Thomas Weissenberger <<thomas.weissenberger01>> writes:

At task four, which I was leading until the last turnpoint, I left for final
glide at 2,650 meters MSL. With full VG I kept gliding more upwind to the right
while other gliders to my left hit big sink. There was a blue sky ahead of us so
there were no clouds that could tell us anything about what would happen next.

On my line I hit good lift and I started to glide faster so as to not go over
the altitude limit. I was already close to 2,775 meters MSL (30 meters extra
included as briefed at the pilot meeting).

But instead of diving out and away from it, the lift it got stronger, so I
pulled the bar in as far as possible for the fastest speed. Then the nose went
up vertically and the glider wanted to go into a loop. I put all my weight to
the right to make a wingover instead.

When coming out of my acrobatic maneuver I was still in major thermal lift. As
soon my nose dive got from vertical to a slightly positive wing position the
glider recovered immediately to horizontal. With a massive G-force I was pressed
into my harness, the speed bar still at my belly was pushed forward and hit my
throat very hard. Eight batten clips broke immediately with a huge crack and
four battens, two each side, slid out their batten pockets about 30 cm (Nr. 5
and 6). Two of them were bent.

I could continue gliding but with pain in my throat. My speed bar pressure felt
very loose so I checked my wings each side to see the damage. With four battens
pushed back you cannot imagine how the glide performance decreased still with
full VG! My numbers for reaching goal went down and after crossing the lake low
I had to thermal again together with Yuiji Suzuki to make it.

In goal Tony Armstrong and both sons of Nene told me that they have seen my loop
just flying behind me. Also Jamie Shelden took pictures of my trailing edge
battens after I had landed.

Well, I just could download my backup GPS (Sensbox by Flytec) of task 4 which is
telling me that I had a maximum GPS altitude of 2,906 meters or 2,752 meters
barometric altitude QNH (23 meters below airspace) calibrated on take off at
takeoff altitude. This would mean that I was not over the limit of 2,775 m QNH
at all!

http://www.xcontest.org/world/en/flights/detail:tomtom01/1.9.2016/14:24

Of course, my back-up was downloaded but the scoring program just showed the GPS
altitude of 2,906 meters and not the 2,752 meter QNH (below the limit of 2,775
meters) but I did not realize that at that moment This would also mean that the
main mistake was done by the score keeper by not getting the QNH numbers from my
instrument Also the FS scoring program was installed just before the comp and
the scorer did not have any experience with it.

The same evening I wrote a complaint about what had happened before the scoring
as a pilot's report. The main statement was that I have tried all I could to
prevent getting higher than 2,775 meters MSL without any chance to avoid that as
detailed above. Furthermore the loop pushed me and my glider into a dangerous
maneuver in turbulent air. I just could get out safely without any serious
injuries. My voice is slowly coming back now and I have started to be able to
swallow food and water again.

They also did not ask me if I am ok or if I would need medical treatment,
friends and flying mates did though. Only what matters to them was airspace and
the numbers shown by the program. Not any health or safety issues! Looks like
one tumble was not enough...

I asked that they should check QNH altitudes of my back-up instrument, which was
downloaded, but they did not. They just gave me zero points for the day. But at
briefings it was said that always the lower numbers in favor of the pilot would
be considered. This was not done in my case as I understand it now.

Same thing happened to Pedro Garcia at task 3 but the other way around by taking
the back-up altitudes and not the right data out of his Digifly instrument. They
just do whatever they feel like. This is a misuse of power going against pilots
who paid a  250 € entry

They did the same thing at the Brasilia Open the week before with Olav Opsanger
from Norway on task 4 by taking GPS altitudes instead QNH. At this competition
only the 1st task QNH altitudes were considered after certain protests when all
of a sudden all penalized pilots got their points back with me as the day
winner. Then for the following tasks they changed it again - during the same
comp - back to GPS altitudes by saying at briefings: 'GPS altitudes must be
taken by FAI rules' - seriously. But for task 1 they took QNH altitudes.

Anyway, I arrived on 7th place on the fourth task, happily save and sound, with
plenty of leading bonus points, which would have given me about over 940 points.
This would have made a huge difference on the final results of these Pre-World
Championships if they would have been run correctly.

I looked at Thomas' track log. The GPS altitude (not the pressure altitude)
showed him very slightly above the 9000' level for a few seconds before he hit
the turbulence. He then lost about 500 feet in eight seconds.