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Hangola May 8 - 19, 2001

Flight Reports

Well it didn't totally suck but it pretty much did.

First off was the Secret Service. Guy wanted a waiver number. Explained that there is no waiver number. The waivers are not numbered. Guy is not impressed. Joe faxes him a signed, dated copy. Still wants a number. Starts calling me "sir" -- a bad sign. Sparky suggested some extremely rude things I could say. Guy eventually relented. Or rather he seemed to be instantaneously uninterested in us. Sure go ahead whatever.

Then we all had sleds in between thunderstorms. Actually, I got a sled, Spark soared for a nanosecond and Kevin had an extendo.

But it was nice to fly the Rock again. Emma Jane and Harry are doing fine.

Thursday was an interesting day to fly! Not good, but interesting. Lauren and I had decided to take the day off to fly, if possible, but her injured knee kept her on the ground so I became sole decision maker. It was a tough call between WS and HR but after learning that Steve would have adequate company at HR, Gary Smith, Bruce Engen and I decided to give WS a try. The very promising forecast was not happening but it appeared that later in the afternoon we'd have a good chance of decent weather and wind.

Arriving at Launch around 4:00 we found two PG pilots parawaiting and what appeared to be soarable winds and a sky that was obviously active. Gary and I started setting up but Bruce decided to hold off. Gary launched smooth and straight somewhere around 5:00 and proceeded to get up fairly easily. Due to unfamiliarity and caution with my new glider, I wasn't ready to launch till about twenty minutes later. Gary's radio PTT switch was not working so there had been no pilot reports. Winds in the slot were switchy and lighter but I got off nice and straight and started to the right. Things quickly went down hill from there. Very turbulent air caused my glider to roll and pitch just this side of controllability and I moved further away from the ridge. At one point I was turned 90 degrees into the ridge and was facing a wall of trees. Contrary to the poem, trees can be very ugly when viewed from this position.

About this time Gary comes on the radio telling us that he has landed out due to extreme sink and conditions that were causing wire slaps as often as two or three times a minute. That was enough to change my attitude from getting high to "get this damn thing on the ground." Heading towards the LZ I cringed at the thought of what that would be like and as expected it was a real roller coaster. To top off this wonderful flight, a last second wind switch put me slightly downwind on final. Ground speed was pretty amazing so I thanked God for wheels and rolled it in. Never been so happy to be bumping along the ground on my belly.

Not certain how I could have known how rowdy the skies were going to be. Winds were not strong and although the sky had development, it never OD'ed nor did it really look that threatening. Later heard that right while we were flying, There was severe weather happening just to the East in Fauquier County. I guess we should have paid more attention to the extreme weather that was going on that day rather than the friendly forecast even though the local weather seemed OK.

BTW, fifteen minutes after I landed, the sky went totally blue, wind dropped to near zero and Jim (one of the PG pilots) floated down to the LZ in what he said were absolutely smooth skies.

Paul

I flew NW trow Tuesday. For those of you who haven't been to t row it is a NW site in Elon VA north of Lynchburg elevation 2850 msl a slot launch with a 50 foot wooden ramp.The winds were forecasted to be very strong but backing off at the end of the day. I checked the winds on the mountain about 10:00 it was blowing in at 25 to 30 mph well out of hand. At 1:00 I decided to go back up and check again. The winds at launch were 5 to 25 so I decided to set up. I was ready by 1:45 I called a few people and found the wind on the ground wasn't getting above 20 so I decided to go. (I am confident in my flying ability and this is the upper limits of what I would consider flying in) I had to wait on launch through a few strong cycles then I got my lull I picked my glider the wind was blowing about 5 things felt good so I Launched. I had a good launch running to the end of the ramp. I went up right away It took about 10 minutes to catch the thermal I left in. This climb went to 8000msl plenty high enough to leave. I had several more climbs but to shorten the story I have sent my Barogram. 2 hours later I was landing 60 miles out SE of Farmville. I could tell the wind on the ground was blowing but not how strong. So I was very careful where I landed I picked a huge field With no trees within several 100 yards. On my approach I made sure I didn't get at all outside of the field. I started final at 100ft and only went forward 100ft (this is why you always need to be cautious about getting behind obstacles) I landed with one hand on the downtube and one on the base tube with no problem. I tore down and the farmer let me leave my glider in a farm house. I put on my shirt and tie and started hitching back to my car. 7 rides and 2 hours later I was back (4 women and 3 men). The only close call I had was in setup when tensioning my glider the string broke and I rolled about 8ft down the mountain.

