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Hangola June 29 - July 1, 2002

Flight Reports

I just returned from a two-week business/flying trip.

Departed solo on Thursday, 13June destined for Las Vegas, arriving 49 hours later. The 19 hour/1300 mile push on friday, 14June was a personal record that I probably won't try again. I spent a week at the Grand Canyon (work-related network security stuff), departing on Friday 21June to Scottsdale AZ to pick up an Axis13 for Danny, back N to Vegas to sell my Sport167, a quick nap, then up to Lake Tahoe to escape the 110 degree desert heat. 3833.6 miles

Saturday 22June - arrived at Slide Mtn at 1pm (a bit late for an east-facing site) and launched at 2pm for a 22-minute extendo. Cloud-cover had suppressed lift on the mtn, so I worked what I could find over the valley. As always, the Zagi had no problems skying out. Afterwards, I joined a local Tahoe buddy at Day Dreams, a 700' SW/W facing ridge above Kings Beach on the N shore of Lake Tahoe. I confirmed that the Zagi could soar before assembling my glider. Ironically, the light west winds died shortly afterward and I took a 3-minute sled-ride in my K3 from a shallow-sloped tree-lined launch to a no-wind techno-whack at 6k msl on the crowded-and-tiny beach :-|

Sunday 23June - met Bruce Engen at the Slide Mtn. LZ and headed to the top. I was really happy to see Bruce (not only because he had brought the forgotten battens for my topless and I could finally quit flying the @#$%! K3). I Zagi'd for a few minutes and set up. The west winds kicked in just about the time Bruce and I were ready to launch. Several pilots launched in brief sucker cycles and wallowed through -1000 to -1500fpm rotor-induced sink on the way to the LZ - both entertaining and educational. We returned to Kings Beach, where I Zagi'd a 15' sand dune, benched up on a condo to a 100' treeline and cruised the beach. I sure wish I could do that with an HG... then up to Day Dreams for a 75-minute evening glass-off. Bruce and I weaved along the ridge among 8 paragliders and another HG. I used the Delta-Dragger fin (spoiler) on approach, nailing a 2-stepper on the tiny beach. Bruce did equally well. After reviewing weather and considering several possible options, we departed at 10pm for King Mountain, Idaho.

Spontaneity is the spice of life.

A brief description of the King Mountain area: the Lost River Valley runs 70 miles from Arco through Moore and Mackay to Willow Creek summit, south of Challis Idaho. It is flat, 10 to 15 miles wide, full of giant LZs and bounded on both sides by mountains rising 5000 to 6000 feet above the valley floor. The mountain peaks range from 10'500 to 13k msl and cloudbase is typically 15k to 18k msl. King Mountain sits near the south end of the valley and provides a W/SW upper launch at 8100'msl (2400' agl) and lower launch at 7400'msl (1800' agl). Just south of King is the Coyote launch at 7200'msl. At the far south end of the range is Jumpoff peak at 8500'msl (3400'agl) with NE and SE-facing launches, and further south in the desert of Arco, ID is 'Big Southern Butte', a 2400'agl cinder cone. All the sites require a stout 4WD vehicle.

Monday, 6/24 9am - arrived to scattered rain showers. Drove through the tiny town of Moore Idaho and followed the signs to an enormous LZ. The rains abated as we headed up to Coyote launch. Up top, winds were 10-15mph straight in. I Zagi'd. Another (non-local) pilot arrived and we prepared for launch. Winds died to L&V. Extendo - 12 minutes. Bruce had a similar flight. I practiced my "Run Forrest, run!" technique. After talking with locals, we learned that Coyote is a morning site and we should've launched two hours earlier.

