Back to Main Page Back to Archive 2005

Index to weather maps

Hangola September 21 - 27, 2005

Flight Reports

Yesterday was a beach day at Smyrna with Kevin and Bo and Paul. We had LOTS of fun. Ridiculous fun. The wind was a honkin', thanks to Rita! We dragged down these old gliders from a hangar until we found a couple that we thought would work - I will have to get Paul to fill you in on what they actually were because I have never seen anything like them. One was Moyes and the other an Airwave.

We had to sit in the truck while it poured for awhile but then we set up. Bo was the first to fly. Paul and Kev ran down the beach with a line hooked to Bo to tow him, while I stood on top of these little rocks on a dune and wrestled with the left wing. It was weird as sh#*. You should have seen Bo pop up, though! Just like cliff launching. With a man-tow.

When Bo released from tow, Paul fell down and pulled a muscle in his hip really badly. The day was over for him then; I mean he cannot walk, only crawl like a bug. We all felt grateful he was the sacrifice who got hurt.

Bo soared the hotels for a long time. It is actually very complex. The marine air feels smooth, but it was cross from the south. The lift band is extremely narrow. In front of it, you will drop quickly, behind, it is bad news. It is easy to turn in the band, but if you fall out of it with one wing, it can be difficult to turn to say the least.

Bo told me there were 2 rules, never ever get behind the motels, because the rotor will hurt you bad, and don't land in the ocean, even in half an inch of water, because you can drown easily. It was really hard to not land in the ocean because Smyrna Beach got washed away in Ophelia, and the small bit of sand that is left slopes steeply down to the water -- even at low tide.

You should have seen Bo land. The trick is to fly parallel to the water along the strip of sand. However, you are in the lift band there so the glider will just keep flying forever. But if you turn towards the water you may well not stop because of the downhill slope. So you have to drag your feet (no kidding) while you are in ground effect going sideways, and when you have lost enough speed, let the glider yaw a little towards the water and flare. Bo skidded along sideways for awhile through the sand and then landed perfectly.

Kevin was next. He flew for over an hour. Really cool. I filmed Bo and Kevin, the raging ocean, the hotel -- we hung out in on a beach level hotel patio that was unclaimed -- and the groupies cheering for Kev as he made passes by their windows. Bo and I swam for awhile, maybe 45 minutes, while Paul drank beer and iced his leg. It was funny how far you would get washed down the beach if you didn't pay attention.

Kevin said the flying was VERY challenging, particularly in the big old glider-- he called her a "Ho", though Bo felt sorry for her and plans on adopting her and having the rip in her sail fixed. Kevin's landing was more interesting than Bo's but he did stay dry.

Bo said it was not a great place to learn (I had been figuring this out watching, and hearing Kevin talk about how difficult it was to avoid becoming part of the hotel convinced me further. Obviously both Kevin and Bo are hugely experienced pilots with big reputations). But I had to do SOMETHING.

So Kev and Bo hooked me into the glider and I did flat launches down the beach. It was hard to get enough airspeed unless you turned towards the water but that was a big no-no. However, it worked well launching with Kevin and Bo sprinting beside me. I got about 2 feet in the air and could fly for as long as the boys could run. Funny, they got tired of the game before I did... Actually they were pretty wonderful, making sure I got to share in the fun and get airborne at least a little.

I tried launching myself a few times. Bo warned about my right wing stalling since I had to run parallel. Anyhow I told him of course I knew how to fly but I nearly met Ms. Turtle once. It was more fun when the boys ran with me because I could just step into the glider when I wanted and fly like a princess.

Kevin should have some good pictures on his blog later; he might have a video, too, once he sorts through all the bad filming I did.

Lauren

PS. I gotta go up to Kitty Hawk and fly the dunes there -- this is apparently the hep place to learn, hep meaning I might live to see dinner if I learn that way

Eked out 20 minutes or so in survival mode. Think I had a positive 50 ft at one point so I can claim "a short soaring flight". Lot of west in it. By 3:30 when I hiked back up it was coming straight in at 10. There were crows soaring. Sigh.

The road up is worse than before if such a thing is imagineable.

