St. John Fly-in, 2003

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St. John Fly-in - 2003

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Vince Endter '02 Go-For-It Champ (8/17/03 10:42 am) 216.103.80.211 Reply \| Edit \| Del All	St. John fly-in reports Saturday saw quite a few pilots at St. John for the fly-in. I can't remember that many pilots in the past. I wanted to launch early to try for a new site record. Rich, Bill V. Todd and I were going to try to fly together. The cycles up launch were weak and crossing from the left. Shannon and Ken launched first, and then Rich and I followed by Bill and Todd. It was close to 1:30 by the time we were off launch. The thermals were broken and the climbs weak above the mountain. We joined up over the motherload at 8,500 and headed north. By leaving so low we were forced to climb at the first ridge to the north. I was back to 7,200 and headed north. Our little group broke up and it was every pilot for themselves to Paskenta. Todd tried to go deep and pass us, but ended up behind. When I found lift it was very broken and I only climbed as much as I needed to make it further north. I lost some precious altitude at Red Mountain trying to find lift and had to give up and fly north lower than the top. I knew that there would be lift beyond Red and found some on the next ridge. I had been down to 3300' and finally climbed back above 5000'. I was 5 miles ahead of the group. As I looked back it was interesting to see about 15 gliders heading north. It looked just like a comp. Once I knew I had Paskenta on a glide, I slowed down to give our group a chance to catch up. Rich finally caught me near Paskenta, but it took him another 20 miles to climb up to my altitude. Bill was doing really well. He took my advice and was passing up weak lift and turning only in the strong stuff. He made Paskenta. As I have said in the past, Paskenta is the hardest part of the flight. After that, it gets a little easier. At the 40-mile mark we started to hear from Todd again. His radio connection had come unplugged and he managed to fix it. He was one thermal behind us and one ahead of Bill. Bill had never flown this route before. We radio controlled him from ahead and got him to Red Bank and Ridge road. From here he made a slight wrong turn and got off route. He did manage 53.6 miles, bettering his best from St. John by 20 miles. The lift was getting better and better. Rich and I were climbing above 7,000' out over the Central Valley, though we had very little tail wind. We tried to slow down a bit so Todd could catch up. Our final glide was 15 miles. We hit a small thermal at 78 miles and were able to stay between 2500' and 3000' for more than half an hour. We were waiting for something stronger to come through. Todd caught us only to land directly below (at 78.2 miles). We could have glided another 4 miles, but to make it easier for Linda, Rich and I landed with Todd. This was Todd's second longest flight from St. John. Rob from Reno was on our frequency and managed a flight to Paskenta (33 miles) on his first time flying from St. John. We got back to Stonyford at 10:00. I did not hear how anyone else did. To avoid the traffic jam on the way home, I left early Sunday morning. I am looking forward to hear how the rest of the fly-in transpired. By the way, a paraglider pilot made it to Red Bank road, quite an impressive flight. Vince
lken Unregistered User (8/17/03 11:44 am) 63.211.143.38 Reply \| Edit \| Del	My first flight at St. John. Landed at Fouts LZ. Saturday flight is my first flight at St. John. It is easy to stay above 8200 feet. Flew over 8500 feet couple times. Landed at Fouts LZ. The glide ratio from Launch to Fouts LZ is 6:1. My father, Youzhi and my wife, Xin helped a pilot who blowed launch. According to my father, his leading edge was broken. The pilot looked Okay.
