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Hangola July 12-18, 1999

I talked to Dave Johnson last night and he had a sled at Bill's on Monday while a friend videotaped. On Tuesday, he returned to Bill's, and finding no one there, decided not to fly and instead he mowed the set-up area and the top of launch. Then he went to the Pulpit and mowed the set-up area and the pathways to the ramps there too. So if you see Dave, let him know how much we appreciate his efforts. Dave is off from work all this week and looking for other pilots who want to fly today and tomorrow. He's not on the list server. So if you want to go to fly, please give Dave a call-- his number is in the roster or I can give it to you if you email me.

Speaking of Bill's-- we did a great job of clearing the slot last year and we don't want that effort to go to waste. Maybe we've had such great flights there this year as a reward for our efforts last year? Anyway, on the next good Bill's day, it wouldn't be a bad idea to bring out those gas powered weed wackers and other instruments of destruction and do a little maintenance in the slot to keep it from growing back in. If we each put in about a half an hour, we can keep the slot clear.

Matthew (looks like South winds for the weekend, of Karen and Matthew)

Hi,

I saw that the Pink one picked up on my Falcon flight in Wyoming. Here's a little bit more detail. The post on the net was actually an excerpt from a note that David Glover received because he had made a 95 mile Falcon flight earlier this year from Hobbs, an unofficial "Falcon record".

Today is my last day in Rock Springs, southwestern Wyoming on a monthlong, unsuccessful, quest for the "real" world distance record. My friend Larry Strom and I had been experiencing almost three weeks of appalling weather, with nothing even remotely approaching a good day, let alone a record one. So one day at breakfast after hearing my zero-wind, blue and mediocre lift forecast for the day, John Dawson, our wonderful driver, looks at me and says, "You've said you want to try to go far on the Falcon; today's the day". Well that idea beat the hell out of another day of scratching a Fusion over some gnarly country with crummy lzs, and having to look forward to landing, overloaded at 7,000msl, in 90 degree conditions and no wind. So we went back to the apartment and persuaded our reluctant other member, Larry Strom, to dig out his 225 Falcon tandem glider and come and play with us.

In a nutshell, it was a total delight, and relieved much of my previous frustration. I did it on a virtually zero wind day, so there was no question of having flown it in "radical" conditions. In fact the first part of the flight was blue, difficult and slow. Saying that of a Falcon flight may be redundant, but going XC on a Falcon with only a 5mph (gps derived) tailwind is really slow. It was only when I got to the 65 mile mark out in the Red Desert that I reached some cumies (the first in THREE weeks) under which I achieved great climbs and altitudes (eventually 1,200fpm on the averager and 17,100msl).

At that point things did however become interesting because the only clouds were located over the no-mans land south of I-80 between Wamsutter and Rawlins, Wyoming. The main roads are some 15 miles apart and I had never been through there before. Doing it with the Falcon and little tailwind was an interesting experience that drove home how much glide one gives up when going from a Fusion to a Falcon. On the plus side, any hiking I might have to do was going to be a helluva lot easier with the Falcon. It worked out fine as I found a fabulous climb the one time I was becoming worried out in the middle of nowhere. That climb became so wild that I had to pull out at 17,100msl, long before cloudbase because running from a cloud in a Falcon is not quite as easy as with a Fusion. That cloud then formed part of a beautiful street which got me back out to civilization, well I-80, at Rawlins. At that point the fantasy flight ended when I hit the dreaded easterly headwind that has been the nemesis of many record flights in this area. My gps began to indicate that my slight tailwind had disappeared, and then it showed an increasing headwind. I landed at at a truckstop at 6:30 after a flight 5:20 and 114 miles (21.4 mph).

Meanwhile Larry, flying that tent of a tandem glider, had made it 78 miles, landing just short of the receding line of cloud develoment I had reached ahead of him. His flight is particularly noteworthy as the tandem glider is quite a bear to fly solo if the pilot is off normal stature, as he is. Furthermore his light hook-in weight did nothing to help him glide at a reasonable speed.

We went home that night with very big, foolish grins on our faces.

Pete Lehmann

ps That Falcon flight, besides being are really needed attitude adjustment, proved to be the herald of better flying to come. We never saw record weather conditions, but I achieved my personal distance record and got some 21 hours and hundreds of miles in four days.

