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Hangola May 20 - 25, 2003

Flight Reports

Nice day. A high thin ovcst put just the right amount of throttle on what might have been too much of a good thing. STFI @ 15 made for bullet proof soaring. Six of us rolled in it like hogs in do-do. Gains to 2000' over, times to about 2 hours. Three opted to land at Grimes Airfield. Life is good.

Friday was the only day for the Dune Competition.
Saturday the wind was strong and cross.
As a result people gathered on the beach for some beach front dune hovering. This was one of the coolest things I have ever witnessed. Seen it in magazines, but that is nothing like being there watching it. They would get the wing level and just jump up and into the strong wind and just surf the wave. A few Kitty Hawk guys played like seagulls and launched off the flat beach and actually floated for a while. Cool to see.

Talk about Boo WAAA days....I flew Owens Valley today and yesterday. I got so spoiled yesterday that when I only flew an hour and topped at 13k today I was actually dissapointed. Yesterday was super fat. The air was strong. I don't know peak lifts but I cruised much of the Sierras stinking piss high. I flew slow and topped as high as I could for the first hour or so. The view from 17,999 *WINK* over the high sierras was undescribeable. The peaks are rugged beyond belief. Snow fields, blue green frozen alpine lakes, granite spires ripping straight up. The pictures just don't do it justice. The scale is so incredible. Me and my glider have never felt so insignificant.

Second half of the flight I cranked up the motivation for miles and moved faster north. I tracked some streets up Sherman Pass to Tom's. I was still at 15k and wanted to turn towards Mammoth but some nasty OD was shutting down any northern routes so I turned around and flew back to Bishop. Total flight was 97 miles and about 4.5 hours. A pilot could get spoiled here. Real spoiled.

Kev C

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No O2 for me. I don't breath hard at altitude but that's because the body gets tricked by the low airpressure. I just compensate by breathing deeper and more often that works great. Wasn't much more tiring then any other flight that long. Hydration is an issue though. It was cold and dry so I was cranking Gatorade.

Today we flew south (headwind) since that is the way back home. It was hard work. I only made it 15 miles but the other 2 guys in my group about tripled that.

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Well.....my landing after the long flight wasn't very pretty and I let the control frame AND nose touch sand. It was real poppy and I hadn't removed all my VG. I was dinking around throwing streamers trying to get down to the deck. I also didn't fly with the wingtips and my glider turns much easier without them so I didn't notice the VG until I was in G.E. . The other 2 flying days I did land first ;) so that counts sorta counts as sinking out.

I'm doing the weather dance here to try and get you guys some good weather.

Kev C

Yes, the weather has been horrible. Add in a little defiant perserverence and one might just get in a little flying.

Saturday was raining as the afternoon progressed, it stopped and a broken overcast was in charge. I got to demo the new WW U2 160 that steve wendt has available and it is a very sweet ride indeed. Lands like a Falcon and zooms around like a Talon, Amazing...

Monday morning broke with a persistant down pour and I gave up all hope of flying in the first five seconds. Around 10:30 it stopped raining and around 12:00, noon, sun light was touching the ground. Man, I missed the sun. Around 12:45 I was in route to Blue Sky Flight Park to see if the day was salvagable. It was.

I managed to test fly a beautiful Lightsport 147. Unhook and then hook in to the WW U2 for comparison. Both are fantastic gliders meshing ease in handling with competition like performance. The ease of handling will most undoughtedly reflect in a higher margin of safety for the pilots flying either of these gliders.

in comparison I would have to side with the WW U2, but this is only for the reason that the glider size was more suited to my weight range. On another point, truck towing at Manquin (Blue Sky) will not be doable for at least a week, as there are puddle sized lakes or lake sized puddles up and down the tow road. Aerotowing was marginal do to the runway being flooded, but that should subside in a day or two.

No big soaring flights but airtime none the less.

Thermals to all... John Claytor - Richmond, VA

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This page last updated June 4, 2003