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Hangola July 17 - 20, 2003

Flight Reports

Nice day at Ridgely Thursday. I got off at 2300' in light lift which Adam precisely but me in the middle of. Worked that up to 3600' to which appeared to be a pretty good inversion. Spent the next 1:15hrs trying to break thru. There were clearly cumies higher to the north and south looked like maybe 4500 or 5K but nothing formed within reach unless you committed down wind. Drift seemed to be pretty west. While playing in the inversion I would occasionally get tiny hits of 500fpm lift which I could bank up real steep and maybe get 1/2 a turn in but then it would disappear. View was nice and the temperature cool. Also got the witness the first ever Tandem Tow to 10K, that's right 10K. Adam said it took about 1/2 an hour to reach 10K. He said the View was spectacular. Things seem to be running real smooth down there. Kristin does a great job coordinating the ground operations while Sonny and Adam have the tug running good and always seem to find you some lift. Later in the day 2 E.R. interns showed up and did some tandems. It was cool you could hear them hootin and hollering all the way to the ground. They really loved it!

Only bummer of the whole day was my ride home. Some guy in a pick up truck decides to make a left into the Heritage Restaurant off rt10 right in front of me and hogs the right side of our lane so I can't go around him on the shoulder. So as I'm sitting there waiting for him to turn, (30 seconds or so) I hear tires squealing behind me so I look in the rear view just in time to see a blue 89 Volvo slam into the back of my truck. I think I remember letting off my brakes right before he hit me so maybe that saved some damage. It all but totalled his car while I'm still waiting for estimates on the truck. I would guess 1500 to 2K. Oh well shit happens. There were about 4 other pilots there, Kristi H, John D and a few more I didn't get their names.

Doug.

Well, I've just entered into a hall-of-fame I'm sure but don't know which one. I'm sure Lauren has a name for it though. You'll see why in a minute. I made it out to MFP yesterday and had 5 more good flights, and 4 good landings. The 4th flight I'm particularly proud of since it was my PB as to length, 11 minutes. Hey, 6-7 minutes no longer looks good. Funny how your perspective changes huh? I was able to work lift (& zero sink) for about 5 minutes to extend that flight.

On the last flight however, I got a real education. It started with one bad decision after another, like they all do. I normally make sure I'm all set for the LZ by about 300 agl. I had gotten down to 250 or less and did not have my plans fully in place. For those who don't know, there's some now very tall corn on one side of the field. I ended up over the corn too low for my original plans. I clearly had couple of options for missing the corn. Of course I chose none of those. I ended up boating over it to the end, using up ALL my altitude (another dumb mistake). I pulled in for a little more speed when I knew I was clear of the corn to prepare for landing but was too low to turn onto the runway. With less speed than normal accompanied with mayby being flustered with my previous mistakes, I came in too low to properly get my feet down and flared to a nice soft belly-flop right into the swamp at the NE corner of the field. I didn't even whack. Although it was only 3-4 inches deep, I was completely wet. Serves me right in not looking far enough ahead.

Clearly more look-ahead preparation needs to be given to ALL phases of my flight. I learned a lot yesterday, mostly about decision-making. It could have been worse. I'll be pondering this one for a long time, and hopefully learning from it.

Rance (The Swamp Dude)

Ridgely, Thursday

Arrived with Christy around 11:30 or so, and saw Ed Proctor’s fantastic HG sculpture tribute to Chad.

Blowing mostly smooth, 5-10 mph west. I started out with a sled ride. Next flight I worked a light area of lift from 1900 to 2260 feet, which for a lowly H2 was gratifying. Most of the rest of the lift I found was slightly down wind of the airfield so I was only able to stay in it for a short time before heading back. I’m starting to see the benefit of a higher performing glider. Adam and Sunny towed a first timer to 10,000 feet for a serious introductory flight which took quite a while. After another extended sled around 3:00 I decided to try some steep banked turns to add some interest to my sledding. Things settled down some after 5:00 and Christy stayed up for 50 minuets. I found out later that I missed the best lift of the day waiting to see how she was doing. When I did launch Christy was still in the air a hundred or two below, and we hung out for a while. I was pushed way out, flying slow determined not to land before she did. I stayed near the airfield while Christy roamed around looking for the weak or nonexistent lift. Wow that Lightspeed sure looks fast from a Falcon. Somehow I was able to hang on to watch Christy land from the air. Then, (had to do it) I came in to land between her and the brake down area. Yes! Carlos was with us flying tandems with Adam. Fun was had by all.