I did it! Got my H3 signoff from Steve Wendt today. Man---long day. I had to work for that signoff. 6 spot landings (not 3), 3 in one place, then Steve moved the cone to a tough location near the hangars (requiring a difficult approach over the hangars) and I had to do 3 more. All in 90+ degree heat---ugh. I was motivated though! Also had a couple of short soaring flights off the truck, doubling my altitude on one.

I celebrated my new rating with a late afternoon aerotow to 3k. It had clouded over by then, but there was still plenty of lift. I later found out there had been a bit of a gust front on the ground while I was high...some cold air dumped across the area, forcing the warmer air up...which I found! (When folks on the ground saw what was going on, they got worried about me, but I was above it all, happily floating along.) It got so dark (from cloud cover combined with my dark shades) I decided to come down after 30 minutes, had to stuff the bar to get down in the buoyant air.

Tim Eggers got back in the air again (good to see you flying again Tim!), and Rance Rupp had a nice 45-minute flight to 4k. Then Holly, Tim, Rance, Tex and I all went to Vinny's for beers and dinner.

Definitely a worthwhile day! :)

Scott

Steve, Ralph, Shawn and me. Steve flew earlier in the day and specked. Shawn Ray came up a bit later and we waited for Ralph to arrive. We shuttled Ralph's car to the LZ. I launched after Ralph in the Tandem and found that the air was a bit too sporty. After a few passes, I got 'spit out' in front of launch with a dramatic dive for airspeed. I landed a few minutes later. Basically, I flew the wrong glider.

When I returned to get the truck, Ralph was hanging out in front of launch, so I took some photos.

http://community.webshots.com/album/459005940oiuppK

Thanks to Shawn for coming out to help.

'Spark

Yesterday turned out to be a great day at High Rock! As I left home, I wasn't sure if I would actually get to fly; I was leaving late, and I was afraid there wouldn't be any launch crew by the time I got there. I didn't care. After 3 weeks of overtime at work, I was happy just to be getting out of Dodge. When I arrived, Shawn and Sparks were just hanging out; Kinsley had been flying but had just landed after an hour and 20, and conditions looked good. I immediately started to set up, and the guys offered to shuttle my truck down, while they picked up Steve so he get his car, and help launch me. As I finished setting up, and the guys hadn't returned yet, a woman came up to me with a camera hanging from her neck, and said that she wanted to ask me "a Bill Engvall/'Here's Your Sign' type of question", and was I preparing to jump off of that cliff over there? I told her I was, and she asked if it would be soon (yes, as soon as the guys returned from the LZ), and would I mind of she and her husband took pictures of me? I told her I absolutely didn't mind, and we spend the next 10 minutes or so chatting about flying. By the time Sparks arrived, it had really clouded over, so I opted to wait for him to set up his big tandem falcon before I launched, hoping that the sky would open up again a little before I launched. A little bit later, Steve opined that the conditions looked really good, and that I should get into my glider and get up on launch. Taking his advice, I suited up, and got ready to go.

I launched around 4:00, and turned to the right (into the wind), and flew across the bowl with my vario chirping lightly; finally made a gentle turn and came back, with the winds (and lift) picking up, and came back to launch about 100 over. The lift seemed reasonably solid, and I went back into the bowl, and managed to hook something strong that took me up to 1000 over, before I had to leave it because I was getting close to the towers and the wind was stronger aloft. After about 15 minutes, I saw Sparks launch and turn to the left; I think he made a pass or two, but didn't appear to get up, and then he was headed out towards the LZ. About the same time, I was sinking pretty quickly myself; the entire launch area was clouded over, but the point to the north had sun on it, so I decided to use what altitude I had to get over there. I managed to find a very small piece of light lift, and I worked it for the next 20-25 minutes, clawing for the sky and resisting gravity with everything that I had. There were quite a few turkey vultures around, and one came close by to check me out. I can just imagine what he was thinking: "Ok, that big purple and white bird is pretty colorful, but he STINKS at flying! Look at him wallowing around like a wet fledgling!" Finally, the lift got strong and cohesive enough for me to get back over launch; the photographer couple was still there, and took a few more pictures of me, then I watched them drive off, and found myself completely alone. It's kind of weird to look down at the HR launch and not see *any* people. On Saturday I had landed after 57 minutes because of the fading light, so my goal was to try and hang on for an hour of air time. This was easier said then done; there was a definite north cross aloft, and the air was not very smooth; and considering how strong the wind was, the lift was not as bulletproof as one might have hoped for. As I approached the 55-minute mark, I saw Sparks back on launch, scrambling for his camera; the lift was dying, and it was getting harder and harder to stay above launch, but I tried to hang on for two more minutes while he took pictures; at 0:57 I finally had had enough, and headed out to the LZ. As I crossed the train tracks, I caught some really sinky air, and had to pull in to get to the LZ; I got there with just enough time and altitude to cross the top end of the field and fly a quick DBF approach; the bottom dropped out as I turned on to final, and I was just able to get both hand on the downtubes in time for a quick flare and a landing on my feet, with chrono reading exactly 1:00!