Tuesday, 25June - joined an experienced local pilot on a journey to 'Jump-off', a SE-facing peak at 8500'msl. Another local (with driver) had agreed to join us, but arrived in the LZ to report that they couldn't do it. Damn, 1 vehicle. I agreed to drive. Conditions up top looked great. The Zagi sky'd out again, joined by various large raptors and small swifts. Bruce launched first and was unable to find any decent lift near launch. He found something in the valley at about 7k msl, topping out above 13k. Overdevelopment abounded to the W and N with frequent virga. I chased Bruce approximately 10 miles towards Arco. Later in the evening, we returned to the upper launch of King Mountain and I enjoyed an extended 15 minute flight in weak thermals.

Wednesday, 26June - 1st day of the King Mountain meet. We registered and gathered at the pilot's meeting. Pilots who don't pre-register have to either wait for the upper launch to clear, or they must launch from the lower launch. Conditions were marginal at lower launch with many extended sled rides, so we waited until we could go to the upper launch. I Zagi'd and ran out of batteries at about 300' agl - resulted in an impressive vertical dive into sagebrush, emerging unscathed. Conditions began to deteriorate - overdevelopment and virga. The remaining pilots on top broke down. After assessing conditions, I made a no wind launch from the upper slope and raced for the LZ. Bruce drove down. I quickly packed up and we left about 15 minutes before the gust front. Later that evening, we listened to stories of pilots climbing to above 16k and landing at the May airport N of Challis.

Thursday, 27June - Zagi'd again (freshly charged). The meet officials called a 'Course 2' (over the back) and Bruce and I agreed on a 'Course 1' (down the range). I set up, got into line and waited my turn. I potatoed on launch for 20 minutes while my Thermal Snooper said 'sink' and a half-dozen pilots sank. Finally the Snooper chirped and I launched into decent lift, eventually working to above 12k. Bruce launched next. I drifted N and encountered some washboard air (rapid wire-slaps), changed drift and made it to 13,200 above a large gaggle. After 10-15 minutes between 12,500 and 13k, hypoxia began, washboard air resumed and I decided to fly out in the valley. I announced my intention to do the valley run and Bruce agreed to follow. We flew about 12 miles toward Mackay, landing about 4 miles upwind of an overdeveloped area with virga. I was amazed that my flight only lasted an hour - seemed longer. Back up top at King (to retrieve the vehicle) I Zagi'd in some magic evening air. I handed the controls to Bruce (now appointed Z-2) and he climbed 400-500', looped and 360'd. More overdevelopment and virga - we decided to move on. After a quick briefing from John Wowoide, we packed and headed for Jackson Hole, Wyoming.

Friday 28June - awoke at 6:30 am in the Teton Village parking lot and scouted the LZ. 'Twas gigantic, but with a creek, areas knee-high grass and a bit swampy. We breakfast'ed and spoke to locals. At 8am we located Tom Bartlett of Jackson Hole Paragliding and he informed us that we had 15 minutes to get our gliders to the Tram loading area. I grinned so hard I hurt my face. As they tied our wings to the top of the tram car, Tom handed us two complimentary passes and we boarded with a group of about 10 PG pilots. On the trip up, we learned that HG is pretty rare at Jackson Hole and that there were only two local active HG pilots. Up on top of Rendevous bowl at 10,500'msl (4135'agl), winds were straight in (E) at 5-10mph. Several PG pilots were able to soar. As we assembled, winds began to wane. Cirrus moved in from the W and I suggested that we hurry and launch before it tailed. Bruce launched first and I followed soon after into light 2-3mph. We both were able to work light thermals and extended out flights to 30 minutes. Bruce and I were pleased with our landings (at 6000' msl). Soon afterward, PG pilots reported the winds were over the back. Mosquitos began to bite.

We departed Jackson Hole at about noon on Friday 28June, arriving at my house at 11:30pm Saturday 29June.

Lessons:

- retire the K3

- Don't forget battens ;-) it's stupid and embarrassing.

- Bring more socks.

- Tom Bartlett is a generous host. Learn to paraglide. Spend more time at Jackson Hole. Check out the other sites.