Leaving my computer on and the screen locked so it appeared I would return after lunch...hmmmmm....Mission accomplished as I waved and smiled to office mates and slunk out the back door to make a mad dash to my car. Arriving at HR around 1:30 found about 6 gliders already in various stages of setup. After being ridiculed for being in a suit, I quickly changed into my flying gear with Lauren getting a free shot of my Batman boxer shorts (Hey...superstitions work...I fly better when I wear them). Launched #5 in line around 2:45 into really nice cycles coming in at launch. Immediately beamed up, fell out of the backside and sent my adrenalin levels thru the roof! Headed down ridge and hooked a boomer that pegged my vario and rode that up to about 2800 over. First 45 minutes of the flight was a thrill ride pegging my vario at 1000 up in lift and a couple of 1000 down moments in major sink. As the afternoon progressed, things mellowed but the lift was still there. As the flight continued was getting tired so I started playing around making high bank turns, linking 180's and 360's and just enjoying the wonderful scenery. As soon as I'd get back down to launch level, I'd hook another one and head back up to about 1000' over and start the whole cycle again. Finally Paul headed out to land and I figured if I could stay up just a few minutes longer than him, my day would be complete. Got a PIREP from Paul in the LZ and decided that it was time to beat feet. Experienced MAJOR sink heading to the LZ, much more than usual. Pulled full VG just for warm fuzzy and pointed the nose at the Zone. Arrived with enough altitude to burn two 360's and then fired off on my downwind. Good pattern and nice landing next to the spot. (Although I caveat that it was NO WHERE near Kevin's picture perfect spot landing with his basetube resting on top of the cone) All in all, 18 people flew - obviously I'm not the only one who has their work priorities all screwed up. Thanks for a great hooky day and a BIG SPECIAL THANKS to Lauren for being Site Monitor all day and making it possible for a great day.

Batman: Peak Altitude 2876' 2hrs 17min

Christopher McKee

I was down at MFP yesterday taking some training truck tows and they were cutting the Barly. Nice brown thermal-spawning dirt is now showing.

Rance (H1.98 and counting)

Wow! Being site monitor is easy. I didn't do a damn thing. Tom got there early, made the call to the Secret Service and volunteered his cell phone for the day. And Lauren, Wounded Knee, Tjaden spent most of the day being site moniitor. BIG THANKS TO LAUREN!!! She reminded me to tell everyone that she is a saint. And she is!!!

As to flying-- IT WAS GREAT!!!! Ya should've been there. The early birds had the best flights getting high and flying long. I launched at 5:10 and got and hour and a quarter and 2K over. 18 pilots flew: Tom, Paul T., Eddie Miller, Kurtis Kemerer, Karen, Mike C., Steve, Dave Green, Brian Hardwick, Richard Hays, Sparky, Chris M., Kelvin, Kevin Carter, Gary Smith, John Middleton and Holly for her first HR flight. It was like a good old-fashioned weekend day.

Matthew (set to site monitor again on 5/26, of Karen and Matthew)

Hello my fellow Friends and Family Members,

Some of you might be wondering how come you haven't heard anything from me in the past weeks? Well, after you read thru you will know why. First, lets start with the Florida thing, as also most of you know, we take a "short" vacation to the Florida flight parks every April for the hang gliding competitions. It is a lot of fun and if you never been there, please do yourself a favor and try to be there for the next comps or just to do some free flight. I promise you're not going to regret it.

Since our second year there (this is the fourth time we go there in a row), we take the trailer down. It is good because is like taking your house with you, Mamma Goose and the kids love to be around Wallaby Ranch, the kids enjoy the playground and the swimming pool while Dad flies. This year the first week of the competition was at Quest Flight Park, since we like to stay at the Wallaby Ranch, I had to travel every morning the 30 miles that separates the two flight parks and Ruth comes to pick me up wherever I land in the afternoon.

As some of you already know, I hurt myself upon landing on the second day of the competition. Don't ask me... early evening, no wind, and I just missed the flare window and the control bar hit the ground first, the glider nosed in and my body swung thru the control frame and my knee hit the carbon fiber speed bar and I had a laceration on my knee that required an emergency room trip and six stitches.

