Back to Main Page Back to Archive 1999

Index to weather maps

Hangola March 29, 1999

i.e. Marvin

Doug and I had a great time at Wallaby Ranch. (Heard that before?) We flew down on Wednesday morning (March 24th) and were in the air for our first soaring flight around 1 pm. We found some other Mountaineers there when we arrived (Jim Rowan, Greg Beyer and Will Jenkins, with John McAllister showing up a couple of days later) who were planning to go xc. Jim Rowan was the lucky driver, having sunk out (3 times!!!). Greg was on his new Millenium (sp?) and Will on his Fusion. I, of course, was on my bagged out, but trusty K-2. Greg led the pack, but didn't get far, about 18-19 miles from the Ranch. I was trying to keep up with Will so I wouldn't get lost and ended up landing a mile shy of where Greg had landed. Will, with Jim in hot pursuit without a map and only Will's descriptions from the air on which roads to take, went almost 60 miles. By the time they got to Greg and me, it was dark. I could have cut the wait in half if I'd just gone across the street and talked to the guy who was out checking out his horse. He swung by later on his way to an appointment to ask me what I was waiting for. When I told him that I'd landed in the field next to house, he told me about the rattlers he'd killed on the property, the plastic pipes sticking out of the ground (used to be an orange grove), and the black widows and brown recluse spiders, and said if he'd known I was waiting for a ride back to the Ranch, we would have taken me. I didn't see any rattlers, pipes or spiders and the wait wasn't that bad since I had a good book and there was a nice breeze blowing through the orange grove upwind, sending the sweet smell of orange blossoms my way. But even so, next time I'll cross the road and ask....

Wills Wings was doing a demo daze last week, so I took advantage of it and flew the 135 UltraSport. I wanted to fly the 141 Fusion, but Rob Kells didn't like the idea of me towing up without either the winglets or keel fin and I didn't think I'd enjoy flying a truck glider - which is what it is with them. I talked to someone later (the last guy to fly it) who weighed about what I do and who flew it first with winglets and then without and he said it wasn't bad at all on tow without the winglets. Arrgghhh. Doug did try the Fusion and didn't like it at all. He released at 800 feet when he got too low and landed, taking out a downtube.

Friday was rained out so we went to a movie Will had said not to see. It wasn't bad - much better than the gooey sweet movie we saw on the last trip. Saturday I took two flights on the K-2.

Sunday I had an hour and 15 on the K-2 and then hopped on the 170 (175?) Falcon for a 15 minute flight (landing so someone else could fly it before the sun set). The Falcon tows itself. It felt so stable on tow I let go of the bar and, sure enough, it tows itself.

On Monday Doug and I switched gliders. I wanted to see how the British K-2 tows since it's quite a bit stiffer than the American K-2. It towed great, but was a truck once off tow. Different strokes for different folks. Doug didn't like the American K-2 at all. Said it was too light handling and was all over the sky on tow. He's right, but once off tow, it's really sweet and doesn't take any work to turn. I battled with the British K-2 for 50 minutes before landing, worn out. After changing the down tube (I did tell you about my landing, didn't I?), Doug and I went back to our respective gliders again and took our last flight of the trip. Doug was towed to 2K and couldn't find any lift. I was waved off at 1400 into a really light thermal and climbed up a couple thousand feet. We'd agreed to land at 4 pm so we could got out to dinner before heading for the airport. I could see Doug packing the glider and he wasn't on the radio so I couldn't talk him into letting me stay up in the super bouyant air and go to Wendy's instead of the English pub. Oh well. The fish and chips and British beer were great.

Uneventful flight back. Got back home around 12:30 am so didn't get a whole lot of sleep last night. Will make up for it tonight.

Christy

	previous page	back to top	next page

This page last updated April 2, 1999