- Lisa Tate is awesome, puts on an outstanding meet and makes the best trophies on the planet.

Spend more time at King Mountain. Pre-register for the meet.

- Get an Oxygen system.

'Spark

KB3ICV

Nice bunch of pilots, nice air. Ecstasy of flight for some, agony of de feet for others. Most got up, some took a couple of tries before success. For me, 2.5 hours with complimentary face washes @ 5900', 6100', & 6200'.

6k in the end of June very Kewl!

I tried calling on 147.500 from around 4000 agl at 13:00 with no responce.

Cloudbase was a bit lower above my house at 4800' . Did not realize I was above the bottoms in blue sky untill the horizon disappeard. Been flying the XC powered from my yard and love it. I'll probably head up to Hyner on Wednesday.

~Tom

I finally cut the leash on Sat for my 2nd XC flight of the year. (The first one took me "just over there beyond that tree line".)

Lisa dropped me in a boomer @ 2:26 (what service) and I landed 2hrs 51 min later at mile marker 89 on rt 50 past Cambridge. My GPS battery died, but the string gauge on the map in the Highland shop indicates just over 30mi. Got to cloudbase 3-4 times, max alt 6,120. No heroic saves, but did struggle for quite a while just above 1,000 mid flight then at the end I bobbled around for 15min between 600-1,500 after picking out my field. No I didn't milk it for every mile. All the traffic on rt 50 made it look like a great place to begin my hitch hiking, while continuing with the drift was sure to leave me out on some dirt road in the hinterlands.

A wimp? Absolutely...but an old guy pulled up in his beater Lincoln Town Car before I could even un-hook. He'd been watching me from his porch for the last 15-20 min. He hung out and talked while I broke down. Once I had it in the bag he said, "wanna throw it on the roof, I've got straps in the trunk?" You know my answer. Guy wouldn't take a nickle, even for gas.

John Muldoon

Yesterday at Ridgley......a great day for others but not me. Not much sleep the night before. Hooked up with Dave Proctor at Bowie mall and rode out to Ridgley. Didn't feel normal until stopping for food at Taco Hell. High cirrus early but by1:30 the sky looked good, everybody else thought so at the same time and so like lemmings everybody jumped in line at the same time. Only 1 tug operational. Dave and I hoped to do another team XC, he was 2 gliders ahead of me. The line moved slow with tandems being inserted. (I'm not complaining about that as that's how they make ends meet) Finally my turn and the week link broke at 50 ft. A precious 30 minutes goes by as Dave reports higher and higher altitudes and increasing mileage from the field. Finally my turn again but I get dropped off a mile downwind in a blue hole.

I landed 23 minutes later, or should say whacked, first time in a long time, and bent a downtube. Didn't have a spare. So I retrieved Dave who landed south of Cambridge for 38.3 miles. Turned out that Steve K and Joe Gregor landed nearby but communications were missed and I didn't pick them up. MC

Nice flight John! Dave Proctor and I also ended up in the same area. Dave went 38 and came back three because he didn't want to land in a swamp and die. I made it 41 miles putting it down just before the bridge to Taylor Island. I thought crossing the Choptank was pretty scary. I went over about 4 miles west of the bridge. Dave was stinking high and said it wasn't an issue. I was pretty high too -- maybe 5500 -- but it was definitely an issue for me. That is a lotta damn water. My little heart went pitty pat. Found absolutely nothing on the other side -- there were some cumis cowering over in the restricted airspace where you couldn't get to them. Too bad we couldn't have coordinated the retrieves a little better but you seemed to do pretty good on your own. My compadre, Joe Gregor, added to the complexity by going to the east of the restricted airspace. He made it 34 miles but he was probably at least that far away from me. It's all my fault because I forgot my radio. I'm a jerk. Tad picked Joe and me up. Thank you thank you thank you. Dinner was Chad's birthday feast. Thank you again whoever . I owe somebody some beer. Great day!

