Monday 24 December 2012

Winelands Open 2012 - Last Day

Waking up to the dull ache in my upper legs served as an instant reminder of a harrowing ordeal during the final day of the Winelands Open in Porterville.  The mild hangover of celebratory relief brought some respite:  There is something quite unique about the experience of watching a really close friend going through some apparently fatal manoeuvres on a cliff at speed flopping around like a rag-doll absorbing multiple hits from immoveable chunks of the mountain. 

The task committee set a creative task that gave you a world of choice cancelled by the conditions that confined us to a high speed ridge race with the wind strengthening cross-on from the south.   On a regular day as leader of a competition I would regard this as a gift, but not this day…

There were three of us racing hard in front of the field half way through the last task.  We had taken the turn point on the ridge and were headed back when Andrew took a violent and irrecoverable collapse meters from the cliff on the northern side of a big gorge.  By the time he took a third full body blow tumbling down the cliff my mind had already accepted that no animal could survive such violence.  I watched Stefan Schmoker take a fatal hit in Valle in 2009 and this seemed ten times worse.  It took about a minute of frozen animation and horror before the unexpected and desperately urgent appeal came through from Andrew on the radio in ragged anguish: 'Please send the chopper now!'.   Before I knew what was happening I exited my spiral dive and flared hard hitting the steep slope in the only spot of the lee that seemed like it might accommodate a landing and thumped in about 100m above and to the north of Andrew's position.

Crashing madly through the fyn-bos and hearing Andrew telling me not to panic brought irrational relief.  I squashed the standard retort thinking there could be no head injuries if he was conscious enough to be insufferable at a time like this.  If the truth be told, my premature relief was absolute. 

Andrew is probably the toughest bastard I know.  Strong, fit, resourceful and determined with a lifetime of war stories to be told.   I found him lying on his side on steep slope clinging to some roots.   I quickly wedged some flat rocks under his butt to stop him sliding.  He had managed to unclip his harness and dig his radio out before broadcasting a concise self-appraisal (which turned out to be accurate) and urgent instructions to despatch a helicopter.   All within a minute of coming to rest.  Between a rock and a hard place doesn't even come close!  I did a quick check trying to remember my trauma training as a medic in the army in the early 90’s.  What was it that SOB corporal Schutte taught us? 
                                                                                        
I checked his head, eyes, pulse and breathing before looking for breaks.  The wrist was easy to spot: off-set by an inch and pointing at a funny angle.  I felt two broken ribs and he 'reported' sensitivity on his spine (ok, so he shouted at me).  I couldn't hear any gurgling in his chest and his abdomen seemed normal with no whining when I prodded looking for internal injuries.  Andrew was in huge pain which was growing.  The pain was clearly communicated by the timbre of his voice when he told me it was too painful to speak. 

I was feeling inadequate and cursing myself for not having paid more attention during my military training, but I came to the conclusion that he would probably live and walk normally again so I provided some shade with a packing bag and went and stood to one side to take a deep breath, to speak on the radio and to make some phone calls.

A couple of pilots hung about and guided the medics down to us.  We had a drip up in minutes and then broke out the morphine and dormicum.  I knew the morphine was kicking in when Andrew started speaking again (in a clear voice).  The helicopter arrived within the hour and dropped two more rugged mountain rescue types. 

The morphine didn't last long as the wrist was niggling. Rob, the medic, had pumped enough morphine into Andrew to paralyse a horse along with enough dormicum to pacify an injured elephant.  Yet Andrew still grabbed my arm and looked at me with pin prick pupils and the slit blue eyes of an addict and almost begged me to do something about the pain in his arm.  There was nothing more to do so I told him to 'suck it up' and 'stop whining' which earned a dazed look of loathing just as the helicopter returned to pick up the 'package'.   

I had the dubious privilege of scrambling back up the mountain with Andrew's kit. 
Walking down the mountain with two sets of kit was not an option so: I looked for a launch place; bunched my glider with a wing tip presenting into the howling wind; strapped the extra glider to my caribiners on my lap; and executed a sit-down-wingtip-reverse-pull-up-off-a-cliff-flying-backwards launch that no-one teaches and which would have made Mike Kung proud! 

