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Flight Reports, Jan-Apr., 2003

Author Comment
Kurt ST.HELENA - first club flight of the year 1/1
Kurt, a para-glider pilot from Colorado, and Todd and Kurt, hang glider pilots, got good sled rides today. 22.5 min.
Kurt Elk report - 1/5
Socked in all day. We slipped and slide in the mud but did not make it to launch. Maybe Sunday?
Mattslyin Goat Soaring - 1/5
Baaaah! Goat boy flies again. Soared with 3 redtails at once! Awesome winter flight! Perfect launch and landing conditions.

Matt
Albert Branson Parachute Clinic 1/12
I just wanted to thank everyone for showing up to the clinic on Sunday. We had a terrific turn out. I counted 23 people at last count. Let me know if that number is incorrect. Special thanks to Ernie Commacho and to Greg Hackett for all the great help. You guys were right there for every re-pack. Ernie had all the support stuff. GREAT job! Now that all the chutes are re-packed, DON'T USE THEM!!!!!!

See you in the air.
Albert
  Parachute Clinic 1/12

The whole Parachute Party story is on a separate page. Click Here.

buzzett Elk - 1/18
Rich flew today. Launched in no wind conitions at the lower launch. Beat me to the LZ.We'll be at the LZ around 12:00 tomorrow again.
Linda
buzzett Elk - 1/19
Rich and Albert flew today. They launched between 1:30 and 2:00 at the south launch. Rich got up over the top and flew over to Pitney. He stayed up long enough for me to get to the LZ with time to spare. He almost committed to flying home.
Linda
Anthony A St Helena Flt Rpt 1/27/03
We got to launch on Monday afternoon around 3:30 pm after a philosophy lesson from our driver Jake, a wandering philosopher. The wind was averaging ~13-15 with gusts to ~22mph. Mostly straight in with a few cycles from the right (northy). The gusts were a little rich for our (Justin & Anthony) paragliders so we monitored while Chris Arai set up his Hang glider. Cloud base was rising steadily with cummies forming right above launch. As soon as Chris was set up he launched. A little lift right out front then sink, sink, sink. A few minutes later he was above launch. I'd guess the highest he got was a couple hundred over the peak. Worked the north side and ended up with an ~hours flight to land at Jane's. I launched shortly after Chris and the cycles by this time were much lighter, ~4-9. We'd waited too long. I had a short flight, ~24 minutes, with a few ups and ended up at Ida Clayton Rd after flushing a herd of dear. They musta thought I was one HUGE hawk. Justin launched last and had a little longer flight, ~35 minutes, and landed at Ida Clayton as well. Beautiful day & nice flights!
highhuber Flight Report - Sun. 2/2/03
Goat Rock St. Beach
Got to the Goat at around 1pm the winds were perfect averaging 16 NW. Matt and Jon were already there and Matt was almost setup, Jon left his wing at home thinking it wouldn't be good. Wired Matt off around 2 and finished setting up. Got off about 2:20.on the Lam. the air was smooth as silk and the day was very clear. After three turns I headed for the south hill and made it easy with little rotor off the rock. Matt was hanging tough over launch for some reason. I got high at the south end to almost 6oo and came back and over the rock. Matt then headed south and I followed. Went to the south hill and climbed slowly to 1000 ft. Jon drove Matts truck to the beach and came back up and got mine for the XC chase. I had left heading south shortly before thinking since it was so smooth and bouyant I could break the record. No luck, after leaving the winds turned more north farther down the coast and I was caught on the hill over Wrights beach trying to climb out with some Redtails. Hung for about a half hour and got almost high enough to continue on but let good judgement win out over valor and headed over to the cliff with all the homes above Wrights beach and soared for about four passes maintaining but not going anywhere. Jon got the wind sock out and I had a nice landing in the almost north wind. Bagged it and headed back to Goat and Matt was still flying. He headed out to land as we got to the beach and had a nice landing. He was in the air for over 2hrs. and could have flown till dark. I was up for an hour and ten and got the first XC of the season for me anyway of 3.4 miles. The redtails were out in force and both Matt and I had close flying with them.
It feels great getting in the air again, will spring ever come, hh

Chris Gallagher Weekend flying - 2/2,3
I went down to Mission Ridge with Robert Moore and some of the Diablo Pilots on Saturday. Got to launch and it was blowing in at about 20 with a little bit of north. Bruno launched his rigid into very smooth air. Dick was off next in his XC followed by Robert in his rigid. I got off fourth in my Litespeed. Launch was so smooth and I started climbing out right away. Flew down to the slide then back to Mission peak to check out how it penetrates. As the day progressed, big cumulus clouds started blowing through and I got to thermal. Got to cloud base at 3K several times, flew down to the second set of towers and back to Mission peak only loosing a total of 200 ft. After Dick and Bruno landed, Robert and I flew all around the area together. The rigid was usually on top but cloud base was cloud base. It was a good flying day although I totally misjudged the landing set up and got to low. I wound up taking out a downtube :( and lost my keys. The flying was good so I guess that makes up for it.
Chris Gallagher Oops
I forgot. Two hours of flying. My soaring muscles are sore.
Matt What He Said (2/2)
Well basically Scot said it all. I was having a good ol' time soaring launch and gettin' the rust off. The wind was slowly picking up and I didn't want to jump the gun going south and sink out so I waited. I "landed" at Blind Beach once a few years ago and the walk back up was a lung buster. Besides I was here to soar for as long as it took to get sore. Needed to work them flyin' muscles to see where I stand. Happy to say I'm only a bit sore in the lower back. Time for more dead lifts. It started getting light a few minutes before Scot launched so I got in the scratch mode but it lulled only briefly. When Scot launched I gave him as much room as I could not knowing how he would handle a flex wing after being rusty himself and partially dialed in to his Atos as well. After he came back from Peaked Hill I could see that the white caps were finally close enough for my liking so I flew south. The adjustments I've made to my glider a few months ago were still feeling right and I especially like the light bar pressure at 3/4 to full VG. Squeezed 1100 MSL at the south end after a few and eyeballed Scot on Wright's Beach but decided to stay put. Shoulda lower them washout tubes sooner! Hang point seems fine and could not feel any unwanted turning tendencies. Cruised out just beyond Arch rock a few times and also to the west face of Goat. Found a nice band of lift over the beach in front of launch. Finally got a bit bored with straight and level so I wanged it a few times and headed for the beach. Dodged a few trucks, kites and kids and stepped outta da sky in gracefull style. Not bad for a rusty couch potato!