This year, as in the previous years, I teamed up with a bunch of friends to form the "Colombian Connection" (Will Silva, Mike Glennon, Jack Simmons, Carlos Rizo and I, later joined by Raul Guerra and Fausto Arcos). The guys also enlisted the help of Rick and Terrie to drive for them. After my incident, I could not fly, so for the next two days I was just there to give the boys some support, from the fourth day on, I rested in hopes to have the wound healed for the Wallaby Open.

It was Sunday April 20th when the Wallaby Open started, and I was not felling good. I actually had a little fever that day and spent the whole afternoon in bed, getting up around 3 PM just to see the guys coming to goal. I even discussed with Ruth the possibility of packing up and returning back home early, I was seen no point on staying there and not flying, she said no, lets stay until the end as planned.

I woke up next day around six o'clock, as usual a fine mist of dew covered everything there. For some reason this year the mist was a lot denser even dripping under the trailer awning. I was felling a lot better, actually I was felling great and I thought for a moment and decided to set up my glider, I pulled it from under the trailer and started to set it up, thinking that I would later speak with the meet director (JC Brown) and ask him if I could still sign up and fly the meet. Off course JC said "yes" and I flew the last four rounds of the meet, day six and seven were cancelled because of the weather.

Second task was a 98.4 miles out and return to Avon Park Airport with a control turn point on the way in and out at the Bok Tower to keep us away from the skydiving activities in Lake Whales Airport. I flew for 4:25 hours and 54.6 miles. This was a very nice flight, I managed to get my radio working and was able to talk with the team members for the first time. Jack and I flew together good part of the flight and I remember the thermal we caught at about 1,500 feet AGL right above a Tropicana Orange Juice Factory. The smell of pressed oranges was so sweet and carried out to the top of the thermal at about 4,300 feet.

We got low and slow at about hour and half into the flight and took us about 40 minutes to get back up in a good thermal, that slowed us down considerably and we could only get about 3.5 miles back after getting the Avon turn point. Mike, Carlos, Jack, Fausto, two other gliders and I were all together on top of this huge landing field, we stayed there for about twenty minutes not getting up and not getting down, until finally we could not stay there anymore, Mike, Fausto and I landed there and the other guys manage to get a couple of hundred feet and went some place else. Mike was nice enough to carry my glider from the field to our break down area (my knee was bleeding a little bit).

Third task was a windy day, the task selected was a 46.8 miles to goal at Avon Park with a control turn point at Bok Tower. My helmet connector broke and again I had no communication with Ruth or the other team members. My flight lasted almost two hours and 17.8 miles. About an hour and a half into the flight I caught what would be my last thermal with Betinho Smith, we rode it together to the top at about 4,300 feet AGL (above ground level), we went on glide and I could really notice that to keep up with him I had to speed up, I ended up landing after that long glide and he managed to climb away (he did not made goal but landed only 9 miles short and only 12 pilots made goal). Thinking about that last glide later on, I realized that I was flying too slow. I needed to speed things up a little bit. Oh, and I landed only 1/10 of a mile behind Manfred Ruhmer.

Fourth task, the wind calmed down a little bit and a 59.6 miles task was called with two turnpoints and goal at Wauchula Airport. I was number 24 at goal with a time of 02:34:49 hours, my barograph showed me that the total flight time was 03:50 hours.

It was tough going for the first hour or so, with humongous gaggles before the start circle and we were not getting too high, between 1800' and 2000'. But after that, the day improved quite well and I only got low twice at around 3/4 of the flight (1000'), and I managed my speed well and made goal with altitude to spare, I forgot to set my wind speed properly, it was set for a 10 mph head wind and the wind was actually blowing at 2 mph tail more or less, and that made the difference on the flight computer final glide calculation. Ruth was so bummed that we did not have communication and she was so close to goal and did not see me coming in.

Fifth task a 68.8 miles with two turnpoints and goal at the Inverness Airport. I improved myself a little bit and made it number 18 at goal with a time of 2:21:00 hours, my barograph showed exactly 3 hours of total flight. Manfred, Andre and Brett made the 2PM start clock and the majority of the field made the 2:15PM start and a couple of guys made the last start at 2:30PM. I was high at about 4,300' when we got on course and was really nice to see almost the whole field racing on glide to the first turnpoint. It was really good and thermals were plentiful, I was flying with a gaggle which I later found it was the lead gaggle for that start clock and when we got near the first turnpoint I saw everybody passing a strong thermal like there was nothing there, I thought, I'm not going, I'm staying right here climbing on this baby. Later, speaking with Betinho, I found out why they went thru that thermal, Andre radioed back to them strong conditions up front, they then start pushing because they knew they could find better lift up front. Lesson learned, communication will help you. Because I stopped at that thermal, I fell behind and got to goal about 6 minutes behind them, which still is not bad at all.