What a flight! Not the easiest flying by any means, but having made my goal, I have to say it was tremendously satisfying. It also felt a bit self-indulgent to be at the other end of the camera for a change. (I had my camera with me, but it never made it out of the car.) Huge thanks to Shawn and Sparks for taking my car down to the LZ, and to Steve for prodding me when he did. And to top it all off, I have some pictures from Sparks to remember it by - icing on the cake!

~Ralph

Scott did a great job of trimming at Bills - It is ok for HG launching and I doubt we will need to trim until Spring - everything is gonna die back soon.

So anyway, it was just Andy Harrah and me, flying paragliders. Winds were intially light (about 5mph), increasing to about 10mph by late afternoon. Conditions were ideal for H2/P2. Winds were pretty much straight in and the air was bouyant - no sink holes.

We flew and flew and flew. By about 3pm, it became marginally soarable, but I couldn't get high enough to top land until my fifth and sixth flights. Andy also made six flights, and got to soar the ridge on his last flight.

All in all, it was a great day, except for the fact that my camera seems to have died.

And ... I found Marcel's GPS that he misplaced two weeks ago - landed right next to it 8).

'Spark

Richard and I had a good day teaching at Oregon Ridge on Saturday. Rich had 5 students and I had 3. Winds were usual, crossing some from the right most of the time but channelling up the slot. Wind speed was mostly 3 - 8 mph. A little wind sure helps.

john middleton

An unexpectedly good day at Highland today!

Totally decked over during the drive, but a couple miles past the bay bridge and *poof*, totally sunny skies. Very glad I'd brought the sunscreen along, even though I _knew_ I couldn't possibly need it ;-)

I was pretty happy to see this because I had a group of nine people (frisbee and work crowd) heading out to Highland for intro tandem flights. We'd been scrubbed the previous day due to strong winds, so seeing the sun out was just great.

Got there around 11:00. The group trickled in, and I spend lots of time answering questions and taking photos. But when Sunny yelled something like "set up!" during one of his landing approaches, I figured I'd better stop being social and go set up my glider :-) .

A handful of other pilots were there : a couple of students I haven't met yet; Carlos; Ellis, Marc Fink; Ric; Christian. Small turnout.

I was up at base-500' three times on my first flight, and snagged about 1:15 of airtime. Flew with Ellis and a sailplane for a while, all working the same thermal and nearly co-altitude. Marc F had a nice flight, and so did Ric on Christian's Millenium. Some of the students had good flights earlier in the day, and were able to stay up without varios. Pretty darn nice day!

I put it down and met up with some of the later arrivals in my group. After everyone flew I took another flight around 6:00, and got to boar around in light lift for another 0:20 or so. A great way to end the day!

All the tandems went well, a few got to do some soaring, one went a mile-high *and* went up with Ric in a sailplane, and one of the group signed up for two more tandems. Woo-hoo!

--mark

What fun!

My first solo HG flight since winter--all I've been doing is teaching and tandems, so I was a bit concerned about towing and flying the Talon. Survived the threat of ground-level lockouts and failing releases and proceeded to have a relaxing flight of enjoyable thermalling, which were abundant despite (by the time I finally got off) an overcast sky.

Ellis continued working on her aerobatics development (I think she wants a magazine cover shot doing a loop, though I haven't asked her). Ricky was there spreading his usual sunshine and kept Christian staring and cursing at a speck in the sky when Christian lent him his Millie. I told Christian to relax and be thankful he didn't have to drive two hundred miles to get it back. [Laughing]

Nice to see the crew again.