MattsFlyin Again! 8)

By the way Chris did you fly Mission Peak on Saturday which was blown out at the Sonoma Coast or was it Sunday?
Chris Gallagher Weekend report - 2/2
It was Saturday. Seems the coast was blown out on Saturday and so was Diablo. Mission was just fine although a lot of people stayed on launch for quite some time while Robert and I soared in fairly smooth air. It was strong but doable. When the thermal activity started up it made it that much more fun.

Sunday was a howler around here and Diablo. Don't know how it was at Mission. Henry Bittner said they got in some flying at Funston on Sunday.

It is so nice to get out of the sledder mode and into some airtime.
Greg Sugg Flight Report Sat 2/8
Vince, you were right about the forecast. Ernie, Scot, Kurt, Anthony, Steve Harvey, and I went to Diablo and met up with several others. I may have gotten the highest at 3,750' msl. As you predicted, the top was under 4,000'. Ernie had estimated that we could get to 14,000' which proved to be optimistic. Actually, the only thermals I found were at Eagle Pk. and low right over the Mitchel Canyon LZ. Still, it was a beautiful day, and we all had fun.
Ernie Camacho Reading the interactive sounding
Yep, my 14,500, strong thermal prediction was in the toilet.

I'm still not sure how to properly use the skew-t plot. I was using the predicted high temp at Concord with the altitude at takeoff. I believe now that I should have had the altitude and the temperature both come from the same location.

Either 60 deg. at 60 ft (Concord), or 47 deg. at 3700 ft. (Mt. Diablo). If anyone has the straight scoop on using these tools, let us all know. A written tutorial for the website would be nice.

Also, I was surprised that the wind was almost calm at launch, when the Mt. Diablo wind reporting station (internet-based RAWS station) was showing 18mph. Looking back at yesterday's readings, I can now see that the wind died down right around noon. So, at least I can continue to trust that robot's info. Anyone know where that robot is located on the mountain?
Ernie Camacho Diablo flying photos
Anthony brought his video camera and captured all our launches. A good tool, that. I thought my launch was just right, but on review I saw that my nose was higher than it should have been for that steep, short run to the bushes.

Here's a few stills from Anthony:

Greg, longest duration, launching his Fusion:


Anthony, getting his first Diablo flight from Juniper Ridge (Steve Harvey, who drove for us, was filming):


Three happy pilots in the LZ: Kurt, Ernie, Anthony:
Ernie Camacho The rest of the story
I might as well document this day's adventure.

After a round of phone calls and BB posts Saturday morning, Steve Harvey volunteered to drive and showed up at his neighbor Ernie's. We met up with Scot at Kurt's place in Petaluma. After transferring gliders to Scot's truck the road trip was on! On the way to Diablo we picked up Anthony at Sears Point and Greg at his house in Benicia.

At the Safeway lot in Concord we ran into our old friends and Diablo locals Robert Moore, Janet, his faithful driver, Dick Girard, Bruno, and a few others. We were first up the Mt., taking a detour to show Anthony the Juniper Ridge PG launch.

At the north tower launch the wind was very light, but coming in generally from the north. We started setting up and were soon joined by a bunch of others eager for some air. It was surprising to see so many rigids setting up. Hell, they were probably in the majority. In our group both Kurt and Scot were rigid. Robert Moore has switched from a WW XC to a rigid too.

Greg was the first off, and we all watched as he finally found some lift out over Eagle Pk. Eventually we all got off in near-no-wind conditions. Most of us had sled rides with the only lift being found near the LZ at Mitchell Canyon. The day was beautifully clear, the Earth was carpeted in new green grass, and the lack of lift made for smooth-as-silk flights. Anthony drove down with Steve to the Juniper launch for a flight down to the 1000ft LZ. They found Scot there. He was the only one who didn't go to Mitchell Canyon, thinking he'd find lift on the west side of Juniper Ridge.

Everyone had good landings, grins were everywhere, Chris McKeon, working on a house nearby showed up, and 15 people ended up at Mudvilles in Clayton for burgers, beer and good cheer.

I got home at 9PM. My first flight of the year was behind me. A great day, with prospects for many more this year. I love it!
p.s. I simply must get in shape for the season. I ripped some stitches on my zipper trying to get both me and George into my harness.
p.p.s. George is the affectionate (?) name my kids have given to my gut. (separate entity, mind of its own, you know)
buzzett FUN FUN FUN!!!!! (2/9)
Today was so much fun. Daniel got a Tandem with Anthony in a Paraglider. He says he's biwingle now. He had such a great time, Thanks again Anthony. Suzy got to fly down, instead of driving, with Kurt. I got to drive up twice and throw pilots off launch! No wing was flown twice and some will need a little work before they fly again. I'll let the others tell thier stories.
It was just a Great day at Elk
Matt Flight Reports From 2/8-2/9?
So... who bent metal and how did you do it? Linda mentioned there are stories to tell from Elk last weekend.
Tell us a story!