Sixth and seventh tasks were cancelled because of the weather. We took the kids to a park on Saturday and missed the closing ceremonies, they started it earlier so people could get on their way, by the time we got back to the Ranch, the margarita machine was working at full power and people were just having fun.

I woke up early next day and started packing things up, and there was lots of thing to get packed. Carlos asked me to bring his glider up to New York (he leaves in Canada and was having problems with the airliner taking his glider back) so I had to pack up three glider on my roof plus the rest of the trailer stuff.

We left Wallaby at around noon time as always with tears on our yes because we were leaving such a beautiful place with beautiful people behind, but with a sense of accomplishment because we've done once more and we had lots of fun. Me and my family really enjoy this experience and every year we look forward to our next trek.

As became routine when we arrive and when we are leaving, we stopped in Orlando at this Brazilian Restaurant to get ourselves fuelled up for the trip, we were back in the road at four o'clock sharp and my plan was to drive until around eleven o'clock find a place to spend the night (normally we pull over into the town's supermarket parking lot and sleep there). It was around ten o'clock about nine miles north of a town called Walterboro in South Carolina, we had stopped half an hour early to refuel and the kids were watching some movie on the DVD player, I had the truck on cruise control at 65 MPG when all of sudden, in a perfect stretch of the highway I-95; clear weather and calm winds, the trailer started swaying out of control. This was not the first time this happened, and I was always able to bring it under control, but this time was different, it happened lightning fast and each oscillation became bigger and bigger. At first, I hit the brakes slightly just to disengage the cruise control, normally I use the manual brake on the trailer brake control that brakes only the trailer and that is enough to bring things under control, but the oscillations were so violent that I did not had time to react and when I realized that I had no more control, I slam the brakes in a desperately effort to reduce our speed as much as possible. On the third or forth oscillation, the trailer jack knifed and hit the rear right end of the truck, pushing us to the curb and ultimately turning the truck on its side. Probably the trailer and the truck flipped at the same time on the driver side, the truck in the grassy and slightly slopped shoulder and the trailer perpendicular to the highway with the wheels facing the incoming traffic.

When things like that happens, it seems like we freeze ourselves for a moment, I just could not believe that this was happening. I glanced up and saw my wife hanging still strapped on her seat by the seat belt, for some reason the interior lights of the truck came on and I looked behind to check on my kids. My two boys, Nicholla and Giovanni were standing up on the side window, Kauanny was hanging on the middle seat by her lap belt and Marcella was strapped on her car seat, all of them were screaming and crying totally scared. Our friend Marlene was also hanging from her seat belt. Thanks to the Great Lord, nobody had one single scratch, and my first thought was that I had to take everybody out of the wreckage as quickly as possible, I realized that the engine was still running so I shut it off and immediately jumped out of my seat to the rear of the truck and freed Marcella from her car seat and hugged my two boys together. At this moment, I've heard people calling from the outside, I've put Marcella down and yelled back that everybody was OK, climbed to the rear passenger door and opened it up, while still inside the truck, I've asked people that were on top of the truck already to hold the door for me so I could give them the kids, and so I did one by one, first Marcella, them the two boys them Kauanny and Marlene. Meanwhile, Ruth was on the phone with 911 and I told her to hang up and get out of the car, I climbed out and helped her out and we went to our kids that were in a mini van ahead of us. We were pretty shaken up, especially the kids, and in a state of disbelieve.

The paramedics and state police arrived about fifteen minutes after the accident, I guess they took their time since they knew there were no injuries. I-95 was shut down for about an hour and half until the tow trucks straiten out both the trailer and the truck and pulled them out of the way. Also luckily, no other vehicle hit us, everyone behind us was able to come to a stop, except this lady driving a sedan behind her husband's SUV, she did not see him stopping and rear ended him smashing the front of her car, luckily none of them got hurt either.

The tow truck drivers and one rescue worker (nicest people one could encounter in this situation) brought us all to a hotel in town, boy I've got to tell you, I was feeling pretty bad as you can imagine, but I was extremely happy and counting my blessing to be checking myself and specially my family and my friend into a hotel instead of an Emergency room of a hospital. Needless to say that I could not sleep that night and we all hug ourselves together tanking the Lord for keeping us safe throughout this ordeal.