Andrew ended up with a messy fracture of the left arm/wrist; fracture of L1 vertebrae; two broken ribs; three broken toes; and a cracked sternum.  He has survived five hours of surgery and is in good spirits recovering in Cape Town. 

As for the competition… It doesn’t seem to matter that much anymore but our team won any way and they gave me enough points for the last day to win the overall individual competition.  The biggest irony has to be receiving the Andrew Smith Trophy for the best performing south African on a serial wing (which happens to be the end of a wine barrel some forty inches in diameter weighing in at thirty pounds).  As if I need a reminder of an excessively emotional day.

Many thanks to Waldo and his team for a world class comp.  Thanks also to RobM, Nicky, Henry, Khobi, Dudley, Rob and the rescue team among others who were willing and able to step up on a rough and demanding day.


Friday 21 December 2012

Winelands Porterville Open - 2012 - Day 6 - early Opinion

It would have been too much to expect another perfect day.  Today looks poor in comparison.  1.5 - 4 m/s thermals with a low base and westerly winds predicted. 

Winelands Porterville Open - 2012 - Day 5 - Task 4

We have been coming to Porterville for ten years or more.  I can quite honestly say that yesterday was probably the best day we have ever had.  A 100km task to Clanwilliam was meticulously set by the task committee and flawlessly executed by half the field.  Any fool that grumbles about task four needs a decade of therapy in my humble opinion.

Nevil took it from Andre and the French by a minute or two followed by the usual suspects.  Anton narrowly missed giving us all another flying lesson when he landed short on final glide a good twenty minutes before the rest. 

Anton and I had a wonderful run down the ridge to Skerpheuwel before going to the moon at Maan Berg @ 5m/s for 1,500m.  Constriction was not working so I hung about while Anton went for the win.

Max Vario (1s): 7.1m/s
Max Vario (10s) 5.4m/s
Max Alititude: 2345m ASL
Total Climbs: 12,132
Effective Glide: 8.3

 
 

Thursday 20 December 2012

New Glider!! Day 4 Task 4 Cancelled

What do you do when you get an SMS @ mid day informing you that your Super Final glider is one thousand miles away and you're in Porterville chomping at the bit? 
 
In my case you phone your friend Ben and ask him if he knows anyone who can help.  What happened after that put a massive smile on my face.  I hereby punt Send and Receive Couriers unashamedly and with great confidence.  Dion called me within five minutes of my plea to Ben (who happened to be in Nairobi looking to open a shop for le Creuset).  Dion had one of his people pick up my glider within the hour and another of his guys delivered the glider into my hands within 12 hours of my first call!!!
 
 

Wednesday 19 December 2012

Winelands Porterville Open - 2012 - Day 4 - Early Opinion

The temperature forecast is lower than yesterday which makes for a poorer day according to our sounding forecast for soaring:

Tuesday 18 December 2012

Winelands Porterville Open - 2012 - Day 3 - Task 3

My grandfather offered this advice on his deathbed: A closed mouth gathers no foot.  I should have listened. 
 
No sooner had I published the smug celebration of an 'effortless' task win before requiring all the 'effort' in the world to survive task three!  What a complete cluster of bad timing, missed climbs and faulty lines (as in faulty towers).  The comedy of errors had me scratching below 400m on four occasions before tunnelling my way through the mountain to goal with GregH (who managed a better finish).  In the end a number of pilots were gracious enough to slow down at the end to gift me ten or more places preserving my tenuous position on the overall ranking.  The results are here: www.xccomps.net
 
Andrew Smith: 'Memorable moments from yesterday: spending 20minutes above the wheat fields, I was the absolute lowest pilot in the air and having a wild celebration when I finally managed to get up to have other pilots beneath me; joining underneath the main gaggle hunting the core and getting a solid 4m/s on the average.  About to feel clever.  Look up and watch my mates speck-out @ 8m/s; required glide to goal 2.8 and only just getting in.'
 
My pilot of the week has to be the guy who has made goal everyday on a beginner glider (EN B), Calum McComb.
 
Task Summary:
 
There were reports of 8m/s thermals with some going to 2,500 asl.
 