Matt
Todd WHHAAKK!
Sorry to say but it was me. it seems that the riding area for the murder cycles has moved out to the creek bed.on my landing I was going to hit a girl on her A.T.V. she did not see me and I had to push out to go over the top of her.I slamed in hard and thought that my knee was broken!
  Aerotowing in the Panoche Valley feb. 15-16
Actually, the towing was at Mercey Hot Springs, just north of the Panoche Valley.

Here are two separate reports on the towing:
1. The discussion leading up to the weekend
2. The reports after the weekend

Hangfly Grade Report 2/16
Sunday at the Grade. Classic Grade conditions. We got rained on. It was soarable. Hang gliders, paragliders, redtails, all that. I showed up at 11:30. Greg Hacket was right after me. It was straight in about 8 to 12. I set up right away. Greg got ready and flew while I was setting up. Once I was ready, I decided to wait out a cell that was comming straight at us. Greg sunk out just before it got there. The wind had gotten really light. Peter showed up. Greg climbed the hill. Scot and Lori showed up. Peter and I hung out under my glider while the rain squall went through. After it went past the sun came back out and the wind picked back up to 6 to 8 mph. Peter flew. He landed before he sunk out. Lori and Scot set up. I broke down. Peter flew again, from launch to the parking lot. He was able to make a couple passes. Lori and Scot broke down then we all went home. The wind stayed pretty light after the cell passed. It probably blew 25 during the squall.
The End
Also there were Sebastian and Jen from the City? He's a former Airtime instructor. He's HG/PG but had no glider along. Only a babe and a motor home.

Hangfly
Lori The Grade
Charlie, sorry that you didn't make it to Goat Rock the next day. It totally rocked! (pun intended)

Lori
Scot Goat Rock - 2/17
Lori and I had good flying on Monday in 20+mph winds.
We went to Peaked Hill and got high but Lori couldn't make it back to takeoff cause she can't pull on her VG. Her glider couldn't penetrate in the 25mph wind without it. Any way she showed good judgement turning back about 6 times in the last 200 yds. She got rotored each time by the rock also but handled it fine.
I decided we should topland next to the road coming in so that's what we did. There is a parking area along the road and a nice uphill slope into the wind. There was no turbulence at all which surprised me as I was expecting a rotor. What I'm wondering is if we have any restrictions on making this a regular landing field. It's much nicer breaking down here and the wind was fairly lite compared to the 25 out in front on the dunes. There is a fence but a wide opening exists right across from the parking area.
Thanks to Gregg Hackett for hanging out and bringing Lori back to retrieve my truck. Scot
Lori Goat Rock
What a fun and beautiful experience that was -- thanks Scot for adding such a magical place to my ever growing list of sites (except getting down low trying to make the beach those last couple a hundred yards and dealing with the rotor off of the rock which is much more severe as you get lower -- yikes!). Thanks Gregg for all your help! Thanks also to all the wuffos who helped us hold down our gliders as we were setting up in the strong conditions. It was fun flying backwards up Peak Hill too (it was a controlled backwards so no problemo). That field is truly is a great LZ. Donna, sorry we didn't see you but I hope your lunch meeting went well.

Lori
Jon James top landing
When we started flying at Goat Rock, there were several reasons we didn't land on top back behind (and north of) where the road goes through.
1) We didn't know it would be a good place to land
2) there were no parking areas back there then
3) there were sheep grazing in the area, leasee would be involved
4) the rangers did not want another Funston, they said that many times, and top landings made it seem more like Funston

Since we started flying there, some people have landed back there, usually in high winds, and found out it can be done. You can even launch from up there.


Personally, I think the beach is the best place to land. No matter how strong the wind, the beach is safe. If you land below Blind Beach, it's a long walk out but many of us have done it.

The strongest argument for landing back there is that it's more convenient than landing on Blind Beach and now you're asking to land in a place that's less safe but more convenient and that's not a good argument. If you can't land on a beach without going into the ocean, you shouldn't be flying there.

You can launch from up there but at times you'll be launching directly into the rotor and that's not a great idea either.

If it's windy and you can't get back to the north end, go ahead and land up there. Land on the north side of the road, pretty far back. It may be bumpy until you get low. If it's really northy, it might be nasty up there.
Jon James Flight Report 2-22
Elk was very good.

Greg, Anthony and tandem passenger took off after 1 from the south side, maintained and got up.

Hang gliders, Jon, Leo, Rich, Bill, Kurt (Stratos), Scot take off
from 1:30 to 2:00.

Best lift is over takeoff, to 600-700 fpm to 5700 feet early.
Drift changed from sw to wnw about 5300 feet. Jon and Rich
go to Horse, get up after a while to 5400, come back.

Later, lift is more widespread but not as strong. Fly around and go up. Lots of gliders and a paraglider over the top.

We go to Pitney. Rich, Jon, Scot gain some. Bill, Kurt, Leo find little.

Nice landings, generally to the south. Rich climbs from over the LZ back to the top of Elk. Linda (and Danny, and Greg) retrieve.

