Swooping in southern Germany

[morris 0]

Just in case you´r coming to Germany...

If you are looking for a pond you´ll need to go to Fehrbellin, close to Berlin, or to Bad Lippspringe, operated by the british Army.

In case your travelling down south you might be interested to check out this place, my "private training site"...

It´s called Günzburg and it´s located north and close to the highway from Stuttgart to Munich, almost right in the middle/half way.
Prizes for hop´n´pops are starting from 12 Euro on (depending on the amount of jumps you´r doing). They are flying with two Cessna 206 turbines and during "normal" weeks (if there is no special event) they are operating 4 days per week, the weekend and wednesday afternoon.
There are many many little lakes around the DZ- that close by - that you can be dropped above and swoop´em on regular loads.
(In Germany you don´t need a special permission if it´s within 2 nautical miles around the DZ.)
At one of those lakes the are getting white sand out of the underground making for a very nice beach...

On the landing area of the DZ itself you´ll find a swoopcourse that allows you distances of about 170m-175m (560ft-575ft) in BOTH directions before you start getting into trouble/closing in on a target.
One of those directions is not as well prepared as the other one, but even though it will take you over the beerline, you´r allowed to do so/chose the other direction (if your a swooper) if you prefer that direction for whatever reason.
There are about 30 coursemarkers on the course, most of them 5ft.
You´ll find the official FAI 75°, 70m, SpeedCarving course.
It´s located in a way that you can pratice left- and righthand carves.
Around the entrygate you´ll see the outline of the pond of this years CP-WPC in SouthAfrica (that part wasn´t that difficult to do because they´ll "only" have the new minimum wide of 15m by a length of 90m).
Like the line of the entrygate itself the other three water gates are visible as well and so are important distances, some additional ones (not visible on the picture) are marked by coursemarkers only.
Therefore it´s very easy after landing to tell very exact how far you´ve been going even if you don´t take the time to check you "landingmark" in the grass with the measuringtape at the outsideline of the course.
The airfieldelevation is 1457ft MSL and it seems to be a good place to "go big" as the course - that´s just been finished the way it is right now last week - already saw a run to almost exactly 153m/502ft (in very good conditions, 6knots+, straight downwind)...

If you´r in the area and thingking about passing by, drop me a line.

And if you´r piahenzi you´r considered VIP :-)

[piahenzi 0]

.... Looks terrific!!! you KNOW if I can swing the work part I will be there so that VIP can stand for Very Improved Pilot :)

[morris 0]

Hi Pia,
I´ve added the accuracy zones, have a look...
The start of zone 1 isn´t visible in that picture.
(Brian: Thanks, excellent idea, I did them with the "south-african-distance" from the shoreline of the imaginary pond.)
The carving course isn´t set up on those pictures,
wait for video to come...

[JohnnyZ 0]

Those are some really cool ideas. I like the German lawnmower engineered lines cut into the grass to mark the course. I bet it makes it a lot easier to see where you want to be to set up your turn.

[ErwinBDJ 0]

What is your emailadress?
Erwin Baatenburg de Jong.

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[piahenzi 0]

I will be using your design to set up the course at the NJ DZ once I have the go-ahead. I have already sent the GM the aerial and will hopefully be able to submit mine sometime later this season . We will see. Thanks for the inspiration you have given me. I'll be back to report as things progress.

[frost 1]

What an excellent set up! Clearly visible from the air. Great job. Tha lanes are cut in grass, right? are they easy to maintain when it starts growing?

[morris 0]

Yes the lines are cut in the grass....

Once it is all set and done maintainance isn´t really that much of an issue (from what I can tell you so far).

