2007 World Hang Gliding Championship

Time to fly, it's the Worlds!



Bernie and I flew to Dallas together with our carbon prototype gliders -not easy- and picked up our pimp'n ride.



Task 1

The first task was a 150km downwind flight in light blue conditions. It was difficult in places but flying with so many good friends, doing what we do best, made me smile many times during the flight. The long shallow final glide over bright green cotton fields was peaceful.

Many top contenders landed short of goal today.



The gaggles were congested at times; wide angle lens do not seem to convey how close we fly together.

Task 2

A 185km downwind dogleg task in difficult conditions. I landed short of goal in a soft part of the course. As I left a gaggle that was stuck in light lift I was feeling pretty confident that I would find something better further on; when I turned into a nice smooth 300fpm from 300ft above the ground, I smiled in relief but after only a few turns the entire thermal just disappeared.

It wasn't until I looked down at my feet standing in the soft soil of a cotton field that I realized I had landed. So much preparation, so much focus, so much effort... as I packed up alone in a pretty cotton field that I'll never see again, the reality of my imminent freefall on the scoresheet began to set-in.

I've had setbacks before but it still hurts every time. It hurts a lot.

Task 3

After a night to get rid of the grumpies in me, I was ready to start over. A 169km downwind flight to Levelland, via La Mesa. Slow and tough but still the best day so far. This time I was 9th into goal. An Italian beat me by one second as we dove into the airpot below treetop height at groundspeeds over 140km/h!

This hanggliding stuff is fun!

Task 4

Finally we had clouds and a decent cloudbase (10,000ft). The 150km downwind task was fun and the cool air at base was a relief. Most took the first startgate at 2:30pm but the gaggle split immediately only to join once again 30km from goal.



My playground today, or rather playsky.



Here's a short clip taken during the task. Team member Bernie appears below me midway through the clip. He has been flying really well, as have the rest of our team.

Every Canadian in goal today!

Task 5

Today we launched in Texas and landed in New Mexico, in a different time zone, having flown the largest task ever completed in hanggliding history... 285km!

45 of 109 pilots completed the task.



Happy pilots in goal

Task 6



Launching from a dolly via aerotow

A very hazy day and a 150km task with a final headwind leg that put all pilots on the ground. This video shows the low visibility.



Task 7

A 175km downwind task to the famous Hobbs, New Mexico, in epic racing conditions except for some soft areas early in the task.



Cacti at the Hobbs airport

Day 8

Dangerous Dean pummels us with rain so it looks like no flying today. Tomorrow looks bad too.

Day 9

Hurricane Dean continued to rage so the 2007 World Championship came to an end.



1st Attila Bertok (Hungary)
2nd Robert Reisinger (Austria)
3rd Gerolf Heinrichs (Austria)

Team Canada finished 12th.

Brett Hazlett: 22nd (5273 points)
Scott Gravelle: 62nd (3534 points)
Bernard Winkelmann: 63rd (3495 points)
Ross Hunter: 81st (2888 points)
Jon Orders: 91st (2185 points)

Attila's acceptance speech was emotional. He thanked ex 3-time-consecutive World Champion, Tomas Suchanek, for setting the bar so high that it took Attila 26 years to be the guy standing up there on the highest step of the podium.

During the flight back home, as I drifted in and out of sleep, images of the last couple of weeks of flying flowed through my exhausted and happy mind. It already didn't feel _real_ and, of course, it wasn't. It was only real when we were all out there in the sky, going for it.

The best things in life are temporary.

The Trench

The weather was good for flying in the Rockies this weekend so I made the 2.5h drive from Calgary and went on a short 80km out-and-return flight. With my late start and having to make it back in time for the World Team fund raiser BBQ, that was all I could do. But retrospectively, thunderstorms blew-up more to the South anyways so it was a good choice to turn around early.



This is CANADA!



So wild, so grand, so engulfing. The reflections on my helmet are the images floating seamlessly through my mind. Up here, my problems fade into irrelevancy.



Earth's teeth



Cruising in lift on the return leg to Golden. This patch of air was smooth enough for me to take out my camera but I still couldn't hold it steady.

This place is beautiful.

Attack Eagle

A German engineer in the R&D group sent this to me after hearing my eagle attack story from the weekend.

While attempting to fly XC from the Muller hill and trying to get a climb from the West end of the ridge, I heard a piercing screech from above. Frantically, I looked around but couldn't see anything until I looked down at my shadow against the trees and saw the faint outline of a large bird with its wings tucked-in moving at a high speed towards my shadow. Moments later a loud bang made me look over to my right wing as I watched a Bald eagle slide, on his back, off my right wing tip.

He tumbled through the air and fell behind somewhat before righting himself, looking me straight in the eyes and flapping vigorously towards me... not towards my glider, ME!

I went into a dive but I was too slow for this killer avian assassin. He was moving much faster than I and just as I thought I was about to be wearing a mad eagle on my face, he got hung up in my bottom rear wires and went tumbling backwards again. By this time I had picked up some speed and watched my shadow speeding across the tree tops with the Bold eagle in hot pursuit. This time he let me go, but not before making me cry for Mommy!

