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Hangola May 3 - 5, 2002

Flight Reports

I won't bore you with a lengthy dissertation of all the little details. I just wanted to drop a note on the server thanking all the pilots at Woodstock yesterday for their advice, passing along their experience, and answering a ton of questions. It makes a great sport even better then there is a great group of people willing to help you out and welcome you into the group. I also want to say a very BIG thank you to the observers, Especially Terry for all of his help. I really do appreciate the effort and the sacrifices that you make to help out those of us who are up and coming. As for the flight itself, I can only say WOW! What a blast. I'm looking forward to many more.

Hank

P.S. see you in the skies!

Got my first xc flight a whooping 3.1 miles! Launched at 1:15pm into light & variable with a nice thermal that took me to 5,100msl about 3, 960 over launch. Had 800 fpm sustained on 20 second avg, peak climb was 1200 fpm. What a view from up there!

Regards,

Gerry Donohoe

I hitched a ride to Jack's with Tom McGowan and Dave Proctor. Got to listen to some Florida Comp. stories on the way up.. real cool! Got to Jack's and there where already lots of people there with lots more coming.

Conditions didn't look very promising. Cross from the North, kinda stable looking with a thickening layer of altostratus moving in from the South and threatening to spoil the fun.

A Hang10 pilot winddummied and sank out in the cross. That would keep the rest of us hanging out on the Mtn. for 30-45min. Things seemed to be improving and Cavanaugh stepped up to the plate. Pete Lehman was ready and waiting regardless of the results that Mark would have. They both got up and were itty bitty in no time.

Several others launched before me.. all were successful. I got up in a thermal right over launch and quickly there were two Stealths and a Talon beneath me and bent on getting on top. I managed to hold them off until we got to 4500ft. over. The two Aero's were turning right and I turn left. When the guy on top reached me, I tried to turn right but figured that I'd rather bugout than learn to turn right with somebody on my wingtip. Tom was already heading down the ridge, so I chased him.

At some point, the wind became more Southerly and I made it to the gap with two thermals and caught Tom along the way. Gardinator came in at that point and the three of us worked and pimped off of each other to get across the gap. I made the jump first and Tom was right on my heels. Gardinator hung out a while longer. I actually thought that he was heading back.

With the Stratus bearing down on us, We were racing for sunlight. The Winds seemed to be very cross so we were just jumping from thermal to thermal. Gaining a thousand and going on glide. The Mtn. behind us was all shaded in. I spotted Gardinator back there. He was dropping back a bit. I figured that it had to be more difficult for him given all the shade. Tom and I pressed on.

My Shoulder had been hurting almost since take off and was getting worse. I was looking for any excuse to land. Tom and I had been pimping off of each other all the way down the ridge. On the last glide, I had a little more altitude than Tom. We had ALOT of trees to cross. It was a long jump. There wasn't the thermals like before. I may have missed them because I was forced to eek out into the valley a little more towards the LZ. I hooked one below ridge level, popped the VG off started turning and began looking for Tom. He was going to come up short.

With Tom veering off towards an LZ and hoping for a save. I strained to see Gardinator. I was working back to 2000ft. over with my shoulder killing me. Hoping that Tom wouldn't pull off a low save (which he almost did) and that Gardinator was down too. I was going to land! Tom landed and I started to head out. The Mountain behind me was under a dark shadow and there was no sign of Gardinator. I felt sure that there was no way Gardinator could be working anything so I was clear to land.

After I landed, Tom and I were discussing our flights and looking at the ridge.... Gardinator goes by!! Drat!! He had made it through all that shade and the ridge in front of him was plenty sunny. He probably knocked us off bigtime!

Dave Proctor started his flight off with a low save, 300ft agl and ended up getting stinking high, getting 1 1/2hr. and landing in the primary.

Tom and I got 25mi. 2hr. the longest that I heard about was 45mi

Terry

I saw a terrific low save near the gap. A litespeed with a blue stripe or something on the undersurface. He couldn't more than 100 feet or so above the trees. I thought he was on final. I was so busy being amazed by the save that I forgot to pay attention to my own circumstances and had to land out, 6.8 miles, 1 hour +

If that was you Dave, congratulations. Otherwise congratulations to whoever it was.