Rich and I went out to Ridgely yesterday because he could get off and I wanted to fly (and deliver Sheila's Pulse). Had a nice time even though conditions were stellar. Sunny all day. A couple of little cumies, but most were to the east of us. We both took several flights. I got 45, 5, and 50 minutes. Pinned off at 1300 on the first flight (surprised Sunny since he had just entered a big thermal and when I pinned off I went back to the one I'd just left). Lots of sink and some great lift if you could find it. I was lucky and took the thermal up to around 3300 which is where the lift appeared to stop. Second flight was a big zip, although the landing was good (as was the first one - which was a no stepper on the asphalt). The last flight was a surprise since there didn't appear to be any lift while on tow. Found some in a brown field sheltered by trees on the way to the town of Ridgely. John Muldoon and Doug Rogers enjoyed soaring flights. Carlos got in some tandem lessons towards his tow rating. The friend of Brian took his tandem flight to 10K. They took off at 2:30 and landed by 3:15, a little quicker than they'd expect it would take. The passenger said he would be back for lessons. Rich did really well. I'm going to have to clip his wings, though, since he outclimbed me on my last flight. I'd been up for a half hour and was wondering why he wasn't launching. (Sunny kept telling him that I'd be on the ground as soon as he launched. HA! HA!) But then once he was in the air and had come down to my altitude, we were boated along and he was going up and I was going down.

Harness note: Sunny let me use the cocoon since I found a major defect in my harness. Seems one of the spreader tubes had worked a major hole in the webbing that holds it in. This same webbing is also part of the shoulder strap construction. It could have been a very unfun time if the thing had come loose altogether in the air.

Christy

Had lots of free time today so I headed out to Lake Elsinore. The weather is atypical right now with leftover Claudette action in Arizona. Conditions on Launch were blowing in 10-15 straight. Some high clouds were shading the valley some but the bulk of the clouds were in a line behind launch. During set up things started to alternate signaling the convergence battle. Other pilots like to launch just as the convergence starts to pass through but I really wanted to get up well before that. Cycles were predictable so I hit it. I launched the E Launch and toyed in the bowl for a bit before hitting the saddles. Bowl was mellow but the saddles behind the E-cone (?) were booming. Good for about 3k of altitude each time. On the way up there were several different zones. Some fat and mellow, some turbulent and shifty. It made for fun "work." Finally the upper level clouds took over and extended well out over the lake and beyond shutting things down. I piddled away a few thousand feet playing and soon found myself in a layer that had none of the bouyance as the one I had descended from. I made haste to the LZ for a turbulent approach into the staging area. Winds were strong OTB causing lots of mechanical turb but coming from a nice direction. Things smoothed out enough closer to the deck. Flight time about 1.5hrs and 5.8k (3k over launch) I hear this site is very consistant and can be good for trips up to 10k.

Kev C

http://home.ceinetworks.com/~carrollj/FlyingWeekend/OneFineWeekend.html

(sorry if you have to cut and paste the above URL back together in your browser).

A few people on the list knew that I went out west for two weeks so here is a summary of my flights. Me and Nelson Lewis spent two weeks in Albuquerque NM, flying Sandia. The conditions were so good we didn't go anywhere else.