I know its a little late and possibly a little boring but here's an update to Friday flying. Got there later than I'd like to (given the good conditions), about 2p. I knew Sat/Sun would be overcast so wanted to get in another flight before Tennessee. After watching Scott take two truck tows before me, I set up from the opposite end Scott had been towing and got a tow in the crosswind. Although I only got to 700, I pinned off and began working the lift that was there, punchy with tight cores. I managed to eek out a gain to 1700 or so until it ran out (that sounds so much better than 'I lost it'). I had to loiter a bit for landing to make way for the truck tow in progress but still had a reasonable landing. It was good to be reminded that flights can still be had on low truck tows. While Scott was working on his spot landings for his H3, he had some altitude gains as well.

Not long after I was down, Tex arrived so I opted for an aerotow. I had seen a slight inversion at 1500-2000 but that was at 10am, it may not even still be present. After pinning off, I managed to find some light lift before sinking too far, I worked it to about 4500 making my way just across 360. Fortunately, I was not drifting very fast at all. I lost that and headed back but found absolutely no lift at all, all the way back. However, the smooth cool air was a distinct treat from the hot air on the ground, at least for those 40 minutes.

While flying, I watched as Tim took more truck tows. Too bad the wind switched prohibiting his aerotow. He was on the cart ready to go when the wind in the trees began howling. After breaking down, even with a trip to Vinny's, we still somehow missed getting our gliders rained on. Another fun day at the flight park for all.

Both days worked great. Good time at Oregon Ridge Saturday from morning till late afternoon. Glen and Yanni polishing up their foot launch skills in prep for their first mountain launches. Both have been aerotowing this summer to get comfortable with altitude and approaches so...they're pretty much ready to go.

Sunday we went to the new SE site ( Hardy Hill ) and flew all day until sunset. All students did extremely well, and all were exhausted from back to back days' of training.

Hope this weather keeps up!

Rich

"So, are you all right?" The 60ish man riding in the golf cart tilted his head with concern.

"Yup", I reported. "Fine. I was trying to fly a course, but ran out of lift here."

He ran his tongue around his lips. "I could do mouth to mouth. It might make you feel better". Well. Bo said I should have toyed with him, but the old horn-dog might well have chosen to leap over the barb wire and given me a taste of his decrepit tongue. There is a time for toying and a time for being petrified.

"No," I insisted, "I am fine." When he suggested that I should reconsider just to be safe, flirting was out of the question. I mean, maybe if he had been cute! So the rest of this is just about how I ended up in the field and with the horn-dog.

It is about flying. Boring. Well, not to me.

I didn't fly yesterday because the wind was east from about 10 which is always a rough direction. The gust factor was big, too, and I just don't have that many hours on my beautiful Litespeed. Kev called and said I should fly but conditions looked kinda scary when I arrived at Quest. He and Jim P. had good flights but lift was light and the turbulence was a factor. When both Bo and Bob tell you NO, YOU SHOULD NOT FLY, you gotta listen.

But this morning, conditions looked more south and lighter to me. Much better, because the runway is more unobstructed that way. Kev and Jim stayed in bed until late, and Paul is crippled from our beach day, so I was the only pilot. The tow was ROWDY! I should have held on at altitude but pinned off at 2000 something when Angel decided to bear hard right. I need to remember when to fight.

Then I was in rat-shit lift. Worse than that. Losing slowly. Luckily, in spite of my mistakes, I found some lift on the long way home. I climbed to almost 4 K and finally made it out of the start circle (on the course I programmed in, Jim Prahl's). I aimed to the east, into the wind, so that I would drift towards my first turn point to the south (2 miles). I wondered if I would deck it early but found a dribble of lift on the way there. I heard the happy song of my 5030 reporting I had made it and then headed 4 miles to my next way point to the north. The drift was better this way and I arrived high at the north way point. Woo hoo, I love that you-have-arrived- song!

When I bolted to the east, I found a good line of lift. I couldn't find anything strong enough to turn in, but I actually gained altitude for awhile. I was so happy; I was going to complete my course! My good line of lift evaporated, but I aimed for a cloud over the third way point. Woo hoo, I made it! Unfortunately, the cloud above was a lying SOB.