Dan T.

Nope, not me, maybe it was Dennis.

I almost didn't fly with my barmitts, but put them on at the last minute. Glad I did. Even with thin shooting gloves and the mastadon barmitts my hands were freezing at almost 7K MSL with the Gardinator in the best thermal of the day. I've gotta put my old trusty sheepskin mitts back on :-)

Dave P

Yes, I did have a pretty good low save. I launched and turned left to where others had been getting up. Climbed slowly and turned back past launch at around launch alt. I continued to climb slowly but then got hammered. Turned to run back to where I had been climbing but was now well below launch. Being too low to work much of anything I headed out into the valley to troll. At the edge of the first field out from launch I caught some light stuff at around 3-400 AGL. Worked it hard and eventually got above launch out there. Then worked downwind towards the ridge and got way up. Flew til I was tired, cold, and sore. At the end of the flight it was happening in the LZ, but got it down fine. Typical trashy Jacks LZ when the wind is out of the East, which it had turned while I was on approach. I seem to be making a habit of low saves lately. Did the same at Ridgley on Sunday (plus a bunch of times in Florida). Caught something at about 500' next to the center of the runway and worked it to about 2700'. Although it is quite rewarding I would like to just launch and climb out.

Dave P

I had a good flight. Took off around an hour after Marc C. Got right up and hung out at 400 over. Got to about 1000. Lift was not well organized and I am still not dialed in to this new glider. Got slammed twice...again...going back to where I had some lift got below the ridge. I am still not real comfortable thermalling low. Headed out to land and went through 2 thermals that ensured I was going to make the primary. Now here is the real reason for my post...Make sure you have your approaches to LZ's well though out in advance. I have not flown Jacks before and there was no one in the LZ when I was landing. I walked the field before launch and soliticed advice from Bob B.(local) on approaces to this field. I had picked an approach after my overfly to see the sock was south. In talking with Bob he mentioned how in an east wind you take a long south base and turn east for your short final. I had a south wind so I was on a long final glide and notice that by the time I was back near the silo the wind had gone east--strong.(Another nice thermal blasting off) I eased it around and had a nice no step elevaor ride down. Always keep that speed up! I guess the main point is even with the switching wind my flight plan worked safely.(And I got down exactly where I had planned) Dave had an exciting final also.(He will have to tell that one)

joe(25 minutes)

> >Matthew (If I'd know more of you were going to Jack's, we would have gone there too after flying Bill's, of Karen and Matthew)

What are we? Chopped liver? I TOLD you we were going to Jack's!! :-)

I'm still catching up on the listserver so a lot of this may be posted already. Mark, Bridget and I headed to Jack's on Saturday where Mark flew 32 miles. Not sure what all the miles were, but landing down the ridge (in order) were Mitch Shipley, Jim Rowan, Marvin Presley, Dan Tomlinson, Mark Cavanaugh (for about 20 miles?), Tom McGowan and Terry Spencer, Mark Gardner for 30 miles and Pete and Larry for 45 miles. As far as I know everyone flew and everyone soared - had to be maybe 25-30 gliders?

I was all set up to launch but by the time I got back from driving retrieve it was quarter to 8. Could have gotten a quickie but the sun was almost down, it was getting cold and its just no fun to fly alone. Broke down the glider.

Dan Tomlinson came and stayed over and we all went to Avonmore Sunday (SW facing). Tom Flynn, Paul Donahue, Dan Tomlinson, Frank (of Frank and Connie) and I all flew. For Dan, Frank and I it was our first flight there. All sleds except for Tom who did a nice job getting above launch but couldn't keep it. Great day!!

Sheila

Dave Rice entered the landing contest yesterday. And then he flew at Bill's Hill for his first mountain flight in 9 years. When on final, the wind switched from dead south to east then back to south, further around to SW and just before he flared back to south. He kept it nice and straight through the whole final and landed with a no-stepper. Pretty impressive.

-- ellis

soaring was lousy. :-(

we shoulda gone to Jack's.