6/28 First flight 15 miles, 1hr 30min, max alt 15774
6/29 Up wind 17 miles, 1hr 50, max alt 13153
7/1 extended sled run, 30min
7/2 Great day 98.5 miles, 4hr 45min, max alt 17999+
7/3 48 miles landed because I was to tired to keep going, 2hr 40min, max alt 17338
7/7 extended sled run, 40 min
7/8 39 miles, 2hr 50 min max alt 15200
7/9 17 miles, 1hr 20min, max alt 16601
7/11 15miles, 50min, max alt 13901

It was a fantastic day at Ridgely Saturday, but so few people were there to enjoy it. The only people I knew who were there were Jim Rooney and Lauren and Paul. There were a few others flying, but not many. Everything started turning on at about 3:00. My first flight was 30 minutes - it wasn't quite there yet. Launched again at 4:00 and had my best thermalling flight yet - flew for over one hour and got as high as 3500 feet (that's my personal best in altitude). The thermals took me over the town of Ridgely. I left each thermal to fight my way back towards the tow park and then rode another thermal up - repeating that process a bunch of times. I just felt like I was doing everything right this time - visualizing the thermal, widening or tightening the circles to get the best lift, centering myself in the lift. Most of the lift was light - 100 or 200 fpm up - but I did get the occasional strong stuff. Also, at the end I was down to about 1100 feet near the tow park, unzipped my harness, and thought everything was coming to an end, when I found another thermal and extended the flight another 10 minutes or so, climbing to 1700 feet. That was a rewarding save for me. Anyway, that was my 200th hang gliding flight. What a blast. (And I even managed to have a good landing.) Howard

Ha. I'm sure anyone who noticed I was gone was more likely to note my absence with approval rather than curiosity, but I'll provide a very brief synopsis anyway.

HG related: taught a pack of kids the physics of flight then took them flying at Ridgely. Almost didn't think we'd make it, but the drizzle finally cleared away. These kids got even more excited about it then the previous groups I brought: one even opined she planned to spend her life hang-gliding by day and waiting tables by night. Got me all misty-eyed, that did. All but one requested wing-overs. Somebody's mother dropped by to visit, and her kid was acting a little nervous the whole time. Her mother was offering emotional support and I told her the kid would probably ask for a nice gentle ride. But I guess something clicked in the air and, sure enough, just before the landing pattern there was that familiar whoosh as a perplexed mother watched her kid stand a wing up on end.

The one who planned to wait tables to support her habit provided such a classic reaction in the air that I'm kicking myself for not getting it on tape. Imagine the familiar roar pulling eyes up to the air to watch the glider dip and accelerate for a wing-over, and crystal-clear comes her reaction from a quarter mile away: "oh-my-god...whooooooooh!!". It was even cuter than it sounds.

This is the third year we've done this, and the other staff are starting to get interested. We sent our camp director up this time, and just this thursday one of the geekier, younger staff (with the unlikely first name of Lloyd) dropped by and took a tandem.....to 10,000 feet. HE didn't know no-one had ever done that before; you know, it's on the web-site so he just assumed it was routine and asked for it. I know it's a first for Ridgely, but for a first-lesson tandem it may even be a national first (I just know some Aussie's done it, damn them). They hit almost no lift, but it took an hour to get down. I may have to convince Lloyd to write an article to HG mag about it. He'd have a pretty amusing perspective, methinks.

Non-HG: I just spent a week in a conference in a small New-Hampshire town with some of the biggest names in climate change and radiation. Learned a few frightening facts.

1. There is absolutely no doubt that anthropogenic greenhouse gasses have been increasing the average global temperature. Models developed in the last few years match the temperature trend with breath-taking accuracy for the last 30 years using the measurements of atmospheric composition as inputs. There is no doubt that the CO2 budget has increased during this time due almost solely to industrial emissions and biomass burning. The only uncertainty is the projected future rate of emissions and uptake.

2. Even if we stopped all emissions right now, the temperature would continue to rise. We haven't seen much so far because the oceans have huge thermal inertia. But it takes a long time to remove CO2, so the planet will continue to warm no matter what we do. All we can do is get the peak maximum (many decades away) to be as low as possible. I'm sorry that I don't remember any of the numbers right now, but most people know the effects of a rise in Global average Temps is not clear: the change in temperature by itself is almost innoccuos compared to the still speculative side effects.

But on a cheerier note, I learned to play cricket from one of the greatest boundary-layer meteorologists on the planet. You can't possibly be intimidated by a guy once you've seen him do several of those goofy flailing stiff-armed things that pass as cricket pitches. Wine and beer twice a day. And after every presentation all the big-wigs were obliged to sit on their hands until the students were done asking questions. If this is what being a poor student is all about I could stand for some more of it.

