| Author |
Comment |
Leo Jones
(2/9/01 9:17:50 pm)
|
Flying
with Ralph and Julie Hyde
I just got back from So Cal. Greg
and Ralph warned me before I set off that it was very cold down
there, esp. at night at 3000ft, and it was really cold the whole way
down, but when I arrived it was 90 degrees F in San Diego and I was
glad it was a bit cooler at Lake Morena!
The next day we
flew Horse Mountain. It faces SW, and was smaller than I had
imagined - 4,500ft MSL, maybe 1,300ft or so top to bottom. I was a
bit nervous, not having flown for 4 months. The wind was only about
10 mph, easy to self launch in, but it was working quite well and I
got to 6,600ft. Only a comparatively small part of the face seemed
to work however - I wasn't very adventurous - but Ralph and Julie
explored north and south to little avail. The terrain is very rugged
around there and you would need a lot of height to go anywhere much.
I wanted to fly back to the campsite but it was 6.5 miles, somewhat
into wind, and Ralph wasn't optimistic about making it that
far.
There are two LZs for Horse - the first consists of a
small patch cut into the chapparal, less than 100 yards across and
sloping downhill in the direction you want to land in. Julie landed
there but I had pretty much decided I didn't want to try it,
preferring the "big" LZ on the other side of the freeway. This was a
green field, fairly long, but quite narrow - maybe 100 yards wide at
most, and the wind was right across the field. There was a tree (of
course!) right in the middle. I flew for an hour and three quarters,
and managed to make a perfect landing, right where I needed to break
down, tho' I thought I would take out the flagpole for a few
seconds, as I used up most of the field!
The next day seemed
more unstable, and was much more windy. We were joined by 6 Canadian
pilots. The wind on launch was about 20mph and I was glad of some
help. Julie took off first, and it seemed pretty bumpy, but Ralph
took off and said that once you got up a bit it was nice and smooth.
Well, I took off and it wasn't smooth at all, and it got trashier
and trashier. I got to 6500ft in one thermal that was over
1500ft/min for several turns, but most of the thermals were small
and broken, I got wire twanged several times, and my Fusion seemed
hard work in such air with 9 other gliders, and I landed after 45
mins. Ralph landed soon after, and admitted it had gotten pretty
rough!
That night it rained, and in the morning it was
snowing! What happened to those 90 degree temps? I decided it was
time to head home. It was fun to see Ralph and Julie again, and to
get to fly after a such a long break.
|
highhuber
Registered User
(2/25/01 8:15:26 pm)
|
Flight
Report
If you're willing to drive a little
there is airtime to be had. Kurt and I flew Funston Saturday for
1.5 hrs making it to Westlake in South winds. Needless to say the
return trip was much quicker. Chris Giardina (Hawkeye) was there
with his new MRX 2001, nice looking glider but he didn't risk the
trip south so I didn't get to compare performance with him. He did
take out a downtube on landing though. Sunday we went to Drakes and
I got another 2hrs. in light winds but beautiful clear blue skies.
Kurt launched after me and got a sled ride to the beach 1/2 mile to
the west of the parking lot. He landed down wind and took out a tube
but was uninjured. Rangers were rescuing a beached dolphin at the
base of the cliff so that was fun to watch from the air. I'm heading
for San Diego midweek and hope to fly Santa Barbara on the way. If
anybody is interested in going down let me know. hh
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Ernie
Camacho
(3/11/01 10:37:02 am)
|
Saturday 3/10
Todd, Rich, Leo, Ernie, Matt, Jon
showed up at the Elk LZ. We went up in Ernie's and Rich's vehicles,
Ernie in front. At the first rough section in the road, snow made
progress difficult. Then Ernie's steering linkage broke. After a
tussle getting his car back to flat ground and repaired well enough
for him to limp back down the mountain, the rest continued on, only
to be stopped by snow further up.
They then tried Pitney
Ridge, with no luck. Then Matt tried flying his Zagi, only to have
it go down in the bushes where it could not be found even after a
heroic battle with the brush.
Ernie got a tow home from Upper
Lake. The rest of the gang dragged themselves home later. A good
day's exercise was had in the beautiful weather. No flying was
committed.
|
Vince
(3/11/01 1:07:07 pm)
|
This
weekend
After a nice flight at Funston and
my first trip to Westlake, Bob and I went up to Ed Levin on
Saturday. When we got to the LZ it was blowing west, at launch it
was blowing over the back (east). Great launch conditions. As you
can imagine, there was a nice convergence. There were about 5
paragliders and one hang glider a couple hundred over launch. By the
time I was set up, it was blowing west at launch. Everyone that had
got a taste of the convergence was flushed and in the LZ. Two
paragliders launched just before me (it seams like they always blow
a couple of launches each before they get in the air). There was
light lift in very small pockets. The paragliders could work it to
some extent. I was managing about 20 fpm down and had fleeting
thought of going to Mission and back. After working my way about a
mile in that direction, I gave up and headed back. There was another
hang glider in the air now. Both paragliders and the hang glider
looked to be doing OK over the 600' hill. I headed back there only
to find light sink. Now I was averaging 50 fpm down. I hung on as
long as I could. Both paragliders and the hang glider had already
landed. I managed 25 minutes, which is my second best for Sled
Heaven.
Vince
|
John
Blacet
(3/12/01 8:24:57 am)
|
Re:
Flying This Weekend
Goat was real (non flyable) light
but Todd and Rich brought their new Laminars. I developed a real
case of lust on the spot....how ya gunna keep a country boy on his
trustly old air cow when he sees one of these italian
stallions...?
Also present were: Bob and Ann, Charley, Linda,
and one of the new PG guys.
|
Chris McKeon
(3/17/01 7:46:02 pm)
|
Flying
McClure,
Hi Guys,
I went to McClure
today, Saturday. It was pretty darn good down there. There was a
large turnout of pilots. There were some other Sonoma Wings
Pilots there also. Kurt, and Steve B. Pluss all the Sky
Riders...Up-Chuck, Birdman, Cockroach, The Gland, Doc, Harlold,
Jorge, Ken M, Shanon, Joel, and others.