-- ellis (off to Taylor's, where the soaring should be specktacular. heh)

Hi Terry, Lauren & I arrived at Bill's late (1:30) & went straight to the LZ to pick up Nigel after a brief flight in his bag wing. Also saw Ellis make a short flight in her glider. Apparently Mat,Karen,Mark F.,Ellis, & Nigel had arrived early to fly their "funeral shrouds" in the light cond. David Rice also got his first mountain flight in 9 years with Matthew's help as observer. Was on the way to launch when he flew but Ellis said he did a stellar job. Conditions were getting stronger & were shifting more to the SE so everyone loaded up for a brief ride to Fisher Rd. I,d never been there before and was very impressed with the nice wide open launch (wish we could do that to Woodstock).Anyway, we dropped off a couple of trucks in the LZ and went back to set up. Ellis was first off & seemed to be getting up nicely. I went back to setting up only to here that she had sunk out chasing a thermal out in the valley. Conditions were too strong for the paragliders so I was next up. Was a little surprised to find myself scratching to get up but finally got on top and got about 900 over and about an hour. Funny thing, I had to land because MY shoulder was killing me. It's an old horse riding injury that I somehow re-injured Friday at Woodstock and managed to finish off at Fisher's. Was in so much pain last night I couldn't sleep --even with some very heavy drugs. Guess I'm going to need a few days off from flying and maybe a trip to my orthopedist. But I digress. Lauren was next off and was getting up in the somewhat rowdy air but the dance that her glider was doing concerned Matthew and he told her to head to the LZ. After about the 5th request, she grudgingly complied and put together a nice approach and landing. In the mean time, the weather was doing some dancing of its own with rain showers visible to the South. Matthew thought it might be getting a little too rough for David's newly re-aquired skills & graciously offered to fly his Falcon to the LZ for him (what a guy). The paragliders opted to stay on the ground & so ended our less than brilliant day at Breezewood. Oh, we did we did manage to have a somewhat expensive and very mediocre dinner at someplace called the"Prime Rib Restaurant" or something like that. I would suggest taking that place off of your list of fine dining establishments.

Paul Tjaden

Well, I had more than just a flight to the LZ in David's Falcon. (Flying a Falcon... what a blast!) I flew for about 35 minutes and got 500 over, the whole time watching the rain about 20-30 miles out in the valley. As it started to get closer, I headed out and landed. We never got any rain. But about 15 minutes after I landed, a mini gust-front came through with winds of 20-25 for about 10 minutes. I'm sure glad I decided to land when I did.

Matthew (If I'd know more of you were going to Jack's, we would have gone there too after flying Bill's, of Karen and Matthew)

Almost nine years ago to the day, my daughter made her entry into my world and everything changed. One of those things was the almost total drying up of all free time to pursue things like hang gliding. I really never meant to stop flying, it just sort of happened. Then I decided to sell my glider before even telling my wife I was thinking about it because I didn't want her to enthusiastically agree. Which would cause my twisted mind to somehow change my memory, make it her idea and therefore somehow her fault that I wasn't flying anymore. It was the right thing to do and the right time to do it. I don't regret it at all.

But like any full fledged addiction, hang gliding was always there, right under the surface, ready to pop out any time the sky looked good or a bird circled over head.

Last spring, I decided it was time to make a comeback. I contacted Richard Hays and came out to one of the free ground schools before the MHGA meeting. There, for the first time, I picked up and ran with a Falcon. Wow things had changed. It was light, well balanced and didn't clang around when you moved. This was a much nicer glider than the Dream I used to fly.

Summer came and with it came corn and a new event at Oregon Ridge scheduled for every 12 hours or anytime the wind blew NE (whichever came first). I read the Pagen books and a bunch of old HG magazines Raean gave me but I didn't fly until November. Then I finally took a real lesson with Richard at Oregon Ridge.

Almost 50 flights later, I'm on launch at Bill's with Matthew and Karen on my wires. Ellis flew a little earlier and she was down in the LZ. Some cycles were crossing a little but with patience there was plenty of straight in to be had. Finally everything looked and felt good, I yelled 'clear', launched and found myself back in that very familiar place that I had been dreaming about for almost a decade.

The air was a little textured but nothing very radical. My flight plan was as simple as possible. Launch fly to the LZ and land. On the way to the LZ I noticed how much flowering dogwood could be seen from the air. It was really cool to see so much white peeking through the green of the forest.