Having narrowly escaped becoming Canada's first ever eagle fatality, I rushed back to top-land at the Müller's. It wasn't even lunchtime on the first day of a long weekend and I had already overdone it! Flying in 50km/h winds, mixed with strong thermals was rough enough, without protected wildlife attacks thrown in the mix!

I spent the rest of the afternoon shopping for electronics at Future Shop. Ah... much better.

Dimensions

During the Nationals there was an overcast day that never cleared up. We had setup already so we flew down instead of packing up. Cooper's launch can be difficult in no wind so I ran hard; just for fun I dove down and touched the top of a pine tree with my hand. Too much fun.

Reaching down from my wing, across the boundary between sky and ground, is a beautiful thing. It fills me with a calm energy that is difficult to describe.

The most dramatic moment like this happened on the coast of Rio de Janeiro a few years ago. I was on a cross country flight, trying to make it to the famous statue of Christ, in conditions that the locals said were impossible. But some patience and an indirect route that took me out to sea to climb in ocean thermals with a group of frigate birds finally made it possible.

Along the way I was stuck for a while on a pillar-like 1000ft rock formation with a few eagles, until a cloud finally drifted by and lifted us back to cloudbase. While waiting for the lift to form I dove down to the top of the rock and let my fingers slide across the top; as I moved along through the air towards the edge of the tiny peak, my focus shifted from blades of grass inches away to the city of Rio 1000ft below... the excitement of -feeling- the peak made me giggle uncontrollably!

Some days are better spent than others.

2007 Canadian Hang Gliding Championship

After work playtime on my UP Targa2



12,499ft in the Okanagan

No amount of water to one area of my life will quench my thirst in another.

I recently moved to Calgary to work as a R&D engineer for an alternative energy industry company. But this does not mean that I have lost interest in flying, in fact I have been flying my hangglider and paraglider 2 to 3 times a week at Cochrane since February. And I will be flying the big air of Golden on the weekends once the snow level drops a little more.

The flying scene here is really nice and I have a good group of friends here.

After only 4 months at my new job, my boss gave me time off to fly in the Nationals, which is really impressive.

After working hard all week it was a relief to show up in the Okanagan -British Columbia's wine country- for a practice day in epic Lumby conditions- a 13,000ft base, strong 3-5m/s climbs, crisp spring air and a blue sky dotted with puffy cumuli. I explored many of the valleys in the area and landed in the calm, golden air of the evening.

A good day in the air.

But that was the last of the good weather as the entire West coast was blanketed in wind and rain; there was even flooding in areas. After day upon day of rain, we were beginning to run out of things to do, just as a break in the weather came in time for one task on the last day of the comp. A 70km task in moist unstable conditions with lots of shade took me 2.5 hours to finish. The next closest group of pilots -including '05 British Champion Richard Lovelace- flew about 15km of the task after getting flushed in a particularly shaded-in gulley.

We didn't fly much that week but we had the chance to spend lots of time with friends, so it wasn't that bad. It was awesome to have Richard and Caroline here, who flew over from the UK just for this comp, and I really hope that they come back next year!

Of course I was super happy to win the Nats for a 7th year in a row, especially since my Dad was visting from Malaysia and was there to see it. I was also excited about my new wing... the Litespeed RS4 Carbon Smoke. I was expecting a flat glide but was surprised how well I could climb in the light stuff, without getting tired either.

Baby got climb!

Flight Club

What an awesome game!

It truly captures the dynamics of cross country racing, with an elegantly simple graphical interface.

So good is the game, that I feel similar mind processes going on while playing the game and while racing in the real sky. The basics, at least.

I'd go so far as to say that if you can reach the 100km goal in less than 100min, you have a working understanding of XC racing.

My best time is 89min. If you beat that, I'd love to hear how you did it!

Making equivalent 'real sky' decisions, with the sensory overload and fear that comes with real flying, is another story.

Pre World Hang Gliding Championship 2006

Results are here!



Gerolf reaches for base



Gerolf and Jonny talk tech in goal

On the road again... this time to the Pre Worlds in Big Spring, Texas.

Man, it's good to be here with so many elite pilots who are also my friends, to hang out and go racing. Comparing our latest gear and tactics is cool but what's special is that we understand each other and 'get' why we do this stuff.

Task 1

A 120km task with a 20km/h tailwind, base of 3000m and 3-4m/s climbs.

What an awesome day of flying! After 2 days of prep-ing gear, a good day of racing was just what I needed.

There were 3 startgates, 15min apart. Most took the middle start, and looking back it seems to have been the best choice.

Gerolf Heinrichs won the day with 1h 41min, followed closely by myself and Attila Bertok. When I saw Attila to my side, diving to goal, I was like 'it's on baby'... we kept trying to fly just a little faster than each other until it looked like we'd both land short. In the last 800m, I was able to pull ahead to cross a couple of seconds ahead. Flying into the goal field with a groundspeed of 120km/h at 100m was pretty intense.