It was good flying,
thermals were not super strong. But it is definitely the begining
of Spring flying. Everyone in the L.Z. seemed pretty pumped
about their flights.
Regards,
Chris.
|
Vince
(3/17/01 10:34:47 pm)
|
Saturday, March 17, 2001
Flight report for Saturday.
Todd,
Rich, Bill, Matt, and myself went up to Elk. We had a full load at
11:00 so we headed up the hill. Matt showed up at 11:30 and drove up
by himself. There was very little snow on the road to launch. At
launch the wind was blowing 10 to 15 out of the North. There were
clouds at 5,000 blowing by at 25 to 30. Matt flew his Zaggi to test
the lift. There looked to be quite a bit right in front launch. It
appeared that we might get rained on so we waited to set up.
Finally, Matt unloaded his glider and all but Todd followed. He had
flown earlier in the week at Goat with the winds in the low 30's
(mph) and he had had enough wind for the week. He said he would
drive for us.
I was hoping for an out and return so I could
start racking up the miles. The winds were predicted to be from 5 to
10 but that was definitely not true. Bill launch first and got right
up in front of launch. He reported that things were not too bad so
Matt, then I launched. By the time Matt launched, bill was over the
LZ. I never did ask him what happened. I went up right away. I was
going up at about 800 fpm when I started to get into the wispies of
a cloud. I managed to get around the cloud and back in front of
launch. I was now up to 6,300' and in between two clouds. Another
500' and I could get on top of the clouds. I was drifting back over
launch at about 30 mph and the cloud in front of me was too big to
get around. Matt was already heading XC downwind so I turned to join
him.
My ground speed was 56.8 mph, but I was going down at
over 900 fpm. After 4 miles I was down to 3600. I stopped on a
spline and worked some light ridge lift. Matt who was ahead of me,
came back to join me. I got up to 4200 and decided to go further
down the ridge. There was big sink between splines. I was down to
3000 at the next one. Matt stayed here and worked it in zero sink
for quite a while. I got tired of the trash and headed toward Upper
Lake. The wind had now shifted from the West. I had to penetrate out
toward town at about 15 over the ground. I was about a mile from
town and I did not like the LZ situation. I went back toward Elk for
a mile and landed in my backup LZ. The winds at 400' were at 20+ and
the winds on the ground were 5. I had a great landing in spite of
the conditions. Matt landed back at the thistle field. Rich had not
launched yet. He said it was getting stronger since I had launched.
He finally launched and ended up in the regular LZ. I managed a
whopping 7 miles XC!
Man, I love this glider (Atos). I went
weightless twice, got rotored several times, but the glider handled
it fantastically. Sunday looks like it will be better. The winds are
supposed to be lighter.
Vince
P.S. by Ernie: Leo Bynum wanted to check out our flying sites so Greg Sugg and I
joined him at the Petaluma airport for a ride in his Piper Cherokee. We went
as far north as Elk, where we talked to the gang on the North Launch. They hadn't
set up yet. We didn't go on to St. John, because the sky cover was too dense in
that direction (we're flying VFR), and it would take too long to go the long
way around. It was great fun checking out our sites and routes from this
motorized vantage point.
|
Bill Vogel
(3/18/01 8:44:30 am)
|
Sunday
3 18
It is 800 AM Bright Sun and light
winds so far. Yesterday the wind was buffeting and I went Zero
several times. On the last time it was real bad and I headed over to
Middle mtn but found nothing so went in and landed at LZ. Will Go
again today. Bill
|
highhuber
(3/19/01 10:49:57 pm)
|
checking in
the flying has finally gotten good
here in s. cal. I got to 9500 ft. at Horse on sat. and flew blossom
valley today and made it up on
El Capitan for the first time
ever. Will probably go down to baja for a few days for some coastal
ridge flying and then hit Crestline and maybe Santa Barbara before I
return. Looking forward to some good spring flying with everyone.
Stay high. hh
|
Hangfly
(3/21/01 8:56:46 pm)
|
re:
Elk
It was soarable! Todd, Jon James and
I flew. Conditions looked better that they were, but it was pretty
thermally for this early in the year.
I got the lowest, 5200'. I
had a soft landing in the creekbed. Jon landed by Rich's house. Todd
flew 15 miles WNW toward Willits.
It felt great for me to get
back in the air after four months off. This was my 25 year
anniversery flight.
CW :D
|
Jon James
(3/22/01 10:43:21 am)
|
Elk on
Wednesday
Elk was great. Clouds were forming
early. We were set up and ready to go before noon. I took off first
at 12:25. South side.
Climb-out was slow at first but I
eventually got to 6000. After coming back to below launch, got to
6400 the second time, with the help of a 700-900 fpm thermal. From
there, went to Middle Mountain. The clouds looked good over High
Glade, but you had to go deep because Pitney was bare. There was a
nice cloud over Mid/Potter Valley. I headed toward Rich's and landed
there (by 1:30).
Todd came thru later, went from Mid into
Potter Valley. He made his way to the VanArsdale dam, then along the
west side of SanHedrin. He got over a hill a few miles east of
Willits but found nothing there, so had to backtrack to the Circle X
Ranch, which is a huge clearing in the middle of the forest. There
was a locked gate and a brief hike out, but the owners and neighbors
were friendly. It's a beautiful place.
|
Hangfly
(3/25/01 9:53:02 pm)
|
We
Worked
Saturday eight pilots showed up at
Crazy Creek. We mowed two launch strips. One parallels the runway
and one angles toward the runway, more into the afternoon wind. The
angled one needs to be graded. The parallel one has a mucky spot that
we may need to deal with next weekend. (1/4" Plywood over
it?)
Present were Bill, Todd, Rich, John B, Leo, Jon J, Matt and
me.
Charley
|
Hangfly
(3/25/01 9:43:40 pm)
|
Elk
I think no one looked at the BB
this morning 'cause we decided yesterday after workin' at Crazy
Creek that we were going to Elk today.
At Elk were T, Rich, Bill,
Todd and I. No epic flights but hours of soaring in cold air with
overcast skies.