For those of you who saw the early opinion forecast of conditions, here is the updated 10H00 sounding from yesterday.  There was a significant difference in surface temperature which saw 42degC.  The adjusted sounding looks like this:
 
 
 

Monday 17 December 2012

Winelands Porterville Open - 2012 - Day 3 - Early Opinion

Here is our interpretation of the sounding from 23H00 last night:
 
 


Winelands Porterville Open - 2012 - Day 2 - Task 2...

We are 'calibrating' soundings in order to give more accurate forecasts to the task setters in preparation of the world cup in February next.  To this extent I have a basic license for RAOB along with the analytic module which permits us to use the soaring functionality. 
 
If you have a look at the Cape Town sounding @ 23H00 on Monday night you will see that an inversion was expected @ 1,300m ASL along with average climbs of 719fpm (3.5 m/s) and base @ 2100m ASL.This sounding shows SE winds of up to 15Kts @ 1,000m ASL.  The neat thing about the RAOB application is that you have serveral models to choose from and you can adjust the dew-point and surface temperatures before predicting the day.  We set the surface temperature to 37degC to get this picture.  Interesting that 31degC was the minimum temp to punch through the inversion according to the model.  Looking at my vario pretty much confirms base and climb rate which is spectacular IMHO given that the sounding data was >12hrs premature making the prediction very accurate.  The same is true for the Sunday night sounding which had the first task exactly right.
 
We don't expect to get accurate data when a front comes through, but are confident when conditions become progressively more stable in between fronts.
 
 
 
Task 2
The second task was sublime in every aspect.  Launch conditions were perfect and the ridge was accommodating.  Andrew and friends set a creative task of 57km which included a 6km exit start from launch @ 13H00 followed by a choice of ridge or valley down to a 5km radius around the Eendekuil T junction which was far enough from the ridge to cause many headaches for those asleep.  Then a hop skip and a jump over the back into the Citrusdal valley followed by a 'big feeling' detour on the foothills of the BIG mountains and on into Constriction. 
 
With more than 50 pilots into goal, in a task that may be the start of some paradigm shifts, we have high expectations of some more amazing task setting!
 
I had one of those rare days where theory and practice contrived to give me an effortless task win by a few minutes from Abe.  If only it was like that all the time.
 
A good day for the team with most making goal in good time.
 
Task stats:
Max Vario (1s): 6.6m/s
Max Vario (10s): 4.9m/s
Max Alt: 1862
Total Climb: 7,173m
Effective Glide: 7.8
 
 
 

Sunday 16 December 2012

Winelands Porterville Open - 2012 - Day 1 - Task 1

Three practise days yielded no realistic record prospects but we did manage some interesting flights which included a fairly satisfying run to the south of the Porterville ridge followed by a crosswind crab to Pieketberg with AndrewS and RusselA.  That the R11 is supreme is beyond question as was brutally demonstrated into wind on the ridge where the IP6's were a minimum of 16 km behind having completed only 14km.  I guess I need to 'get over it' as Andrew insists, but I lament the pleasure and performance of the greatest flying machine ever invented and regret not being able to demonstrate it's beauty in competition.
 
My 50km FAI Triangle attempt was diabolical in every sense of the word.  There are certain conditions in Porterville where flying on the ridge can be construed as problematic and this was one of them.  I managed the first 13km in 27 minutes followed by 22 km in 20 minutes which was well under record pace, and then I stood still in the Southerly which had cranked up to 'fresh'.  I eventually limped back to Rob's house at a paltry 25km/h claiming nothing but my free beer from Rob.
 
The first task was set for 55km of intrigue and experimentation whereby the task committee sent us south for the start before a tricky 44km radius turn point that bisected the ridge @ roughly 45deg followed by a linear course line down the valley to the north with goal (P4701) beyond Eendekuil on the way to Rhenosterhoek. 
 
 
The inversion broke to my advantage before the start allowing for an effort free start and subsequent romp to goal via two turn points with a strong sprint finish in the convergence for some of us.  Africa's Finest (our team) enjoyed mixed fortunes with two of us in the top 15 and the other half landing short or experiencing some navigational issues. 
It looks like we may fly every day so it's a looong way to go but I will bank a task win anytime and anyhow.  With luck the lead out points will go my way too. 
 