lken Unregistered User (8/17/03 10:00 pm) 12.240.28.154 Reply \| Edit \| Del	some take off photos. http://www.fungliding.com/album/2003-08-16%20St%20John/index.html Few take off video clips are coming. BTW, I remeber there was a guy standing below the launch all the time, taking pictures. Could someone contact him to post pictures here? Thanks, Lijian
Hangfly Member (8/18/03 9:50 am) 12.149.141.14 Reply \| Edit \| Del	Sonoma Wings Fly-in Lijian, Thanks for the photos. Overall the Fly-in was a great success, mostly because the flying was really good. I will post a more complete report tonight, but we flew over 1000miles all together! And had a minimal amount of problems. Counting pilots who didn't fly and paragliders and free-flyers there were over fourty pilots at St John and Potato Hill. More to come, Hangfly
MattsFlyin Unregistered User (8/18/03 11:53 am) 12.149.141.14 Reply \| Edit \| Del	Fly-In Report Whew!... As the unofficial Meet-Head I'd like to thank everyone for being there, for flying and socializing, for keeping it low key and especially for helping out with the Fly-In logistics. Thank You!! I think the only record that was NOT broken was the longest distance flight! As I recall these records were set: Most hits on a Sonoma Wings BB topic- over 1000 Most Number Of Pilots at St.John on One Day-37? Personal Best Distance at St. John- Larry Roberts, Leo Jones, Bill Vogel, Wayne Michelson (Fly-In Winner!!), Bob Ortiz, Kurtis Carter, I know there are more and I'll try to update later. Personal Best For Altitude Personal Best For Duration Personal Best Time to Cimb-Out and Go North Highest Temperature Endured While Waiting for Retrieve There were a few other notable marks: Friendliest Laid Back Landowner (goal LZ) Ben Butler Several First Flights at St. John First Blown Launch at a ST. John Fly-In And last but certainly not least: Worst Performance By Someone Trying To Communicate A Few Simple Facts On A Radio Amidst A Large Group Of Pilots And Even When They Were Finally Done For The Day They Unintentionally Keyed The Mike While They Drove Back To The BBQ...et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. All in all a very notable weekend!! And if you missed out, don't despair...the club Owen's Valley trip is coming up fast!! $:\$ More Later, MattsFlyin
onglide Member (8/18/03 2:28 pm) 207.46.125.16 Reply \| Edit \| Del	Re: Fly-In Report MattsFlyin wrote: *Quote:* I think the only record that was NOT broken was the longest distance flight! Well actually . . . the paraglider site distance record was broken on Saturday. Vince mentioned my flight to Red Bank road, 54 miles out from Potato. The old record was 45. It was really fun flying with y'all. Thanks to all who were involved in putting it on. Thanks also for inviting the pg-ers and especially to Linda who gave me a ride back on Saturday night, and Vince who explained how to get past Paskenta. My flight on Sunday was a repeat of Saturday except flown under a significantly lower ceiling with much weaker climbs. Still wound up in almost exactly the same place (53.4 miles instead of 53.7.) Great to finally meet all of you and hope to fly with some of you soon. Eric Reed
MattsFlyin Unregistered User (8/18/03 2:40 pm) 12.149.141.14 Reply \| Edit \| Del	Longest Flight Way to go Eric, thanks for the report...43 miles farther and you would have had THE longest distance flight. Vince has it at 96.something, done on a rigid wing. The flex record is 92.something courtesy of Todd Robinson and Rich Sauer. MattsFlyin
Hangfly Member (8/18/03 7:09 pm) 198.81.26.113 Reply \| Edit \| Del	Fly-in 2003 Sonoma Wings St John Fly-in First I want to name the sponsors and encourage you to patronize them. When soliciting prizes, I am always amazed at the generosity of the hang gliding community. Rusty Whitley of Gunnison Gliders sent us lots of great stuff as did the USGHA and Kenny Brown of Moyes America. We got prizes from Kameron Blevins of North Wing and Lisa Tate of Soaring Dreams Art. Sonoma Wings chipped in prizes as well. So get out there and buy a Moyes from Kenny! Sonoma Wings thanks all the pilots who came to the Fly-in and would like to acknowledge all the clubs who were there. Thanks to Motherload Skyriders, Cloud Street Gang, Berkley Club, Sonoma Wings, who else? Were there WOR members? Fellow Feather members? Please post if I didn't mention your club because we are interested to know who you are. This was the first Sonoma Wings Fly-in to involve Paragliders. Thanks to Gregg Hackett for being our liaison to the PGs. If Eric Reed had been entered in the contest this would have been the first Sonoma Wings fly-in won by a PG. The top three HG scorers on day one, didn't fly on day two. I counted 37 pilots who were there. Counting PGs, Entrants and DNFs. Gregg said there were quite a few more PG there as well. Only two entered the contest, Tom Moock and Gregg. It will be easy to include them next year now that we sort of have a format. We flew a combined 1166+ miles. 