T is a paraglider pilot from Portland, OR. We
flew the north side in ridge lift with thermals mixed in.
Typical
Elk landing conditions, switchy north, northwest and west. No bad
landings.
CW :D
|
John
Blacet
(3/25/01 7:18:31 pm)
|
Re:
Flying (and working) this WE 3-24/25
St Helena was OK. Light turnout with
Ernie, myself, Justin and Anthony; two HGs and two PGs. I had to
even call Ernie from the cross roads to see if he wanted to
fly.
Apparently, the only person who looked at the BB this
morning was Justin!
It was pretty strong cycles at first but
mellowed out as the sky clouded over. Ernie and I got about a grand
over. The PGers launched last as condx mellowed. We all ended up at
the BL LZ within minutes of each other around four.
The ranch
now has a gate; you have to punch 01 to get the caretaker to open
up. I suggest leaving at least one car in the LZ because you need a
car to trip the gate sensor on the way out. The sensor is cleverly
placed on the *wrong* side of the road, resulting in a few comic
maneuvers the first time we tried to leave!
We walked out to
get our cars and some of the kids opened up for us although there is
low point on the wall to leap over (that's what the kids did...to
get to the keypad.) I tried waving a piece of scrap metal over the
sensor but no go; you have to wave a car over it....;>
|
Vince
(3/25/01 7:51:14 pm)
|
Re:Diablo
Diablo was OK. No great XC flights.
I think Greg managed 2.1 miles. There were about 6 gliders in the
air, with most getting to 5,000'. I thought there was lots of
turbulence. Half the gliders in the air were rigids, two
Ghostbusters and one Atos. Greg decided to go over the back for some
XC but was met with lots of sink. He flew back to the mountain and
landed next to Clayton road. I was going to go as well, but I could
not get Nancy on the radio to tell her. She was out of the truck
walking the dogs. By the time she got back, I was too low to leave.
My landing was the exciting point of the day. As I
approached, winds on the ground were reported 5 to 10 from the NW.
When I was less than 200' the wind shifted 180 degrees. I check my
vario, I descended 189 feet in the last 15 seconds of flight. I
figure I was leveled out for about 5 seconds, so I was coming down
at almost 800 fpm, not enough time to turn. The ground was rushing
up. With the now 5 to 10 mph tail wind, my ground speed was 33 to 38
mph. The ground was really passing under my feet at that speed. I
did my best no step flair and hit the ground at about 15 to 20 mph.
The weeds were a little wet and I literally skidded to a stop on my
feet, dragging the keel behind me. The glider never nosed over. I
did no damage to the glider or myself. To the people on the ground
it looked like a normal landing. I have to count my lucky stars for
that one.
Vince
|
Hangfly
(3/31/01 11:23:43 pm)
|
Crazy
Creek Flight Reports
Today, Saturday, was another good
day at Crazy Creek. Rated pilots had no trouble launching between
and after clinic pilots. Everyone easily got their quota of
flights.
People were staying up shortly after 10:00am. There was
a down cycle around noon. By 1:00pm people were staying up as long
as they wanted.
Many pilots got over 7000'. It was really cold up
there. Four pilots tried to make to Crazy Creek from St Helena. One
made it, Jon James.
It was great fun to follow the tug again, see
Joe and carve circles close in with friends. It was also fun to
share thermals with sailplanes and to watch them fly.
Joe is
looking foreward to pulling up as many pilots as he can. So, if
you're AT rated get out there and do some soaring.
CW
:lol
|
Ernie
Camacho
Moderator
(4/2/01 7:54:30 am)
|
Re:
Crazy Creek Flight Reports
Sunday wasn't as good. When I got
there about 12:30, The tug had lost it's engine while towing up Tim.
They replaced it and managed to get Rich, Mark Grubbs, and Steve
Werthheimer up before the air got too rowdy. Later I tried to get up
but got too high behind the tug as we climbed through the gradient
and was given the rope. I made a few judgement errors on landing and
ended up with a broken downtube. That wrapped it up for the rest of
the waiting pilots and we called it a day.
If you want to tow
during this next week, Joe will check in at the tow site each day at
11:30. If you want to fly, be there and he'll tow you. If you can't
make it by 11:30, call Crazy Creek (info on our calendar page) and
have them ask Joe to wait for you. Chances are Joe will be hanging
out at the site anyway, working on his stuff, but don't count on
it.
For some photos of what the site, and the flying, looked
like on Saturday, 3/31, click
here:
http://www.hanggliding.org/pics/crazycreek03312001/napa_valley_hanggliding.htm
|
Hangfly
(4/2/01 4:07:47 pm)
|
The
Pictures!
Who was the guy with the Stealth
who took all the pics?
Thanks to him! The pics are great! I
wished I had a shot looking straight down on the launch line from
7K'. I remembered my camera in the car when I got about 5800' and
was looking at the snow-capped peaks to the north.
Next weekend
I'll remember to fly with it.
Charley 8)
|
Ernie
Camacho
(4/3/01 7:51:15 am)
|
Re: The
Pictures!
His name is Jack Axaopoulos. He's a
Bay Area pilot. He maintains the www.hanggliding.org web site, where
the Michael Champlin XC challenge is hosted. If you follow the HG
list, he shows up there often enough. You may have heard of him
being referred to as "Bunny Boy".
Yes indeed, you've got to
fly with a camera, to save these great flights for posterity - or at
least your bedroom wall!
|
Vince
(4/3/01 8:14:08 am)
|
Re:
Crazy Creek flight reports
As Ernie said, the tug lost power on
Tim's first tow Sunday. They were about 50' AGL. Tim was quick
thinking enough to release before Joe got rid of the rope. Joe was
close to the road and thought the rope might get caught on something
so he got rid of it. Bob S. and John D. found the rope. John, Tim
and myself then got busy and changed the engine on the tug. It took
about 3 hours. We had to remove all the ancillary stuff from the old
engine and put it on the new engine. It then took another couple of
hours of ground run to break it in. By the time all that was
finished it was too windy for any of us in the clinic to do our
tows.