Brian Vant-Hull

Joe and Karen, Rich G, John H and myself flew the sac saturday. We launched several times, (3 for me) into what appeared to be stellar conditions but each time we only fed the l/z more meat. We fed the l/z so much we thought she was gonna puck at any moment but somehow she kept in all down. There were birds up beautiful blue skies with scattered cumies and wind on launch sometimes blew STFI @ 10+!!! I can remember when you could just throw yourself off in these kinda conditions and go to the moon. Maybe we trimmed the launch slot too low this spring and nipped a few of the Sac's sensitive area's or something who knows. But what ever it is I hope we made up for it Saturday and there will be better days to come. Well, atleast we all got plenty of launch and landing practice.

Did anyone else fly Jonestown, Ringtown, Little Gap or any mountains. I heard they had a good day at Ridgely so at least it was working somewhere.

Doug

>Did anyone else fly Jonestown, Ringtown, Little Gap or any mountains. I > heard they had a good day at Ridgely so at least it was working somewhere.

Hum, I flew for 1 1/2 hours on Saturday (yesterday) the majority of it with the no power (turned off in the first thermal at the corner of my yard at a couple thousand and restarted once for about 10 minutes while traveling upwind), at cloudbase, with a huge drag inducer in a free wheeling prop (I do need to get that prop brake fixed) and couldn't get down when our guests arrived for dinner so I guess it could be said it was working here also. ... :-)

Jim
(est altitiude 4-4500 agl)

Don't feel too bad. Ellenville, NY was acting fickle on Saturday too. Everything looked great. Most who dared flight were quickly drilled. I tried twice the second was a scratch for 30+ minutes in the tiniest and lightest of thermals. However, there was some lift for the PGs. A whole bunch went to 6000' at about 5PM before being quickly thrashed. Most in the LZ packed up for the day at about 6.

THEN IT TURNED ON!!!

Jim

Yeah, we wondered where you were. Myself, Judy, Jim M., and Wayne got towed by Jim S. Later I did a couple of tows. I can't tell you about the others flights but I got off at 2500, climbed to a little over 3k, lost the thermal, down to 1500, hooked a small bullet, climbed to 6600, froze my but off, burned about 2k flying upwind to get warm, floated about aimlessly for a while, and finished off with 6 or 8 loops. Damn! What a day! Thanks Jim!

Lot's of people had good flights there today.
I had a 10 miler at about 1:10. Had a great time working a thermal in phase with Paul T. I was facing away from the road right after landing when I heard a vehicle stop and the driver ask if I needed any help. I turned around to see a truck with a glider on top. Sometimes life just works! dan t.

As others mentioned from the Sac, conditions looked good. Jeff S said he got to 4000' in the early afternoon. I took off at about 4:30 pm with an extended sled. Many others waited until later. We thought evening magic would happen. NOT. At 6:30 PM , I took two turns and went straight for the LZ. It was a gorgeous day anyway.

-- Brian Stoltzfus

Fat dumb and happy. (mostly dumb).
Saturday was good. Sunday was awesume. Skied the hell out both days. Sunday was crackin by 11am. Went up for a sledder and wound up flying till 1:30ish. Could have easily stayed up longer. (cold, tired, tank full, bla bla) Mostly drove around with Christian and Scott. 1800-3600 was work. 3600-5300 was bulletproof. Base lifted all day. 6500 was the last I heard (from the Sunny in the tandem wing). If you got up, you could just drive around the sky. If you didn't bust 3600, it was work. Talked to a couple people that got their first hour+ flights in :) Round 2 kicked off around 1pm. PK flew over to Rick's place. The Jadens went on their first couple's XC. A couple others went XC. The rest wandered around the local skies. Soaring continued all day.

Life is so good.
Jim

I figure that if I don't do something, whether riding or flying – because of a logical reason, like lack of experience, inadequate skill, bad conditions – that's fine. Probably smart. But if I just don't do it because I am nervous, because I am afraid, or because I might look bad, that's a donkey of a different hue. It's corny, but true, that we never know how many days we get. So, as they say, seize the day and all that.