934.4 on Saturday and 231.7 on Sunday. 29 HGs flew on Saturday. Only 11 HGs flew on Sunday. Day one task was open distance from St John for HG and from Potato for PG. Top ten finishers: Rich, Vince and Todd tied at 78.2 miles to Redding. Wayne Michelsen and Bill Vogel 54 miles. Scot Huber 48, Leo Jones 45.1, Art Thompson 43.3, Shannon Raby 43, Matt Jagelka 36.1 Day two task was out 17 miles to Alder Springs Rd then back 6 miles to Ben Butler's field. Three pilots made it to goal. Scot Huber made it first then Wayne Michelsen then Eric Froehlich. Combined winner for both days was Wayne Michelsen followed by Scot Huber then a three-way tie between Rich Sauer, Vince Endter and Todd Robinson. Sunday Jon James and Donna Matthias drove to Chico and bought food for the masses.around 5:00 we started barbequing at East Park Reservoir. People swam and traded stories. Around 7:00 we had the awards ceremony. I must apologize for not awarding more prizes to drivers. Every one seemed to have a good time. Pilots continue to fly good mileage from St John on rather mediocre days. Hangfly the Airhead
Jon James Unregistered User (8/18/03 8:23 pm) 209.204.150.238 Reply \| Edit \| Del	Blown launch I had the dubious honor of blowing my launch on Sat and from my vantage point it looked quite spectacular. My launches are usually better than that but on that one I was complacent bordering on arrogant, and had terrible form. The wind was light but straight, and I thought the new ramp would help, so I went, trying to float the glider up to carry its weight. The glider pointed to the left because I wasn't holding on very tight. I tried to pull in but the right wing was out in front and on the 3rd step, I was in the air going crooked. It's possible the launch could have been saved at this point, but I didn't really try, and soon my left wing hit the rocks and I did a 180 back into the hill. Managed to miss most of the rocks except my left knee hit them. Without good knee pads, my kneecap would be shattered. As it is, I have 2 fair sized cracks in my kneecap, but no displacement, so it should heal up fine. My thanks and appreciation go to those on launch who helped, Wei Wei, Carrie, Charley, Lee's folks, and many others later. I was moved by the care and concern so many of you expressed to me. Thank you. I'll try not to do that again too soon. In 27 years, this is by far the worst injury I've inflicted by hang glider.
Jon James Unregistered User (8/18/03 8:30 pm) 209.204.150.238 Reply \| Edit \| Del	Fly In Based on number of pilots and miles flown, I bet the St John Fly In was the biggest x-c event in California this year. It was great. Have there been any comps in the south? Paragliders over the Mother Lode, you don't see that very often.
WMichelsen Member (8/18/03 9:06 pm) 12.234.19.11 Reply \| Edit \| Del	Thanks to All Thanks to everyone for the great fly-in. I'm not really certain who organized and ran it all, but I think Charley, Donna, Matt, Todd, ??. Please extend my appreciation to all involved. Although I am a Sonoma Wings member, I'm a bit detached living down in San Jose area. However, you SW'ers are a great bunch of people/pilots and I really enjoy hanging-out/flying with you all. I really look forward to seeing many of you in the Owens over Labor Day. I also hope the residents of Stoneyford (well, at least most of them) continue to welcome us as respectable and entertaining :-) Wayne
John Blacet Member (8/19/03 8:45 am) 65.214.144.155 Reply \| Edit \| Del	Re: Blown launch Hey Jon, glad to hear you are mostly OK! Your former Ram Air is available if you are desparate for a "loaner"! Maybe, it's time to get some Sonoma Wings custom kneepads made up!
buzzett 2002 Service Award holder (8/19/03 10:47 am) 63.93.101.36 Reply \| Edit \| Del	spare lam Jon, Rich has a spare laminar that you are more than welcome to use until you get yours repaired. You can even come up here and Rich will help you do the sail and other repairs. Linda
Jon James Unregistered User (8/19/03 4:12 pm) 209.204.150.81 Reply \| Edit \| Del	Thanks Thanks, Linda, Rich, and John I have a good Fusion to fly, but I'm out of comission for at least a month, probably more Then, I need to have a serious talk with myself about getting older, staying in better shape, and not expecting the ramp to do half the work for me on launch (that's what the wind is for). I was hoping Rich would advise me about getting the new sail on and trimmed (if it ever arrives).
