World Team Fundraiser
Posted: Thu May 30, 2019 4:11 pm
Dear Friends and Colleagues,
Some of you know that I’ve been flying Hang Gliders for the better part of my adult life. It’s been an integral part of my DNA that has taken me many places and I’ve experienced the “thrill” of being at cloudbase over 18,000’ while being snowed on in the middle of summer.
Now a new chapter in my flying has opened with my selection to be on the USA Hang Gliding World team, where we’ll participate in the XXII World Championships in Tolmezzo, Italy this July. Basically, this is the equivalent of qualifying for the Olympics (there are no flying sports in the Olympics). Every two years the best from every country come together to race among the clouds.
Two Sylmar pilots have been selected to be on the team, Jeff Chipman and Will Ramsey
The XXII Hang Gliding World Championship, which will be held in Friuli Venezia Giulia in 2019, will be a spectacular event, thanks to its huge territorial extension. The Championship will also offer an unique and unprecedented potential regarding its technical aspects: the Headquarters will be in Carnia (Tolmezzo), but the tasks will be set on extremely different flying fields, even including some areas across the border (Austria and Slovenia).
A Hang Gliding race follows the same dynamics as a sailing regatta, with the difference that the first is developed on three dimensions rather than on two. There is an imaginary aerial line that all pilots have to cross after a predetermined time, and there are several turn-points (virtual cylinders with variable radius) up to an arrival line. The winner is the pilot who complete the task in the less time. The regularity of the route is guaranteed by the GPS, a device that each competitor uses to navigate around the waypoints. Each task can cover a distance from 50 to 250 km and the time required to complete each race ranges from 60 minutes to 5 or 6 hours. Considering that much of the time is used for altitude elevation, the average speed is between 30 and 70 km/h, while in the glides from one thermal to the other the modern hang gliders can reach 140 km/h. The winner is the pilot who has reached the highest score (made by the sum of daily scores). The National teams results are made by the scores of the best three pilots of each team.
Competition is incredibly expensive, each team will spend 20k-30K to compete along the rugged Italian Alps! If you can help the US team with a donation to help us get there, we’ve setup a donation page for your consideration. Donations are tax deductible.
Tee-shirt’s will be available with the team logo in a few weeks. Tee-shirt sales will most likely be through a different webpage but for now we’re scrambling to get it all together. Donations will be part of a matching fund that a couple of donors have generously set up. We have very little time to help offset the heavy burden of an overseas competition and every little (or big) bit helps.
Http://weblink.donorperfect.com/usa2019hgnt
Some of you know that I’ve been flying Hang Gliders for the better part of my adult life. It’s been an integral part of my DNA that has taken me many places and I’ve experienced the “thrill” of being at cloudbase over 18,000’ while being snowed on in the middle of summer.
Now a new chapter in my flying has opened with my selection to be on the USA Hang Gliding World team, where we’ll participate in the XXII World Championships in Tolmezzo, Italy this July. Basically, this is the equivalent of qualifying for the Olympics (there are no flying sports in the Olympics). Every two years the best from every country come together to race among the clouds.
Two Sylmar pilots have been selected to be on the team, Jeff Chipman and Will Ramsey
The XXII Hang Gliding World Championship, which will be held in Friuli Venezia Giulia in 2019, will be a spectacular event, thanks to its huge territorial extension. The Championship will also offer an unique and unprecedented potential regarding its technical aspects: the Headquarters will be in Carnia (Tolmezzo), but the tasks will be set on extremely different flying fields, even including some areas across the border (Austria and Slovenia).
A Hang Gliding race follows the same dynamics as a sailing regatta, with the difference that the first is developed on three dimensions rather than on two. There is an imaginary aerial line that all pilots have to cross after a predetermined time, and there are several turn-points (virtual cylinders with variable radius) up to an arrival line. The winner is the pilot who complete the task in the less time. The regularity of the route is guaranteed by the GPS, a device that each competitor uses to navigate around the waypoints. Each task can cover a distance from 50 to 250 km and the time required to complete each race ranges from 60 minutes to 5 or 6 hours. Considering that much of the time is used for altitude elevation, the average speed is between 30 and 70 km/h, while in the glides from one thermal to the other the modern hang gliders can reach 140 km/h. The winner is the pilot who has reached the highest score (made by the sum of daily scores). The National teams results are made by the scores of the best three pilots of each team.
Competition is incredibly expensive, each team will spend 20k-30K to compete along the rugged Italian Alps! If you can help the US team with a donation to help us get there, we’ve setup a donation page for your consideration. Donations are tax deductible.
Tee-shirt’s will be available with the team logo in a few weeks. Tee-shirt sales will most likely be through a different webpage but for now we’re scrambling to get it all together. Donations will be part of a matching fund that a couple of donors have generously set up. We have very little time to help offset the heavy burden of an overseas competition and every little (or big) bit helps.
Http://weblink.donorperfect.com/usa2019hgnt