Most flights from 1.5 to 2 hours. Nice day. Really nice for Feb. Leo gets the higest, late, to 6000.
Jon James Charley
And Charley
Hangfly Re: Charley
Yea, I was there and it was great for this time of year. I was surprised how good the thermals were so early in the year. Like Jon said we saw 500fpm plus in some of them. Most were in the 250 to 300fpm range. I was able to grovel about 500' below launch for 20 minutes before getting up, it was so good. For at least three of us, Jon, Leo and myself it was our first flight of the year! A fine way to start.
Hangfly the Airhead :b
Scot St. Helena - 2/23
I flew St. H. on Sunday. Managed to stay up for an hr. and 20mns getting over the top only once for about ten mns.
My driver was stopped by a ranger on the way down the hill and asked for a permit. She didn't have one and confessed ignorance but was told she should have one. The ranger let her go. Is this something we're supposed to have in our vehicles or was the ranger mistaken.
Scot
Scot St. Helena / Flight Report - 2/25
Me, Lou, Justin, Gregg Hackett and Chris Arai flew St. H. today in beautiful post frontal conditions. Lous' brother John drove, thanks John. Everyone had good flights as far as I know. Chris went north into Alexander Valley before heading back to land at the LZ at Janes. Lou and I headed to the Pinnacles after getting to cloud base around 5200. We were ridge soaring it for awhile then Lou tried out toward Calistoga to where the sun was shining and found some lift. I joined him in it and we climbed back up to where we had enough to head for Angwin Airport. We were getting low approaching Angwin but I hit strong lift near the end of the runway and Lou found something more to the west which gave him ehough height to come back to me. We had 600+ up in this thermal and took it to cloud base about 5100. From there we headed down Chiles valley not finding to much but getting a good glide. We flew past the castle and had a nice big pasture at the 18 mile mark which we could bail to. Lou crossed to the west of the valley looking for lift finding nothing . I hung on the sunny east side and got some 200 up which I climbed in for about 400ft. I went south another mile and a half but decided to come back and land with Lou for easier retrieve. We got 18.3miles in 2hr.s 20mn.
We're thinking of going again tomorrow as the sky is clear tonight and cloud base should be higher then today. Post if you want to go. We have to be in the LZ by 11am so we can get in the air by 1 or 1:30. The caretaker let us park in Janes big field and was actually quite friendly.
Scot

Vince Endter Re: St. Helena / Flight Report - 2/25
Good flight Scot. Were you flying your rigid? If you made it to Angwin at 5,100' and your ridig glide of 18 to 1, you should have been able to glide at least 10 more miles than you did at least to the 121-128 intersection. Did you hit a lot of sink, terrible head wind?

Vince

Scot St. Helena
Ya Vince I was flying the Atos. I could have gone farther but hung with Lou so we could be retrieved together.
Today Todd me Justin and Anthony flew St H. again. It was very cold and quickly overdeveloped. We had to fly away from the mt. to get lift but then climbed to 5100' CBase. Todd headed for Crazy Creek and I headed for the Palisades. I found some lift over the north end of the Pals but nothing much. Flew to the end and out to Calistoga Gliderport. Todd made it to Butts Canyon Rd. Anthony and justin landed at Janes. Should be better tomorrow with less OD. hh

Donna Matthias Monthly Meeting
Pilots, drivers, members,

Just a reminder that Thursday, February 27th @ 7:00 pm at the Round Table Pizza off Stony Point is the Sonoma Wings monthly meeting. You don't want to miss this meeting. We will be having Brian Robbins from Bright Star Hang Gliders as a guest speaker. Hope to see everyone there.

~Donna

Jon James Meeting
What a great meeting.

Thanks to Brian Robbins for talking to us.
It's always instructive and interesting to hear his views
on hang gliding.

Hangfly Re: Meeting
Yea, Great meeting. Thanks again Brian!
My conclusion on the incredably informative discussion is that I'll continue to fly flex wing for a while. I will keep flying with my winglets until they wear out. I think I'll also tape tufts all over my harness and fly with a video camera. Maybe we can have a weekend at Hull this summer where we get as many pilots as possible to fly with yarn all over there all their equipment.
Hangfly

Vince Endter Funston Flying - 2/26
I was in the air right about 12:00. I guess it was a good day for Funston. There were 6 pilots in the air when I launched. I made a couple of passes by the fort then headed for Westlake. The lift was 250 fpm up all the way to the limit of 1,500’ at Westlake. I flew back to launch at 45 mph and only lost 250’. I did that trip twice. I was trying to practice my racing between thermal speed. I made sure my arms got a good burn. I then flew past Westlake to about even with the pier, (5 miles from launch), I was on the ridge between 280 and hwy 1. I started hitting 150 down so I headed back to Westlake. I was a little nervous about making it back, I ended up there at 1200’. I was telling this to some local Funston pilots and one of them laughed at me. He said he has been down to 200’ at Westlake.

I did not have my vario. I was using my 76s as a vario. It worked quite well for that purpose. If it had an audio output you would not need another instrument. It would give me readout of my glide ratio, and glide ratio back to launch, climb rate, altitude, plus another 25 or so other readings.

Altogether I flew for a little over an hour. I got my upper harness zipper caught in my jacket and was not able to zip my harness closed. Luckily, I had worn some long underwear. Even so, after an hour certain parts of my anatomy were complaining about the cold.

After landing I watched several other pilots land. I don’t know why, but many of them choose to land in the rotor behind launch. I does make for some entertainment though.

Vince

Buzzett Flight report - Elk - 3/1/03
Eight pilots flew today: Ernie, Kurt, Rich, Scot, Lou, Matt, Todd, Bill. None of them landed in the LZ.