I don't know when the results will be out but have a look here: http://www.xccomps.net/
 
I have some video footage which I will try edit tonight but without decent 3G coverage I can't promise anything.
 
Flight stats:
Max climb 1s: 6.2m/s
Max climb 10s: 4.6m/s
Max speed: 71km/h
Max Alt: 2008m ASL
Total Climb: 6,900m
Task: 55km
Effective glide : approx 8
Time 1h39'20''
Ave Speed: 33.3km/h (medium pace)



 
 

Wednesday 5 December 2012

Extreme Badge Collecting

It's been a while since the SVE (Sun Valley Experience sort of like the Jimi Hendrix experience).

My post-world-cup depression has lifted with the prospect of the annual trek to my favourite place and comp: the Winelands Open in Porterville.

Some of us are going down a little early to get some practise (on the R11).

Some time back I was wondering how to 'practise' for competition without actually flying competition and I decided try my hand at a couple of closed circuit records.
 
Last year we went to Porterville before the comp and tried the 50km FAI Triangle  and 100km Out and Return
 (http://www.paraglidingforum.com/leonardo/flight/553520) for the first two stabs and narrowly missed the world marks and claimed the (vacant) regional ones.  Neither day was particularly conducive to record claims, but I tried anyway. 
 
The 50km triangle was uneventful but the 100km OR was an arduous affair because the day turned out to be windy and viciously thermic. The start was 25km down the ridge from launch and into wind which involved pushing full bar just to get the ground speed above walking pace.  The guys with me at the start on serial wings turned and stood still before going to land. 
 
This was probably the most challenging flight I have had in years simply because I was flat out (to the rings with neutral trims) most of the way taking massive marlin strikes every few minutes and barely able to maintain 30km/h for one hundred minutes. 
 
It kind of frazzles your nerves when you are at the limit of your ability for hours on end without a break simply because you're chasing the clock and a minute behind with very little in reserve.  At the turn I dropped the trims all the way and held on to the red things with hands aching in protest and completed the hectic return leg in half the time it took to turn.  I was convinced that you could not fly a paraglider faster than that! ... and yet I missed the world record by a depressing minute or two which drove me to humiliating analysis of the track-log lamenting minute details and innocuous little wasted seconds that lay hidden like cancerous cells which when clumped together felt like the great big festering tumour of failure.  There was nothing to do about it and I'm going back to try again.
 
I have to tell you that the clock is the most brutal of competitors because it is relentless and unmoved by anything you do which is also fantastic because it is all about absolute performance.  There is no relativity (conditions notwithstanding).  So you have to be honest and suck on it when you fail.  The up-side is you find out where you are inclined toward mistakes which eat time under duress.  You don't get to practise competitor based tactics (which you should be doing in your head anyway), but you get to iron-out technical details.
 
Needless to say the competition felt like coastal soaring in comparison (given the compulsory serial gliders and short cross/downwind romps).
 
Here's my schedule for the rest of this year and first quarter of next:
Winelands Open: Porterville, SA - 16 - 22December
World Cup Super Final 2012: Rodanilho, Colombia - 16 -25 January 2013
World Cup 2013: Porterville, SA - 23 Feb - 2 March 2013
 
I haven't decided on the rest of the world cup tour and there's also world champs to consider if I make the team.
 
In the mean time, Roll on Porterville!!
 

Tuesday 30 October 2012

Fwd: pwc 2012 bir billing final results

More from Andrew:
 
And so it's all done. A short but fun last task.
Couldn't change much really.
Only one place change at the top, Theuns moving to third. So two Sud Afris on the podium!
There were cash prizes ( don't tell the the receiver of revenue!) so the guys are extra happy.
Theun's first international podium. Go Theuns!
 
Also the first time an Indian pilot has won the overall. Good on ya Vijay.
Large closing ceremony at the landing, going on till after dark. Gliders still coming in to land through the gloom.
We then joined the Indian crew at the Tibetan Joy Cafe for a quick snack and celebratory drink and toke.
 
