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Hangola June 18-24, 2001

I finally got time, effort, and conditions to brush off the old Pulse and Mosquito and go for an evening jaunt. Flew for about 30 minutes into an orange sunset, about 1500 over, and somehow managed a one step landing. Even saw the lights from Camden Yards. I hope to fly again today (left the glider assembled overnight). More details to follow. Happy landings to all !!!

Marco Z.

This has been the best birthday celebration I've ever had. Yesterday I rode the motorcycle 2.5 hours to Ridgely so I could catch the tail end of the fly-in. It was looking really good for flying. Lots of sun. Some haze domes and even some cumies. I put my name on the waiting list for the Talon 140 and then took a short flight on the Eagle 145.

After landing I watched Danny launch on the Talon and fly and fly and fly. I was wondering if he knew he'd been up for an hour and, losing patience as usual, talked Johnny into going up in the tug to 'coax' him down. But Danny had finally found some sink to core and was down before the tug. Too bad, there were a few of us looking forward to seeing how Johnny would do.

Danny said he had a helluva time getting down. I thought he was just saying that and that I'd have trouble staying up. Ha! I pinned off around 2500 and went up from there. I tooled around and was loving life. This wing just doesn't lose altitude when you go fast. Handles like a dream. (VG on to the 1.5 mark out of 4 the entire flight.) I had the bar pulled in to my stomach (which Rob Kells says is around 70 mph) and it was tracking straight and moving. Too much fun! I zipped past the other end of the field and found another thermal to 4300'. Then it was looking like I should think about getting down. So I boated around and around figuring that just moving around without looking for lift, I'd be on the ground. Ha! After an hour flying, I started getting a little desperate. I tried going really fast into the wind. Nope. I tried going really fast into the wind with my hands on the base tube and my body held vertical. Nope. I looked everywhere for something going down and finally found some 50 fpm down. Took me a half hour to lose the last 2K. I had the harness open to act as an air scoop. Finally low enough to set up appraoch. Came in on a long final and ended with an easy flare. Super easy to land. Had enough adrenalin from the fun flight to walk the 76 lb beast over to the launch area. Time to start the weight lifting program. I want one!!!!

Christy

After flying zero times in 150 days this year, I have now gone 2-for-2 in the past two days. Another evening glassoff on Tuesday. 25 mins, 1000 over. I hoped to fly during the day but my yard does not accomodate a strong South wind very well. Sooooo, I waited til dusk for the wind to die down, then launched SW down my front yard.

With any luck, I am gonna try to make 3-for-3 tomorrow (wednesday).

Marco (on vacation this week) Z.

Oh, by the way, I was skunked on Wednesday, due to thunderstorms that rolled through around 7PM. 2-for-3 so far, hopeful to make it 3-for-4 tomorrow (Thursday).

Test Flight. Winds were 8-10 NW. Pre-flight caught an assembly error (inverted tang) on the lower 1/8" side cables I built today, quickly corrected. Launched the Moyes GTR 210 at 6pm for an extendo - 4-5 passes. Thanks to Bob G for the assist, drive and cold beverages.

'Spark

JK was right on when he predicted on Thurs that it would be poke and hope. STFI @ 3 - 10, too lite for ridge lift. Everyone ( i think ) had at least one sledder multiples for some. Bill Buffum was an excellant thermal sniffer and helped Doug and myself to cloudbase. About 2 hours with a complimentary face wash at 4350' ( 5850' MSL )......Bob.

Launched at 3:15pm - Landed 5:45pm.

I finally broke 5k, I flew a long time watching several HG Pilots on Launch from 4,500ft. waiting for I don't know what? Thermals were smooth, and at one point I circled with 4 Sailplanes close enough to receive a friendly wave from one Sailplane Pilot. My best thermal was at about 1,200/fpm. I froze my ass off wearing shorts and a tee shirt so I tried to stay below 3k. I had the chance to practice several maneuvers. I did several "B" line stalls, Big Ears, Spiral Dives and Wing Overs. The lift was so good I didn't even loose altitude until I had to pee. Total flight time was about 2.5 hours. I waited a long time for a flight like this, just wish I didn't have to pee.

Jeff Shriner

Lots of folks came to High Rock for the light winds with the north cross on June 24. Lots of us flew. Most of us flew sleds. A few excelled. The day was beautiful, so we had an abundance of families, teens, dogs, bikers, hikers, Scouts, Mennonites, and plain old folks to marvel, applaud, and ask questions.

The first wave of launches, starting about 1:00, was led by Mark Cavanaugh, who was joined in the sky by Dave Proctor, Steve Crichton, and Bruce Engen. Steve has accumulated about 6 hours on his La Mouette, and was not sure how he would do in light air. He did fine. Mark got about 30 minutes on that first flight, and Steve had the flight of the day with about 45 minutes and 1200 over. Dave and Bruce opened their day with extended sleds.

I tried to lead the second wave about 2:00. All I succeeded in doing was to set the standard for potato-on-launch, spending 15 minutes watching the north cross lift my right wing, or totally calm air promising only a guaranteed sled. I backed off. Dan Tomlinson climbed up to launch to show me how I should have done it. (Biker question to Dan: "Where do you keep them?" Dan: "The gliders? usually in the garage." Biker: "No, the huge balls!") HE spent 20 minutes studying the valley while standing on the Rock hooked into the glider. I guess he showed me!