I've chewed on flying cross country, where you soar off into unknown territory on your glider and land in a strange field instead of your usual, well known one – for months. Though I obviously have much room for improvement, I felt I have improved in the necessary areas like thermalling and landing enough to undertake such a venture with relative safety. At least at Ridgely, where it's flat enough to bowl in most of the fields. It looks like someone has taken a chain saw to most of the land, too. While I have nothing personal against trees most of time they are not the pilot's friend.

Saturday was to be the day. Clouds effectively killed the lift all morning, but by late afternoon, the solid grey cover vanished and cumulus clouds appeared. It was time. My radio was wired, my new cross country bag was stashed in my harness, and my heart pounded like I had run a marathon. Paul was towed up to altitude, and he called me on the radio as I wheeled out onto the runway to join him. He said the lift was strong and that he was waiting at 3,500 feet for me. Kristen attached me to the plane and I rose briefly in the air. Pop! My weak link broke. (A wink link is a deliberately weak spot you build into your tow harness, with the idea that it will break under pressure, thus saving you if you get too far out of whack. The bad part is that sometimes the links just break, for no particular reason.)

My glide slope aimed me directly at the gully at the end of the runway, so I angled left to miss it. Since the wind was crossing from the north, this put me flying downwind. Since the area is mowed and I wasn't sure I could manage a downwind landing on my feet, I rolled in. I was pleased with my decision until I turned around and saw Ginny was crumpled on one side, her downtube badly bent. Bruce rushed to help me, but it was an hour later – 4:30 PM, very late – before Ginny was repaired and I was ready to fly again. I nabbed 45 minutes in the diminishing lift. I tried again, but only got a sled. I was horrifically disappointed, but tried to put it into perspective and remind myself it wasn't something really important, like a horse show. Paul, of course, left while I was stranded on the ground. Had a great flight, but I'll let him tell his own story.

That night, we feasted on a great dinner of deep fried turkey, courtesy of Aisha and Scott and Barb and Bruce. Great party, too. Christian gave me a foot rub while Paul fed me ice cream. Life could be worse. Camped in pleasantly cool conditions.

Sunday, I tried again. Just before launching, I discovered I had lost a key piece of my radio wiring system. Screw it. I was going. Who needs to talk, anyhow? I didn't find a booming thermal, but I worked it and allowed myself to drift away from the field. I never got very high, not even to 3000 feet. Ginny soared above new fields, and quickly, we had flown too far away for me to get back. Now I had no choice. Good.

I don't know why this was so fun, me and my little kite gliding off an adventure together, but I loved it. It made it MUCH more interesting. Of course, this meant that I often fell out of lift as I analyzed landing fields and tried to keep my bearings. I tried to remember the lift was the most important thing but my brain was getting awfully full wondering where the center of the thermal was, and where the next bit of lift might be hiding. When I finally lost the lift for good, I tried cruising down a cloud street for a bit, but I quickly chickened out and headed towards a likely field while I had the altitude to scope it out well. I looked for lift over the field but I wasn't that lucky. The field was great, though, spacious, with short grass and right by a road. Landed fine. I was unbelievably excited and happy for a bit but wished I had someone to share it with. Then this old man strolled up with his dog and asked if I was OK and how the hell I had ended up in that field with my kite. I was even happier to see him when I discovered that my cell phone had no signal and I couldn't get anybody on the radio. The old man chatted with me for a bit, and then he drove to Ridgely to get somebody to come pick me up, while I broke down my glider. Christian spotted me and stopped before Rich, who drove me back to the airport. Cragin showed up as we left – so thanks, guys! Three pick ups!

I was so stoked I set up again back at Ridgely. Everybody reported great and very high flights and I began to realize how stupid I was to leave the airport so low, and that I could have maybe had much longer flight if I had half a brain. Instead of being elated I just felt dumb. The adrenalin started to fade as I towed up again. Unfocused, I hung to the left of the tow plane and snapped a weak link at 500 feet. Even Adam couldn't mange to stay in front of me. I maneuvered to a decent landing, figured I was too tired to fly, and that if I wanted to live to see dinner I should quit. Picked up Paul (a zillion miles away), and PK, who landed at Ric's. Ric and PK took a flight in the Piper Cub while they waited for me to show up. They found Paul and I on the road and flew just off the road beside us for miles, hopping over trees and scaring the crap out of the local deer. Very cool.

