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Hangola February 4 - 10, 2005

Flight Reports

I arriving in the LZ about 3pm to meet Bruce, who had already flown and landed. We headed up to help launch the others. At launch, winds were a bit cross from the N, but it looked (and sounded) soarable.

Hank had already launched and was having no problems staying up. Joe S. launched next, followed by Hugh. Both were staying well above launch. I launched last in the big Falcon, with Bruce on the right wire and a gaggle of hunkered-down wuffo-witnesses.

It was soarable, but the available lift seemed to be small 'bullet' thermals. I was able to climb to 250' over launch (mostly 75' to 200' over). The cores were very small and choppy. I spent too much time falling out into strong sink at high bank angles. After the umpteenth of those, I elected to head out and land. I got about a half hour.

Nice stuff. not too cold, blue skys, sunny. Visited Emma, back up top, the Zagi, watched the sunset. Enjoyable friday afternoon.

'Spark

Bruce Engen, Hank Hengst, Joe Schad, Allen Sparks and I convened at High Rock today to commit aviation. Bruce and Hank got there first and left a vehicle in the LZ, cleaned ice off the rock and set up. Joe arrived next, then me, then Sparky. Wind was 6-10 with a north cross (keep me honest on the wind speed, guys...). When thermals came through it picked up enough to get your attention. Bruce launched about 2:30 and worked hard to gain and regain the same 50-100 feet above launch for about 20 minutes, but gradually lost the rearguard action against gravity. Hank launched next after a hydration pack failure that had water dribbling out of his harness in a pee-stream as he was on launch. He then got to 500 over in short order and stayed there, going out to land after about 40 minutes saying he was tired and cold. (Keep me honest on these flight times, too, OK?) Once Allen arrived, we launched Joe (nice launch) in his Falcon, then me. Bruce and Allen helped me a lot getting situated on launch. (Still having trouble with a slippery jacket and gloves interfering with good control on launch.) Spark then flew his 225 Falcon in beautiful glass-off conditions. There were some cylinders of buzzards soaring in thermals at times and it was a nice warm sunny day. I flew for 45 and got to 500 over, then landed to get a ride back up to retrieve my vehicle before the MPs closed the gate. Spark flew his Zagi when we were all back on top. Emma Jane seemed OK. Hope there will be enough good flying days this year for the new higher donations to add up to a sufficient income stream... What a fine break in the snowy cold weather we've been having! - Hugh

Good write up. I reply only because Hugh said to keep him honest. Several cycles were in the 14-16mph range. Also my flight stats were 900 over and 1:15 flight time. Not bragging, just clarifying :-}

Hank

HR was fun!

I rigged a tail wheel on the big Falcon for 3-point tandem wheel landings (cable bracing, etc) and tested it today at the Rock. My primary concern was that it could snag on the block, but according to onlookers, it cleared with some room to spare. I will probably shorten the wheel support a bit to provide some extra clearance.

I launched, zipped my harness and made a beeline for the LZ. It was kinda strange rolling onto final approach with my harness still zipped up. The tailwheel worked well, keeping me at least eight inches above the ground. Now I need to try it with a tandem passenger.

Dave P, Steve K, Carlos and Mark were there too. Mark and Carlos flew twice. It was nice and warm. T-shirt weather. Lots of Wuffos watching, asking questions and enjoying the scene.

I flew my Zagi in very light conditions at launch. After retrieving it once from a tree and again below the cliff, I launched it one more time, got REALLY low, and decided to hunt for lift out towards the railroad tracks. This was sorta like 'zagi-suicide'. I knew I didn't want to hike down to get it, so this was either 'find some lift', or 'goodbye zagi'. I was pretty jazzed when I finally hooked some lift from several hundred below, slowly worked it back above the horizon and top landed next to Mark. This was my first Zagi 'low save' at the Rock. Afterward, it improved and I was able to get several hundred over with the little wing.

