Flyfunston

Mark your calendars!

The Fort Funston Air Races and Dan Murphy Memorial BBQ will be held on Saturday, August 28.

The schedule will somewhat depend on weather conditions, but we will try to start racing around noon and have food available sometime thereafter. The Fellow Feathers will provide most edibles and soft drinks, but pot luck contributions are always appreciated!

Flight overview: Hang gliders may free fly all day at the cliff, but please, during the two hour race window, only air race participants are allowed on course between launch and the Westlake turn point.

Note: We could use a few more volunteers to help with the set up and race timing. If you would like to lend a hand please email Steve Rodrigues: srskypuppy at earthlink dot net

The race rules and further info will come soon, please watch this topic for details!

looking forward to the wind and lore

Please, everyone interested in competing should pre-register so I can order enough T-shirts for everyone!
Just drop me an email and I'll send you an entry form. Thanks! srskypuppy at earthlink dot net

Air Race Basics;

The Funston Air Race

The object of the Funston Air Race is to determine who can launch from Fort Funston, fly 2 miles south, round the Westlake turnpoint, and return to launch in the shortest amount of time. This race is meant to be FUN above all else!

Competition entry donation: $20.00. Entry donation includes a Funston Air Race T-shirt!

The winner of each class will also receive a free Fellow Feathers club membership for the following year, a $65.00 value!

All competitors must possess a current USHPA card with minimum H-3 rating, a current Funston helmet sticker, and be at least 18 years of age.

Competitors must tape their assigned number to the undersurface of their wing so the race timers and turn point monitors can identify the pilot. Race organizers will not be held responsible for mistakes made due to inadequate or missing numbers.

Air Race Rules:

Racing will be by glider class, no handicapping, and no adding of ballast.

The four classes will be: Rigid, Topless, King post double surface, and King post single surface. There must be a minimum of two competitors for a class to be valid.

The race window will open when the Launch Director determines that conditions are suitable for racing. At that time free flying will be limited to the Fort Funston cliff north of launch. Free flyers waiting to launch must yield to air race contestants.

The race window will close two hours after it opens unless otherwise determined by the Launch Director.

A maximum of three competitors will be allowed on course at any one time unless otherwise determined by the Launch Director.

Elapsed times will begin when the pilots’ feet leave the ground. Competitors must fly around and above the Westlake turnpoint, a flag placed near the edge of the cliff on the projected north fence line of the octagon shaped house. The pilots’ entire body must clear the turnpoint. (Not just a wing tip). The turn point will have a monitor with a radio, and any pilot not clearing the turn point will be disqualified. (DQ’d)

The elapsed time will end when the nose of the glider passes in front of, and above the Finish pylon, a flag placed at the edge of the cliff at launch.

Conditions permitting, competitors may make two flights, but may re-launch only after all the other competitors have completed their first flights. Competitors must notify record keepers of their intention to re-fly the course. The pilots’ best time will be kept for the records.

Competitors may be disqualified (DQ’d) for violation of International Ridge Soaring Rules, unfair or ungentlemanly conduct, endangering any other pilot or spectator, or any other reason agreed upon by the Launch Director and/or Race Organizer. All decisions by the Race Organizer are final.

A few reminders to all competitors:

Please have your registration forms filled out in advance, it will save time at the rego table. You can download it here:

http://www.hanggliding.org/viewtopic.php.html?t=18359

Also, please have your USHPA card ready to show our lovely rego staff!

Your Funston sticker # is your race #
Funston stickers and club membership will be available at the rego table.

Please apply your sticker number to your under-surface before moving into the launch line. (the sticker number, NOT the helmet sticker itself!)
1 1/2" blue painters masking tape works well.

See you there!
Steve

My name is Linda Valdez and i am Dan Murphy's sister. Just wanted you to know how much myself, our father, Jerry murphy and my son, Joe Grah, appreciate the annual BBQ for Dan. He would be so pleased. Is there any way that someone could e mail me a few pictures of the event so i could send them to my father. he has never gotten over the loss. In fact, it seems to be getting harder on him. i know he would appreciate it. thank you. lindavld2 (at) aol.com

Lots of good fun today.

I took a lot of still photos and many came out quite nice. At 14MPixel a lot of detail comes out but they are about 4.5MB each. Does anyone have any suggestion as to where to post them so that whomever is interested can browse them and download the high-res versions if they want? I don't have a lot of time to do uploads manually.

Hey guys, on behalf of Dave, Jared, Chris I want to thank all of the norcal pilots for your hospitality. It was such a treat to come hang with you guys today and watch (and film) some amazing racing.

Thanks

rC

i posted a couple of videos on Facebook...chk them out....