Leo Jones Unregistered User (8/19/03 5:06 pm) 66.52.187.203 Reply \| Edit \| Del	Re. Well, apart from Jon's unfortunate prang, it was a very fun weekend. I was amazed to see so many gliders set up at launch - I counted over 30 on Saturday. We were restricted to using Fouts as a bailout, so there was a strong incentive to go XC if possible! At first I doubted that everyone would get off, as the wind was very light and very crossed from the east, but it got better and pilots began to launch by shortly after 1pm. Shannon and Ken were the first to take off, of course. Shannon slowly climbed out, but for a while Ken disappeared behind the switchbacks, which was not encouraging. However he eventually reappeared and begn to climb and others soon began launching. Meanwhile paragliders from Potato Hill made it across to St John and began skying out. I got in line, and it blew down or 90 degrees cross for about 20mins. Wayne Michelsen was in front of me and as soon as it began to blow up he lost no time in launching, and I followed seconds later. I had a great launch, turned immediately left into a thermal and began to climb, only to discover that my harness zipper had split from the top to my belly and I could not zip it up. I was supported by the buckle, but it was very uncomfortable, and I thought I would just have to bail, but stuck it out and tried to ignore it. I did not want to leave much below 9 grand, but I could not get that high. Thermals seemed to fizzle not much above 8K. The first gaggle had left 30mins earlier by the time I finally got to 8300ft, decided it was good enough and headed north. It was surprisingly buoyant over the back and I was still above 7K and climbing again when I reached the next ridge. Thermals were good and I found it easy to maintain 5 - 6K. For several miles I flew with a paraglider (Eric Reed) who thermalled with me and outclimbed me. I would pull the string and leave him for dust, fly a mile or two, find another thermal, and then watch him catch up to me, arrive below me in the thermal and outclimb me again! We must have done this for about 6 thermals! I only lost him at Grindstone Canyon. Up til this point I had no HG company, and was delighted when Larry caught up to me. We crossed onto the slopes of Red Mountain but nothing was working except ratty bits and pieces, and we both began sinking out. We were both below 2000ft, and heading out when Larry caught a thermal over the foothills and began to climb. I took me a while to really get going in this one, but eventually it got better and better and we climbed out to 6500ft over Red and were joined by a Laminar. Both Larry and I tried to talk on the radio , but the chatter was incessant and utterly distracting - nearly everyone reported the same thing, so we just had to turn the radio down and do our own thing. (Probably just as well, but it might be a good idea if pilots were to instruct their drivers on good RT procedures, as that was where most of the chatter was coming from. Brevity is paramount in a situation like this, where 30+ pilots and their drivers are using the same frequency) We made Paskenta easily and headed north. By this time my neck and shoulders were killing me from hanging half out of my harness, and I wondered how much longer I could stand it. Matt was on the ground a few miles up Lowry road, and I got down to less than 1000AGL here and thought I would join him. Larry was higher and flew on. I hung on in zeros for a while, trying to work out the cricks in my neck, and eventually began to slowly climb again. Larry landed a few miles ahead, and I took one more thermal and flew on to the last LZ before a more sizeable patch of woodland. I needed to find another thermal before carrying on, but I confess I didn't try too hard, I'd been up for over 3 hours and was happy to fly this far. Susie turned up as soon as I was broken down, and as Todd was already being retrieved we had a wonderfully rapid retrieve. Thanks Susie! We owe you. On Sunday conditions were more turbulent, and though thermals were going a little higher over the mountain they were rougher and smaller. I left with 8700ft but encountered a lot of sink over the back and lost 2200ft getting to the next ridge. Progress was more difficult than on saturday, and once again I was completely outflown by at least 2 paragliders. I found it very hard to climb in broken thermals, but these PG guys just seemed to park and go up! My GPA told me I made the turnpoint, but I could not see the tarps - mind you I was getting low in really trashy air at this point and I just lost it, landing with Matt besides Alder Springs Road. Larry was there to retrieve us within minutes. Many thanks to everyone who organised, helped with, and just showed up for this fun little fly in. I'm looking forward to next year's. Leo