After Mark flew, we drove back up to retrieve his truck, arriving just in time to watch the sunset. 'Twas a beautiful day at the Rock.

Wish you coulda been there.

'Spark

Pretty much stank (light and cross) but it was a beautiful day. Sunny and warm. Sleds or extendos by Dave P, Mark C, Spark, Carlos and moi. Carlos and Mark flew twice. Spark also Zaggied and treed it. Another time he got it up and home from low over the tracks. Fun day.

Today was a awesome motor PG day did 10 ish flights about 3 hours total ... and my arms are tired... hehe The only problem was the field was going to slop as the snow melt made mud by the end of the day it was hard to keep the wings clean on layout hehe !!

All in all it was good to get some airtime after a long winter. 5 dukes flew today and we got our first student of the season.

James Coblentz

Skied Blue mountain this morning with Shawn and Eddy. Nice conditions as we beat the crowds early in the am, can't believe I still remember how to ski! Shawn and I skied till around 10:30 and decided to go flyin. Conditions all morning while we were skiing were primo with winds on the top of the mountain 10 to 15 STFI. But after hiking in to little gap we were greeted with only light and variable winds. I decided fly anyway and took a sled while Shawn was kind enough to drive for me, thanks Shawn! Stopped at Perkins for a nice hot lunch and headed home to a warm fire. Beautiful day, especially the time we spent skiing with Ed.

Doug.

Yeah, it was quite a nice day for Feb. I got there a bit late, around 1:00. Dave, Carlos and I ran a shuttle, and then back up top I set up and helped people launch. Ran into a guy named Greg who's interested in learning to paraglide; he and another wuffo gave me a hand for my launch. Winds weren't all that strong, but it was occasionally cross from the left, so having some help was a good thing.

Managed maybe 10-12 minutes, zigging-and-zagging down the mountain. Never got above, but did eke out an extendo.

Steve hiked back up after his flight; I piled into Dave's truck with Spark and Carlos. Brief visit with Emma-Jane and Randy, then back up top, where Carlos immediately started setting up. I booked back to the LZ, broke down and loaded up in 35 minutes, zoomed up the mtn and set up all over again... What the heck, great day, warm, winds were still blowing maybe 6-7mph.

So I jumped off again, with the usual crowd of spectators and kids watching. That's one nice thing about HR, plenty of fans Smile

Second flight was shorter; chased some turkey vultures without much success. Good landings both flights. Sunset was great; winds didn't go N/NE until maybe 5:00 or so.

I'm surprised that there weren't any H-II's out there, this was a perfect day to get some High Rock launches under your belt. Could have been a 3-flight day if you were motivated.

--mark

Thanks! I made it to Blue Sky today, blowing 10 - 15 out of the north and east most of the day and got a couple of AT's in. Lots of fun!

I pulled my template and battens out to show Steve and he pointed out that on the 11m there is a #1 and #1A batten that share the same template line (it said it right on the template!). To make me a little more embarrassed I forgot my center rib, meaning I was putting the #1 rib on the rib line. After a healthy dose of "ribbing" (can I get away with that?) I setup and went flying. The ribs were dead on and I can still hear the laughter in the distance.

Thanks all for the advise!!

Bill Priday

I knew it was iffy but it was too nice a day not to be in the mountains. Joe and I set up about noon while it blew in about 8-10, just enough to maybe get up if you did it right. In true Sac fashion as soon as Joe stepped up to launch it shut off. We both launched in 5mph gusts for actually quite enjoyable extendo's with a few small gain 360's. Breaking down it a tee shirt in Feb. was pretty nice too.

Today looks moderatly doable at 501 with plenty of time to get home to the Stupid Bowl. Joe and I will give a shot if it looks doable.

