midtoad’s mess.ages
excellence in creative mediocrity

Mt. Seven Ramp
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Last Friday, July 29th, while I was flying my hang glider cross-country along the range south of Golden, BC, another pilot was critically injured and died a couple of days later. His name was Charles Warren, and he was flying a paraglider. I’m sorry to see him go, and though we weren’t close, I’ll miss him. He took over from me as HPAC webmaster, and had made many improvements to the site.
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I see that there are several requests for CompeGPS to export its waypoints to a format that other programs can use, but this feature has not been added. As a temporary solution, I’ve written a small utility to convert .WPT files to .gpx files.

I’m unable to determine what all of the fields in the CompeGPS waypoint record are for, but understand enough of them to be able to generate a valid .gpx file. You can then open that file with, for instance, G7ToWin.

To run my utility, grab this zip file containing the utility (CompeGPS2gpx.exe) and a sample .WPT file (CalgaryAreaAirspace.WPT). Unzip the file into a folder, open a command prompt in that folder, and type:

CompeGPS2gpx.exe CalgaryAreaAirspace.WPT

Naturally, replace the name of the sample file with your own waypoints file.

I tested the utility with Windows XP, Python 2.4.1. I was able to read the generated .gpx file with G7ToWin (and even found a bug in it that the author has already fixed in his latest version A.00.199f).

If you need to convert CompeGPS waypoints to some other obscure format, get a copy of GPSBabel, as it understands more than 40 formats, and can convert the generated .gpx file to just about any format you desire.

The utility in written in Python, and the source code is provided. If you make changes or improvements, please let me know, and provide a copy of your work.

On Saturday April 30th, friends and family gathered at the Cochrane Ranche for a celebration of the life of Chris Muller. Over 500 people jammed the hall to hear family and flying friends speak about what Chris meant to them. Several videos were shown, some made by Chris himself. Rob Kells from Wills Wing gave the closing remarks.

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Got a GPS? Want to see your tracklogs on a map? Don’t have money for a dedicated mapping program? You’re in luck - there’s GPS Visualizer. Simply record your trip, upload to your PC using an app like G7ToWin, and then upload to the GPS Visualiser site. Within a minute or so you’ll have a picture of your trip overlaid on a nice map background or on a satellite photo.
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First time I’ve written a post that has four categories!

I ran across a cool software project called Leonardoserver , hosted on Sourceforge. It’s a project licensed under the GPL that allows paragliding federations to easily offer on-line contests. You can find one example of such a contest at paraglidingforum.com.
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It took several hours to get my WordPress blog running on my new webserver, but only a couple of minutes to get the Flight Poetry site back in action. That’s because both of those sections make use of a mySQL database. Solving the problems of setting up one of them gave me the keys to quickly setting up the second.

Enjoy the website!

I’ve updated my page on the OLC, the On Line Contest for hang glider and paraglider pilots. You can find useful information there, a PDF version of a PowerPoint presentation that walks you through the entire process of submitting a flight to OLC, and the latest copy of the MaxPunkte software.

This year, as of May 1st, you’ll be able to use your OLC entries as verification for your CIVL badge requirements, so it’s useful to get acquainted with the submitting process.

The image below summarizes the new CIVL badge levels, which will become effective as of May 1st, 2005. Any questions?
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In parts 1-3 of this series, I described the overhaul of the CIVL Badge system. The definitive text and full details of the system are of course contained in the Sporting Code, Section 7D, which will become effective May 1st of this year. In this article, I want to describe some of the other changes that you will see in the new release of S7D. The full text will be available shortly on the CIVL website, after review by John Aldridge.

The badges and records subcommittee, under the leadership of CIVL V-P Scott Torkelsen from Denmark, undertook the review of the badge system, but also reviewed all of S7D itself, with a view to streamlining and simplifying GPS usage. In this task, a number of people were involved: Oyvind Ellefsen from Norway, �gúst Guðmundsson from Iceland, Martin Henry from Canada, and myself. (Hmm, all Nordic countries, what a coincidence!). Martin was awarded two FAI world records late last year in the rigid wing category, and as a result of his records chase he has gained intimate knowledge of some of the contradictions and confusions still remaining in S7D, as regards GPS usage. Here are the major changes developed by this subcommittee, and approved by the Plenary.

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In parts 1 and 2 of this series, we looked at the problems with the current badge levels, and what pilots around the world are telling us (through their flying) would make a fairer set of levels for these badges.

Thanks to OLC, we now have a much better undertanding of how far pilots fly day-to-day. How should we relate that to badge requirements? Well, we start with the principle that the badges should rise in difficulty from easy to moderate to challenging to difficult. That’s not what we have today, at least for hang gliders (easy - moderate - ridiculous - damn near impossible). The idea is, if we can agree in a general way on how hard the badges should be, and how accessible they should be, it will be easier to agree on specific values for the distances and other requirements.