Ranking officers included an Air Commodore and two Colonels. Waiting downstairs was our heavily laden taxi, ready for the 12 hour haul to Delhi.
Fortunately the local lads helped with Himalaya's finest for the drive, so the first half was rather fun! Especially the military road blocks.
 
We arrived in Delhi before dawn and took on the challenge of getting into the airport building. Not possible without a paper ticket. Much admin to get paper printed out from the iPads. But done now, and the lads are through. I can't enter the building for another 7 hours though.
 
So going to take in the Akshardham temple, meant to be more spectacular than the Taj and the eighth wonder of the world. Cool.
 

 Paragliding International Competition

2012-10-23 to 2012-11-01

Task 1-5

Total results

Provisional
Task Date Distance
Task 1 2012-10-26  46,0 km Race to Goal with 1 startgate(s)
Task 2 2012-10-27 43,5 km Race to Goal with 1 startgate(s)
Task 3 2012-10-28 66,0 km Race to Goal with 1 startgate(s)
Task 4 2012-10-29 49,8 km Race to Goal with 1 startgate(s)
Task 5 2012-10-30 39,0 km Race to Goal with 1 startgate(s)

# Id Name Nat Glider Sponsor T 1 T 2 T 3 T 4 T 5 Total
1 58 Vijay M Soni M IND Niviuk Ice Peak 6 930 946 878 981 897 4632
2 57 Nevil Leighton Hulett M RSA Ozone Enzo 924 811 885 954 938 4512
3 59 Theuns Johannes Koekemoer M RSA Enzo 884 671 749 988 896 4188
4 45 Gurpreet Singh Dhindsa M IND Niviuk Ice Peak 831 736 839 918 842 4166
5 56 Andrew John Smith M RSA Nivuik IP6 528 807 905 967 927 4134
6 43 Stanislaw Radzikowski M POL Triple Seven Rook 731 770 764 798 773 3836
7 34 Konstantin Treglibov M RUS Ozone Enzo 979 816 800 564 532 3691
8 4 Szymon Sapeta M POL Sky-Country Evolution X 546 714 734 789 845 3628
9 37 Anatoly Lomovtsev M RUS Para Avis Odissey 755 645 755 543 762 3460
10 41 Slawomir Robert Kedziak M POL Ozone Delta 579 612 633 766 788 3378
11 5 Agnieszka Schwenk F POL Triple Seven Rook 526 510 697 792 760 3285
12 35 Vitaliy Kovylin M RUS Sky Country Evolution 519 655 670 557 740 3141
13 55 Dmitrii Zhuravlev M RUS Paraavis Vqr10 523 560 581 753 711 3128
14 31 Nikita Makarov M RUS Axis Vega II 532 539 599 573 641 2884
15 32 Klaus Pedersen M DEN Gradient Aspen 674 276 688 560 684 2882
16 48 Maxim Zubarev M RUS Nova Factor 545 643 640 475 532 2835
17 68 Prakash Chand Thakur M IND Ozone Mantra M4 522 609 618 350 714 2813
18 62 Aleksandr Matveev M RUS Gradiend Aspen 3 567 527 554 770 362 2780
19 42 Grzegorz Rafal Dudka M POL Advance Sigma 7 552 627 473 352 687 2691
20 1 Svetlana Gennadievna Pozharskikh F RUS Advance Sigma 8 462 535 553 505 635 2690
21 33 Ulrik Mailand M DEN Sky Walk Chilli 2 545 542 473 619 491 2670
22 36 Anna Darchenkova F RUS Para Avis Joy 596 503 541 405 579 2624
23 27 Raj Kumar M IND Sky Walk Canny 569 526 488 544 350 2477
24 63 Yevgeniy Oreshkin M KAZ SC EVO 26 508 473 287 714 489 2471
25 72 Arvind Paul M IND Airwave magic 4 509 121 666 676 480 2452
26 2 Sergey Stanislav Makovskiy M KAZ Artik 3 Nivvik 509 569 567 352 454 2451