Sleddddo day at the Rock yesterday. Still, beautiful day to be outdoors. I was surprised that none of the Hang 2s or newly minted 3s showed up. This would have been an ideal opportunity for newbies to jump off the rock. I know that we are all busy, but on a 50 degree day in February I would figure that some would venture out. Are you going to wait until spring to show up, wondering why none of the observers want to toss you off in brain dead soarable conditions because you either do not have enough Rock experience or you haven't jumped off the Rock in 4-6 months. There were only 5 of us there yesterday. Ten years ago, if we got a day like this, there would be 10 to 15 pilots there, mostly newbies. And the newbies would have each taken 2 or even 3 flights. Is the abundance of observers giving the IIs the feeling that they can pick and choose days? We used to have very few observers (thanks Christy) and if you lined up A) a nice day (especially in the middle of winter) and B) an observer, you had to take adavantage of the opportunity.

DaveP

Nope - no flyin'. Too slippery at the top, with sledders on the hill. But a good glider maintenance day. Rich Hays and his student Glen debated holding a lesson, and waited, but the hill was too icy and too much snow coverage. Later, Jim Hodges showed up with his Sonic, but didn't unpack. We'll be seeing him out at the mountain launches soon.

I set up in the pavillion (my private hanger for the day..) wiped off the dirt from my wings (who ME put my wings in the mud?!?!-NEVER!) and from the wheels. Took the glider out in the sun for about 15 ground handling runs in the melt areas, and had some good experiences getting up a bit of speed before having to push out a bit to get some lift off my shoulders. There was almost NO breeze, a little trickle down from the hill when there was anything at all. Worked on keeping my head up and the leading edge in my line of vision (tendancy to look down.) Nice way to spend the pre-game festivities, but gotta go because the big game is about to start.

-Linda B.

Tim and I got there about noon and started setting up. Tim, Bill, and Daniel arrived shortly thereafter. Daniel came to take his maiden flight on his new glider. Tim and I watched Bill and Daniel take a couple of tows to check out the ominous wind. Daniel managed to stay up a little while so Tim and I took to the air too to knock the rust off before taking a trip. Only got 25 min but it had been a few weeks since my last flight. A little squirly below 500' (mostly PIO's), I'm still getting used to the TRX. Weather was great, I'm glad I went.

Rance

Pretty sweet. All you superbowlers missed out. In fact, I will borrow Dave P's hobby horse briefly: It was 60 degrees in Feb you yo yos. Why are you inside watching football?

Launched about 1:15. ENE 5- 10. Sunny. Some high cirrus but nothing cirrius. Tex hit a really nice one at 1200. Thought about it. Nope. Not pinning off at 12.. But then he came back thru it at 15 and I gave him the rope.. Got to 32. Yeah!. Not talking 500 up but it was up. Yes, I am sure Kevin would have left to find something better. (and would have found it). But hey. Real world here.

The rest of the contingent will have to post their own stats. The DC krew was me Carlos and John M. Locals/others, Bill Priday, Daniel (new Sport 2!) and a couple whose names I forget. sorry.

A very enjoyable day.

Busted Glider Clarification. As several people have now expressed condolences over my crash out in CA which destroyed my XC, please note: I did not crash the XC. I busted it up and stuffed it in a dumpster so that I would not have pay storage charges on it. And in case you ever need to do this (Spark please note) : I used two telephone poles that were maybe 3 ft apart. Crunch crunch crunch.

a few pics from this weekend.
http://mysite.verizon.net/vze88oxx/pics/hang/hang0.jpg
http://mysite.verizon.net/vze88oxx/pics/hang/hang1.jpg
sparky's new 3rd wheel rigg
http://mysite.verizon.net/vze88oxx/pics/hang/hang2.jpg
http://mysite.verizon.net/vze88oxx/pics/hang/hang3.jpg
Sled rides for all, but looked like a blast anyway.

=====
-= Hannibal Ad Portus=-

After a month without flying I was happy enough with 2 sleds at High Rock, but chose to try Manquin, to pick up new bar mitts.