Sunday night the winds picked up to about 40 mph.
Dirk, Tim, John and myself all met at the airport Monday at 7:00 AM
hoping for the weather to change. It was still blowing over 20 at
the airport when we arrived. There was talk about going home, but I
thought we should wait for the sun to come up and see if that would
change things. By 8:00 the wind started to die down and it looked
like we could give it a try. Joe took off to see how the air was at
2500 agl. The winds at that altitude were still about 20 and it was
a little turbulent. I think we wore Joe down and he agreed to start
towing us. I figured we could always release it things got
rough.
Again Tim was the first to tow. He did a great job. We
could see the tug getting tossed around, as much as we saw on
Sunday. Tim stayed on all the way to 2500. Dirk was next and has a
week link break before the cart even moved. His release system puts
twice the load on the week link than the system the rest of us were
using. Now it was my turn. Everything was going fine, but I kept
staying low. Joe finally gave me the climb higher signal and I got
into the proper position. When climbing up into the proper position,
it felt like I was extremely slow and close to stall. It took a
little bit to get used to that. Joe said as long as there was
tension on the rope, you can't stall. At about 1000' we started to
hit the turbulence. It was very rough. A couple of times I was close
to wire twangs. The rope went slack twice. I managed to stay on tow.
At 2000' things smoothed out quite a bit. The Atos tows so well, in
the smooth air I could take my hands off the bar and it would track
behind the tug.
The decent down for another tow was worse
than the tow was. I wanted to get on the ground as quick as possible
to get a chance to get all 5 tows in before things got really bad.
It was too rough to go fast. At 150 fpm down, it takes a long time
to land. I managed to find some sink and cored it at 600 fpm down.
The rest of my tows were easier than the first. I thought they felt
less turbulent than the first. Thermals started to kick in about the
third tow and it was harder to find sink. At one point I flew for
about ½ mile in 700 fpm up until I could find sink. After my last
tow, there was still a lot of lift so I flew over to Todd's house. I
had a 18 mph headwind component, but still only lost 600' all the
way to his house. It was cold at 3500' (the release altitude), about
38 deg.F. I was starting to shiver so I went back and landed.
Dirk
managed to get his weak link problem figured out and got in 5 ½
tows. John was having a harder time of it. He was flying a glider
that Joe had provided and it was too big for him. It took a lot of
bar pressure to stay behind the tug. He had a weak link break, as
well as a bridle break. The weather looks bad for this coming
weekend. I hope all of those who signed up get a chance to tow. It
is quite the experience.
Vince
|
Vince
(4/3/01 8:48:54 am)
|
RE:
Crazy Creek
I uploaded a couple of my vario
printouts from my tows at Crazy Creek. Go to:
groups.yahoo.com/group/SonomaWings
click
files, click Vince's pics, then click one of the two files,
Crazycreek01 or 02.
These were supposed to be steady 500 fpm
climbs to 3500' msl. You can see how rough the air was. No Greg, the
graphs were not a result of PIO.
Vince
|
Hangfly
(4/4/01 8:48:39 pm)
|
4-4-01
Report
No big miles today. Developement
kept the ground shaded enough to make the lift weak and
disorganized.
I got an hour the hard way, three tows.
Seems
this towing thing can be a bit like going to Reno. "I know I'll win
eventually. I can get up this time. Here's another
twenty."
Anyway I had three good landings. Maybe I needed the
practice. See you there tomorrow!
CW :)
|
Leo Jones
(4/4/01 9:48:25 pm)
|
Re.4.4.01
I started my clinic today. The
ground was white with frost when I got there and there was ice all
over the tug! Cu's began to form by 10 a.m. I took my first tow at
about 10.30. First tow went well, second tow I held onto the dolly a
bit longer and was unprepared for the subsequent sudden leap into
the air, and broke a weak link. Good practice! Third tow I got to
almost 6K and stayed up for about 40 mins.
I then flew my
Fusion, which was a lot easier in terms of bar pressure, if a bit
yawey. Though the sky was full of great looking clouds, lift was
fairly spotty and weak below about 4000ft MSL, and only rarely more
than 300ft/min above that. I eventually got up to cloudbase at
9,200ft, but it was so cold it was scary. My hands were freezing,
even with gloves and bar mitts, and my face felt like it had been
injected with novocaine! I knew I couldn't stay up there very long.
It sure was gorgeous though and I took a bunch of
pictures.
Charley and Todd were trying to go XC, so they only
took 2000ft tows. It proved very difficult to get up from that
altitude. As I was training I took 3000ft tows and it made all the
difference on this day. We may need to amend the GFI rules in this
respect.
What fun! If you haven't got your aerotow rating
then go do it. It seems to be a very safe and easy way to get aloft,
far superior to winch, platform, or truck towing IMHO.
"Aeroleo"
|
Hangfly
Registered User
(4/6/01 9:07:50 am)
|
4-5-01
report
Thursday at Crazy Creek John B and
Greg showed up to earn their aerotow ratings. They got started early
and flew quickly. They were able to get in four tows each before
conditions soured. Leo also was able to complete the requirements to
get his rating.
Todd and I were waiting for the prime afternoon
conditions so we would only have to take one tow. We didn't get any!
Afternoon conditions were quite gusty, strong and cross. Still, what
a nice place to spend the day! We started breaking down around
6:30.
CW
|
highhuber
(4/8/01 8:54:21 pm)
|
Flight
Report
Well it wasn't really a flight fest
but we had a decent turn out with Jon J, John B, Todd, Matt,
Kurt,Leo and myself trying for some airtime off of St. H. Conditions
were much development with cloud base about launch height when we
arrived, temperatures in the 40's I'd guess. We waited around for
things to improve while I set up. It never really did so I decided
to go after a large cell had cleared the top. I had some trouble
getting into my harness after launching into a killer cycle. Before
I could get in I got turned toward the hill but had plenty of height
for recovery. Lift was abundant but it was also kind of rowdy more
toward the Mt. so I stayed out in front quite a ways. Conditions
toward Pope Valley looked better after I had rounded the southeren
knob so I headed over the palisades and with 4600 ft. decided I
could make it. It was a long glide with no lift but I had a nice
tail wind so made it easy. Found only a few bumps which I tried to
work once I knew I had an LZ I could bail to but it was blue over
there for a reason, no lift. If I had scouted out the Napa Valley
LZ,s better before hand I would have stayed over the top of the
range where lift was apparently abundant. I think some miles could
of been had in that direction. I'll be more prepared next time.