East College Parkway really works! I picked it up in the Severna Park area. Started out on 50 east out of the DC beltway, turned north on route 3, got off at Benfield Blvd which joins route 2/Richie Highway at Severna Park. Left off Richie as if going to Anne Arundel Community College, keep on going to end, take East College Parkway which becomes the access road parallel to 50. There's anoverpass which gets you on the correct side of 50 and an on-ramp that dumps you just before the toll booths. Cuts off all the stop and go past Annapolis and over the Severn river bridge. This sounds more complicated than it is - really removes a major deterrent to weekend trips to Ridgely. All praise and plaudits to Tad for pointing it out! Somehow managed to miss all the lift on Saturday. Calibrated my landings - trying to land steep and fast without ending up long - had one uncomfortably close to the active grass runway. Landings 1 and 3 were within 50 feet of the intended point... Finally got my family out to witness this insanity. Went on to Lewes for a late afternoon beach and dinner. - Hugh

Nice flights John, Joe, and Steve.

Yes it was a great day.

Mine was a really pleasant flight. Left with the first lift I found at the airport and just slowly climbed and drifted to the South. Each successive thermal took me a little higher. Had to jog crosswind to the West to stay out of restricted airspace. Got to watch the boats playing on the Choptank. As I got towards Cambridge I caught a nice thermal and as I was climbing out saw 5 or 6 birds below also climbing. One was a mature bald eagle. As they got closer I could see that they were all baldies in various stages of maturity. Two younguns, brown and mottled, a semi mature with a little white just starting to show on the head and tail and at least one other slightly younger. They were in a better core just to my West so I join them, changing my turn direction to match theirs. The younguns are playing as they climb. One will climb above and then dive and mock attack the other, who flips inverted as they lock talons and momentarily tumble thru the sky before releasing to resume their climb. This is good because it keeps them from outclimbing me and affords me an extended show. I top out around 6400 MSL as I drift over the Choptank just East of the bridge at Cambridge. Yes it was a non-event. I end up at 38.2 miles out, South of Cambridge, at 4K climbing slowly, looking at swamp and water. I can see a landable field on the other side of all this muck, about 3-4 miles away but I can't see any roads at all. So I turn around and start heading back. It is harder going upwind of course and I only make it around 3 miles before landing in a huge cut wheat field. Mike Chevalier picks me up and we head home. Thanks for the retrieve Mike.

Lesson of the day: As we hit the road I try to call Steve K a couple of times on the cell but don't get an answer. As Mike and I are crossing the bay bridge my cell phone starts chirping. Two voice mail messages from Steve. "Dave, Hi, This is Steve. I am South of Cambridge and am looking for a retrieve...." Important note: If you are out of your home area some cell phone service providers won't notify you of pending messages. You can retrieve them, but won't receive any notification that they are there until you get back into your home service area. So.... if you are out in the boonies and trying to get a retrieve, leave a message, but also keep trying, and also check your messages periodically. Steve finally did get me on the phone... my home phone..... around 9PM...... says someone is on the way to get him. I had already been home for an hour, eating pizza and relaxing. Four hours earlier I was probably only about 5 miles away from Steve, gliders loaded up on the truck. Plenty of room for more. Sorry Steve.

Dave P

PS Oh yeah. Lesson 2: Fly with your radio.

I took advantage of the no-mountain-winds weekend to exercise my tow launch options. With a goal of delivering new club t-shirts, decided to hit each park one day. Went for Ridgely on Saturday, and glad I did, because the two middle lanes of I-95 southbound at Dale City were closed due to a wreck Sat morning.