All the Canadians made goal! Congrats Scott, Bernie, Mark, Jim!

Task 2



Texan Sky

We had the same task again... we could have flown 400km both these days but instead we had a 120km downwind race.

After an -off- start I was focused hard on pulling myself back into position in time for the finish. There was a point where I just kept gliding, flying through thermals, gliding more, passing up more... 2m/s was just not strong enough to stop for... as I fell deeper into the atmosphere, the radiating heat from the ground became sensible and I began to regret turning my nose up at the last mediocre thermal that I was gifted.

That creepy feeling that I might have pushed it too far and might actually land started to spread through me... then... the air developed this familiar feel that I've felt so many times before, and it was a good feeling. Even before I started to rise, I could tell it was going to be good and strong.

With a mad smile on my face, I banked into a climbing spiral, as my vario screamed at me. My 30s averager peaked at 5.6m/s (20km/h up!), my ears popped, the air became cool and cloudbase approached so fast it felt like I was going to collide with it. Not long after going on glide I began to realize that I had caught the lead gaggle!

The gaggle moved quickly towards goal and it came down to a final glide battle between myself and the crazy Hungarian, Attila. Our final was under a cloudstreet so the speeds were blistering. We exchanged best position countless times in the high speed, side by side glide, through the active air.

In the last 1km I managed to pull ahead to cross the line 5s ahead and take the day!

Task 3



Gliders packed into the hangar

This time it was a 160km FAI triangle, with a 20-30km/h wind. We had clouds but it still wasn't easy.

The first leg was downwind over farmland, the next crosswind leg was over a wild area with fewer roads and landing options. Swiss Nick tumbled trying to enter a dustdevil at 300m; he threw his reserve and landed fine, minus a sore ankle. When he hit the ground in a cotton field and looked up, realizing he was okay, he saw a cotton flower... and thought it was the most beautiful thing he'd ever seen!

The final upwind leg was against a demoralizing headwind. Attila and I had split up on the middle leg but joined up again near the last turnpoint. I spotted him high near base, I wasn't very high so I could barely make out his colours. Then getting a bit lucky searching under a huge cloud yielded a 6.6m/s to base. Attila and I rounded the turn point together, Attila still a little higher.

The first glide into the wind almost put us on the ground. We approached a canyon that we couldn't cross with the height we had... one last field held some hope. At 140m above the ground, gliding against a 30km/h wind, my glider yawed 30 degrees and I knew I wouldn't be landing this time! Climbing out from so low, you can really sense the thermal pulling you away from the ground, it's an awesome feeling! It was only a 3m/s, but it was steady and did a good job at unsticking us from our little situation.

The rest of the last leg was done in relative calmness and ease, closer to cloudbase. Other then following an arc to intercept some clouds en route to goal, it was quite conventional.

I saw Andre take a more direct line to goal, in the blue, at an impossible glide angle. I thought... no way. But he did make it in a minute ahead of both Attila and I and won the day! Having said that, a few top pilots made a similar move and landed tragically short of the goal line. Nenê was 10m short and Reisinger was 100m short, from what I remember.

No other Canadians in goal today, but Bernie and Scott were close. Scott landed behind our Motel and went for a swim before packing up... that's the way to do it!

Task 4



Wearing the Yellow Jersey

Big, big day! We flew 250km downwind, in the blue, in a predicted 25km/h tailwind that ended up being 5-10km/h!

With a 1 point lead overall and wearing the yellow jersey, I remember thinking to myself how cool it was to be here and now, flying in the Pre Worlds, winning, having fun with friends, and getting some of the best flying Texas and the World can give you! Waiting at the startgate, I took a deep breath, closed my eyes for a moment, and took it all in... remember this, Brett, don't ever forget.

This was a cool flight... more like an epic adventure with buddies than a Worlds task. Along the way we overflew two canyons, which was surprising to see, thinking that Texas was all flat. A bunch of us flew into one of them at a height that meant we'd be landing there without some lift. That was tense, but knowing that 5 friends would be with you with the same problem, made it an intensely cool experience. It would have been a real Survivor Texas show! Of course we made it outta there, since we're some of the best, supposedly.

Every 30min I did some quick head calculations to work out our current total average speed and the average of the last hour. Keeping track of how things were going, it looked like we might just get to final glide height in time for a late no lift final glide to goal at sunset. It was going to be close...

We flew in the blue all day but then a thunderstorm from the dryline convergence spread thick shade across the last 30km to goal. The lift dropped to almost zero, but thankfully the wind picked up again from 8km/h to 20km/h. Still it was really, really tricky. Only four pilots made it in; Seppi won the day, followed by Nils, Gerolf, and Glen. I landed 14km short, Attila 7km short to win the comp!

Attila is a kickass pilot and super guy, I'm happy to see him win. When I first met him in '98 he was 10ft tall. Now it feels good to be able to make him stretch a little in the air.