By the time they took off, the wonderful-looking sky had become mostly overcast, but there was still lift under the clouds. Pilots climbed out quickly, some to 7,700. They quickly headed out toward Pitney. From there Scot and Kurt headed east towards Bartlett Peak, while everyone else jumped to Middle Mt. and then on around the west side of the lake toward Lakeport.

Ernie was the first on the ground, having left last and finding no help over Pitney, he landed alongside the road half way to Upper Lake. Lou had his longest flight from Elk, landing near the Passion Play, part way up hwy 29. Matt, Bill, and Todd landed together in a big field on Scotts Valley Rd. This was Matt's longest flight from Elk. Rich made it to the south end of Lakeport, landing near the burger joint on the hill.

Scot stayed along the ridge on the edge of the lake, landing near the intersection of hwy 20 and hwy 53, while Kurt made it over the ridge into Long Valley, stretching his glide to land near the store at the south end of the valley.

So, here we have an epic XC day on the first of March. What happened to all those pilots who are itching for their first altitude flights and their first XC flights?

We hope to do even better tomorrow. Come on out!

buzzett Elk 3/2/03
All I can say is "What a weekend!". Only one pilot beat me down the hill the entire week-end and this was just the first of March. It sure seemed like the good old days around here. Kurt, Ernie and Scot all stayed over at our place on Saturday night in anticipation of Sunday being even better than Saturday.
On Saturday we had 8 pilots and everyone went X/C. Of course they chose three different directions to fly. Kurt and Scot went toward Long Valley, Lou chose hiway 29 and the rest went to Scotts Valley. Suzy and I drove for them lucky bums!
On Sunday we got to launch early, because on Saturday we were late, only to wait. Everyone wanted to equal or better thier flight from the day before. And I am proud to report all but one did! I'll let everyone tell thier own stories but X/C was the order of the day and the pilots proved that they still had it in them after the long boring winter. I'll just say that they flew over 100 total miles today!
There is also a new and upcomming driver. Kurt's daughter Kimberly, acted as my co-pilot and did a wonderful job helping keep track of those flying "RABBITS" or was it bunnies Kurt? It was an awesome week-end all around thanks to the pilots and crew. lets do it again soooooooooon.
Linda
Ernie Camacho Elk Report 3-2-03
Yep, Greg, Sunday was good at Elk.

Unfortunately it wasn't a repeat of yesterday. On Saturday no one landed at the LZ - everyone went XC. Today Bill Vogel got part way up Pitney, found nothing, and went back to Elk to try again. He got drilled instead.

The rest of us: Scot, Kurt, Rich and myself did manage to go XC. The day started very differently than yesterday. There were no clouds, the sky was crystal clear, and the forecast showed that we might be able to get up to around 7,000ft if the inversion didn't stop us. This time I was second to last off, with Scot doing cleanup. The lift was light, I thought I might lose it lower down on the spine, but I managed to find a small punchy thermal to take me up - the first of many saves today.

I left Elk around 5600ft. The others were ahead of me, with only Bill visible lower down. I made a beeline for Pitney and spotted the others circling up over Pitney Peak. They were getting high - around 6500 or so. I found something to take me up to around 6000, but when I left to follow the ridge further up toward High Glade, I found that the others were already ahead of me, circling up over High Glade.

I took a tack toward Bartlett Ridge, further to the right so that I wouldn't have to cross the gap from High Glade to Bartlett. Since they were getting up, I figured there must be lift all along the ridge. There wasn't. I worked my way up the ridge toward Bartlett Peak, getting lower as I went, keeping an eye on Clover Valley, off to my right, where I'd have to bail if I didn't get up. Just as I got to Bartlet Peak, I turned toward Clover Valley, figuring I just couldn't go any further. Within seconds I found a nice small 800fpm thermal that I spiraled up in for a save.

About this time I saw some of the others out toward the east, closing in on Long Valley. I was high enough that I could see into Long Valley and it looked like I'd make it over the saddle if I went straight to it, going behind Pinnacle Rock (The normal route is to continue along the ridge, overflying Pinnacle Rock, and into Long Valley). By going straight to the low spot in the saddle, I'd be able to get to the eastern ridge along Long Valley - Ruppert Ridge. So I went on glide, only to have my sink alarm scream at me, and keep on screaming. I'd hardly heard it up to now. It started looking like I was going to get stuck behind Bartlett Ridge. I started thinking about the route Jon James had taken - off the beaten track - when he got stuck back here before. Luckily, the sink abated as I got closer to the saddle and I was able to squeak over and find some lift on the other side - another save!

As I circled slowly up, drifting over toward Ruppert Ridge (the wind was from the West), I started trying to locate others. We were having radio problems today. I was over-modulating, making hard to understand me. Scot had problems at launch and I didn't hear him much in the air. Rich was OK, and I couldn't raise Kurt (his PTT failed). The only one I could see was Scot, back in the sinky area I'd just left.

I followed the eastern ridge along Long Valley, not finding much, but able to maintain in the sometimes buoyant air. I spotted Rich ahead, getting near the store at the south end of Long Valley, circling up.

I continued along the ridge, maintaining but finding no strong lift. As I got to where I'd seen Rich I did find a patch of lift but couldn't work it well enough so I continued on. I'd been calling for Kurt, but had no answer. Rich was somewhere out in front of me and Scot was somewhere behind.

