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Hangola April 14 - 21, 2002

Flight Reports

It was the best of times...
It was the worst of times...
It was the 13th of April...
It was the 13th Training Hill Lesson...
I have 13 toes...

The forecast for the weekend was unflyable. Rain, Thunderstorms, Fire, Brimstone, Dogs and Cats living together, Mass hysteria! John Middleton braved the elements, which never panned out anyway to teach on Saturday as Sunday was supposed to worse than Saturday, which also never panned out and I have the tan to prove it. Arriving at Taylor's Farm, the weather and winds looked great. Winds about 10 out of the SSW, making for a perfect setup for spot landing attempts. After proper warm-up, which is necessary at my age, Paul and Cragin can back me up on this, I trudged to the top O' the hill to give it a shot. First attempt at the spot I arrived within 3 feet. Oh joy, what a breeze this will be. I can bang these out and still be home in time for an afternoon nap, which is also necessary at my age. The next attempt was blasphemed by the Sky Gods, as winds dropped to nill as I rolled final, forcing me to overshoot and flare hard to get within the required 100'. Pacing off the distance ended up at 86 feet. Still in there! Next attempt all hell broke loose with turbulence rolling across the pasture as the Sky Gods laughed out loud at me. Two more speed flights later, I got pummeled and ended up choosing to roll it in on the wheels. Unfortunately those damn cows were in cahoots with the Sky Gods and one of them... ( I still don't know which one, but I have my people talking to their people to find out so I can dish out retribution...) laid the biggest, freshest, wettest, most odiferous pile of Cow (implied) Crap in the direct line of my travel. After skidding, sliding and wallowing thru the aforementioned pile, I stood up, caught wind of myself and proceeded to donate my breakfast as sacrifice to the Sky Gods. I know I heard cows snickering in the background. Thinking I was done for the day, I proceeded to extricate myself from my C.C.C. (Cow Crap Covered) harness and load my gear onto the Jeep. Unfortunately do to a miscommunication, John didn't realize that I was done with my training and since he makes the rules and signs the cards, I proceeded to unload my gear and resuit back up into the C3 harness. Banging out a few more spot landings, I fulfilled my requirements and passed the Hang 2 check ride. Last night, I passed the written test and was debriefed by John. So I officially announce that I came, I saw, I conquered, and I stunk and oh .. by the way. I achieved my Hang 2 status!

Batman

Christopher McKee

Believe it or not, Oregon Ridge was great this morning. My student, Howard Wagner, and myself got an early start ( 8:00am ) and were treated to cool air and zero winds. But..surprisingly, as the hours rolled on, the winds picked up a bit, blowing N to NE and back to N again, and always under 5mph. It was marvelous! Especially when they were originally calling for W-NW. Howard's first few flight were the typical "instructor needs to change his pants" kinda flights, but after he calmed down, he greased off 4 additional picture perfect flights from 3/4 up the hill. You see, Howard had been spoiled by Smithsburgs' wide open spaces and 10-12mph launch winds. Today however, he truly learned to "foot-launch" a wing. And..how to "thread the needle"...if you know what I mean. And anyone who's ever flown Oregon Ridge knows EXACTLY what I mean. But what better training experience for RLF and chute launches than that old ski slope. FYI: The schedule for upcoming events is now published there. I suggest calling ahead ( before 3pm on Friday ) to check out Saturday or Sunday flying. The park folks ( Pam and Sandy ) did say that they will try and NOT put the orange fence up until late in June. Thats' good news. Also; for those of you planning to fly there this summer, don't forget to bring your bathing suit and/or bicycle. There's a quarry you can swim in at the park, and a fantastic bike trail only 5 minutes away that parallels the Gunpowder River, running all the way to York Pa. from Hunt Valley, Md. Easy, scenic and fun. For the more hard-core mountain bikers..there are some challenging fire trails near the bike trail as well. For any additional information, feel free to contact me.

Richard Hays

Wind L&V to lite NW, high puffy clouds, blue skies, Set up @ 1100, Threw myself at the field repeatedly till 1600, left to the sound of thunder.........Priceless....Bob.