I arrived at the LZ with Richard's voice in my head. "With speed comes safety, with speed comes control." So I flew fast. I was getting kind of bounced around when I got down low but it didn't feel much worse than Oregon Ridge on a really cross day. I just flew fast, flared and scored a no-stepper.

I think the most remarkable thing about coming back is that I had just as much excitement as I remember for my first mountain flight, but none of the panic that came along with it. I told Chris a few weeks ago that after I launched for my first mountain flight, I got into my harness and realized my knees were actually knocking. I thought that only happened in cartoons!

This time, it was just really really fun.

I want to thank Matthew for all his help Saturday and all the help I'm going to ask for in the future. And I want to thank Richard Hays for all he did to make possible my 'triumphant return'.

Dave

Okay,

This is old news by now. I haven't been online for days. I've been too busy. Paul told you about how we launched at Fisher's last Saturday. Fisher's is so beautiful. Maybe this is the place I was dreaming about flying. Trees and mountains and a view an eagle would envy.

The launch site was perfect (well cleared, steep enough, wide), but at first inspection we thought the secondary landing zone was the primary. I thought about opting out of flying because of the power lines and the tiny field. I was so grateful to see the somewhat bigger primary without "zapping lines". I managed to ignore the fact the primary's still smaller than Woodstock and comes with lots of tall trees.

We launched in the evening. It was gusty sometimes, but I launched in a lull. Paul managed to soar. I'd reached 153 over launch altitude -- not turning into the speck Terry talks about, but still, getting up -- when Matthew ordered me (over my radio, set only to receive) to the landing zone. I wasn't sure why Matthew wanted me to land, so I flew over to the launch so I could yell down at him. I kept screaming "Why? Let me stay up!" but everybody on the ground just laughed and Matthew insisted I should land. I wasn't sure if it was looking like rain so I headed across the valley. It also occurred to me that maybe I wasn't being grateful or nice to my observer, who is very smart and trying to save my life.

I got popped so hard by lift once in the valley that my nose headed straight towards Mars. The lift was strong enough that even a moron like me couldn't miss it. I was desperate to circle, but I obediently headed towards the LZ. For once I had the time to stage like we used to at Ridgely. I got down fine though I had to do a couple S turns to lose altitude. I was grateful for my experience at Jack's in the bad turbulence. Everybody said this LZ was rowdy but it was nothing comparatively. But I do hate trees. I want a chain saw for Christmas.

Anyhow, turns out Matthew made me land because my glider was left and right and all over. I was above the ridge so I didn't care; but all the folks watching said I was getting tossed so hard they were worried I'd get tumbled. I don't mind getting jounced, but I think I need to keep a heading better. I'm flying really slow (not while landing or launching or below the ridge) and getting great lift, but I'm doing too much of the "leaf-in-the-wind-thing." I have lots to learn. And I do appreciate that someone cares about me (even if I was cranky about landing). Matthew is a gem.

Speaking of cranky. Paul tore his rotator cuff (in his shoulder) flying. He hasn't been riding (can't even lift his arm) so I have to do all the work. He saw the surgeon today. Apparently flying is really bad for him.

I DO hate riding all the horses and doing all the work, but I suggested to Paul that I COULD use a driver and I wouldn't mind having someone cook and clean for me. I also said that it would be really ironic if I got my hang 3 before him (I was trying to cheer him up with some humor). But he's having his period or something. He just growled at me; something about divorce.

See you soon. My driver will pick you up (or maybe not).

Lauren Tjaden

Sat, Embreeville.

Light and Switchy early, steadied out after 2pm. Fair ammount of people showed up to enjoy the day. Pat showed up fresh off a NC flying trip and got some pointers and improved his landings. One student did a ground loop with the Pulse and messed up his elbo. Was taken to the hospital with some swelling. Don't know any more details. Other than that it was a good day... many wings and smiles. Ken Sutch got an amazing (first!) PG flight, landing out in the RC plane field! All were impressed.

Oh, for those interested, the Sting is a dream. It was a long wait to get it, but I'm already madly in love with it. The sink rate is amazing and it's nice and responsive. It took a while to figure out the flare timing cuz I couldn't believe it could ground effect THAT long.

Sunday, Redwing.

Norm Price, busting records!

