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Hangola January 15-21, 2001

Bob Gillisse and I returned from the Ranch today. To complete the earlier reports, a brief summary lies below:

1/15 - I flew later in the afternoon, released at 1700 agl and spent over an hour at cloudbase (4750 msl).

1/16 and 1/17 - Bob took his Sport 167 to cloudbase on both days for flights of about 1:30.

1/18 - Conditions were not as good, with spotty thermals, much cloud shadow and strong thermal drift. Sensing it would be my last day, I flew three times in the late afternoon, using the meager altitude gains to make it back upwind to the lz. Later, I learned my experiences were similar to those of others who flew. The temp. was about 80 in the lz ... right now I'm trying to remember that feeling.

Since the weather outlook for the next two days was poor, we departed Orlando at 3am Friday in an attempt to beat the predicted freezing weather in MD. Hoping to avoid the DC metro traffic, we chose a route off of I95, N. through Columbia SC towards I81, arriving at 5:15pm

It was a great trip with good people, memorable flights and many lessons learned. I'll never lose my love of mountain flying, but I have to admit I'm now hooked on the potential rewards of AT.

'Spark

Nice flight at 'snore yesterday. It has been blowing Santa Anas the last few days so that is where I have ended up. Beautiful day -- wore a T shirt. It was barely trickeling in and only a few paraglider folks were getting up. Caught something off a spine low and managed to work it back up to launch level where it dissipated. Hung out a while and watched everybody sled. This is a sweeet glider. Wish I could land the damn thing. The hang strap is a good ways behind the uprights and a full arm extension flare just slows me down to sprinting speed. Not sure what to do about it.

Went to Smithsburg today. Eddie Miller and I had some nice flights. I got in a few passes along the ridge on each of my 5 flights. Eddie got in many more passes in each of his 4 flights. Conditions were W, NW, and N 10 to 20 MPH. Soarable for Eddie. There was 7" of snow on the hill. Allen Sparks brought his two children and they enjoyed sledding the hill. Marc Fink showed with his paraglider but bailed since conditions were just a bit too strong for the bagwing.

Bacil

I was first to arrive at the rock with 7 inches of snow on top of ¼" of ice. While I was brushing it off, Chip Messerschmitt showed up to say hi, also some guy named Divan. Others to show were H2's Joe Grebb(?) and Gerry Smith. Also presents were Tom McGowen with girlfriend Tracey (?) and Terry Spencer. It was strong and I was first to launch, I nearly sank out in faultless conditions due to my newness on the US. Then it started honk'n for a bit and I parked low and out front. It then settled down and Terry and Tom flew. It was pretty laminar with occasional hints of thermals. I got about 2hrs and they got around an hour. It got cold and started to flush so we landed and threw off the two's and they got about 15 min each in mellow sunset conditions. We finished the breakdown by planetlight. The two's, Terry and I tried a faux Mexican place in Smithburg. Not great but it was warm food.

Ed

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This page last updated January 21, 2001