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Hangola February 2-4, 2001

Well Damn. Hard to do but I did it. There was a paraglider pilot in front of me who was having trouble getting it up. He tried 3 times and his instructor came over to talk to him. I asked if I could jump in front. They said sure. So I moved to my left and rotated to lead with my right wing as I went around them. Confident that I had cleared them I rotated back into the wind. The glider balanced perfectly in the 5-7 mph straight in breeze. So I didn't even set it down, just started the launch run. After two steps my right wing impacted the paraglider pilot who was hollering Wait! Stop! and frantically trying to get out of my way. Nothing I could do. I was a passenger for the 4 seconds to impact. Minor cut on my elbow but my brand new beautiful glider took a major hit: A leading edge and a downtube. Plus some cuts to the mylar LE. I do not understand how he could have been in front of me. I didn't even look I was so sure that I had cleared him.

I have now been flying some 23 years and I have seen people do a lot of stupid things but that is the stupidest reason for a blown launch I have yet heard of. I will file a report.

I drove down to Manquin today to retrieve my glider after it's inspection and maintenance service by Steve Wendt. Arriving about noon, I found it to be 34 deg F, winds 10+ mph and 90 deg cross to the runway. The only folks present were Steve and Tex.. ALL the Manquin regulars had declared it COLD.

Came on home, but left the glider on the rack tonight. Forecast for tomorrow is S to SSE 5-10, high in mid to high 40's, and rain not a threat until night time. Therefore, I am considering a return trip to Manquin tomorrow, to actually fly my freshly tuned glider.

I hope you crazy cold-hounds at Pulpit, High Rock, and Smithsburg all had good flying time!

Cragin

I started at Smithsburg this morning. Winds were W-NW @ 5-12. Nice, but ... I decided to save my energy for HR. Doug Henderson made a couple of decent flights in his new WW Eagle and Harness, and headed back to VA to coach a Basketball game. I went on to HR. Winds were much stronger there, so I waited a bit, then launched at 1:30 and bobbed about in moderate ridge and sporadic thermal lift. I maintained about 400', with two nice cycles to 850' and 950' above.

Eventually, the cold took it's toll and I landed after an obligatory 60 minutes. Winds in the LZ varied between 70 to 120 degrees cross, suggesting both N and S approaches. I chose a S approach, and executed a very fast but uneventful landing, deliberately (and with no shame) on my wheelz.

Thanks to HR Laura for helping as launch crew.

Others who flew (hope I don't forget) Kelvin Pierce
Marvin Presley
Danny Brotto
Lewis Truitt (the III)
Brian Vant-Hull
and
William Garrison - first soaring flight & first HR flight!

'Spark

We arrived at Smithsburg just as Doug Henderson was breaking down. It was a nice steady 10-12 as we walked up to the top with a bit of a West cross. Of course, as soon as I pulled my bag out it started honking. After wrestling with my wing for a while and almost being blown backward down the back of the hill, we decided to move a quarter way down the hill. The winds were still strong and slightly cross. On my first flight I went right up and but didn't go anywhere. Karen yelled at me, "YOU'RE PARKED!!!" I had kinda figured that out. After about 30 seconds I was able to penetrate and made a pass down the ridge to the left and still had plenty of altitude for a nice long flight out to the middle of the field. I had 6 flights total, but only one from the top.

Since it was so strong, Karen decided to launch at only one third the way up the hill-- about 40 feet up. She ran and ran on the shallow slope before finally getting airborne. But she plopped right back down. So she ran and ran and at only 20 feet from the bottom of the hill she finally got the wing in the sky. I thought she was going to run it all the way down the hill. And then, BAM, she flies into a thermal and starts rocketing up. Instinctively, she applied the brakes. This is the the wrong thing to do if you don't want to go up and she just went up faster. Her legs were flailing all around and then she finally let go of the brakes. She climbed at least 100' and then stayed at the altitude. As she flew out of the thermal and came into land-- just a few feet off the ground-- she hit another one. And ZOOM up she goes again. It was the funniest damn thing!!! She only went up about 60 feet on this one. She must have been up for a good 4 minutes. Eddie Miller later commented that it was the most impressive paraglider flight he's ever seen at Smithsburg.

Naturally, she wasn't real keen on taking a second flight. But she did and it was pretty uneventful. She only got popped up about 30 feet.

It was well worth missing a long soaring flight in my hang glider to witness Karen's little legs dancing around trying in vain to reach terra firma.

Matthew (I'm still honking about it, Of Karen and Matthew)

Sparky, Danny, Kelvin, and Marvin all flew in the strong air around 1:30-2:30. They reported somewhat rowdy conditions, but all got between half an hour to hour flights. It began to back off around 3, and around 3:30 launched Louis, who went up and boated around at a couple hundred feet.

Conditions were now perfect to launch our new H2 Bill Garrison, who had had two flights at Fisher a couple weeks ago, but never soared. Nice launch, nice half hour soaring flight, which I joined him in about 10 minutes later. Gentle air, almost no sign of the supposedly west cross. Thanks to all who helped out launching.

BrianVH.

It was a great day as expected. Proctor drove over from HR to help us launch. It was me, Doug H. (?), and Mike B and Tom McG. 10-13 mph with an occasional right cross. Doug launched around noon, I am not sure when he landed. I got 2:45, Mike and Tom also got hours+. Occasional thermals to 1500'. We all flew to the south end and back. A very cherry day.

Ed

Yahoo! First soaring flight is a lot like your first girlfriend: a fun start, an even better middle, then missing it when it's over. But analogies aside, I had a rather fun time. I Launched shortly after 4:00, in a nice smooth breeze, and admired the ridge in smooth air just above launch. Yippeeeee! I ran for the LZ after about 30 minutes.

Much thanks to my many observers :) for all the help with advice, wire crew, and helping me brave the cold. Special hats off to Brian Vant-Hull for observing and putting-up with me, and Danny Brotto for loaning me his ski-suit in the freezing cold.

Keith and I flew E-ville yesterday and had great soaring flights with alt gains of 1700-2000 over launch. We were joined by three paraglider pilots whose names escape me this morning. Everybody got as much airtime as they wanted. Plenty of fridged air for everyone!!!!! The three paraglider pilots landed in the main LZ and Keith and I landed out in the more distant field located to the SW.

I heard Doug went to the Pulpit...... any one hear how things went out there?

Thanks to Bill B. and Lenko for showing up and assisting at launch and vehicle retreival.

Pg pilots were John Banta, David Graham and Wolfgang Stehr, who got 2000' over too.

Had a great soaring flight w/ Glenn Rohrbach at 500' until sunset. Landed at horse farm. Two days of great soaring in a row!!! My tank is finally full!!!!

Going to bed sore.....

Like to thank our newest observer, Al Sparks, for taking the time to come with me to Smithsburg. Had a couple of nice flights. Wish I could have gone to High rock but my 5th grade basketball team needed their coach. We won by the way.

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This page last updated February 5, 2001