Anyway, I landed in a beautiful green field just east of Aetna valley
golf course for 8.1 miles. hh
|
Vince
(4/14/01 10:16:37 am)
|
Elk on
Friday, 4/13/01
We arrived at launch at 12:30. The
wind was out of the north, 10 to 15. There were small CU's forming
above launch. The day looked like it might be okay after all. By the
time we set up, the Cu's were no longer forming and the air no
longer looked as good. Scot launched first, and I followed about 4
minutes later. We found only broken ratty ridge lift. 4,200' was the
highest I could get. Scot tried working things to the west and
slowly sunk toward the LZ. I headed for Pitney at 1000 fpm down. I
got there at 3,100' and was able to stay at that altitude in zero
sink. It was obvious that it was not an XC day. Scot was over the
LZ to land so I headed back.
Scot reported lots of
turbulence on his approach. He looked like he had a good landing,
but he later said that there was a big gradient and bottom dropped
out the last 10'. As I approached the wind was out of the north, 10
to 15. I was having trouble penetrating so I dumped the flaps until
I knew I had the LZ made. I then put on full flaps. As I passed over
Scot at 30' the wind shifted from the south at 10. I looked over at
the streamers and could see I was definitely down wind. Bob and
Nancy said I was going about 30 when I passed them. There was no way
I could run fast enough to save the landing. I could not hold the
base tube off the ground as I fell forward. I let go and the glider
nosed in. I believe due to the tail wind, the glider immediately
rolled inverted. I went through the control frame and came to rest
on top of the glider, my head facing the keel and my legs stuck
between the nose wires. I didn't feel too bad, but I could not reach
my carabineer to unhook. I decided to wait for Bob and Nancy to
unhook me. That's when I noticed the blood dripping on my glider
from my face. Not wanting to get blood all over my nice sail, I
managed to unhook. Then I realized what happened. My helmet rotated
about an inch down and pushed my glasses into my nose. The nosepiece
peeled the skin from my nose. It took twelve stitches to sew it back
on. The good news is I had the doctor sew it up tight enough to get
rid of my crow's feet ;-)
It looks like the only damage to
the glider is one rib that detached from spar, no down tubes. A
little epoxy should fix it.
Vince
P.S.
4/14/01, 4PM - I finished fixing my glider today.
It only takes 5 minutes per wing to remove the sail. I removed both
sides to check for any hidden damage and there was just the one rib.
I epoxied it back to the spar and put the sails back on. I will get
my stiches out Thursday so I will be able to fly Saturday.
|
Greg
(4/14/01 9:17:24 pm)
|
30
Miles at Diablo - 4/14/01
Summary:
Today Derk Steggewentz and I flew at
Diablo. Also in attendance were Bruno Jahn, Robert Moore, Mark
Grubbs, and a couple of others. Derk landed at Mitchell Canyon
because it was his first flight ever at Mt. Diablo and his first
mountain flight on his new glider. Robert and I went east down Marsh
Creek Rd. Later we were followed by Mark. I landed along I-580 two
miles shy of the Hwy. 132 (Modesto) turn off for 30 miles (29.91 to
be exact). Robert landed somewhat shorter and I'm not sure how far
Mark got on his Ghostbuster.
Details:
Derk Steggewentz and I were first
at the north tower launch around 1:30p.m. and began setting up
immediately. The mountain looked soarable from the Safeway parking
lot two hours earlier. We were soon joined by several other local
pilots. Winds at launch were typically light, zero to three or four
m.p.h. from the N.W. I was second to launch behind another pilot
named Lee. Lift was very light and hard to find at first under
eighty percent overcast at the mountain. I flew left (west) around
to Juniper Ridge and slowly climbed to cloud base at 5,000’ as a
tandem sailplane flew beneath me. Whiting out I headed over to Eagle
Peak.
After some time goofing around at Eagle Peak, I flew over
to North Peak to get ready to leave. Robert Moore got up first and
headed out Marsh Ck. Rd. I left at 4,900’ a couple of minutes later.
On the way out I encountered a few thermals which kept me above
4,000’ out to the trailer park. Robert found all sink and was low
just before the trailer park. I stayed around 4,000’ for a while
drifting south and then headed more east toward Byron. At a large
quarry short of Byron I was down to 2,300’ and hooked a good one
which slowly took me up to 4,800’.
At Byron I headed S.E. down
county road J-4 toward Tracy. I had decided to fly and land in such
a way to make retrieval as simple as possible for the chase car
since Bruno was chasing me out of the goodness of his heart. Thanks
Bruno and Janet. By this time I had just about out flown all the
clouds, but they kept forming just west of me and drifting into my
flight path just in time. The lift was weak overall but occasionally
hit 700 up. Along J-4 I started to notice a westerly cross wind from
the Altamont Pass, and my progress was agonizingly slow. At one
point I got down below 2,000’ but found another slow ride back up to
4,800’.
Two miles before Tracy I veered off due south to meet up
with I-580 south of the Altamont Pass. Other than some teasing
turbulence I found no more lift. I did notice that I now had a 17
mph tail wind which made for a great glide down the freeway. At
about 150’ AGL I got buffeted strongly suggesting that I had better
not try anything tricky near the ground, so I set up a conservative
approach with a high turn onto final. It was a good call because the
wind dropped off from about 17 mph at 150’ AGL to 3 to 4 mph on the
ground. It was a sweet two step landing a just up from the sign
which said Hwy 132 Modesto 2 miles.