Aerotowing at Ridgle on Saturday I was able to practice launch abort procedures. First and third tows gave me unexpected tow line separations. On the first about 2:30, the weak link broke at 80 feet, just as we were crossing the edge of the smooth grass. I had seen Lisa in the tug hit that thermal, and was ready for the lift pop. It was such a good pop, the link broke. I kept flying straight and performed a cross-wind landing in the beans, pretty much a non-event. The crew brought me a launch cart to make the walk back to get in line again easier. Thanks. Then, #3 at 4:30 I was doing fine as we climbed out, when at 400 feet I was no longer connected to the tug. Said a curse word, turned left, and landed in the waiting line area to get right back in line. This time, the base tube had caught the front of the secondary release tube and opened it as I pulled in to speed up. Darn flared tube! That night I took the Dremel to it and chewed most of the flared end off.

Flights 2 and 4 were much more satisfying. On neither did I find lift at altitude, but on both I caught low save thermals at 900 and 1400 over the trees across from the airport. 20 to 25 minutes each, and max at 2500 feet after each low save. Not XC quality, but a good feeling to work from low to high.

Sunday at Manquin

Having played the aerotow game the day before, Sunday I took to the back of the truck. Conditions were not great; even Manquin Skygod Jim Keller only stayed aloft an hour from an aerotow to 2500. My first two tows I only got to about 900 feet, and sledded back to the start point to try again. I used the conditions to practice cross-wind landings on E/W the runway. Neither as pretty as I like, but no bonk, and safe completions.

Steve Wendt suggested a couple of minor configuration changes in my set up on the truck, and those did the trick for flight number 3. Pinned off of tow at 1120, then proceeded to find a little lift over the pond just below 1000. Rode that carefully up to 1300, where it got better. Soon I was up to 2900 and enjoying the view. Two other gliders were already up in that area. Eventually lost that bubblle, and found myslef in blue hole. No lift anywhere I could reach. Landed at 28 minutes, this time a pretty 3 step run out, more pleasing to my aesthetic sense. Just missed 3K and 30 min. Oh well.

It was a great flying weekend. Seven flights, all safe. Learned something in every flight. Sold several club shirts. Good fun socializing with super groups of pilots. And I really do like flying in t-shirt and shorts instead of bundled for winter.

Cragin

Ridgely both days - 20 minutes on Saturday (launched at 4:00 pm). Flying Sheila's Pulse (my Klassic got eaten by mice over the winter).

Sunday flew as long as I wanted (an hour and a half) topping out at 5300. In one thermal had a 4100' gain from a low point of 900'. Was a great day! The Highland crew once again made it all happen. Thanks!

Christy, Tom, Mike Balk flew to Seaford. Steve Turner flew to Milford.

Matthew brought a crew from fox sports int'l to do a piece and had a little xc hop of his own.

Numerous tandems throughout the day, including Kelly Madden(!).

I couldn't possibly list everyone, but here are some of those who flew: Karen, Ellis, Lauren, Ayisha, Scott, Geoff, John W, Tad, Ken Church, Mark (in for the summer from California)

Judy

Yes!! I was thermalling with Kelly at 5200 feet!! She was above! Go Kelly!!

Stressful, busy week. You don't want to know details. But I dusted off the grime and sweat Saturday night and drove to Christy's for the Fifi party (all the girls). We swapped stories, sucked on Dove bars, and lay in the grass and watched the fireworks. Christy's bird bit the crap out my finger.

Sunday, I still felt too stressed to even go fly, but Paul pushed me, said the work would wait. I managed a couple of personal bests -- my longest pure thermaling flight (as opposed to one using ridge lift) at 70 minutes, and my most altitude gain at 2000 feet. Suffice to say, playing with my little glider and all my friends and listening to the Dragonfly rip by overhead are like a massage for the soul.

And Paul was right, the work is right here waiting for me. Better go hit it!

Lauren Tjaden

Rich's bird!!! Not mine!

> Christy's bird bit the crap out my finger.