I could see the nice big green field where Kurt had landed yesterday, just up the road a block or two from the store. I was feeling LZ suck 'cause there was no other place to land in the next mile or so. Off to my left was the chalk hill Kurt has gotten a save on when he had his 50 mile flight to Arbuckle a year or two ago. I searched the creek bed at the base of that chalk hill and spotted what I thought was a do-able landing area. I'd be landing N/S while the prevailing wind was from the West - not nice. But, that chalk hill was on the eastern side of the valley and I'd been gazing longingly at Indian Valley Reservour just beyond and at the Sacramento Valley further out. If I could get one more save I might be able to keep going. Did I mention that it was crystal clear today - you could see forever?

So I went for the chalk hill. Found nothing. Continued south along that eastern ridge. Found nothing. Started studying that LZ I'd picked out along the creek. Announced that I'd probably be landing there. Rich came back asking if I could make the big field ( I found out later he'd watched me all the way to the ground). I hadn't looked over there lately and when I glanced that way I noticed that maybe, if I didn't lose too much going into the headwind, that I could make it. It sure did look nice. So I headed over, figuring I could always tear back downwind to the creek bed. I got a little help from buoyant patches as I crossed over the top of the store and made it into the field. There were horses in the next field and a couple of llamas at the far side of this one, but I figured I could stay far enough away from them. To do that I came in on a 45 degree crosswind, but it worked out OK (2-5 from the west).

As I started breaking down I heard a yell and looked up to see Kurt crossing over the end of the field on final. As I found out later, Kurt had been right over me, maybe 500 - 1000 feet up, ever since I'd left Bartlett ridge. So for the 2nd day in a row, Kurt landed in this field.

Scot watched us from across the way. He'd gone straight over to that chalk hill and continued along it to Hwy. 20. He almost didn't make it, finding himself real low along the creek with no decent LZ in sight. But, in typical fashion, he scratched his way up and over to land a little way down 20 from where Long Valley Rd. connects.

Rich made use of the altitude he had from that climbout near the store and made it down 20 a good bit further to land along the straight stretch beyond the gravel pits.

A great day of XC! Kurt and I had 24.3 miles. Scot went 27.5 and Rich took the day with 28.7. My previous longest flight from Elk was yesterday's 5.5 mile flight toward Upper Lake. I'm an Elk Wuss no more!

Linda did a great job of driving, and Kurt's daughter Kimberly did co-navigator duty.

The flying season is here!

Scot Thankyou Linda
Kurt, Ernie and myself were fed and housed by the fabulous Linda. On top of that she chased our butts all over Lake County and provided refreshments when she picked us up. Linda your the best. Thankyou for everything. Scot

Ernie Camacho Re: Thankyou Linda
I'd like to add my thanks and appreciation to Linda and Rich for allowing us to spend the night Saturday. It made for a great flying-focused weekend.

I'd also like to thank JW seeley. He and his wife came up to the Elk Mt. launch to sight see on Sunday. JW helped me squeeze into my harness. It took a lot of tugging to get those buckles to snap closed. Without his help this fat boy wouldn't have been able to get airborne.

Also, Anthony Abate came up after we'd launched to do a tandem PG flight.

Vince Endter Rigid flights?
>A great day of XC! Kurt and I had 24.3 miles. Scot went 27.5 and Rich took the day with 28.7.<

This can't be? Rigids are supposed to fly 15% further. Was someone flying with their flaps on?

Vince

Scot Rigid Flights
We're just newbies learning what are wings will do and how to get em to do it. The buzzard has Elk down after 20+ years of flying it and is hard to beat.
What happened in Hollister Vince and how much is it going to cost you?? hh

Kurt Rigid Flights
Rich and I went on glide to Pitney from Elk. I tucked my elbows and kept my head down but I could not catch up to Rich in his MR 700. He must be very talented at gliding in a straight line. I have only been doing it for 25 years. Flex advantage?

Vince Endter Gliding with Rich, Hollister - 3/2
I know no one belived me when I said a year ago that Rich and I had the same glide, or that the top flex wings are just as good as a stock rigid.

I got 4 flights in at Hollister Sunday with three of them on a static winch tow (tow to about 500' agl). I could get higher if I had an over, under tow bridle. Pat charges $110 for the day. I went down there to work on my landings, which are getting better after being able to do 4 of them in 3 hours.

Vince

Brian Padgett Re: Gliding with Rich, Hollister - 3/2
I am sure Vince would have had a much better day if he had brought extra parts. He had a little mishap when the towing conditions where not the greatest for a rigid (I guess). I was right behind him in line and watched his right wing drop after about 4 bouncy steps. I saw it coming but I could not look away. He cut his day short after that and headed home. The rest of us hung out at Hollister and towed until almost 5pm which turned out to be the most amazing day I had even seen at that sight. I had 13 tows (not usual for Hollister) for a total of nearly 3 hours (never happened before) of flight time which I really needed since I am working toward my H3. Yep, the cost was $110, but since he was the one that needed to sign me off on my H2 and release me to become a real pilot like the rest of you, it was completely worth it. Besides, if I did the math it would have cost me nearly the same if I was aero towing for $10/1K ft. If conditions were good and you brought your towing skills you could hit 1K ft. on tow and that was foot launching, simple tow rig, basic WW Z5 harness, Eagle 164, and pushing out like a mad man after about 100ft (when things were smooth). Once on the cart, you gain another 200-400ft! The thermals are nice at times and there is a little 600ft ridge that you can soar on until you want to come down. Since I am such a rookie and flying an Eagle, my flights stayed around 20 minutes. You guys should be able to stay up much longer!
Brian

PS. Hey Vince, did you get enough air time to find out if you liked that V tail or not?