Flew for 3 1/2+ hours.. I forget the exact time (3:40?). Bob gave everyone a nice show too by skydiving out of the tug. He also brought his Saturn and went for a tow later. A few others took tows and were greeted with much lift. Bill took my Sting up for a "test flight" and chased Norm around for a while. When the day started winding down, us rookies took to the air. Yuri showed up for a tandem with Bill. Me and Lloyd started getting checked out for towing. We both did some tandems and on one Lloyd got to do an (unplanned) emergency release. Good practice, and it gets the adrenaline pumping! I had my wing on me (told ya so dude!), so I got to try it solo. Did the usual goofy errors (too low and pio) and wound up with a nice lockout... full 90deg wingover. Scary but kinda fun (I like wingovers, but prefer planned ones). I'da gotten back on the horse, but was catching a lot of rotor on landing. Bill took the sting back up and confirmed that backing off launch was a good idea. He got kicked around in the rotor a lot. Fortunately, he's a very skilled pilot and rode the bronco to the bell.

Good luck to Norm, Bill and the rest tomorrow on thier XC!

Jim

Sunday at Manquin

Small crowd down at Richmond today. With the high pressure system passing right over during the afternoon it felt like May 5 was Sinko de Mayo for most of us. But that worked out for those intent on landing practice.

I arrived before noon to see only Jim Keller and Roland Owens setting up their gliders. John Claytor was kibitzing with Steve Wendt about the wonders he had seen at the Flytec competition. John was quite pumped by that experience where he had been helper/runner/driver. Oh, and on the first day of competition John had played wind dummy for the big kids. He TRIED to stay out of their way, but every time he stumbled into a thermal he would look over to see 30 to 50 sleek competition gliders zooming right at him.

Over the afternoon I racked up ten truck tows, with only three small thermals contributing to two extendos among all the sleds. Chris Cioffi also had three truck tow sleds. During that early afternoon, though, Tex Forrest dragged Jim and Roland into the sky with the aerotow tug, where they both stayed long and high. To make matters worse for Chris and me, mid afternoon John hopped on the truck for his one flight of the day. Having been bitten by the bug down in Florida, John had the "I want to land elsewhere" syndrome. He hooked the thermal I never found, took it to 3k, and eventually established an LZ about 5 miles down Route 360.

To finish the day, Ralph Sickinger had Tex pull him up to 1,000 feet a bunch of times for pattern tows to practice his landings. Meanwhile, Steve was alternating Carlos Weill and Holly Korzillius on the truck tows for both of them to work on landings. I left at 6:30 as Ralph was cheering section / photographer for Carlos and Holly, who looked like they would keep flying until dark.

Was a good day. I claim 9 out of 10 landings as good. Ralph was 5 for 8. Carlos and Holly will have to give their own stats.

Cragin

Had a great time down at Manquin yesterday. Ralph and I arrived around 3 PM. After chatting w/ a few folks and watching Jim go up and up, Steve put me to work taking my Hang II written. Having Jim land right in front of me seemed like a good cue that conditions were more appropriate for me served as motivation to wrap up the test and turn to setting up a Falcon 170. I waited around for Steve to give me a thumbs up to gear up for my first flight of the day. He caught me a bit off guard when he said, "Holly lets fly!" I was so excited that I failed to put on the shoes and jeans I'd brought and ended up flying in shorts and canvas shoes. Motivation to land on my feet right?

I ended up with 8 flights for the day. All landing were on my feet (even the one where my shoe lace got caught in the zipper of my harness [*now* I know why I wasn't able to zip up after release!] Pretty exciting stuff only having 1/2 of your landing gear down until the last few seconds before one's flare!). I touched the wheels down a couple times but hey... I'm just a beginner right? lol.... Think that takes my "on my feet landing" count to 19 out fo 23 for the year.

I had a good day's work concentrating on DBF approaches and was consistently able to land in the area Steve had specified. So... all that I need to knock out now is my no-kidding spot landings. Perhaps that'll happen in my next trip down to Manquin:-)

Have I mentioned late that life is good:-)

Holly

Nothing super to report for Kirks today. Arrived at 3:00pm missing most of the good cycles. I gave it 3 shots and just couldn't hook the big one like Gerry and Jim did yesterday. The direction got more Westerly as the day went on.