I began to realize the Quest field was far out of reach. One decent field loomed below, and at 1000 feet, I decided to treat it like the Quest field. I just was not going to leave unless it was decent. I also realized that the feild had a few barb wires fences dividing it. Oh oh.

My approach was fine. I am drilled in enough on being smooth that it worked even when I was concentrating on not over flying the fence and getting down before the next one. However, my landing sucked. I rolled in on my stomach (bless those horrific, expensive, worthless, little wheels), but narrowly missed some cow shit, so things could have smelled worse.

Make no mistake, I do not take my flaws lightly. I am setting up the Sport in the morning and practicing. I always landed her well, but I need a more exuberant flare on my beautiful Litespeed to do as well on her. I know if my landings are not perfect my margin for error is diminished. SO ALL OF YOU, please send me your good thoughts and mind-images of ME landing like Adam Elchin, or Mike Barber, or Bob from Quest. I promise you, I will have it like that in the next 30 days.

But I am happy. I have had my Litespeed one month. I was totally scared of her but damn, we are making progress! I actually flew her XC today. And it was fine. By next May all of the pieces of my new harness and glider and GPS will have meshed. I have 100 hours this year so far. I hope I have another 100 before its end. Anyhow, I am sure having fun. Kev says I need to pack up and go with him to Tennessee on Friday; I am not sure. I need to tune up my foot launch if I go. He also says we will fly tandem in the Ecstasy in the next day or two which should be great fun. Paul got her back in tune today so he can fly. He is still pretty crippled from our beach day but he really needs to fly again. You know, the Ecstasy is an old rigid with landing gear so Paul can fly without being able to walk.

I am surrounded by wonderful friends and I have Paul, too. Lucky me.

Come visit.
Lauren

Not so much cause of the flying...

I arrived at 11:00 and its moderately strong but very north cross. I set up and wait around, but decide to go for it.

Very thermally but they are getting torn to pieces. I eventually work a good one up in the gap at the south to 1200 over and it was pretty easy afetr that. That is until my zipper blew on my Vulto. This time the toggle was low at my knees and control was a bit clumsy. I also couldn't get my legs out except for below the knees. I call it quits and head into a cookin' lz, where probably by just pure dumb luck I pull a nice no-stepper flare.

Meantime Dan Broxterman and Steve show--Steve with a new mountain pilot Tim who was a student of Sunny's at Highland. I get a ride up and Dan is itchin' to go, and Steve agrees to huck Tim before he goes.

Dan launches and gives it a valiant struggle on his big-boy U2, but alas it was not to be.

So I look over Tim's old Falcon 195 and it is one of the more tired wings I've ever seen, lots of rub wear, mildew etc. and the sail looks like its seen more than its share of UV.

Things got light and Tim has a perfect launch. Couldn't have been any better. He flies straight away from the ridge and is a little wobbly while climbing into his coccoon, but he succeeeds and flies on straight to the lz.

Tim is not turning or slowing down. But he is going up.
And he goes up.
And he goes up.

He's probably 500 over by the time he gets to the lz having done nothing but fly straight out.

Then Tim appears to start circling in preperation of an approach.

And he starts going up.
And he goes up more.
And he keeps going up. Looked to me at least a grand over launch level--staright over the LZ.

Before I leave I mention to Steve that after launching he might consider flying straight out to the lz--but he didn't (after a protracted chicken-scratch effort of getting into his pod's boot he managed to struggle up).

That flat-lander training held up pretty good in the mountains, I thought [Laughing]

marc

Yup. Tim's flight was pretty amazing. It was cooking out there. Highest I got (2500 over) was from a thermal I caught over the LZ.

Eddie Miller showed up also and was boating around at 200 over or so in Eddie air when we left.

Kept expecting it to swing NE but it never did.

Nice fall air. 4200' above, 2 hours, a bald eagle, and landed above the bar where we watched the sun go down from the deck......Bob

Yea buddy the air was crisp, I bet it was really crisp at 4200' over. Launched Little Gap around 4:45 got 1500" over in a factory thermal, flew for an hour, hung out down by the gap and watched the cars for awhile. Thought about jumpin the gap but its a big one and the L/Z's not too plentiful so I made my way back and landed in the main L/Z.....

Doug.

	previous page	back to top	next page

This page last updated October 9, 2005