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Hangola September 19 - 20

Well, I haven't had the time to tally everything up yet since it took us a lot longer to get home yesterday than we originally had planned. We made the mistake of going to Fisher Road "just to see" what the winds were doing. It was pretty evident to us that nothing good seemed like it was going happen to for a while. And Karen had to be at work before 4:00. Since everyone was setting up and no one had contacted the primary LZ owner, we got saddled with the job of finding out if the horses would be in the field. We also ended up planting the windsock, taking Chuck's car to him in the secondary after his sled and then giving Mike C. a ride back up after he laid out the spot landing and bomb drop targets. We were quite surprised that no on had yet dropped off any cars. Finally getting our butts out of there, we came upon Chuck Plye stranded on the side of the road near Graceville (sp?) with three flat tires. So we took Chuck into Breezewood and dropped him off at a tire store while we went to lunch. We agreed to stick around until he found some help and if not we'd get a can of 'fix a flat' and take him back to his car. Fortunately he found a tire repair guy who gave him a lift back to his car and plugged his tires for only 30 bucks.

Anyway, we barely got Karen into work by 4:00 and when I got home I desperately needed to wash Fisher Road off of my car. Hence, that's why I don't have all of the details re- the Fly-In. I do know that 40 pilots registered for flying and that we have less than a dozen T-shirts left to sell. So if you didn't have the opportunity to purchase one of these lovely Pulpit T-shirts (designed by our gracious Madam President Kelly), then please come to the meeting Wednesday and pick one up-- only 15 dollars! We also have plenty of the excellent long sleeve CHGA T-shirts too at only 20 dollars each. What AMAZING bargains!!!!

On Saturday, it was hit of miss as to soaring at Fisher Road. Those that were in the air when the wind was stronger and/or the sun was shining got to soar. Otherwise it was sleds. Our hero Steve Kinsley sledded-- twice. Though it did go magic at the very, very end of the day. Karen and I had our first flights at Fisher. I got lucky and was up when the sun came out so I got a little less than an hour and a thousand over. Numerous pilots landed out and seven pilots made the task as set by Marc Fink. Marc has all of those details. But since he's off to France today, we may have to wait for his return for a full report. But the winners were announced and the trophies handed out. In the individual XC contest, the winners were:

1st Place-- Pete Lehmann
2nd Place-- Pat Brooks
3rd Place-- Larry Huffman

In the team comp-- the winners were:

1st Team Deadelus
2nd Board Stiffs
3rd Lawn Darts

Though Marc was not completely certain as to order of the second and third place team prizes when I spoke with him. This may or may not have something to do with a report of several pilots returning to the Pulpit to "kill the keg". The cash prizes for the spot landing and bomb drop contests will be awarded at the meeting on Wednesday.

Also on Saturday, George returned to the sky with a sled at Bill's and new H2 Scott Smith had his first 2 high flights at Bill's with George acting as Observer.

Matthew (A Big Big Thanks to Mark and Marc for all of their hard work, of Karen and Matthew)

Both Richard and I were teaching at Oregon Ridge on Saturday. Saturday looked like it would be the better of the two days for teaching and the students get the priority over the Pulpit flyin. Occasionally the wind was in but mostly it was calm wind launches. The wind direction there varied all over the compass but was mostly cross from the SE/S. My three students (Deana, Chris, Patrick) had a good day with lots of flights. I even did 3 flights. All three students plus another student who wasn't present will probably pass their Hang 1 flying next class! Richard told me that one of his students who had passed his Hang 2 was up at Bills or Fisher with hopes of getting his first mountain flight and he missed not being there. It's a neat experience being an instructor and watching one of your students take their first mountain flight.

- john middleton

The new Hang II that was looking for his first mountain flight is named Scott Smith....he got three of them Bill's on Saturday.

Scott flies a Falcon 195. He listens well and asks relavent questions. He appeared confident and relaxed before and after all his flights. His launch runs were very good. His flying skills were fine. His first and third approaches were good. The second was not so good (if we weren't at Bill's he would have ran out of LZ). His landings were all on his feet.

Conditions were East (with a South cross) winds at around 5 to 10 mph and mostly cloudy. I had Scott fly straight to the LZ without turning on all of his flights. He did extremely well and I probably should have let him do a little more, but I wanted to play it safe. On his last (third) flight, I did tell him he could do a 360 over the LZ if he got there high enough (same altitude as his first two flights). He performed a very acceptable 360 followed by a very good landing. Even though he's only had three flights, I'd probably let him fly in soarable conditions his next time out.

George Price

P.S.

I took a sled Saturday at Bills. I'd like to call it an extended sled but there were too many witnesses who know the truth. It was my first time out since the end of May. No problems. Had a good run, smooth launch thermalling skills were pretty rusty or I probably would have gotten up, nice right handed approach and a one step landing about 25 feet from the breakdown area.

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This page last updated September 24, 1998