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Hangola May 28 - 31, 2002

Flight Reports

Great time flying at Embreeville on 5/29/02. First real flights with paraglider after lessons with Bill Umstaddt. 6 Flights. 1 groundskimmer with sliding butt landing which the umpire called me safe at home. 5 flights with good landings on my feet. Got to share the air with Dimitri and his PG. After a 5 yr. hiatis I am approaching this very carefully and from the Hyner accident reviews it looks like we all need to. If anyone is going to Embreeville please email or call as I can probably make it. 717-284-4561.

Is anyone on this list going to the High Rock party? I am looking forward to seeing alot of seasoned pilot/friends again.

Just received word from another long time pilot that Dave Starbuck was flying with John Hope at Ridgely. Dave taught me 26 yrs ago at Embreeville.

One of the privlidges of being a WRHGC member is to get access to all areas of the the WRHGC site. I found the Art Gallery really interesting as I did not realize how realistic those blow up dolls had become. Sure beats the Gumby dolls of yesteryear.

Caught a 920 fpm (20 second averaager) monster at Ridgely yesterday. Marked by birds. Took it from about 2k to base at 4800. Averager never showed less than 860. Got a little nervous near base. Couple miles SW of Ridgely

Okay time flying our bags in Maui for Karen and I-- sleds and extendos from 6300' msl (2500' agl) and 4600 msl (750 agl) on three mornings. Clouds rolled in early and it was cat and mouse with the clouds every day-- got whited out once...NOT FUN!!! And doing dead air launches at 6300' and 80 degrees F can take a lot out of you, especially when you have to commit to running at a line of trees. On our last morning, I was deemed worthy enough to fly one of their other sites that had a 9 to 1 glide to the LZ and required catching a few thermals to make this LZ. Otherwise, it was landing on a narrow dirt road down hill with cactus and brush on all sides. Just getting to the launch site required an amazing four wheel drive experience followed by a just plain nasty hike up through the forest and jungle and searing heat. I would have gladly landed in the cactus fields rather than carry my glider back down the trail.

But I got up right away, made it to cloudbase and flew out over the ocean. I thought I'd find more thermals over the town near the beach... but the wispies weren't working and I landed in the main LZ after 35 minutes.

Matthew (hey, it looks like High Rock on Saturday!!! of Karen and Matthew)

Hey All,

This is a little long post from an excited H-2 after a flight that set all new personal bests. So if your interested read on, and if not you do have a delete key you know :-}

It was a great day at Manquin Thursday. It was the second day that I got to fly me new Ultra sport. We arrived at about noon to a sky that was full of cu?s but was looking on the verge of OD. The winds on the ground were L&V but there was about an 8mph east cross above 200ft. Didn?t get very high on the first two tows due to the cross and sank out through some small bumps. On the third tow Steve W. cranked up the winch pressure and I put on about 1/3 vg and got up to about 950. Just off tow ran into a little 200 up and took a few turns in it. With every turn the vario beeped quicker and quicker. Next thing I knew I was at 2000ft. I started to try and pattern the lift so I could core the center. At one point I was banked up and did about 5 turns in a 1200fpm core. It was a little more work to stay in it then I wanted at the time so I widened out and maintained about 600-800 up to cloud base at 4350 AGL. Getting to close to the bottom of the cloud I stuffed the bar and headed for the blue hole to the east to lose a little alt. Boated around a while and got down to 2200 AGL and headed under another developing cu and got back up to 3500 before the lift sputtered out. I was getting pretty tired so I decided to boat around a while and land. My shoulders were pretty tired at this point. It was while I was in relax mode that I realized that all the time I was pushing out so slow in the lift, that I was pushing out and down and supporting most of my weight on the base tube! No wonder my shoulders were so sore. It was a good lesson learned that will make my future flying so much more enjoyable. The total flight time was 1 hour. The only caveat to the wonderful day was that I could not seem to get the US to stall break for a no step landing. They were all a several step jog outs. Steve said to try a little vg on landing so I?ll try that next time. See you in the skies.

Hank

After hanging out for awhile this morning, went back to the LZ at 10am - met Hugh, then Bruce E, and Bruce S. we iced 2 kegs of beer and set up Bruce Engen's 5kw generator. Up top, winds were still SW with occasional launchable cycles. The new Logo looks fantastic! I flew Zagi and got really high a few times. Lots of Wuffos. Bruce Engen was the only one to fly. He had a good launch and short extendo. I'll head back to the LZ to camp this evening. I'm planning to head to Pulpit early (arrive by 9am), given the forecast for winds switching from NW to SW in the early afternoon.

'Spark

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This page last updated June 4, 2002