By far the most difficult part is the beginning and the first two or three trims.
You need to decide first exactly(!) where you wanna have your entry gate.
The course runs 90° to the imaginary line between the two "pylons" that mark the gate, right?
So, if that "imaginary line" isn´t chosen very well and you "draw" your courselines 90° to that line, you´ll end up not where you wanted to end up once you are 500ft down the course.
I´d recommend to start with the coursemarkers only and to use ropes to get them exactly in line.
Finish one outsideline of the course completely (not cutting gras yet, just putting the coursemarkers in place) before you even start with the second one.
While setting the coursemarker of "line 1" the only coursemarker of "line 2" that already is in place is the one of the entry gate.
Doing the second one (second line) you should check at least every 100ft that the distance between the two lines is still exactly 10m.
Otherwise it can easily happen that down the course you´ll end up "being wider" (or having the lines to close together but that is unlikely because if it slowly gets from 10m to 8m you´ll realise that - sooner or later - but if it gets from 10m to 12m you´ll almost not notice that before you are done and take the measurements, so take the measurements regular while you are setting up the second line of coursemarkers).

Now you got all your markers in place for the distance course.
Don´t add anything additional to it at this point like a pond or a carving course! (Trust me!)

Now the cutting starts.
Cut the grass on the inside(!) of the course markers not on the outside, otherwise the course will look from the air wider that it actually is.
(The coursemarkers also don´t belong in the middle of the cutted lines, they belong on the outside of the cutted line. If they would be in the center of the lines the course would once again look to wide from on top and maintainance later on would be way more difficult because you´d have to remove the coursemarkers every time.)
Do the very first cut in a way that the remaining grass is still pretty long.
Once you are done with that first cut and look down your 550ft (or whatever) lines you can spot very easy where you need to do slight adjustments.
Do the second cut as short as possible.
(The shorter the better, shorter grass gets less sunlight and grows slower.)
Now that you are done with the seond line, have a beer!

In the beginning the grass will be "a bit mad with you" because it doesn´t really like that you´ve cutted it that short.
Therefore it will "grow as mad".
Show the grass you are in charge and cut it - two or three days later - a second time.
Sortly after that, even a third time.
Now you´ll notice that the growing really slows down. With every cut your lines will get "straighter and straighter" as you do slight adjustments every time.
From now on it is easy.
The farmer (or whoever) usually cuts the grass three times a year. Get in touch with him and tell him to leave you a message like a week before he is cutting. This way you only have to remove the coursemarkers three times per year and - important - have time to cut your lines before the farmers cuts - having the grass in your lines short by that time.
The first time you remove the markers, place some kind of bright, clearly visible plastic into the wholes of the markers (into the ground), just the top ~2 inch of the plastic being visible. So you can put the markers back in place very fast.
In general:
If you have a lot of rain you´ll need to cut more often and if the grass around your lines is short (just been cutted by the farmer) you also need to cut more often.
I just had the situation with the "cutting farmer" for the first time and cutted it before and after he did his job.
Average maintainance during "normal use" is - depending on how perfect you want it to look - one cut every two to four weeks.
Those cuts don´t take much time at all, I do it all myself. It is enough to show up half an hour earlier to do it.
Get back to me before you add a pond or a carving course, especially the last one is a bit tough.
The pic from above I posted is outdated now, some adjustments have been made, I´ll post an updated "final version"...

[morris 0]

PM is coming...

[morris 0]

Lines...

[morris 0]

Some of the lakes close by...

[morris 0]

Did you receive my PM?


Here comes the promised video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q89Wghl9rKg

The "obstacle" in the background is a telephoneline (no high voltage), you need to fly (from the entrygate) almost 600ft to "get in trouble" due to it.
If where is too much of a downwind we just move the gate further away.
The gate is just in place where it is right now because from that point we have the same "save amount of distance" in BOTH directions.
If you vertical the gate in a way that the telephoneline might become an issue, you still have all the time in the world for a slight righthand-carve into the open.
(To the right the line immediatly starts dropping further away and then even ends entirely.)

[morris 0]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q89Wghl9rKg

[ErwinBDJ 0]

Can you send it again?(pm)

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