The badge and records committee put forward to the CIVL Bureau, and then to the Plenary, the following set of principles to guide the development of the new badge levels:

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In part one of this series, we looked at how the existing CIVL badge system is broken. In this article, we look at what pilots say about fair badge levels. We do that by studying how far pilots actually fly, not how far some wishful thinkers would like them to fly. And for this information, we turn to the OLC (On Line Contest).

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At the CIVL meeting at Panajachel, Guatemala, delegates voted to revise the CIVL Badge system effective May 1st of this year. Why did they do this?

We’re been flying hang gliders for over 30 years, and paragliders for 20 (in round numbers). We have had a badge system in place for many years. There are (some estimates say) about 300,000 hang glider and paraglider pilots in the world today.

And the number of FAI gold badges issued?
Rigid wings: 0
Flex wings: 4
Paragliders: 24
Sailplanes: 6500 (including 3 diamonds on top of the gold badge).

Clearly, there’s something wrong with our program.

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Here’s the view the CIVL delegates got as they left Panajachel on Sunday afternoon:

CIVL Plenary Day Two

14. further discussion on safety director. Proposal by Dennis, Xavier, Klaus.

- a separate safety director (with no other respons) mut be nominated by the organiser and accepted by the CIVL Bureau. The suitability of the SD shall be reviewed by the Steward after the pre-meet. The bureau may require a replacement SD.
- the SD is responsible for monitoring all aspects of safety, including but not limited to wind speed, presence of thunderstorms, other potentially dangerous conditions. Further duties are to monitor in-air crowding at take-off, presence of dangerous air traffic. He may also prevent pilots with unsafe equipment.
- SD has responsibility to attend the task advisory committee , monitor setting of goals, routes. SD shall attend the safety committee and accept input from safety committee. SD shall collect accident reports and discuss accidents with the Steward and present conclusions at the pilot briefing. He is also responsible for checking that all pilots have reported back.
- SD may stop a task at any point for reasons of safety. Any decision taken by the SD will be reported to the Jury president.
- the SD must have knowledge and experience of the site being flown and ideally must have experience in appropriate competitions.
- bids for Cat. 1 must be approved by appropriate wrt safety. To be approved, the organiser must have experience at organising safe and successful international comps.
- these rules apply to Brazil PG world comp in a few weeks.

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CIVL Plenary Meeting
Day One, Feb. 18th

1. meeting opens.
2. 27 countries in attendance (including 5-6 proxies). introductions of all countries
4. Agenda approved.
5. Last year’s minutes approved.
6. Olivier read his president’s report commenting on his years as president
7. Max Bishop president report: new FAI president Pierre —-, a power pilot who is trying to strengthen links to ICAO through appointment of Mary-Anne Stevens (Aero Club of Canada pres.) as delegate to ICAO. The FAI Centenary will be in Paris in October: all pilots are welcome - register on the FAI website. Accident rate in our sport is unacceptable to Max: we are the only sport that has fatalities in its comps. Poland was proposing to hold an FAI Centenary Games, but it’s likely not to go ahead.

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HG Competition Sub committee minutes:
(As I only attended the initial portion of the meeting, these notes were kindly provided to me by Paula Howitt, and are unofficial until reviewed by the Bureau).

1 Full co-operation between the Steward and Jury president: Jury handbook
The only person who has authority to stop the competition is the Jury President. The steward should work closely with the JP to bring to their attention any points that may require action especially regarding safety.

2 Information of conditions in flight with 3 pilots in the safety committee: S7
Already in HG S7

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CIVL Hang Gliding Committee
Friday Feb 18, 9:00

- list of items to be discussed is per Annex 4.

- rules for next world championship proposed.

CIVL Aerobatics Committee
Friday Feb 18, 9:00
Chairman: Dennis Pagen

- presentation for 1st world aerobatic championship, to be held near Geneva. Aug 16-27th, 2006. Events: HG Solo, Paraglider solo, PG session. Team size 4 pilots + 2 women. up to 60,000 spectators expected. Landing rafts to be used for HG in finals (dry ground for preliminaries). Entry fee of 300 Euros, or 500 Euros for syncho as well. Includes lodging.
- pilots must be able to do spin, loop, and wingover.
- Aug. 17-21, 2005 for pre-meet. Fee is only 25 Euros per day.
- flying is done early in morning and in evening.
- website info: http://www.redbull-vertigo.com
- short video presented; event looks like fun and professionally organised.

- I left this committe in order to attend the PG committee. I will look for minutes from someone else. (Later: I got some unofficial notes from Paula Howitt. See separate article on this topic).

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(second draft here, since my original draft disappeared suddenly)… I’m here in Panajachel, Guatemala ( map ), for the CIVL Plenary meeting. This town of 11,000 is located a long 3-hour drive from the capital along the N shores of Lake Atitlán at an elevation of 1500m. On the other side of the 13 km wide lake are three volcanos, Atitlán (the tallest, at 3500m), Tolimán and the smaller San Pedro. The lake is surrounded by highlands about 2500m high.