Jeff Shriner

I got two flights in.... the first one (10 minutes max) had some very sharp thermals, but they didn't last long. I have a feeling they were getting washed out from the westerly cross-wind creating turbulence along the hill. I had two collapses at about 200-300 ft., both probably caused by rotors/turbulence along the hill (again because of cross conditions). I was probably a good 200 ft out from the hill, but the wind direction was coming around the whole face from the west, so the "sideways non-lift turbulence band" was quite wide me thinks.

The first collapse was about 30-40% and the second one a full 40-45% collapse. The wing (Swing Mistral 2, 26) did very well with no noticeable spin from what I can recall, and quick recovery to a fully inflated wing. A couple of times I had to pump out the very tips on the right side (both collapses were on right side), but otherwise the wing did very well considering the instability of the air.

When the collapses happened, I remembered right away what my instructor at Point of the Mountain, Scotty Marion, told me about handling collapses. Most instructors will tell you to steer with the good side, and pump out the bad side. Scotty (current world PG racing champion) told me that often this causes stalls on the good side and just makes things worse. He also told me about people just trying too hard to make things right, sometimes causes so much pitch that they eventually have to throw their reserves. He told me to remember two things: 1) immediately shift your weight to the good side (many harnesses will help you with this automatically because they have built-in cross bracing) and 2) relax and put your hands up and let the wing recover all by itself. Except for the two wing-tip tucks today (which I pumped out), that's exactly what I did. Wing collapses, hands up, let it fly (I don't really remember consciously shifting my weight to the good side).

You may have to respond differently if you're very close to the ground or the side of a hill. You may be forced to attempt to turn to avoid hitting the hill. But if you're out enough or high enough that you've got a little time, give some of that time to your wing to let it regroup and fly again. This of course doesn't work for spins that you're stuck in, lines over, cravattes, etc., but I think it's good for most collapses, including full frontals.

My second flight was basically a "gee, I can almost get some ridge-lift... oh, what's that sound? the sound of my vario telling me that I'm soon going to be kicking birds' nests out of the trees if I don't head for the LZ soon" flight. 5 minutes max.

I can't wait to get up like Gerry did yesterday. Glad you had a good one Gerry.

Jerry-craving-altitude-Destremps

Barb and I flew the Exxtacy Saturday for the first time this year. We got to 3300' and about 45 minutes. We could have stayed longer, but Barbs my body was freezing, although she was telling me to stay.So I ended up coring sink to get down.

Bruce

Three hour drive for me but it was worth it. Stayupable from about noon till 1700. Very lite NW wind, 1/3 sky coverage with non threatening CU's. Took two flights. One early to get back into the tow groove before it started cooking. Cloudbase and about an hour. Took a second tow @ 1430 during prime time. About 1.5 hours of cloudhopping on the second. Topped out at 5050 AGL. Had the distinct pleasure of circling wing tip to wing tip with John H. and a bald eagle until we all went into 500' below cloud base and had to dive on down. Life is still good........Bob.

A very nice day for the earlybirds at Ridgely. I went there for landing practice before heading into the mountains, so I started out with 2 early morning landing patterns at about 10:00am. The funny thing was, I couldn't get down low enough to land! I just kept circling ~600-800 feet and staying up. Then I decided to box the field, and the same thing happened. I eventually tucked my wings back and came in with a 2 stepper (I still need more practice).

My last tow was about 2:00pm - 4200' and 57 minutes. I think I'm going to like this thermaling stuff, :-) but the ridge is a cheaper way to stay up than the tow plane...

> > Hey Guys. I know there were a bunch of really good soaring flights at Ridgely on Sunday. I'd like to update our recent flights page. If you were here and had a good XC or duration flight, please send us an e-mail with some details.

> >Thanks
> >Chad
> >Highland Aerosports

Chad, this is based on my log at http://www.mobydisk.com/mobydisk/hanggliding/ You may edit this as required if you want to use it.

