathleen Rigg

Philippa JARVIS

The "WC" stands for World Champ – seems it doesn’t have the obvious other meaning in French!

Best newcomer was Grant Crossingham at 6^th.

Look out next year for Carl Walbank (N. Wales, Laminar ST) who was best guest again and would have placed 9^th overall had he entered the league!