Had a really fun time this weekend. FIFI pilots (and pilots-to-be) Kelly, Sheila, Bridget (sp?), Judy, Lauren, Karen, and Ellis (and her dog) came to my place for the evening and all but Lauren, to spend the night. The next day most of us went to Ridgely. I had a really fun flight of 26 miles, landing across from the WalMart at Seaford, DE. Lots of time spent at cloud base staying cool. Christy

I forgot to mention that while I was working a good thermal over the airport, the tandem glider was in the vicinity and at times was outclimbing me!! Turns out it was Kelly at the bar. She was really doing well while Kevin the kids watched from down below.

Yep, some guy from a TV show called Playground Earth on Fox Sports contacted us to do a few segments on hang gliding-- one AT, one 'how to' and one on mountain flying. We got to Ridgely late, as usual, and missed the bulletproof conditions from 11:30 to 1:30. I got in line at about 1:45 after we figured out how to mount the camera to my glider. Folks were still sky high over the East end of the filed. But under Chad's influence, Adam dropped me off on the West end in 250 down. I found something over the hangers at 1300' and climbed back up to 4K as everyone else landed or had already gone XC. I was alone in the sky and I toyed with going XC with the guy's camera-- but changed my mind and hung around. Landed after about 45 minutes.

After taking the camera off and doing a follow-up interview, went back up again at around 4:00. Since the boys had a good enough laugh at dropping of in sink on the first flight (and because of my whining), Adam plopped me off in a light thermal on the second flight. I was clawing my way up in it, turning right, when I saw John Wiseman (sp?)

climbing faster in another part of the thermal well below me and turning left. So I flew over to him and started turning left. God, how I hate turning left! Within a few minutes, John outclimbed me. So I putzed around till I was far enough beneath him and in a different core and started turning right again. Ah!!! Climbed back up to 3K and stayed with it as I drifted across the river. Bubbled along working cross wind for a whopping 5.5 miles and another 45 minute flight. But, hey, I was the last guy stay up.

Big thanks to Judy-Judy for coming to get me.

Matthew (praying for a Woodstock 4th, of Karen and Matthew)

Another booming weekend at Ridgely.

I was was one of the first solo gliders to launch after conditions changed Saturday and it went from stinky-looking to spectacular. Got pulled 2 miles downwind to release into a thermal over Ridgley. Spent some time floating around and trying to work my way back toward the airport, only to find something nice on the way and ending up back at Ridgely once again. After 45 mins of this nonesense - and noticing that I'm up to +5k now - and noticing that the tandem glider is climbing at 3-400 fpm - the clue light finally flickers on and I turn downwind. Drift is due South on the GPS. Picked the East fork at Federalsburg (having been razzed for boxing myself in by the Bay during the Ridgely Fly-In). Drift turns 030, then 060 on the GPS. Guess I shoulda counted on that happening and gone toward Cambridge like everyone else I didn't know was out there. End up bouncing off the edge of the Pax River restricted area like a superball one friggin' mile at a time until the clouds all went away. You outta see my GPS track. Like tracing out the edge of a saw blade. It's really excruciating to watch. Took me 3 hrs and 10 mins - after turning downwind - to make 34 1/2 measely miles. Jeeze! How do these comp guys do it?

Mind you, all this time there are these great looking, cumie topped, thermals floating around in the Restricted Area; watching, remaining just out of reach. Guess they breed like crazy in there since nobody can hunt 'em...

Standard Joe Gregor retrieve story: Get out the cell phone to find out that the guy I rode with went XC too; and got farther to boot. Everybody else's cell phones immediately divert to voice mail when called, but automatically re-activate to deliver their messages once outside the cone of retrieval. Mega thanks to Tad, who offered to pick up me and Steve - who turned out to be not 7, but 47, miles away from me. Sorry Tad.

But hey! I stayed cool the whole day. Had that same above cloudbase experience Steve described a while back. Pretty unusual in a hang glider. Broke down in the shade on the manicured lawn of a very friendly landowner. Coulda been worse.

4750 MSL max, 3+55 TOT, 34.4 smi.

Talk about being in the right place at the right time.