Next day Marlene and I went to the tow truck garage were they brought the wreckage, forgot to mention that the gliders apparently did not suffer anything either, I think I did a good job tying them down, the same way they were on top of the truck, they stayed when the truck turned over and up, we will do a thoroughly inspection on them before we attempt to fly again. It was sad to see the truck and the trailer in that situation, even worst when I opened the door and looked inside. It looked like a war zone or a hurricane had struck, but nevertheless I was thankful for we had only material loss and that is easily replaceable. We ended up having to go to Charleston, the next big city around (50 miles) to rent a car so we could continue our trip and get back home, and so we did. I rented a mini van at the airport, got the family at the hotel, went to the garage stuff as much things as we could in the vehicle and headed home.

The following week, my brother-in-law and I drove down in my pick-up truck to retrieve the gliders and all our personal belongings, I had hopes to drive the Excursion back also, since the insurance company told me the damage is fixable and it would not be a total loss, but because of the accident, some engine sensors went out and we could not get it started, so we had to leave there also.

Since then, the trailer insurance company also told me that the trailer is going to be repairable, so I'm going back there next week to drive them both up, I don't want the repair to be done down there, it would be hard to bring it back in case of problems.

Well, looks like I'm getting near the end here. Not so quite, on the following week of our return, I was bringing my daughter to school like I do every morning, and while crossing Main street here, I was hit by this other car. Not a bad accident, but bad enough to bend my front wheel, the truck had to be towed to the dealer for repairs and off course my daughter was late for school that day. Oh boy, two car accidents in two weeks. I guess the insurance company is not going to be too happy about this.

I guess now I'm coming to a conclusion here, one could be very shocked when reading it, but we are extremely lucky that God and our Guardian Angels are on our side, otherwise the outcome could've been a lot worst, and my philosophy is to always try to see the better on the worst, the good on the bad, and if you really think about it, there is a lot of goods we can extract from this story; it is a total blessing that none of us got hurt; it happened on the way back; etc.

There is definitely a monetary loss and the headache of re-grouping our life, but that is nothing. When I realized that we'll need another car until the Excursion gets repaired, I had three offers on the same day from friends, without asking for it. It is nice to have friends like you guys... Also I would like to send my apologies to everybody for taking so long to report this incidents, I hope you understand, life was a little upside down in the past weeks, and forgive me also for the lengthy report and you might get it a couple times because I'm going to cross post it is other sites

Hope I provided you with some entertainment this weekend and we'll see you in the mountain or in the air whenever the weather gets good.

Cheers,

Flight Summary

Date Place Duration Distance (miles)
4/12/03 Quest 4:11:35 40.3
4/13/03 Quest 3:04:45 30.0
4/21/03 Wallaby 4:25:15 54.6
4/22/03 Wallaby 1:55:45 17.8
4/23/03 Wallaby 3:54:50 59.6
4/24/03 Wallaby 2:59:55 68.8

Totals 20:30:08 271.1

Marcelo R. Zanetti

Super day! Tons of flying, the most pilots I have ever seen in the air at one time. Figures the day I didn't shoot any video. The thermals were just fantastic and fun to core. I think I totaled about 3 hours in two flights.

Jeff Shriner

Inspired by Brian's post that it would clear to the ENE and he was headed to Ridgely with his clone - and desperate to make SOME progress toward getting airborne with my new Eagle, I drove through light rain showers and arrived about 4:00. (Brian and brother had leaft about 20 minutes bofre haveing gotten the tandem ride on an earlier cycle.) No tug or gliders in view, but a surprising number of people and vehicles. I was willing to settle for getting a two bridle rigged and installing a new correct-length hangstrap (it bolts through the kingpost) and sleeves to take out some play between the outboard wheel brackets and the base tube. It was great to be out at Ridgely again and doing something hang-gliding related. As I set up by myself, the crew emerged with atug and tandem. Adam test-flew the Eagle, which had never been flown since leaving the factory. A minor adjustment to the tow bridle and he pronounced it ready for me to try. Towing was uneventful - occasional minor hunting in yaw, but the fin kept it well under control. Off tow, it was easy and fun to fly - I could tell the fin was having an effect, but not objectionably so. Landing was a different story: can't dive this one in like i did the Falcon. Aware that I would likely land long - and wary of the puddles/lakes-in-training in the LZ, I used the grass runway in a light crosswind - all of the runway. Bellied in, turned out at the intersection and walked back up the taxiway as if I were an airplane. The next landing I flared high/early and dumped the glider hard on the wheels - no damage. Bruce talked to me about lowering my pattern altitudes, so, of course, I landed short (of the spot, but on the runway, sliding in on my knees). So clearly I need more work before I'm ready for the Woodstock LZ (or worse: Daniel's). Today's experience just reminded me how lucky we are to have this tow park nearby. Friendly, helpful crew, lots of airtime with no hassle, and a benign landing area make for a safe and efficient way to tune in to a new glider. Sunny hadn't really encouraged me to come - he thought the weather wouldn't break - Brian is ready for the PhD in Meteorology! Gorgeous sunset as the sky cleared, nice drive back the Mason Bridge way (thanks for the directions, Kristin) - what a nice place!