So I did it. Broke my tethers. Nabbed a whopping 4.5 miles (how embarrassing). But it was really fun. Paul has lost his driver.

Lauren Tjaden

The CW song says you "can't have too much fun" but I'm not so sure right now. I'm sitting here at the computer trying to delay my work day cause I'm so exhausted from flying. Seems I need a day off to recuperate from my days off.

Saturday was a late start due to early overcast but I launched at 3:00 into a promising sky and very light southerly drift. Immediately got to 3,500 and headed straight south after learning that Lauren had problems and couldn't join me. Hooked another good one west of Denton and crossed the Choptank with lots of altitude. Got very low twice and had two low saves (615' and 720') over a couple of chicken farms. Lift was starting to die around 5:00 and I found myself low again. Found some broken lift at 500' and got back to 720' but I couldn't pull it off again and landed for 25.2 miles, 1:58 and 3,579.

Sunday AM, heavy fog while I wolfed down pancakes that Barb and Aisha made for everyone. (These are great women!!!) When the fog broke, conditions looked even better than Saturday. Had to break camp and grab lunch before launching around 1:00 but probably should have left sooner. Radio problems kept Lauren and I from getting together for her first XC but she did just fine without me. Lift was stronger and higher with a lot of 400' to 600' per minute up. Still managed to nearly loose it NW of Greensboro and pulled off another 600' save. Spotted PK thermalling ahead of me and thought we could get together but as usual we managed to get separated again and ended up in different places. I was having a great time after the save and was boating along between 4,500 and 2,500 and was starting to think I just might fly to Pennsylvania or perhaps cross the Delaware bay to New Jersey when the bottom dropped out. Funny how fast it can end. I topped out a nice thermal at my maximum gain for the day (4759) and went on glide under some nice looking clouds and never hit another bump. Had a nice one stepper in a soybean field about 7 miles NW of Rick N.'s house for 30.2 miles and 2:05. Lauren picked me up after her flights and then we chased Rick and PK (who had come looking for me in the Piper Cub) back to Rick's place so we could take PK back to Ridgely with us.

So, I think maybe this time I really did have too much fun.

Anyone not aero towing is really missing the boat. Mountains are great but you're going to miss a bunch of great flying if you don't get your AT rating. Just do it !!!!

Paul T.

Had a great flight at Redwing yesterday - 6100', not quite to cloudbase. Not bulletproof by any means. The sink got all the airborne pilots at the same time. 1:35. Launched at 2pm.

I couldn't have had more fun! Though it was hazy, the view was still spectacular, as its been a while since I've seen it from 6K(!) The glider flew like a dream and I appreciated the feeling of flying a smaller wing. It was a glorious experience on a glorious day!

Judy

Sunday Ridgely,

Well, I made my mile high, multiple thermals on one flight, and my longest (53 min.) in the air, all in one day.

Rich

Flying at Ridgeley reminds me of what hang gliding is supposed to be. I have to travel about 2 ½ hours to get there but it is sooooo worth it. Not only is the flying fantastic with great XC potential and lots of open spaces and good thermals but the people all around make it the best.

I have been flying for over 20 years and I have never met such a great bunch of folks. From the staff to the pilots, everyone has a great attitude. Last weekend had great conditions but I had a weak link break on Saturday and I broke a down tube on my landing. It was my first in 6 years but it threatened to make me miss the best part of the day. Barb was there with a cart before I was even out of my harness to help me get back to the setup area. Bruce helped me get a new down tube and install it within an hour. I was back in the air in the great conditions in no time (thanks!!).

That night like most nights at Ridgeley we all hung out and shared donated food and drink. Scott made deep fried turkeys. They were FANTASTIC!! There is always some fun stuff going on there.

I love this sport but it can be a pain in the #$@!#%$ some times. The people and attitude make it all worth while down at Ridgeley. I am more excited about flying than ever. I still fly the mountains and I will fly both but this special group makes it better.

Thanks guys..

Christian Titone

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This page last updated July 26, 2003