It was a good "shake down
cruise" to start off the flying season. It took two hours and
forty-five minutes to go 30 miles (29.91). I made lots of errors and
mistakes. There is plenty to work on.
|
Leo Jones
(4/15/01 5:36:18 pm)
|
XCs
from Elk on Saturday
Jon, Scot, Todd, Justin and myself
were on launch at Elk by 11.30 a.m. There was a 5 - 10 mph wind
coming up the south face, and quite a few cu's under a slightly hazy
blue sky (dust from Asia I was told!) Jon suggested Lampson as a
goal, but then he and Todd decided Crazy Creek was more worthy. I
decided to stick to Lampson.
Deeming it perfect for a first
high flight sledder, we threw Justin off first, who did splendidly.
He even missed the creek. Todd and I got off by 12:20, and proceeded
to struggle for the next 15 mins or so, both of us getting several
hundred feet below launch before getting a good one to 6300ft, when
cloud began to form around us. Jon and Scot took off just as Todd
and I beelined it for Mid mountain. There was a lot of sink on the
way and I was down to 3700ft before we found another good thermal
and climbed back to about 6000ft and set off across Bachelor Valley.
Todd got there a mile ahead of me and climbed right out in company
with a big golden eagle, but I found only 100ft/min which I stuck
with for ages. Jon appeared sudenly half a mile away, immediately
found a much better core and we climbed to 5000ft or so before
setting off south for "White Rocks" just south of 20. Todd was miles
away to the west and much higher.
There seemed to be a
convergence line setting up towards Lakeport. Winds were out of the
south, only 5 - 7 mph, but we were flying into a head wind. Jon and
I fiddled around with weak thermals - eventually I headed south down
Scotts Valley and got low and Jon found a core and climbed back to
cloudbase. I dribbled along the foothills - there seemed to be
plenty of thermals, but they were small and I couldn't seem to stay
with them beyond about 4000ft. It was hard work flying into a
headwind getting down to 2500ft and back up to 4000ft several times.
I couldn't get past the miles of pear orchards and development
around Lakeport and I landed in the last big field. I landed
downwind, but it wasn't strong and I managed a perfect landing with
a drogue and some running. Two hours 15 mins for just 13.7 miles! It
was fun, if frustrating. Todd only got another mile or so. Scot
went down on his first flight but went back up, relaunched, and flew
to the south end of Scotts Valley. Jon however got into the
convergence zone, across Lakeport, onto Konocti, and made goal at
Crazy Creek! I'll let him tell his story.
Great fun. A good
day's flying. Thanks for driving, Justin.
|
Jon James
(4/15/01 10:46:46 pm)
|
Sat
4-14, Elk to Crazy Creek
Elk to Crazy Creek Sat
4-14-01
Scot, Leo and I went to Elk in Scot's truck, picked
up Justin at the Bluebird.
Justin brought a HG and a PG. The
clouds were starting to look pretty good
out the window while we
were still having breakfast.
Picked up Todd in the LZ and
we're set up on the south side by about 1 (12 sun time). Todd
launches first and gains about 1000 feet, Leo goes and they both
struggle below the top for 20 minutes. Finally they climb out and I
launch at 1:40 and climb right out, I mean, take off and zip up and
turn back toward launch climbing the whole time. Scot takes off 2
minutes later and ends up in the LZ. He goes back up and launches
again, gets to 7200, and flies to Scotts Valley. The drift is light
from the southwest so we're flying into the wind.
I get to
7200 above Elk which is about 400 feet above cloudbase. The sink is
bad on the way to Mid Mountain but the Laminar seems to go pretty
fast and I climb again just before Mid, from 3500 to cloudbase at
6500. Bumbled across Bachelor Valley in moderate sink. Saw Todd
climbing over a sunny hillside north of Blue Lakes, so I went west
to join him.
He had climbed out when I got there, this is the
last time I saw him. I climbed slowly there admiring Blue Lakes and
soon Leo joined me at my altitude from the north. He had just gotten
up from low. We climbed together to just over 5000 feet. I headed
south for the White Rocks with Leo following and we got to them with
about 1000 over the tops and climbed out again, together, at about
250 ft/min. As we got higher, we searched farther apart and I found
a good core, which registered 1000 ft/min, while he went south and
eventually folowed the foothills down to the orchards before
Lakeport, and landed.
There had been clouds over Elk, Mid,
Blue Lakes. Cow Mountain had huge clowds above it. There were clouds
with flat bottoms directly over Lakeport and
Konocti, marking a
convergence, I thought. It was bluer to the west. I climbed to 6200
over the last knoll in the White Rocks before Lakeport. There was a
cloud over the middle of town. My climbs were medium, about 250 to
350 ft/min. It looked like a long way to glide across Lakeport but I
could see the high school near the lake with 2 athletic fields that
looked landable. I could see Leo working low along the foothills to
the west. Todd landed in Lakeport, it was light and switchy on the
ground.
I climbed again over the south part of Lakeport.
There was a track below with cars racing around it. The clouds were
changing over town. As I looked back, it looked bluer over town and
it looked better ahead so I pressed on from about 5200.
South of
Lakeport, the shore of the lake turns to the east. I climbed over
the corner of the lake, drifting from the southwest out over the
lake. There was a field ahead with about 10 small fires burning in
it, they were showing very light north drift on the ground, changing
to sw aloft but nearly straight up. I flew over the smoke, could
snell it, found only light lift. I climbed here over Fernley for a
long tine, 120 ft/min, 75 ft/min. Got to 5000 twice.
There
was a cloudstreet which I was under by now but the lift didn't
improve until I got over the north slopes of Konocti, and then the
lift got great. Climbed back above 6000, drifting toward Buckingham
Estates, then flew directy over Konocti. Took pictures. Flew through
lift for a long time. Worried about cloudsuck. Flew over the back of
Konocti, heading over to the west side of 29 where new vinyards were
in the sun. Climbed back to 6400 over 29 and outran cloudsuck again.
It was easy to fly out under the west, upwind edge of the clouds.
Saw a sailplane far ahead circling under the clouds.
I headed
toward the sailplane, then toward the abandoned airport on 175.
There was a hill just west of the airstrip, where I found a strong
but elusive thermal.
