Some of us actually flew today. Geoff, Judy, Jose and myself went to the
Towfarm only to find it blown out. It was too strong for air towing but not
for boat towing. All of us gave it a shot, towing to about 2K. MC

I crashed on Launch Sunday at Woodstock. I'm not seriously hurt, just a few minor scratches and bruises. The Mark IV will be parted out.

I launched in a light cycle that we both thought was sufficient, but it wasn't. Just before I hit the bushes I let go of the control frame and pulled my arms in. I attribute this, and a lot of luck, to the fact that I wasn't seriously hurt.

Dan T.

Dan, what time did you launch? Tom and I were at Woodstock from about 1:30 to 2:30 and saw that most of the time it was about 40 to 80 degrees cross. Did it straighten out? What were conditions? What made you decide to launch?

-Michael Balk

Ended up being quite a gaggle that showed up to fly today at High Rock!! As I drove in from Fort Ritchie around 1:00 pm I could see a pilot in the air. My heart beat faster and my car speeded up. I drove in to find Brian suited up. The pilot in the air: Bob Gillisse!!! His first flight back!! He was flying a recently acquired Sport and Jeannie, Rex and Rocky were up top as well. He had a great flight.

Bob flew til he had to land to go to work, Brian flew for an hour or more The two of them came up and helped me launch. I got an hour in some medium ratty air, most of it between 400' and 700' over. At one point I got a thermal that took me to 2100' -- thank heavens it wasn't drifting too much so that I could stay with it. Spent a while enjoying the view then came out and landed while I could still get a ride up. (A good landing, as a matter of fact, in the low part of the bowl aka whack dip. It had been a little nasty coming in and I was quite grateful for this nice landing.)

When I was in the air on the radio it sounded like Will had gone over the back from Cumberland and I could hear broken transmissions from Woodstock.

I stayed around to help launch the second wave of pilots. My story ends here -- I'll let this next group of pilots tell their own stories!

Judy

Doug went to Woodstock He got 4300 over, flew out to Rt. 11, 2 hours, 40 minutes airtime. He's feeling great as are all the others who flew there. I had to stay at work since I had a meeting with a bunch of antique store owners starting at 6 pm. Whoopee.
Christy

Well, I really have no clue as to how Buckley, Lord of the Knee Hangers, does it. I was only able to last 1:30 in my knee hanger yesterday at Woodstock. My feet were falling asleep, my back and shoulders were cramping up, my legs got tired... yadda, yadda, yadda. But other than that, it was a great flight and I got 4500 over. When Steve K., Doug and I arrived at launch at about 2:00, Lyman had his Falcon already set-up and Ray Mitchell and Bob (?) were just arriving. Lyman launched first into some rather rowdy conditions and stayed up for about a half hour. Doug was next, followed by me and then Steve. Ray and Bob waited for things to back off a bit before launching. The first 20 minutes of my flight were ROCK AND ROLL BABY! But then it just went flat for about 10 minutes; just long enough for me to start worrying that it had shut down. But then when it turned on again, the thermals were big, fat and happy. You could practically turn anywhere, let go with one hand, and the glider would center itself in the best part of the thermal. After flying at 4000+ over for a while I got pretty cold, so I dove down to the warmth of 2500 over and spent some time there. I then went out into the valley and even there the thermals were great. It was like-- beep, beep, beep, "Oh, what the Hell", turn. And right back up you went. Doug got 2:40, 4300 over and Steve got a little more than an hour and a half and 3700 over. Steve also had a harness problem. His shoulder line snapped and he found himself kissing the base tube. But he was still able to get down safely and have a good landing. Ray and Bob each got about an hour and 1000 over. I think this may have been Ray's longest and highest flight. And we actually started the drive home before sunset which was a pleasant change. Overall, it was a great way to spend my Birthday.

Matthew (off to get a massage, of Karen and Matthew)

> Date: Mon, 28 Sep 1998 21:36:40 +0000
> From: Judy McCarty
> Subject: chga High Rock Monday
>
> Ended up being quite a gaggle that showed up to fly today at High
> Rock!! As I drove in from Fort Ritchie around 1:00 pm I could see a
> pilot in the air. My heart beat faster and my car speeded up. I drove
> in to find Brian suited up. The pilot in the air: Bob Gillisse!!! His
> first flight back!!
[...]

There were *two* first-flights-back at The Rock yesterday: I enjoyed a mellow, sunset flight of about 20 minutes to 700 over, after an absence a week shy of 6 months. Sure felt good to be back in the air!

Many thanks to Judy-Judy and Marvin's wife Jennifer for patiently waiting until I felt comfortable with conditions. It's great to have friends on your wires when you're feeling a little rusty.

Tom, Mike, Kurt, and Marvin were also in the second wave, but I don't know the details about their flights...

I was too busy telling them about my own ;-)

--mark c.

Yesterday was a welcome flight for me. I hadn't had a really good one since the HR flyin. I was fortunate to arrive just as Judy was landing and she and Brian were nice enough to help me launch around 4:30pm. The air was ratty around launch, but there didn't seem to be much thermal action. I boated around in ridge lift about 1000' over for a long time in the cool shade of some wave clouds. Shortly after Tom launched, we enjoyed some sun and a few thermals. I got to 1500' over for a moment. Tom caught a nice thermal over the railroad tracks after a train passed. (I had been looking all over the place, thinking an airplane was flying nearby. Duh!) That was neat to watch. He flew up North by himself for a while. I finally went up there to check things out and was amazed at how much smoother the air was to the North. Landed after two hours.
Another enjoyable day in the air.
Today, started working on putting a new roof on my house. I wasn't nearly as scared up on the roof as I was when I was up there a few years ago. Hang gliding is helping cure my fear of heights!
See ya'll up high!
Mike Buckley

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This page last updated September 30, 1998