Not as big a crowd as I had anticipated at Ridgely yesterday-- probably a lot of folks were still resting up from Sheila's party. A few of us had flights in the 40-45 minute range (about 3300-3500 AGL) including me, Raean, Joe, Danny, Dale, and Jim (from VA beach). A few others had flights in the half hour range. Sleds and extendos for the rest of the crowd. Judy-Judy did three low tows (to 500') and practiced landings with her drogue chute. Karen and Janet each had two flights at the end of the day. Marc, Mike C., George Tudor, Bunkhouse Bob, Turkey Fred, Beard, some guy in a Falcon that no one new, amd Daryl all flew. I also eeked out an extendo at the end of the day by finding a few patches of zero sink and one little bubble in which I was able to climb 150 feet. Our friend Sean, the rock climber, took a tandem flight at the end of the day and had a blast. Sonny said he also did a few tandems in the morning with some students.

Matthew (Lasik surgery tomorrow, of Karen and Matthew)

Opening Day, Cumberland West Virginia Fair

The wonders of foot-launched aviation wowed the crowd at opening day of the Cumberland County Fair on Sunday, July 18. Three paragliders and seven hang gliders flew over the parking lot between 6:25 and 6:50. There was a heavy haze, hot weather, and no wind, so we all performed calm air launches and efficient sleds to the LZ.

One unnamed PG pilot started us off at 6:25. Then Brian Vant-Hull ran off the launch at 6:29+, with the loudspeaker at the fairgrounds announcing the hang glider launch for the crowd's entertainment as Brian flew out in front at 6:30. John Myers followed Brian into the air, giving us the second Falcoņero into the sky. L.E. Herrick took the next PG into the sky, showing off her brand new wing. Christy Huddle, Doug Wakefield and Mike Chevalier flew next, then Ben Herrick made the final PG flight of the afternoon. Mark Gardner and I finished the aerial show, with Mark performing steep turns over the LZ for a special show.

Organizer for our day at the fair, Marvin Presley, had taken a mid-afternoon sled before we all arrived. Sadly, on his second trip to launch his truck spring a coolant leak and overheated, so he worked on dealing with the broken vehicle instead of flying with the crowd.

Back in the LZ, the primary topic among the pilots was the higher level of class displayed by the bagwing crowd over the tube and mylar team. This was evident as L.E. and Ben brought out the wine and cheese and lawn chairs, and L.E. made cucumber sandwiches for all of us. With a bit more analysis, however, we concluded that Ben was as scuzzy as any of us HG pilots, and it was simply that L.E. has more class than the rest of us!

OK, so the fair crowd was sparse. When we left around 8:00 , none of the rides were operating. We think we heard all three or four fairgoers applauding Brian's launch!

Thanks to H-1 Chris Williams for coming along and driving for us, even bringing Ben's tarps and Mike C's lost laundry down from launch.

Flying at the Fair continues every night this week. Meet in the LZ parking lot at 5:30 any night you can make it. I had fun, and will try to figure out how to get back next weekend.

Cragin Shelton

John Middleton dragged my butt out of bed Sunday morning, and made me go to Ridgely.

Figuring it was hazy, hot and humid, I was dubious as to the value of driving across the Bay Bridge just to stand in a field sweating all day. But off I went.

Along the way we tried an alternative to route 50 for when traffic is really bad. Then after crossing the bay, we saw a hang glider being towed up in the bay. We took a turn off to go see what was up, and we came across 2 HG Ultralights. Hang glider trikes attached to small dinghies. The first one took off at 'mush' angle to get out of the water, then pulled in to pick up speed. The second was a 2 seater, and it took a lot longer to take off. It was interesting.

Finally arriving at Ridgely, there were very few people. There had been a couple of short flights, and Sonny was hanging around cloud base for about an hour. John and I setup and took off. Drifting with light lift, I found myself over the junk yard at about 3000, and chose to stay with it. Continuing to drift to the NE, most of my flight was between 1800 and 2500. The drift was very slow, and only once did I make it above 4000 (4300). Robert from PA was driving chase (thanks Robert), and stayed under me most of the flight, that was cool. John was parallel to me within a couple of miles, but I could not ever see him. There was major haze. I estimated that I could only see about a mile through the haze.

I made it 15.3 miles, and John (without a GPS, and his radio batteries died) made it just East of Dover for about 20.8 miles.

I was very surprised that it was doable, and was happy that for 2 hours I was at cooler altitudes.

-Mike Balk

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This page last updated July 19, 1999