Vince Endter Re: Flight Report 3-2-03
>PS. Hey Vince, did you get enough air time to find out if you liked that V tail or not?<

Not yet.

Vince

Brian Padgett H2 Complete and more!
Well, it sounds like all that flew had a great weekend! I finally was called with a slot to fill and take that lesson that I needed to complete my H2! I have been waiting too long to get that final spot complete. Now I look forward to some real flying. Today was the best time I have ever had towing! Mission soaring built a new tow cart and it works great. You are able to tow much higher than with the previous foot launch method. With a little wind and lift on tow, 1200ft is not hard to reach. I am sure better pilots can get even higher. I am only flying an Eagle 164 and I was on an elevator. I have never flown in better conditions or towed above 1200ft before. Flights were not the amazing 25+ miles, but they were 20+ minutes when you found lift or went to the ridge.
I am sure any of you that had to go through the lessons and wait for the right conditions to complete your H2 must know how excited I was at the end of the day. I was so happy to actually be in real lift and gain enough altitude to feel like I took that next step up in getting ready for the high altitude flying and ever stronger thermals. H3, here I come!!
I would still like to do some driving and get acquainted with the sights and what to expect before my first flight, so hopefully I can drive for some of you as soon as next weekend. Give me a call if you need a driver Saturday or Sunday 3/8-9 and if you can pick me up in Santa Rosa or make a meeting place.
See you in the LZ and in the air sooner than later!
Brian

PS. I saw Vince with his Stratos towing early in the day with me in Hollister. I hope he has extra parts for that thing. Since I am new and Vince is a cool guy, I won't saying anything beyond that.
Hope everything ended up ok Vince! Hope to see you out there again.

Brian Padgett flight reports 3/8 & 3/9
I had a get time!!! I got to meet many of you and feel very comfortable. I hope you all did mind the new company and I am welcome back. ;) I had a good time 4 wheelin' you guys truck all over Elk, while you were up in the air. I glued the pieces back on that came off the truck when I was trying to beat you down the hill during your sled rides. I hope you made it home. I heard that duct tape seals holes in gas tanks for at least 24 hours!
So, I guess I should fly instead of drive?

Thanks again everybody! Linda, You are a great host and a great cook!! Any of you that think you have a lot of energy, stay with the Buzzards, watch videos till 12:30am and try to outlast the kids!! I almost made it.

Thanks everyone!
Brian


Albert Branson Re: flight reports 3/8 & 3/9
A GREAT weekend of flying and friends. I logged almost 2 hours total. That's more time than I have flown in the last 10 flights! I want to thank Linda for driving and shooting the great video for me. I realy like the part with your feet as you were running up the hill, with flip flops even. A big THANK YOU to Anthony for taking Allison for a tandem paragliding flight. It is so cool to hear her talk about it. We have it on video for posterity. Thanks to Brian for driving and being such a good sport. I want to fly with you dude! Let's all fly again this weekend. I am going to try and fly Wednesday if anyone is interested. See you in the air.
Albert

Allison Scott Re: flight reports 3/8 & 3/9
What a great weekend! Saturday was Albert's birthday, and as usual Linda had something special planned...strawberry shortcake at the LZ... thanks Linda for everything. It was great to see everyone again, and also to meet a new face...Brian Padgett; he was a good sport and a genuinely nice guy, hope to see you soon Brian. The flying was good on both days, and the company was even better. I want to shout out a special thanks to Anthony Abate for taking me up in his paraglider, it was awesome...and you made me feel very at ease. And also Justin for helping to make me so comfortable. I had a great time, let's do it again soon.

lou bartell flight report 3/8
:D Great to see everyone and meet you Allison and Brian. I had a good flight to the thistle field! Thanks for the inspiring music with the ride up the hill Bill. Linda, thank you for the retreive saturday and the strawberry shortcake!! See ya'll soon

ben Valley of Doom Flight Report and Panoche footlaunch updates

-----Original Message-----
From: ben.rogers@escalate.com [mailto :b en.rogers@escalate.com]
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2003 10:30 AM
To: FlightPlans@yahoogroups.com
Subject: RE: [FlightPlans] Valley of Doom - Recap


The Valley of Doom was a huge success in my opinion. Thermals were everywhere, but launching at 3:30pm in early March was an obvious factor. Shadows were already creeping down the hillside. Still, we proved the weak thermals were plentiful and that we can expect a major improvement over the next few weeks. Also, from the air it was apparent that there is another gap farther out the Valley of Doom which could serve as a secondary escape route in the event of not making the saddle. This eliminates the need to land in the sketchy bailout field. Furthermore, Jim the rancher (and probably others) are pretty clearly into helping out for a little cash. You could probably get him to take a carload of drivers up, drive the car down, and then pick up a far flung pilot after landing for 50.00--say 12.00 a pilot for a group of four. The locals are very friendly but also very low income.

Anyway, I'll be back out there in 3 or 4 weeks. I hope to arrive earlier as we have two other much higher launches to scope out. All we need is the beginning of the thermalling season to start.

Despite my enthusiasm, you should keep in mind that this site cannot and should not be flown by anyone but very experienced mountain flyers with high performance gliders. If you are not a great thermaller and have a kingpost on your glider, stay away. If you cannot keep a cool head as you mush into bushes on the side of a steep slope, you should stay away. If you do not buy me a beer, you should give up hang gliding.

My next recon mission will focus on finding something that new HIIIs and mayber HIIs can fly. We also have a line on a 1mile+ scooter/static tow area.