Bill Vogel Unregistered User (8/21/03 5:25 am) 66.81.0.10 Reply \| Edit \| Del	Launch Pictures On Saturday I was not at all happy with my launch. In light head wind I started with nose down and a hard run when on my third step the right wing lifted and pulled me up and to the left. This caused me to drop into harness since I could not get right foot on ground. I spent the rest of the time correcting for a left turn till I pushed out and found I had good air speed to pop up. This truly bothered me and I was so delighted to see the several launch pictures of the first launches on Saturday. By comparing my launch sequence and others I was pleased to find my nose angle was good if not lower than others and the turn I was in was corrected by time I had arrived at the bushes. My many thanks for those pictures they were much help as I relived that launch. My flight after launch was one of getting up quickly and getting to 8600 to leave St John. Flew through much sink till first ridge north were I worked up to 6700 which seem to be top then. Continued to just before Red Mt. where I had such good lift I just could not leave it, at 8900 went on glide to Paskenta where I work light lift to the corner of Lowery Road turns east. At this point I called to Rich and Vince "Where Do I Go From Here". Well that was fun and I head to much West and ended up over some low hills till I work to ground. All in All Best distance off of St. Johns for me and flew new areas which is always fun. Thanks again for all the help Sincerely Bill Vogel
ericfro Unregistered User (8/21/03 5:47 am) 63.206.88.101 Reply \| Edit \| Del	...harness zipper In the above comment from Leo, on his Saturday flight, he writes: "...my harness zipper had split from the top to my belly and I could not zip it up. I was supported by the buckle,......" Very recently I had a similar experience with my Woody Valley MR Tenax Harness. And indeed its a very scary experience. Sitting the top of your zipper properly before you close it is super important!! In the case of my Woody Valley the buckle is very small and I feel inadequate to the degree that I'm going to have Steve Daleo (the Flights Designs dealer) sew on a much beefier model. I was a couple thousand over flying Sweetwater when my zipper exploded open, and like Leo I was unable to zip it closed. -Eric Froehlich
Leo Jones Unregistered User (8/21/03 4:41 pm) 66.52.187.21 Reply \| Edit \| Del	zippers and launches etc. Eric, The biggest single reason I did not buy a Tenax was because it did not have an adequate chest buckle and I realized I would, in effect, be hanging on the zipper. Woody Valley tried to assure me that the zipper was super strong etc.etc. You should write to them. The first time I tried one on I split the zipper! The Rotor has a good Stubai chest buckle as well as a leg loop/belly buckle, so I did not feel unsafe, just uncomfortable, as I was now hanging on my shoulder straps, and the zipper was now 6 inches apart. It was nice and cool though....! I thought I had checked my zipper before launch, but I will now check much better! Bill, your launch started OK but the glider got ahead of you, and you were running, (and yelling various expletives which got everyone's attention) with your arms pushed right out. You were somewhat nose high after the 3rd step or so, and the glider flew you right off launch - well left off launch actually. Good job your name is Vogel! (bird in German!) Lauching is the most dangerous phase of hang gliding IMO, and we cannot analize it and talk about it too much. Leo
Bill Vogel Unregistered User (8/21/03 4:55 pm) 66.81.0.10 Reply \| Edit \| Del	Leo Thanks I need to put that imfo into my though process, I am glad you seen it, I could not understand why the glider moved me so far left. Again thanks for feed back. I now wonder if I had the nose to low at start of launch? Bill
Vince Endter '02 Go-For-It Champ (8/21/03 5:37 pm) 216.103.80.211 Reply \| Edit \| Del	Re: St. John fly-in reports At the pilots meeting, I thought I heard that there was going to be an award for endurance. I believe Rich Sauer was in the air the longest for hang gliders, at a little over 5 hours. Eric Reed probably had the duration for paragliders. My flight was 4 hours and 46 minutes. Vince
Scot Unregistered User (8/22/03 1:26 pm) 66.42.1.24 Reply \| Edit \| Del	Flyin thanks This was the best flyin in a few years. Although lets not invite PG's anymore. I'm not comfortable being out flown by them. What's with that? The task was well chosen and turnpoint tarps were in a good spot to require pilots to get high to see them. The BBQ was great with good food and drinks and a nice spot on the lake. The prizes were nice to recieve, thanks to whomever begged for them. The shirt design was also pretty good. Thanks Allison. My thanks to everyone who contributed to putting it on. Well done, Scot
SkyBob Member (8/25/03 8:26 pm) 64.66.192.62 Reply \| Edit \| Del	Re: Flyin thanks We went, we flew, we asked ourselves " Why have we been flying (trying to fly) Elk Creek for the past 29 years and St. John is soooo close.!?!? All the Cloud Street Gang that flew at the flyin had a great time! Thanks for the invite and all the free stuff! (opps, wrong meet) Four of us had such a good time we flew again this last Sat. the 23rd. Jim K. and myself, flew to Elk Creek, Typo went to Red Mntn. LZ and Ken went to StonyFord. Got to play in the clouds developing over the peak, got to a little over 9. Now, (Although Most of the CSG will bask in the Glass off at HCRim) there's interest brewing to fly this (Labor Day) wknd. Any of the Sonoma pilots interested? Great Flyin! And Great flying with ya. SkyBob (Bob Bay)
Scot Huber Unregistered User (8/26/03 6:13 pm) 66.52.156.217 Reply \| Edit \| Del	St. John/ Labor Day I'm up for flying St. John this weekend. With maybe a trip to Herd Peak north of Shasta thrown in. Does anyone know how to get to launch at Herd Peak? It is only 14 miles from Shasta so possibly could be used for a starting point for a flight over Shasta itself. Anyone ever flown on Shasta? I hear there is an opening into the celestial realms over the summit so possibly we could all translate to never never land if we could make it. There is alot of moisture in southern Ca. so I'm thinking the Owens is iffy. Scot