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Hangola May 24, 2001

With special thoughts for Shawn and Tom after our spontaneous three-way this morning.

Where to start. Several WindRiders expessed interest in the day but were disuaded by a lack of observers, conflicting weather forecasts and golf.

I showed up on launch at Jacks at about 12:45 and found 8 - 10 SE with beautiful clouds, mild gusts and NO PILOTS. There was a contingent of Menonite kids on top and we began to talk about Hangliding and stuff in general. I have no words to expess what I experienced from my time with them. There were about 50 of them, maybe 30 girls and 20 boys. It was a religious holiday, Ascention Day. The "children", up to age 16 went up to the mountain-top, and the adults went visiting and whatever. After talking to some of the boys for a while I looked around and realized there were no adult chaperones, and none needed. The girls were off by themselves singing carols of some sort and the boys were doing boy things: Rolling tires down the hill, trash picking, heckling the Hanglider Pilot.

I was captivated by these kids. There was no urban attitude, no sarchasm. At one point Nathan, maybe 15 and an obvious leader, asked what I "did". I gathered he meant "for a living" and said I was an engineer. He immediately asked if I knew So-and-so from Middletown, and of course I didn't. Two other boys told him there were many types of engineers, not just engineers on trains like his friend, and I explained that I "ran" a chemical plant in much the same way that his friend "ran" the train. The point is nobody busted on this kid for not knowing what they knew. No one-up-man-ship at all. It was very different from any of my experiences in Boy Scouting, and I did a lot of that as an adult. These guys spoke a non-English (Dutch or German?) language among themselves but as soon as I looked their way they repeated what they had said in English so routinely that I know they were taught that level of politeness from birth. It was automatic.

Meanwhile the girls behaved like 13 yr old girls anywhere, laughing and screeching and giggling and you get the idea. There were about 30 of em'. Once I decided to fly, using the boys to watch my launch, and started to set up, the girls gathered around no more than 10 ft from the glider. Whenever I tried to speak with them they turned away, so I soon got the idea and stopped trying. However, they were so intent on what I was doing I wouldn't be surprised if one of them doesn't have a Sportster for sale soon alongside her Old Man's sheds-for-sale on Rt 30, Lancaster. I was so pleased with the whole thing.

Here's where I digress a little. Two seperate adult couples, tourists from out of state, each spoke with me and wanted to see my launch. One guy wanted his aged and dying father to see it. The point is I started feeling really self-concious about launching and my thought processes weren't working the same as when I set up with other pilots. I started losing gloves, forgetting where I was in my set-up, and other nervous stuff and I caught myself at it. I asked everyone to take a step back and let me concentrate on setting-up because if I made a mistake...well you know... Anyway, it was a first time experience for me and I wanted to pass it along in case any new pilot finds themselves in front of a crowd. I had to make a specific effort to separate myself from the whole thing long enough to set up safely.

Nathan and Tom worked the wires and Jim took the nose. None over 16 and never a more serious crew. I launched just before 2:00 in 8 - 10, mild gusts, and solidly in the alley between streets. I worked pure, boyant ridge lift for three turns ( this to rub it in for someone who called the day too light and I wouldn't stay up) until I was about even with the hump to the North and then caught a piece of a thermal that took me about 800 over. I over-flew the launch and waved to the kids and you should have heard the screams!!! I couldn't hear the guys at all but the girls were awesome!

I started working lift here and there and after about 15 minutes I flew over the launch again and everyone was gone! I spotted a procession under the trees on the North side. Earlier Nathan had showed me his farm, and his friend's farms, and some others had showed me their's (as if I could make out all those specific farms across the valley from a bunch of waving kids). And as soon as I launched they all went home! Up until that point I had no idea they had been waiting around for me. I had thought the Ascention thing was an all-day event. The thing that was so precious was seeing the line of hats and kerchiefs? marching in file under the trees down into the valley. Straw hats in front, Kerchiefs following. I followed the procession down the mountain, out into the valley to the North, and watched them disperse to all the farms they had been showing me earlier. Part of me wanted to land right then just to cap the experience.

Lift was plentiful under the streets. Every time I tried to get higher than 3900 over I got my butt kicked so I stopped trying. I checked later and it looks like there was a shear layer just below cloudbase. I had a ball picking out clouds across-the-alley from one side of launch to the other and seeing how well I could "pick up" or time the thermals under them. I don't know how many times I got 3500 over or more, but it was every time I tried, eventually. Early-on I gave up the idea of XC just because I felt very alone up there. In reality I was no more alone than any other time I've flown XC but it felt like alone, so I didn't go.

After a while I started looking at the clouds building far away to the north end of the valley. I was impressed by how strong the little tiny clouds were that I was flying and started to think what a big one might be like. I had decided twice to go out and land but had hit great lift on the way and couldn't pass it up. Finally at 3:58 by my watch I left the ridge about a mileor two north and 3800 ft over launch, VG off, with the idea of burning off altitude and landing. There was a large cloud shadow coming over the Yoder farm (LZ) and I thought "That will make the landing less bumpy" Yeah....Right....I spent 40 minutes getting down to that farm. By my watch. No BS.

I've heard Bob Beck joking about "couldn't get down" many times but had I no idea. I noticed right away I wasn't losing altitude so I raised myself more vertical to create drag. I was flying 50 mph (by my cheapie tube speedo) with no VG and was maintaining, with occasional bumps up. Suddenly I was screaming up. I looked at the vario and saw 3750. I made 8 or more diving turns alternating left and right. At that point I was scared so I was drilling as hard as I could. After 8 or so dives I luckily flew out of the strongest lift, looked my my vario and saw 3900.

I got over the valley and was somewhat successful losing altitude in a long spiral turn as steep as I could possibly make it. I stayed in that turn a long time and got tired. I then tried flying North and after a distance, maybe it was 2 miles but I'm not sure, I was able to start coasting down. That's when I screwed up for real. Why I didn't just land there I don't know. It never ocurred to me to land out in a sane environment. I had LZ fixation even though my truck was on top and I fully expected to have to walk back up the mountain anyway. Long story-short, I flew right back into that shit and got kicked again.

I could not see the streamers I had set on the telephone pole. I saw a tractor close to the LZ making dust but the dust kept switching from North to South every couple minutes with an East thrown in once in a while. At about 400 - 500 ft over the farm I hit another shear layer while on down-wind for a South-wind landing. As soon as I passed through that shear the whole texture of the air changed. I turned to base, turned on final, and when I looked at the tractor I knew I was in trouble. It had shifted North. Long-story-short again I forced myself to land hot and was glad of it when I got socked really hard about 15 ft.above the ground. I have NEVER landed with that much ground speed before, even on my couple of previous down-winds so far, and I got out of it with no damage to me or the glider thanks to Pagen's book, a good set of wheels, and the fact that the creek wasn't five feet closer (I over-shot the dirt road and damned near went into it).

After I landed I got a good look at a huge cumulus to the south that was causing the shadow. I believe it was also sucking the ground-level air creating a local North wind while the prevailing was SE. That persisted for more than 10 minutes after I landed before it went back south.

Touch-down at 4:40. Met Dave Yoder. Got a ride to the top. Life is good.

Two mistaskes: I didn't have my own wind sock to put in the field. I didn't think through my options before flying back to LZ. (I could have landed out and it probably would have been safer).

That special thought for Shawn and Tom:? In the words of the immortal bard, or Jim Keller, or some such.... IfYDGYDK.

Ridgely was working yesterday. Cloud base 5200'. Ed Messina lookin' good in his Litespeed. Windriders present: Ed and me.

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This page last updated May 25, 2001