I had two AT flights about 20 min each. Got a strong thermal on the second flight at about 700 just after dropping continuously after release. It took me back to 2K but was drifting downwind, so I got off.

Didn't check the thermometer but was noticeable colder at 2K. Good temperature gradient, I need to work on better mapping those thermals.

Steve and John M. had the flights of the day.

Enjoyable weekend.

Carlos

The wind co-operated a good amount of the time so my two students (David and Bob) got 8 and 10 flights respectively. I did 7 flights also. In the landing area, the top 2 inches of ground was thawed and little muddy in some areas but not bad. The hill was still frozen. All in all, a nice training day especially for February. Surprised that no one else was there.

- john middleton

Been waiting for this one since arriving here in December.

Launched about 1:15 into a mostly clear sky with a few thin Q's forming and South winds at 5 to 10. Greg Dinauer was supposed to fly with me but got held up flying his sail plane. I Had thought about a downwind to the North but the sky looked better to the South so decided to try an out and back to Fantasy Of Flight ( a really cool aircraft museum 25 miles to the South). Pinned off at 1500 feet into solid lift at 500 plus on the averager and headed out from 3800 feet. Stayed high and comfortable with CB improving to 4900 as I approached the Seminole sail plane port about 10 miles south where I pimped off numerous sail planes and numerous sail planes pimped off me. At 9 or 10 miles from my goal the sky started to look less friendly and climbs slowed significantly. It was becoming very difficult to make headway against the 8 to 10 knot headwind. I was also getting a bit fatigued after nearly two hours so I decided to run for home. Got a bit low once or twice but always managed to find something when I really needed it and got home with about 1500 feet to spare. Wish I could have reached my goal but still a pretty great day for early Feb. Ended up with 2:42, 4944 and about 30 miles.

Cold front moving in tonight. Probably screw up the flying weather for several days again so it was sure nice getting this one in today.

Come and visit!

Paul

Ok, one more not from Lauren ;)
(yes, I'm trying to make you jealous... so you'll come visit)

Tuesday was good (tandems soared for hours) but blue. Wednessday brought those wonderful South winds and brought qummies with them. If you haven't been to Quest, high preassure and South winds (any variant of South) bring the best soaring conditions.

I took my usual wind dummie slot as the sky looked like it was starting to pop (12:30 - 1ish?). As usual around here, the tow plane was only necessary till the first good thermal and a quick climb to cloudbase (then 3.5k)

As I got up there, I saw flocks and flocks of geese heading North (Spring is coming your way guys!). It was just then that the silliest thought occurred to me... I wonder if they soar? Normally I don't think of geese as soaring birds, but I mean they're going cross country and all, so you'd think they would, but why flap so much? As quickly as I thought it, I found my answer... yup. Hahahaha, of course they do! They're XC masters! They were running the streets! Some would even take breaks and go on glide.

As if I didn't feel stupid enough, I kept blundering into thier path (hey, I like streets too ya know). Boy oh boy, How I must have looked like the total retard bird to them! Here's this big dopey red bird flying SOUTH! Hahahahahahaahahahaha... I even disrupted a couple formations as they diverted around me. As if that wasn't enough, get this... they tried helping me out! HA! One formation turned around and came back to get me! Honk honk, hey stupid!, this way! Honk honk. (of course I honked back) They flew with me for a little while then one by one gave up and went on thier way.

God that was fun!
The rest is the usual "there I was stuff". Paul and Zach launched soon afterwards. For some reason there was a lull (2pm myth anyone?), but everyone and thier brother eventually came out to fly. Lots of happy (sunburnt) faces in the LZ. Soaring continued till after 4pm.

500fpm to 5k (a couple cores as strong as 800fpm... yes, on the averager)... brainless soaring. Better over Quest than to the South btw. Hopefully this is the beginning of the Spring uptick.

Jim

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This page last updated February 12, 2005