27 28 Akhilesh Yadav M IND Mac Para Envyz 509 540 467 455 354 2325
28 67 Kamal Kumar M IND Ozone Delta 522 121 548 510 542 2243
29 23 Thangboi Vaiphei M IND Pro Design Jalpa 394 494 470 385 438 2181
30 20 Praveen Kumar Sharma M IND Sky Walk Chilli 397 425 432 386 454 2094
31 69 Igor Borisov M RUS Swing Mistral 448 430 455 357 399 2089
32 29 Vishnu Sharma M IND Mac Para Envy 2 485 425 440 241 390 1981
33 61 Oxana Negriy F RUS Sol Ellus 4 122 479 457 439 438 1935
34 65 Jyoti Prakash Thakur M IND Advance Omega 6 482 306 526 468 143 1925
35 38 Dhirendra Singh Thakur M IND Mac Para Envy 2 348 425 320 312 513 1918
36 49 Dimtry Moriakov M RUS Nova Factor 2 441 121 470 365 517 1914
37 66 Raj Kumar Thakur M IND Advance Omega 7 182 513 552 528 1775
38 60 Mikhail Krapivin M KAZ Gin Tribe 122 518 548 198 355 1741
39 8 Sundar Raj M IND Pro Design Jalpa 122 425 441 294 425 1707
40 54 Jigish R Gohil M IND Axis Pluto 2 308 353 414 209 288 1572
41 11 Kuppu Samy M IND Pro Design Accura 382 495 233 190 210 1510
42 30 Suhas Narayan Chaudhary M IND Pro - Design Accura 194 217 427 262 351 1451
43 12 Gurjant Singh M IND Mac Para Envy 2 387 197 209 366 211 1370
44 18 Pawan Kumar Negi M IND Sky walk Canny 388 202 284 197 236 1307
45 16 Ajit Sangma M IND Sky Walk Chilli 153 294 288 294 143 1172
46 73 Dinesh Kumar M IND Advance Epsilon-3 350 365 345 100 1160
47 6 Meenu Yadav F IND Para Avis Jazz 387 250 406 100 1143
48 46 Shankar Singh M IND Niviuk Hook 122 219 111 543 143 1138
49 9 Shashi Pal Rana M IND Pro Design Accura 270 316 144 196 211 1137
50 50 Samarth Sharma M IND Ozone Geo 154 157 138 475 211 1135
51 71 Subhash Chand M IND Ozone Mculse 122 121 449 365 1057
52 26 Lianzamawi Vualnam M IND Mac Para Envy 2 237 268 194 189 143 1031
53 7 Amit Anil Kakade M IND Axis Comet 145 306 111 100 282 944
54 64 Natalya Goncharova M KAZ Firebird Raven 508 121 289 918
55 13 Katasani Srinivasa Reddy M IND Pro Design Accura 122 407 111 133 143 916
56 17 Akash Singha M IND Sky Walk Chilli 195 198 205 172 143 913
57 19 Gurvinder Singh M IND Independence 196 144 119 103 143 705
58 47 Vishal Kumar Jassal M IND Advance Omega 122 318 111 143 694
59 3 Amit Sangrai M IND Swing Arcus 155 121 111 100 143 630
60 22 Rakesh Kumar Panghai M IND Sky Walk Chilli 128 121 118 105 143 615
61 10 SS. Khalnong Lamkang M IND Pro Design Accura 122 121 111 105 143 602
62 25 Lalrannghaka M IND Mac Para Edn 4 122 121 111 100 143 597
62 15 Bijay Borah M IND Sky Walk Chilli 122 121 111 100 143 597
62 21 Mukesh Kumar Chourey M IND Sky Walk Chilli 122 121 111 100 143 597
62 24 Milan Swargiary M IND Pro Design Accura 122 121 111 100 143 597
62 14 Bhanwar Lal M IND Sky Walk Kayene 122 121 111 100 143 597
67 53 Igor Gordeev M RUS Jor Paravis 511 0 511
68 51 Sukhcharan Sing Brar M IND Axis Pwto 0
68 52 Jaswinder Pal Singh M IND Ozone Electron 0
68 44 Robert Zagorski M POL Ozone Rush 0 0
68 39 Przemyslaw Andrlej Wojtkiewicz M POL Ozone Mantra 0
68 40 Kacper Kowalski M POL Ozone Mantra 0
68 70 Alexander Karmanov M RUS MAC Marvel 0