Backtracked about a half mile to join the
sailplane, but his lift was marginal so I went back to the hillside
and climbed well to about 7200. This was the highest I'd been since
the beginning and it was a good thing.
As I looked ahead
toward Crazy Creek, there were no more clouds. There were clouds to
the east but I was afraid I might be entering a stronger south wind.
The Geysers were showing west. I pulled the VG real tight and went
on a glide, not thinking I could make it. I was sure I would make
the Putah Creek bridge, there's an old airfield there. Turned a
couple of thimes in zero sink. Kept looking at the low round hill
between me and Crazy Creek, the one you drag over when towing out.
Decided to go for it. I could fly around the hill and land beside
the creek if necessary.
Cleared the hill by 500 feet and had
it made. There was a thermal before the field at 800 feet. Did
several turns in it, climbing, but it was drifting fast toward the
east. I wanted to fly over the office to make my goal. Which I did
at about 500 feet. Someone was pushing a sailplane out onto the
runway, so I flew a fast downwind and base and landed, lightly, in
front of a small crowd at 5:15. Jim came over. Sailplanes were
landing. It had been a good day. 40.3 miles, goal. 3.5 hours. Thanks
to Justin for driving and Scot for picking me up.
|
Hangfly
(4/15/01 9:48:04 pm)
|
You
shoulda been here yesterday
Easter Sunday at Elk was not as good
as the day before. Kurt, Scot and I flew. Todd retrieved his car and
drove. The wind was mostly south about 10 to 20. There were a few
thermals mixed in with the ridge lift. Kurt got over 5700'. I got
over 5400'. We all had good landings in the creekbed. If you weren't
there you didn't miss much.
CW
:b
|
highhuber
(4/17/01 10:26:32 pm)
|
Flight
Report - Tue. 4/17
Today I flew Sonoma Mt. for the
first time. After putting up Frieda's stained glass windows in her
garden in the morning, Gunther and I were granted the afternoon off
by her majesty who needed the time to design the next phase of the
royal palace. We arrived at launch at about 2 o,clock and I
hurriedly set up as there were nice cu-nims forming everywhere. First
I called the owners and left a message on their machine that I was
going to be flying, which is all that needs to be done before you go.
I launched into a nice cycle at 2:50 and climbed to about 300 over
launch whithin 5 minutes. Better clouds were forming to the
northwest over the next ridge so I glided under them and was soon
circling up in some 300ft/mn lift which took me to 1000ft. over.
Flying back towad the main ridge hoping to hook something to take me
over I got low and had to come out front again to get some lift.
Repeating this cycle a few times, I finally caught something which
took me to 2100 ft. over and I bailed over the back with Gunther
chasing. There was 7-800ft/mn. sink for the first 2 miles and then I
began to find lite lift in the middle of Valley of the Moon. Landing
fields are frequent on the west side of the valley but the sunny
east side is mostly vineyards. I could have made it to the eastern
flanks of the valley if I had spotted a field that looked landable,
but as it was I played it safe and only went 1.5 miles beyond hwy 12
and then came back and landed in a beautiful flower-filled field
beside the road at 3:45 for 55 min. and a very nice first time
flight from a very local site. I hear Andy has made Berryessa from
there and Brian Scharp has good things to say about his flying
there. If it's southwest or west with cumies forming over the top
give this site some airtime. hh
|
jon james
(4/21/01 11:22:34 pm)
|
Elk on
Sat 4-21
Scot and Jon met Bill and Todd in
the lz by 11:45. Linda drove and we were ready to launch by 1:00.
Wind was lite from the NE and the clouds looked pretty good, great
to the south, but from the NE.
Jon went first at 2:00, got
about 800 over, but lost it and ended up in the lz after 20 minutes.
Scot went at 2:30, hung on for a while, checked out Pitney, but
ended up by the thistle field.
Bill stood on launch for a
long time but finally broke down.
Todd launched about 3:20
and got to maybe 1200 over with a golden eagle. He went to Pitney,
eagle following, and climbed there. Jon retrieved Scot, Linda and
Bill drove down. Shuffle gliders, Kelsey, and beers. Scot and Jon
chase Todd.
Todd reports 7000 between Nice and Lucerne. He
commits to Long Valley. Low at the n end of Long Valley, he climbs
with a seagull. Then with a peregrine. Over Chalk Hill, he climbs
again. The zipper on his parachute blows out here during a rough
climb. He dribbles south toward 20, outflying the convergence. After
several slow climbs near 20, with the Oasis unmakable, he lands at
the Cache Creek Trailhead at 6:15, 3 hours and 29.7 gps miles. Nice
landing.
Nice flight. It will be better
tommorrow.
|
derk
(4/23/01 5:23:24 pm)
|
4/22 Diablo Flight Report
6 pilots were at Mt. Diablo on
Sunday. The 1st three gliders (all rigids) launched and went quick
up to cloudbase and left the mountain. The remaining three gliders
(all flex wings) incl myself were waiting forever at launch for a
cycle to come up. After a long time Bob finally launched in a very
light cycle and we followed right away before it was shutting down
completely. I got up to almost 5000 ft, close to cloudbase, and
explored Mt Diablo on my new glider. We all stayed around the
mountain as the westerlies already kicked in and after a little bit
less than an hour the conditions were deteriorating more and more.
In the Mitchell canyon area it was blowing so strong from the West
that we had to land on the Plateau, next to Mitchell. It was a fun
day flying at Diablo.
Kurt, let's hear your
story.
derk
|
Kurt
(4/23/01 7:48:59 pm)
|
4/22: 50 miles from Elk Mountain
I launched first off the north side,
made one pass and got one to 6k. Clouds were breaking up so I left
for Pitney at 5.5k. Not much lift over Pitney until I got to Bartlett
Mtn. at 4k. Bartlett still had clouds. I worked my way up over the
peak to 6.8k in the cloud then full v.g. for Long Valley. Sink all
the way to Pine Mtn. at 3k. I thought it was over. I went to the big
green field at Long Valley to land. Golf course? Zero sink over town
so I went over to the riverbed to land. I pulled off my v.g.,
unzipped, passed the riverbed then decided to take a few passes on
the hill beyond. Lift! Just maintaining at first. I kept my eye on
the landing spot while I listened to my vario. It took about 15
minutes to get above Chalk Mtn. Never give up. Fly 'til you're on the
ground. I was laughing out loud as I drifted past the Indian Valley
Reservoir spillway at 5k. I could see Berryessa, St Helena, Diablo,
St. John and Sutter Butte. The one time I don't have a camera! Now
where do I go? No ridges, no mountains, just bumps. My path to the
east and south were completely overcast. I got to hwy 20 in shade.