There are lots of accomodation options, from camping, to $5/night pension-style rooms, to $80 resort-type hotels. I’m staying in the Tzan Juyu, dating back to the 1940s and clearly having seen better times. It’s great because it has no radio or TV, and a superb view of the lake. It also has a landing spot on the edge of the lake, adequate for PGs and smallish for HGs. You can glide across a small bay to this LZ from a ramp (for HGs) or slope (for PGs) 400m up the side of very steep mountains on the road out of town.

The picture below shows the view from the Tzan Juyu hotel. Not too shabby!

The main launch spot is 3 km W of town via an 18km winding paved road, thence onto private property via payment of a 10 Quetzales (about $2 Cdn.) fee. The takeoff spot is a steep clearing on a treed hillside large enough for one glider at a time to launch, though several could set up at once. It sits 500m AGL. You can’t see the LZ from launch, as it sits in a bowl, but you can easily glide to in a PG. The main LZ is where the dried San Francisco River meets the lake, and is easily large enough for both PG and HG. If you can’t get to it, there’s always the beach.

In the picture below, you can clearly see the horizontal slash of the river bed, and the Tzan Juyu is at the far end of town where the lake meets the cliffs.

I’ve been told that on the good days, you can get up to 4500m ASL, and possibly cross the lake, but the past few days have allowed only local soaring. The winds here are quite predictable. The sea breeze first enters around noon from the SW, through a low gap on the west side of the Atitlán volcano. This wind, which can be turbulent when it first arrives, is called the San Lucas, after the town in that low spot. Later in the afternoon, the wind enters from a low spot between Atitlán volcano and San Pedro volcano, and is called the Santiago wind. It blows from the south and allows consistent soaring until dark. The past few days, the wind has come in like clockwork each day, allowing for lots of good soaring. You could easily rack up 20 hours or more in a week here, if you set your mind to it.

Today the fun is coming to an end, as the CIVL Bureau met at 2 pm to plan out its objectives for the meeting. The other delegates had one more day of freedom before getting down to business in the working groups tomorrow. The full Plenary starts on Saturday and finishes Sunday. After the meeting is over, there will be a spot-landing contest put on by the host Hotel del Lago where the conference is being held.

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I’m in Queenstown, NZ, on a month-long trip through NZ and Australia. Today I got to fly at Coronet Peak, just outside town. (more…)

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On Canada Day, July 1st, I enjoyed my first sailplane flight in almost three years. Coincidentally perhaps, I also met my new wife 3-1/2 years ago. Still, that’s too long between flights. Time to take action.
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I was out at Invermere this weekend, and got to go for a flight in the Flight Design CT with the Canadian distributor Ernst Schneider of EWS Aviation. We encountered some high winds aloft in our short flight!

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The FAI has chosen a new logo to represent the organisation, after many years with its previous loog. The new logo takes effect in July of this year, in preparation for FAI’s 100th anniversary next year, 2005.
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A lot of water has flowed under the bridge since my last hang-glider flight a year and a half ago. But today I made a new entry in the logbook. In fact, I made ten new entries, for ten flights!
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My friend Ernst Schneider from EWS Aviation Services recently made a little 14,000 km trip from B.C. down to Florida and back, in a Flight Design CT2k advanced ultralight. He’s got some good stories about turbulence strong enough to crack the seat, 70 km/h winds on landing, and flying over 500 km in three and a half hours.

During his trip he ran into lots of high winds, and lots of wave conditions. At one point, he took a picture out the side window of the aircraft showing the classic lens shape of a lenticular cloud.

The Kasperwing was a hang glider built on the concept of a tailless sailplane that could do some unusual things due to its control system and airfoil. Apparently it could slow down to below stall speed, and continue to fly normally, albeit with an increased sink rate. You can read more here.

Thanks to another 3-week work assignment in Brazil, I was able to get in some flying at a new (to me) site near Rio de Janeiro: Nova Iguaçú.
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Recently I acquired an iTrek GPS from Semsons for a modest price. The iTrek is an OEM version of the Holux GM-270, which features the new SIRF2 low-power chipset. This is a GPS that is designed to be used in a PDA w
ith a compact flash slot, such as some Pocket PCs (Toshiba e740, iPaqs with a CF sled, the new iPaq 2200) and the Sharp Zaurus 5500 or 5600.
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SoaringPilot is a glide computer for the Palm PDAs. Running particularly well on the new Palm Tungsten under OS 5, SoaringPilot can do lots of things to help the soaring pilot (gliders, hang gliders or paragliders) make the most of the conditions.

On the SoaringPilot website there is also a reference to a PocketPC version of the program, but the two are not functionally identical, so my comments will be limited to the Palm version.

Remember that SoaringPilot is freeware, so moderate your expectations. With that in mind, read on!

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StrePla is a flight verification application that will read tracklogs from either GPS units or IGC loggers. It also allows submission of your flights to the OLC . Some of the advanced features in the latest version bear describing.
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Some new software by Italian pilot Marco Zonca helps pilots find thermals. Sound too good to be true? Read on!
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