Hugh

Spent a drizzly Sunday at Highland. Eash and I had a good time eating drinking cavorting and watching Jim Rooney streatch out his Discus pulling a couple near 180deg. wangs. This guy is a true junkie. Go Jim go!

-Scott

Hey, we discovered this on the way to Ridgely: just over the bay bridge take exit 39 to the south (also towards bay bridge airport). There's a Citgo station with an outstanding brunch bar. The creamed chipped beef was a revelation. The house vinagrette is the best I've ever had. Fresh baby greens, ripe melon, warmly spiced chunks of potato. It all tastes good (though I refrained from the scrapple. Tried to talk my west coast brother into it but he's grown cagey with age).

They have a decent selection of beer and wine for sale, and play a wide variety of music which sane people can actually listen to while eating.

Barry loved the tandem. He loved his foot launch lesson years ago and was a little put out when I told him he didn't need to be sliding around in the mud before catching a plane and so he wasn't gonna get to do that again. But he had such a wide grin on his face when he landed he quite forgave me for redirecting him to Ridgely instead. Worth hanging out waiting for the spits of rain to die down. Fun crew as always.

Brian Vant-Hull

A bunch of us showed up at Ridgely today. There was not a lot of lift to be had unfortunately. It actually got worse as the day went on. I had three flights. Second was a sled. Third was an extendo. The first was my best. Found a thermal NE of the runway. Climbed from 1700 to 2700 feet and ended up close to the town of Ridgely. Left the thermal for fear I would not make it back to the flight park. Fought the head wind back and arrived over the LZ with 700 feet to spare for a 30 minute flight. All together got one hour today. As always, lot of fun.

Howard

Had a total blast at Jack's today. Bruce, Sparky, Karma, Dennis Pagan, his nephew, a couple guys from Pittsburg and myself all had 1 or more flights. The conditions were really nice. Some of the thermals were a little cranky and didn't want to play nice. A couple of people went over the back. I personally got 1400 over launch and clocked a 2:10 flight. There was also a sailplane competition going on so you had to keep a sharp eye out as there were usually at least 5 or so sailplanes in sight most of the time. I know I seen some of them more than once but I would have guessed that there were at least 10 or 15 different ones.

Hank

OK, it's too late for this post but I wanted to mention all the fun we had Sunday, though the lift was modest, to say the least. Either Steve K or Howard had the flight of the day with a bit over a half an hour. Steve actually got thirty feet or so over launch so he probably gets the award for Sky-Stud of the day. Even Ric N. fell out of the sky with alarming speed. But it was sure a helluva lot better than hanging out inside watching it rain.

Joe G. had his beautiful new Talon glider out and was grinning a lot but I think Ric was jealous. Paul towed his Litespeed and made it to altitude three times without scaring anyone, even without a fin (so now the Ultrasport is for sale). Jim and Howard flew lots, too, and Dave Rice has definitely learned to aerotow though I don't know if it's official yet. I had an extendo of 22 minutes and another flight where I beat the tug to the ground. Rolled in the second time, just because I am so scared of my still very swollen knee. It is actually the first time since I got my new harness that I rolled it in and I was SO pleased to not smear it through a big mud puddle. I'm sure it will soon be a filthy "harness-of-shame" like my old one, though.

All in all, a fun day, even if not quite a banner day. I even found a turtle (when I drove into town to buy olives) and rescued her from the middle of the road. She was big and really cool. I brought her back to Ridgely and put her by the swamp, but she was kinda traumatized after listening to the Dixie Chicks in the front seat with me and wouldn't come out of her shell. George explained how to tell a boy turtle from a girl turtle to Paul and I, but I think he was making it up.

Lauren ---

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This page last updated June 11, 2003