3k. at Jackson Mtn. No lift. I could see the sun in the central
valley and the edge of the cloud cover 1 mile to the east. I dove
for the edge of the shadow.This could be a thermal trigger. It was a
race to get there. I got there at 1.8k and followed the sun in very
light lift. 4k., Arbukle in view, clouds dissipating, headwind from
the south, I went on glide. I chose to land near the house with the
most junk around it, thinking they might not mind my dropping in on
them as much as the guy with a row of new trucks and a pool. They
came running out with water and a cellphone.
50 mi. 2hrs. 55min.
Kurt
|
Jon James
(4/23/01 8:56:37 pm)
|
Congrats
Congratulations, Kurt. What a
flight.
30 miles, 40 miles, and 50 miles from Elk in an 8 day
stretch. What a site. (If you can get up)
|
Hangfly
(4/30/01 9:57:54 am)
|
Weekend
Flight Reports: 4/28, 29
Hull on Saturday was cold and windy
from over the back.
Sunday was fun flying! We had dust devils on
launch but not much lift around the mountain.
Convergence was
happening over the flat, from the airport windsock to the northeast
corner of the lake. It was a most interesting day because you could
really see the conditions that were causing the convergence. There
were prominant wind-lines on the lake from the south and the airport
windsock showed air was coming through Windy Gap from the northwest.
Wtih the foothills there these converging airmasses could only go
up. Sometimes you could see the northwest wind push through to the
lake and the lift would move farther back to the east. It was way
cool!
Justin had his first flight from Hull, two hours. We were
getting to around 6200'. Mike Tierney climed out from 150' over the
windsock. It was work to get down.
CW
PS I
forgot to mention that we flew with a bald
eagle, a golden eagle and numerous redtails on Sunday. Scot reported
seeing a perigren falcon too. I also got within six feet of a turkey
vulture.
|
Derk
(4/30/01 4:24:46 pm)
|
Hull
road and Mt Diablo
I arrived late Friday night at Red
Spot, Hull Mt., where I spend the night. Next morning when I woke up
it was overcast and light snowing. No flying - but I did a nice hike
up to the summit. The road between Timberline and Lower Launch is
still covered with deep snow drift on some spots. Maybe three more
weeks and it will be open. The road between Lower Lauch and the
summit is under deep snow the whole way. This will take much more
than a month to melt away. I left Hull Saturday afternoon because
they called for northerly winds on Sunday.
On Sunday I flew
Mt. Diablo. about 10 pilots were there. We launched at the
Tower/North launch. A few pilots flew over to the other side to land
at the school. They were quite below launch to the west when I
launched shortly after them, so I don't think they did too good. Two
Pilots went XC. The last time I heard from Kevin was when he was at
the Livermore windmills. The rest of us landed after some time at
Mitchell Canyon. There was quite some thermal activity, but they
were very small and often close to the hill. I'm still not really
familiar with my new glider and tend to be very careful when
scratching. 100 ft above launch was my max and the whole flight took
only a little bit more than half hour.
Derk
|
highhuber
(4/30/01 10:43:19 pm)
|
Elk - Sat. 4/28
Kurt and I flew Elk saturday with
the Berkeley club. It was blowing hard out of the northwest to about
20mph. There weren't many thermals so it was a ridge soaring day
with minor turbulence. Kurt soon tired of it and went down and
landed. He reported major turbulence in the LZ so I decided to
hang out for a while. Nord, from Berkeley hung with me for awhile and
then he too went to land. While we were in the air there was a blown
launch by one of the Berkeley people. He said later he nosed the
glider in after a few steps and took out a down tube. He then
replaced it and re-launched. I finally left for Pitney with about
4600 ft. It was a quick down-wind glide and I worked the ridge lift
at the top of the first spine. I was only thinking of getting away
from the primary LZ for a better landing field at the time. I
decided to see if I could make it around the corner and land out in
the valley toward Upper Lake. I worked the lower ridges to the south
and then caught a good thermal off of the last ridge I was going to
leave the mt. on. I got high enough to make Clover Valley so I
headed over there. I worked the ridge behind Clover and soon caught
a thermal which gave me enough height to fly out to Sentry market at
the Nice cutoff road off of hwy 20. Heading over the ridge toward
the lake I gained enough altitude to see the driving range field
before Lucerne and with the tail wind it could easily be reached so I
headed over there. I got there with plenty of height to keep going
but I couldn't see any more fields down the lake so I circled on
down and landed in the newly cleared field just north of the driving range which
looked less turbulent with the wind that was blowing through the
trees in the golf field. It was a fun flight which I had no
intention of making but one in which I just kept flying and took
what the day would give. A fun day of flight. 2hrs 13.5 miles.
hh
|
Leo Jones
(4/30/01 7:06:28 pm)
|
Re. Elk
Sunday 29th.
Jon, Matt, Bill, Greg, Ernie, John B, and I flew off the
north side of Elk, together with another half dozen or so Berkely
pilots. Sonoma Wings all flew first - nobody got very high, some
never got above launch and everyone had interesting landings, some
very good, some not so good, in the LZ. No aluminum was bent, no bad
bruises received. The longest flight was about half an
hour.
4 or 5 of the Berkely pilots flew later - the latest
one of all at, about 5.30 pm, getting the best flight. Three of the
Berkely pilots were women.
We sent Justin off to Hull,
figuring it would be a better place for him to fly. We were all
intent on XC! Jon swore that Justin wouldn't get to fly at
Hull!
|
|
