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Hangola April 19, 2001

It was, in fact, a spectacular day at Dickey Ridge. Pete and Terry didn't get there until late so they blew off XC hopes and Marc had his paraglider. All of which left me with a full retrieve crew. There was booming lift everywhere with beautiful streets-- running right into DIA. I went south and tried to stay as far west as possible. Lift went to at least 8500. I was in cloud suck at that point and it looked like there was still at least 500 ft to go. (Decided that it would be politic to observe the 500ft rule in view of all the air traffic). Unfortunately, my GPS had lost all the waypoints -- including DIA. Not sure how that happened. The batteries were dead but usually you just replace them and everything is fine. Anyway, I had a GPS but it didn't help much. I was making reasonable progress and showing a track of about 155 degrees but I wasn't sure that was south enough to keep me out of the airspace. Finally decided I couldn't accept anymore east which effectively put me on the ground. So I only went 20 miles. Landed near the Bardo Brewery in Amissville and spent a lot of time sampling their wares. Afterwards, I looked at the map. I was in good shape and could have accepted a lot more west. DIA space was still 13 miles away. Oh well. Fun flight.

The day did not turn out quite as good for me!

I had decided that I would fly my new Apco Allegra paraglider since the winds were forecasted 5-10. I did expect booming thermals, but thought it would be OK on the PG.

I was flying with all new equipment, and made the cardinal error of assuming that since the glider was lower-performance rated than I was accustomed to I would have no problems with it without having practiced ground handling it.

My first launch at mid-day was fine, except once airborne I noticed I had brought along a piece of the forest with me in the form of a rather large stick caught in the lines. I decide to hang in there and fly anyway, but after thermalling awhile in stuff approaching 1000 fpm and getting tossed around pretty good I decided I was in it above my comfort level and decided to land. I hitched a ride back to launch to await Terry and Pete S. who arrived later.

I waited untill things were virtually calm at 6:30 to try again. There were occasional light trickles from the right and then straight in. My first attempt at reverse launching the canopy swung to the north and I immediately dropped it into the mangy sticker bushes at the side of launch. Because the winds were barely coming in I ignored the gently swaying branches further up the slope. It then appeared that things had gone completely dead and I decided to pull up on the next puff.

When it came, I was taken totally by surprise and was yanked clean off the ground into the air and going backwards. The glider spun 90 degrees to face north and I immediately corrected (hard to do with crossed risers and flying backwards) The glider was then flying the right direction to get off launch, but at the very end of the slot the right tip caught on a tree and the whole glider was sucked in. I then spent the next 5 hours untangling the whole mess in the dark with Pete Schumann's help. But the glider came through relatively unscathed.

So, what were the errors of my ways here? Probably more PG related than HG, but I'll disclose the best I can.

Since ground handling is such an important part of flying paragliders, the element of flying new gear is probably more of a risk in PG than in HG. I've flown bunches of unfamiliar HGs with no problem, but the pull-up and launch phase in paragliding is more critical and likely to differ significantly from one model to the next.

Since PGs are "taller" than HGs they are more likely to be affected by conditions higher up. I completely underestimated the strength of remaining thermal cyles based on near calm conditions on launch, plus the probability that alot of stuff was coming in from the right even though it appeared fairly light on launch. Major pilot error, compounded by the fact that I was anxious to launch.

Marc

I finally got to ridgley yesterday, (thanks Doug). I liked it a lot. I even noticed a golf course a little South of the airport. You can see pretty far from 6920'. Doug did 7160 (feet not miles) but I think he's souped up his altimeter (just kidding). Hey Rich, great route home, I knocked over 1/2 hour off my trip time, thanks

Bob

Doug Rogers, Bob Beck, Rich Green, Joe McManus, 2 tandem students

There was lift out there but I never hooked up with it. Two flights for me. On the second flight I went after a big cloud to the south. There was so much sink on the way that by the time I got to the cloud I was too low to use it. I was prepared to land out since winds aloft when we arrived were clocked at 20. They had backed off by the time we launched, but I was still xc-ready. So, I landed to the south in my attempt to use the cloud. Nice day for a walk back!

Bob - 6920'
Doug - 7160'

Judy

As I was tearing down about 6:00 p.m. a couple of A-10s came cruising in from the east at about 3-4K. They came past just a little south of the airport and were throttled way back.

Also, Sonny and Chad were working on a Millinium that a pilot had just brought in. (Sorry, did not get the owner's name) Very sleek looking aircraft!

Now that Bruce and Barb's Exstacy is also a resident, Highland is becoming quite the diverse aviation hub.

Joe McManus

(Who is not prepared for XC, not ready for XC, and was damn lucky to make it back to the grass runway.)

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This page last updated April 20, 2001