Back to Main Page Back to Archive 1998

12Z not avail weather link for 00Z, 4/13 weather link for 00Z, 4/14

Hangola
Monday April 13, 1998

Life is so sweet! Wonderful flights two days in a row! With the weather maps reflecting something stronger than I would want to fly in midday, I delayed my trek to Fisher Road yesterday til noon. Flew at 5:30pm for 1:25, 3K over, in the sweetest air imaginable! The view was spectacular!! First time over 2K for me at Fisher's, probably only the second time over 1K.

Brian, Steve, and Geoff all flew earlier and got high, in air that was apparently not-so -sweet. I'll let them fill in the details on their own flights. Brian flew again late day.

Made it to Breezewood late for the Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry meeting. Will sumarize that in a subsequent post. Tom Gartlan from the Wind Rider club came from Harrisburg to attend the meeting and got to see the Fisher Road site for the first time. He will probably write something up; it's likely that his report will be more informative. Hang gliding on forestry property dosn't seem to be threatened in any way, but it's good for our voices to be heard so that it stays that way. There's actually two sets of public meetings. This first round is to collect public input before working on revisions to the existing plan, then they will develop the plan for the next 15 years, then they will hear comment regarding the new plans.

Judy

Judy,
Thanks for taking the time to go to the meeting and also to meet with utility folks regarding burial of the powerlines in the secondary at Fishers. Being a paper and pencil geek, I'd be pleased to coordinate some written background for the PA forestry folks if you think that would be helpful.

As for flying, I was underdressed, got to 4K over in some very fat lift and bailed after 1.5 hrs because I was cold and couldn't stay low. A nice flight but a real missed opportunity...when in doubtitude, dress for altitude!
-geoff

Re flying. Got to 4 k over with Geoff and came THIS CLOSE to going over the back but didn't. Decided instead to prove once more and for all time that Hang Gliders are not upwind machines and tried to make it across the valley. Sank out. Took nap in sun under glider. Nice day.

Re electric. I thought the electric folks were telling us that burying the lines would be a cheaper alternative to moving them to the perimeter. But since they were apparently under orders to divulge no useful information it is a little tough to say. The one thing that they were very clear on was that they should not under any circumstances be asked to engage in any actual effort -- they particularly regarded their job, the preparation of estimates, to be extremely distasteful and felt that we should decide what we were going to do first, commit ourselves to doing it regardless of cost and pay them whatever they asked for on completion.

If we are interested in pursuing the matter, I would tell them that we have decided to have the lines moved to the perimeter, that we have obtained land owner permission to do this, that we have agreed to spend whatever is necessary to accomplish this and that we need an estimate. We can independently pursue a cost estimate for burying the lines.

	previous page	back to top	next page

This page last updated April 19, 1998