I lost a pip-pin from my U2 breaking down in the dark(ish) (right around the corner of the bush)....but still worth it, lots of fun out there.

here is one of your tandems Mike (thanks again (and again for the bbq(pit))

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mytHf5S3w8U

Diev

Diev, I'll look around for that flippin lost pip pin.
here's some pics from the turnpoint

http://picasaweb.google.com/Charlie.Kat ... 0AirRaces#

Allen , if the youtube can accept all those megapixels of video, one would think 'some' website ought to allow large JPEG files. but I know of not a one. and so must repeat the time worn refrain:
"if anyone would like the full 5 MB photo of themselves , send me your email address , by clicking on the email link just below this post, and I'll be glad to send the big honking file to you .".

In Diev's movie Willie brings up a good point at the ending .
'that was awesome'
c'mon ,Willie, one more time with feeling.

thanks to the many people who worked hard to make this flyin occur .

charlie nelson wrote:Diev, I'll look around for that flippin lost pip pin.
here's some pics from the turnpoint..............

Thanks Charlie! Those were fun!

We had fantastic conditions for the 2010 Funston Air Races and Dan Murphy memorial BBQ.

A small weather front had passed through the night before and it was still blowing strong when our volunteers arrived at 10 am. The wind was a solid 25 mph, but since we had so many skilled pilots, and not knowing if it would blow out or not, we got the race underway at noon. I was surprised to see even a few comp pilots having a challenging time controlling their wing on launch. Letting off some VG helped, but having a handle on basebar launching made a huge difference!

There was tremendous compression at the cliff so once in the air the guys went FAST, with the quickest averaging the 4 mile course at 48 mph!

We had planned on a 2 hour launch window but the racers were having fun and our volunteer team was willing, so we kept things rolling until close to three. Good thing since a straggler showed up late but set up in record time and got in a fast run. I’d hate to know how fast his drive was from the central valley!

By 3 pm it had calmed down to a smooth 18 mph with a fat band of lift, allowing for the rec pilots to get out and play until sunset. It was fun watching Dustin, Kenny, and others performing for the camera crew that came up from LA.

We had three BBQ’s going and while the race crew didn’t get to see much of it, I hear the food was good. Thanks to Raffie, Rob and Mike for manning the grills!

I want to express my appreciation for the sacrifice and dedication of our volunteer team, without whom this event could not have happened:
The Westlake turn point was manned by Charlie and Walter, Larry did radio relay, the registration and timing table was staffed by Josiane, Crystel and Natalie, and Chief took the role of Launch director. Thanks to all, you were a great team!

It is not easy to keep track of who’s on course and total up the ET’s but our timers did a great job. Here is a quick summary of the results:

Kingpost Single Surface;
First place, flying a Northwing Freedom, Mark Mulholland with an ET of 9’55”.
In second place was Alex Wright on a WW Falcon 3, ET 11’ 11”

Kingpost Double Surface;
First place, flying a WW U-2, Dirk Morris with an ET of 6’ 26”.
Second place goes to Brian Foster, flying Dirks wing, ET 6’ 47”.
Note about Dirk and his U2: Had he competed in the toppless class, he would have placed 7th in a field of 19!

Topless: First place, flying a WW T2C, Dustin Martin with an ET of 5’ 01”.
In second placed was Kraig Coomber on a Moyes Litespeed RS, ET 5’ 11”.

The rigid class did not have the minimum two competitors to be valid, but Darrel Robbins flew his Bright Star Swift anyway, completing the course in just 4’ 43”!

Thanks again to everyone who attended and contributed to the event, I hope to see you all back next year!

FYI: I can make more 2010 Air Race T-shirts if there is enough demand. Please drop me a line with your shirt size and I’ll try and get it done. srskypuppy at earthlink dot net

Cheers!

Taking the best-of-class from the scores above, I cam up with the following table:

Wing Class /Minutes/Seconds/Total/Relative to fastest
SS 9 55 595 0.475630252
DS 6 26 386 0.733160622
Topless 5 1 301 0.940199336
Rigid 4 43 283 1

Sorry there is no way to post tables on this message board. What this shows is that our topless got .94x the performance of the rigid, and the single surface got almost half. Of course we cannot say to what extend the individual pilot's skill affected the outcome, but it would appear that high-end flex-wings are remarkably advanced. Interesting.

Thanks for sharing your pics.
Dpreview.com can store and show full-size photos. I don't know if you need to have a paid account though.

For e.g. click "Full size" on this gator:

http://www.dpreview.com/challenges/Entr ... rst&Rows=4

HTH

thanks for the web site HTH. the gator is a 5 MB file , just what we need.
..................................
being a land surveyor by trade , and a bit toasted that I had lost a 5 minute race by 2 1/2 minutes, I double checked Steve's calculation of Dustin's 48 mph and can confirm it.
(measured 1.96 miles one way straight line in Google Earth , that gives 47 mph but yow Dustin and Kraig were exceeding 50 much of the time to average out this way)
need flip flops in my sail .

MM's photos/videos...

http://www.photoshow.com/watch/RA7Aa7dX ... show_owner

Diev