Dan backed off, and Steve Padgett made wanna-fly noises, but he had to wait for an Observer to arrive. Bob Gillesse arrived, so Steve had his Observer. Shortly after 4:00, Steve provided Wind Dummy services for the rest of us late waiters. Good launch, short flight. Dan T. resumed lookout duty on the rock, studying the valley from under his glider for another 20 minutes. Well, it WAS light to nothing. Once he lept into the air, I scrambled up behind him. This time i gave it a quick launch into a puff. I got two passes over the rock pile, two 360's over the tracks, a bump approaching the silo, and a really fine no-step landing for a flight that requires generosity to call an extended sled.

Close on my heels to launch were Adam, Doug Henderson, Mark Cavanaugh for a second flight, Skip Brown, Bob Gillesse, Bruce Engen again, and Allen Sparks. Almost all of us sledded, but Skip Brown, in his first mountain flight since the High Rock 25th last fall, showed us how to do it, with a save over the tracks and a return to the ridge for 30 minutes and the 2d best flight of the day. Bruce played in Skip's railroad track thermal for a few minutes, getting a genuine extendo for his second flight.

Special thanks to Jeanie GIllesse for trucking half a dozen pilot bodies back to launch while Bob finished breaking down. After another car and glider retrieve, Mark C and Bob G set up for a 7:30 glass off try. It never glassed off, just got lighter, and started going adiabatic. Only Bob launched on this last cycle for a beautiful sled to finish the day.

Safe launches, clean landings, no record-settign flights, but no scares. It was one fine day at PenMar!

Cragin Shelton

Matthew called me Saturday night asking if I wanted to take a paragliding lesson with Bill Umstattd. So there I was Sunday morning, not too early, riding the motorcycle to just east of York PA for my first lesson. Marc Fink was there to greet me with a 'I can't believe it. Where's my camera.' Also there were Ellis, Karen and Matthew and Judy.

I was glad I'd been doing the mile walk to and from the train station in Harpers Ferry for 11 years now. I did 10-11 flights and had a ball. A real treat carrying a paraglider, instead of a hang glider, back up the hill. I had several really fun flights, esp one where I sorta parked for several seconds in a thermal. Towards the end of the day I got the hang of pulling the glider up (not a reverse launch, mind you, which are much harder) and keeping it up as I ran off. I took some different roads home as Rt. 30 is a real bore. Nice ride after a nice day of paragliding.

Working on being bi-wingual,
Christy

I was headed for the rock but peeled off at FDK to fly a sailplane because the awos at FDK was showing NE. Made it up N of Thurmont and thought about trying to do an out and back to the Rock -- there were beautiful cumis all the way (although base was low; less than.5k.). But the aircraft I was flying - a Pilatus -- has no trailer so a land out is a serious problem. We carry cyanide capsules for that contingency. Anyway a beautiful day.

Did anybody get up at Ridgely?

I took advantage of the light conditions to go out to Ridgely and work on my landing and approach techniques (as well as my hang-3 spot landings). I went out in late afternoon, and started flying around 6pm. Ended up flying 8 pattern tows with the following results:

1: Stand-up landing, 20' past the spot
2: Stand-up landing, 35' before the spot
3: 4' from the spot, but I was looking *at* the spot on my approach, so my wings were all over the place. Couldn't control the glider and whacked it. <sigh>
4: 20' from the spot, still upset about #3, and ground-looped it.
5: Long, landed on my feet, but didn't flare hard enough and dropped the control frame after I came to a stop (on it's wheels).

About this time Lisa (aspiring tug pilot), who had been watching me, came over and told me to calm down, give up the spot landings, and just have fun flying. Turned out to be really good advice! I know that hang gliding is about finess, and that can't happen if you're concentrating too hard (on just one thing) or over-thinking your flying. Conditions were also starting to mellow, so towing was getting easier and easier (and actually starting to be fun in itself). I did 3 more flights:

6: Stand-up landing, 125' past the spot (almost on the taxi-way). Hmmm... no more wind to slow me down.
7: Stand-up landing, 80' past the spot. Compensated, but not enough. But it was a good landing, especially in no-wind.
8: Stand-up landing, 40' past the spot. I have one-in-a-row! ;-)

For all that, I *did* have fun, and I learned a LOT!

I got there pretty late in the day, there wasn't anyone else there that I recognized. A bunch of newbies taking first-time tandem flights, and that's it.

R2

Hmmmm - I have a good news/bad news amplification on Bob's report. Good news: I did *not* suffer a sled! My one and only flight got me 38 mins and +2142'. It was, however, very very nearly a sled, as I was on the verge of giving up and going into the landing pattern. I was 250' above the trees (yup, I calculated it - you guys know me!), when I found a gopher fart, dug it out, and worked it for 1700'. (This was why Bob called me thermal sniffer). And man, did that feel satisfying!

Bad news (for me): Bob and Doug worked the thermal I found, while I made a pig's ear of it and lost it over the valley. (But Bob and Doug were both really helpful in helping me analyze what I did wrong (not a whole lot, they assured me - it was a tricky devil to work, and they've both spent a whole lot more time in the air than me)). After a second intense scratch for survival in the rolling turbulence inches above the treetops (hyperbole alert! no need to send safety lectures!) I didn't have any adrenalin left for a second attempt.

Pilots: Beck, Rogers, Buffam, Kovach, 2*Gorries.
Non-flying guest appearances: LeRoy, Beyerle, Koch

Bill wot,-no-XC? Buffam

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This page last updated June 25, 2001