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Hangola January 8, 2000

I've finally had the Flight of the Day today at Ridgely-- a whopping 32 minutes. I borrowed Joe's Brauniger which registered me still at zero feet after releasing from the tow line. After circling in a bunch of little stuff that felt like thermals while turning the damn thing on and off a bazillion times and pressing too many buttons, the Brauniger finally came on at 1300'. I kept running into light patches of lift that would get me no more than a hundred feet until I fell into something that took me back up to 2100 before it disappeared. I was able to find a few more small patches of lift over the runway before sinking out. Raean joined me in what little lift there was and she got a tad over 20 minutes and climbed back up to 1700'. Bunkhouse Bob was able to get an extendo with a 150' climb and I took a second flight and was able to circle once in zero sink. But other than that it was sled city for Brian VH, Karen, Janet, Christy and Doug, Craig Williamson, John Middleton, Mike C., Steve Turner, Bruce Satatis, Darrel the Ridgely Dude, Geoff, Jose the student and Lewis Truitt. Joe, our hero, continued to work on getting his sign off on flying the tug.

Talked to Bacil-- he and Proctor had very fast sleds to the secondary at the Pulpit today. Sheila and Gardinator came out to help throw them off. They're too nice!

Matthew (off to Dreaded Florida, of Karen and Matthew)

I too had the flight of the day at Dickey Ridge. It was coming in nice when we got there, but of course it had backed off by the time Tom and I were ready. I lost the coin toss, so I launched first. I had to wait for a cycle that showed movement on all the streamers and the leaves.

I was able to maintain for a few passes. I passed a hawk that was flapping (not a good sign), and when I turned around he was soaring again and slowly going up, but way too close to the ridge (damn!) So with each pass I lost a few more feet until I turned out to land.

They have a Lama (named Caesar) in the field to guard sheep. Caesar was standing in my path, so as I flew over the field, I yelled at him, hoping that he would move. Well I could tell that he stopped his grazing and looked up at me ("yeah, what do you want?"), but he continued to stand right where I was hoping to fly. All of the sheep had run away, but he didn't have any genetic knowledge of a bird big enough to carry him away so he wasn't worried.

Now I'm in my approach pattern, zooming down the field, and Caesar is still standing there! For those of you who have never flown Dickey Ridge, the LZ slopes downhill. On the right side is a rock on a high point that is used as a landmark to turn and fly across the end of the field which is a wide gully, and land going up the left side of the gully. It sounds complicated, and it is tougher than a flat field, or landing uphill at Woodstock, but it isn't THAT bad. Caesar was standing just inside the rock, watch me contour the ground zooming straight at him at 30 miles an hour! I used him as a pylon and had my first perfect landing in this LZ!

So if you see a lama in your LZ, don't assume that they will run away like cows or sheep! A new moving/fixed object in the field!

Tom made a few passes too, then landed. No lama to worry about, just one of the kids (human, not a goat) running around in the field.

-Mike Balk

Yes, the southern tow location was in full swing on the 8th, also. Dan T. and I arrived about 1:00 to see one glider in the sky and several on the ground. The winds stayed SW and light all afternoon. Most folks were launching with the truck, but there were a few aerotow launches. Before we arrived Ray Mitchell had three 7 to 10 minute extended sleds off the truck, on a Formula he is thinking about buying. Terry Spencer was working the spotty thermals when we arrived for a pretty good flight. Roland Owens took to the air for a flight or two in a hang glider launching behind Steve Wendt's truck before firing up the tug to drag Greg Dewolf and Lyman Hart into the sky. Greg worked his flight pretty well but didn't last more than 30 minutes. Steve's student Joe (?) had a number of good flights off the back of the truck. Gary Campbell came by to visit and check on glider parts.

I got two nice smooth sleds. The vario was singing a deep tone the entire flight. I launched off the aerotow cart, but being pulled up by Steve's truck. That is a really nice way to get in the air. On my first flight I looked over to my left to see a big National Guard helicopter going by. On my second, it was fly-in time late in the day for three XC ultralights, so I had a lot of traffic in the pattern. At least they can turn away from the field and let me land.

Greg DeWolf taped my second landing and gave me a good critique. Although my first had been really good (slightly early flare), on the second I was flying slow, late flare, and not truly upright, so I bumped in on my knees. It really helped to see and talk about what had happened, especially since I had not realized how far from vertical I was when trying to be upright.

Cragin S

So no one else has this happen to them, I'm sharing this information.

I took the Super Sport 143 that I bought from Kim (once Rowan) to see how it towed. Sunny said he'd observed about 5 or 6 people towing them and that all the tows were 'exciting.' It was a no lift kind of day which was a good time to try it out. And sure enough, the Super Sport couldn't have been more docile on tow. Chad was asked to go 35 mph which Sunny says is probably 30 mph since the airspeed indicator reads high.

I did have an exciting landing though. I was high coming in, so pulled way in while upright and accidentally got the bar hooked under my harness. The parachute container on my harness is lower than most and the way it's designed provides a place for the bar to catch under. I was gaining speed, heading right for the ground and realized that I was going to have to pull the bar out hard to get it loose or I would be impacting the ground going about 45 mph. Observers said I popped up from 10 feet off the deck to about 30 feet. I was never so happy to have the nose pop up in my life!! I immediately pulled in and had a pretty good beak when I landed. Better than the alternative. I took a second flight later on (glider felt like it was on rails - but the air was even more still than before) and came in fast. On my turn onto final the glider tried to PIO on me. I immediately let out the bar some and the glider stopped its antics. I could see how someone with relatively low airtime could get into trouble quickly though. The PIO pendulum effect picked up speed really fast and the glider felt like it was taking control. Easing up on the basetube had immediate results, but if I hadn't done that...

Doug took a tow on the SX he bought from Larry Ball and reported that it was 'on rails'. He's really enjoying the glider. With the glider and the Tangent I gave him for Christmas, you might not be seeing much of him in the future - he'll be higher than you!!

We're heading down to Wallaby Ranch for 5 days of flying so you won't be seeing us this next weekend.

Christy

Saturday, Jan 8. Forecast looked marginal West cross for the Pulpit, but Bacil said that Sheila and Gardinator were going to stop by to throw us off, so what the heck. Light, cross conditions. I threw Bacil off around 12:00. It was clearly cross, but not terrible. Bacil hit a couple of bumps, but ended up in the secondary with a good landing to the South. Sheila and Mark showed up and threw me off around 1PM. I worked the ridge towards the primary til major sinkdom, then headed to the secondary with a quartering tailwind. Hit a few bumps along the way, the ones that disappear once you 360, and had an uneventful landing. First flights, sleds of the year.

Thanks Sheila and Mark.

Dave

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This page last updated January 11, 2000