I showed up at Redwing on Saturday only to pick up my glider. Lo and behold, Bill, JD, and Norm were finishing up repairs to the tug engine, and wanted to "test" it.

As Norm and I set up our gliders, he asked "Hey, want to go cross-country?"

"Um... Sure!"

In a nut shell, we towed to 2500, made cloudbase at 5500, then turned South and ran along Rt. 206. Norm kept me in line via radio, and I had a blast as we hopped from cloud to cloud.

Just before "last chance field", I found a nice big area of sink and ended up landing in the athletic fields of Indian Mills Elementary School. 13nm (15 miles). I couldn't have asked for a better first XC!

Norm continued on over the Wharton State Forest, trying to avoid turbine traffic. Cloudbase rose to 7000 ft. He finally hit the sea breeze front South of Vineland, and landed at Millville Airport for a flight of 50-some miles. And I mean *at* Millville Airport! Right by the wind sock!

It was an unexpectedly great day.

Tom Curbishley

What a weekend!

Saturday -- Redwing.

The man of the hour JD Giomette, a -visiting pilot- , provides the magic insight to fix the tug. Many thanks to Bob, Bill, Norm, JD and everyone that got that thing back in the air! Fortunately for us, JD plans to be spending time in the area every now and then and seems to really get a kick out of working on the tug. Nothing like having an other (very) skilled hand around.

Tug fixed, towing resumes. (after the tug is thuroughly tested and test flown of course)

Norm and Tom tow on up for two personal best flights. Tom gets a great first XC and Norm winds up breaking (yet an other) Redwing record.

Bob and Bill trade off towing duities and get some flying done. Not content to sit around all day, JD starts working on an other tug engine... how do we convince this guy to move to NJ? Bob joins in after he's done flying.

As the weather settles down late in the day, me and JD check get to check out on solo towing... some 3k and 1k rides ensue. Ye HAW! Thanks Bill and Norm for some smooth and easy tugging!

Sunday -- Redwing.

Tweaking, cleaning, primping and crimping of the tug continues. Bill gets some early morning tandems in, but the weather gets rough early so us Rookies settle in for the heat of the day. Taskman Bill helps many people throughout the day with various projects, definately going beyond just helping out a guy or two. Work doesn't end till oh-dark-thirty. Say what you will about Mr Quirky, but I have a little extra patience for anyone that does that much to help out the sport. (Same thing for tug pilots btw, people giving up flying time to help others out.)

Miles, Jim, Bob, and some guys I didn't catch names for, were grabbin thermals through the day. Weather was similar to Saturday, Hot Hot HOT and sticky... cuemmies rolling around the sky. And what's this folks???? Something resembling a glider rack appeared on Ken Sutch's truck... welcome back Ken! A 195 falcon has a new home. Speaking of old things that are new again, we spent the wee hours of the day resurecting my Sting! Yep, "It's alive!".

Monday -- Cedar Ledge.

Me, Bill, Yuri and ARG, didn't catch his name (PG pilot) head to cedar ledge.

Wind is STFI @ 2 and it's an other hot/humid day. Yuri gets his first high flight! Shortly afterwards, the PG pilot gets his first high flight too. Woo Hoo! Welcome to the mountains guys. After Bill gives it a test flight, I get to fly my Sting again. I'd forgotten what a fantastic glider it is.

A new XC pilot.
A new Redwing record.
2 new tow pilots.
A fixed tug.
A resurrected glider.
A HG pilot returns to the sport.
2 new Mountain pilots.
And a whole lot of flying...
Man, what a weekend!

Thanks ladies, it was great to get back in the air. While I was flying the glider most of the time, Chad was giving me great tips. I'ld find the thermal and Chad would say the core is just to the north, or smooth out your adjustments (don't bump the glider), or flatten it out a little. It was a great learning experience.

Kelly

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This page last updated July 2, 2002