Well, getting up early pays off. Another really great day flying was had out at Oregon Ridge today, even in spite of the SW forecast. Unbelievably, it ( again ) blew straight in most of the morning. Three students, Howard Wagner, Gene Townes and Steve Hengen all did fantastic, launching from atop the hill and having really long, smooth, high flights. By days' end, Gene and Howard got their much coveted H-1 rating, and actually with the level of flying they've been doing, are well on their way to H-2 ( with more acumulated time ). Steve Hengen also continuted to revisit his already acquired H-2 skills, and is definately flying his Falcon well. Look for all these guys up in the mountains soon.... Or at one of the tow-parks! All are interested in pursuing their tow ratings as well. I'll tell you; Oregon Ridge, on these light days, really works great if you get there early. We were up and running by 7:30 today. For anyone interested; I've got a class lined up for Sunday and will be out at O.R. if conditions allow. Come on out.....early! :)

Rich Hays

Damn its hot down here! Looks hot and sunny forever. Get any region 9 miles today, Terry? Yesterday Tom and Ric and Dave flew to Coleman-- 22 miles. Ric made it back to Quest, Tom made it half way back. Where did I go? umm. Nowhere. Couldn't get it up. Today I did good. Flew down to Wallaby. Today it was not possible to sink out. Tried to mess with the GPS in the air. Menu. Find. Waypoint. Wallaby. Map. clickety clickety. Not my stylebut I guess I can do it. Ever body else hung around as they didn't want to miss the mandatory pilots meeting. Told 'em to sign me in.

We have a monster house with a pool. Luxury living.

Fire ant bites on my butt. Florida hazard. Too bad I didn't bring my scanner.

Well, well. The WRHGC was well represented at Marshall Peak, CA last weekend by the 3 Stooges, AKA Jim Rooney, Shawn MacDuff, and John Wiseman. Remember Jim's post a couple of months ago about finding a flying site in CA? Well I also had to go out there on business, and I hooked up with Shawn, and we independently ran into Jim while we were there.

All I can say is WOW! Great site, great people, and as recommended, Rob is the best for helping out folks.

Quick rundown - Friday blown out over the back. Saturday, good conditions if you hit it right - Shawn and I didn't. We basically blew our first shots, then went back up for the evening glass-off in nice smooth air.

I flew an Eagle 164 (he did not have a 145 to rent, my usual glider), but it was too big for me in the big air there, and I had a very difficult time on final approach in the heated up LZ. With Rob and Dianne's advice, I switched over to a SuperSport 143 for Sunday. Good move...

Sunday, yeah! Shawn got over 3 hours, I got 2. I got up to 7200 feet, and Shawn and I ended up flying formation together over the Crestline Ridge, having thermalled up there from launch on Marshall Peak. Rowdy, strong thermals got us up to fantastic views. The air was clear and blue (no clouds) and we could see well into the desert over the mountains and to the east, and well over the city to the west. The little SuperSport was just the ticket for me as it handled very well in the rough air. Jim also did well, I think about an hour. He mentioned something about being even with Crestline, so he must have been around 5 grand or so in altitude (he didn't have an altimeter).

I had launched late because Shawn radioed to me that the air might be beyond my experience level. But after almost 2 hours I had to land, as I needed to get to the airport that night - business for me was in San Jose! But by then, there was so much lift, I literally could not get down! I was stuck around 4000 feet and had to actively find and then core down in sink. While turning, I would fall out of the sink, and find lift and shoot back up! Finally I got down on purpose, flying a bouyant approach, made easier on the small SuperSport. Nice glider.

Thanks to Rob and Dianne of High Adventure, and to Shawn for his mentoring and advice.

Full report to come later - most likely in the Cloudbuster...

john wiseman

And the 3rd stooge has returned.

As noted, the flying at Marshall was out of this world! Rob and Dianne are absolutely fantastic. PGs and Hangs fly together in peace and the air is riptastic booyah! It's freakin hang glider heaven.

Plenty of reading for the up coming cloud buster :)

Jim

It turned out to be a super day at Little Gap with large thermals offering a smooth 400 - 800fpm with one thermal at about 1,000fpm. Top of the lift was around 2,000 feet over launch which I climbed to twice. There were a few brief periods of light sleet which didn't seem to slow down the thermals any. I flew about 2 hours from 1:00 - 3:00pm after which it began to rain. I wonder why there would be such good lift on such a cloudy day?

Jeff Shriner

Damn its hot. We are all exhausted before we get in the air. The flying is great tho. Task yesterday was an 82 mile triangle. Ric almost made the 2nd turnpoint -- Coleman -- about 60 miles. He was in the air over 5 hours. Tom made it 40 to the first turnpoint and landed because he was tired. Rae decked it somewhere before the first. Dave and I barely got anywhere. I made it 10 miles -- Dave 5. Both of us were late. Dave did a relite and I had equipment probs (release) Bruce Engen is here driving.

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This page last updated April 28, 2002