I arrived at 9:30am to enjoy some landing practice in stable morning air, but Sonny told me it was turning bumpy very soon. I started with 2 pattern tows to 800' resulting in 20 minute flights! The air was so bouyant I couldn't get down without work. (As a Hang-2 with no thermaling experience, this was very exciting) I tried circling, then boxing the field and I still wasn't dropping. I finally down with some tight inefficient turns. Both resulted in 2 step landings into almost no wind, but at least I was near my spot. My next 2 tows to 2500' around 12:00pm resulted in 12min and 8min each. Tried another at 1:00pm with similar results. My last tow was at 2:30pm, resulting in 4200' AGL and 57min. Total air time was close to 1:45 for a very educational weekend.

Sorry about Paul's shoulder. Without any particular expertise, it appears to me that a seated flying position such as I have seen on the Doodle Bug powered harness (saw it launched last week at Manquin) and in pictures with rigid gliders - would be more comfortable than the "Superman" position for someone with a sore shoulder. I'm certainly a convert to recumbent bicycles...

Congratulations on your flight, Lauren, even if truncated by prudence. After I did my chores on Sunday (never sign up to be on the house tour!), I did get out to Ridgely for a couple of sleds after the thermals had shut down. (I claim two perfect landings for the contest.) Needed to fly for currency in case I ever get to soar again.

I've been flying airplanes for the last month or more - getting in shape for and executing a trip with the family back to Louisville for a wedding (flew a Piper Arrow - woohoo: retractible gear!) and flying a Katana over to Canaan Valley for a safety seminar at Windwood Fly Inn.

Took my older son out for his long-overdue tandem ride - his high school graduation gift from last year. Sunny gave him a good aerobatic ride toward the end. Teenagers don't give a lot of verbal feedback - at least this one doesn't , but I think Dewi was impressed - he started asking a lot of questions about hang gliding. I finally bought a vario - defensive spending: with all the outflow for painters and furniture (house tour), I had better get the important stuff before the money runs out.

Saw Joe Gregor out there - he got stinking high and later flew one of the tugs solo to get back in the groove. Also saw Thon the Dutchman who was buying a new harness.

Cheers - Hugh McElrath

Tom, Dave and I marked Harrington as our goal on Sunday. We didn't make it.

When I launched, I got up to cloud base (thanks Chad!), but I was at the wrong end of the field. Headed to the Junk Yard to find some lift. Slowly climbed while Tom dove in under me, and we listened to Dave struggle low. He committed to cross country at 800 feet! Since I was on the slow wing, I decided to look for lift downwind. Tom showed off by climbing above me, but then went to wait for Dave.

I bounced up and down, trying to stay straight to our goal, but the drift was a little more south. I heard Dave land (5 miles), and didn't know at the time that Tom was making a low save somewhere behind me. Trying to stay towards goal, I made the rookie XC mistake of flying across the blue towards a cloud. I should have taken the detour off course-line to stay under the clouds. Got to the field too low to find lift and landed at 10 miles.

Tom, knowing that Dave and I were both on the ground decided to blow off goal, and stay with the clouds. Tracy picked Dave up, then me, and Tom was still in the air! We raced towards Georgetown, with Tom giving us landmarks to try to follow him. I did manage to glimpse him just before he landed, and we were there within a minute of his landing, making a transfer of a cold Diet Coke before the car came to a stop. Tom made 38.5 miles, probably 3 hours or so.

Stopped at the Hillside Restaurant for a feast of seafood! Thanks Tracy for driving!

-Mike Balk

Since you asked..

Broke my near 5 month hiatus from flying (and 6 month from airtowing) with what turned out to be a superb day at Ridgley. Run away from the clouds kinda day. No miles, as I had a USHGA conference call to attend that evening (arggg), but you could, and I did, stay up as long as you liked. 50% puffy cumies. Close to 2 hrs the first time after an east coast record (nothin will ever beat Greece) low save from about 500 AGL. Surprisingly cold at base. Came down to warm up and get rid of a nasty headache. 6 aspirins later I finally felt like flying again just as it rains, litterally rains, gliders. Blue skies, nobody up. Went anyway just for the practice. Ended up with a little over 45 mins in much mellower air. Whoda thunk it? Had two respectable landings to boot. Finished off the day with a few touch & goes on the tug, just to remember what that was all about..

2.5 hrs TOT, 4300 MSL, +1300 fpm max lift, -1300 fpm max sink. Nice..

-- Joe G.

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This page last updated May 12, 2002