Look for a Panoche Valley footlaunch tour (with two sites) in April. I'll plan it after this weekend's towing event.

ben

-----Original Message-----
From: Wayne Michelsen [mailto:WMichelsen@attbi.com]
Sent: Monday, March 10, 2003 10:00 AM
To: FlightPlans
Subject: [FlightPlans] Valley of Doom - Recap


Well... Ben, Eric and I headed to New Idria and the Valley of
Doom yesterday. It was a clear and beautiful day.
Unfortunately, it was also a high pressure, cloudless, blue day.
We were hoping for just a little more instability.

New Idria is about 130 miles south of Mtn.View, and we got there
in about 2.5 hours. We left my car at the bottom and headed up
throught the Valley of Doom. As we maneuvered over the washed
out road sections, past the old rusting mercury mine, through the
mercury tainted sulfuric acid streams, past razor thorn bushes,
and up the sharp-as-glass cleaved stone scrag hill-side, several
things became absolutely clear. My car was useless for the
retrieve. Any of the residents of this canyon were probably
drinking from these seething streams and were probably derranged.
Worse, though, was that as we stood by the car at the top of the
navigable road, Ben's estimated 6:1 glide was looking more like
10:1. There was no way a Falcon on a sled-run day could make the
saddle out of this ravine.

However, as we stood there contemplating our fate, the cycles
were, indeed, coming regularly and temptingly straight in. It
did seem soarable. There was also a "landable" grass opening on
the near side of the escape saddle within reasonable reach.
Hoping to increase our chances of survival... ahhh, I mean... to
launch from a more scenic vantage point... yeah that's it, we
decided to hump our gear up to a ledge another 100' up the
crumbly scrag hill. After an hour, much sweating, and
exhaustion, we did finally get everything situated and set up.

Of course, as the contemplation went on, our own Ben
This-Is-Too-Good-To-Be-True-Why-Are-You-Skittish Rogers began to
get weak in the knees also. Finally, we drew lots to see who
would be first to plunge off to his death... I mean charge on to
victory. The drawn order was: Eric, Ben, then me.

Eric dove off into a good cycle. But, the cycles weren't quite
as strong as hoped. He did manage to gain about 150' over, but
after a dozen or so give-take passes, ended up heading out to the
saddle. He made it easily so Ben went off. Ben didn't fare
quite as well. He played a few thermals, but he was usually
50'-100' below launch. It still seemed buoyant enough to be
do-able, so I jumped off. I had an easier time with the near
launch lift than Ben, and made 100' over.

From the air, I see Ben heading to the saddle, but much lower
than Eric's crossing. Not wanting to tempt fate, I decided to
head out, too. In fact, Ben squeeks through with very little
altitude to spare. For me, leaving with 300' more than Ben, I
make it easily and all three of us are now out of the Valley of
Doom and on the safe side of the spine.

After 25+ minutes of light soaring, we all land by my useless
retrieve vehicle with no problems. An excited, and very friendly
rancher (Jim) comes up with that giddy enthusiastic mood. He's
happy to drive a retrieve and the day ends well. He also tells
us he can get us up a lot of the other peaks in the area and if
we want, we can camp on his ranch and.... We are finding lots of
the people in the area to be very friendly to us.

Well, that's the recap. Personally, I'm not thrilled about
flying that launch again. The site has loads of potential, but
this launch and the ravine is just too risky. I'm glad I had
every bit of performance in the wing that I did. I'd definitely
not fly it in anything less than a true HP wing. And, even then,
cross your fingers not to find big sink until you're past the
escape saddle.

Well, that's my take.
Wayne

Bill Vogel Flying Wed 3/12
We flew, there were three gliders and a tandem baggy. We had lots of smooth ridge lift and we just sailed around having fun and taking pictures. The landing area was rough since wind was off hill to the east. Everyone handled it but if was not for the faint of hearts. Best Bill

Albert Branson Re: Flying Wed 3/12
Had a GREAT time flying around in the ridge lift. I thought it was punchy but that was probably due to the modifications I made on my glider that made it too easy to fly fast. Thanks Kurt for giving me the info to "tune it up".
Linda, as I said "YOU ROCK!" Thanks for your help and for making the trip for John and getting his radiator hose.
Anthony, thank you so much for taking Allison tandem again. She absolutely loved it. It was so cool to be in the air with you both and just boating around.
John, It was great to meet you. Allison and I look forward two seeing you and your family more in the upcoming flying season. I hope you had a good time. I know I enjoyed talking to you and seeing your big grin as you flew around. Thanks all for a great time!
Albert

Hangfly Weekend Flying Reports - 3/15,16
I see some people already posted notes about flying the Grade on Saturday. At the risk of being repetitive and boring I'll sum it up here.
Leo, Jon and I arrived at Vista Trail before 10:30. The wind was light but blowing in at launch. It looked like the classic Grade tease. We discussed the fact that it had been two years since anyone has gotten up there. Has anyone even flown there in the past two years? Please post if you have. I checked my log book when I got home and couldn't believe it. It was five years! since I had flown the Grade!
Jon and I carried our stuff to launch. About 11:30 the wind started picking up a little. We set up. By the time we were ready to launch we were joined by Kurt, Matt, Ernie, Scot, Brian Pagett and Michelle and Donna and Spencer and Kimberly.
Jon launched at 12:10, I at 12:20. It may have been soarable ten minutes before Jon launched, at the most. We got almost all of the soarable air. It was blowing 14 to 16mph. We got up on the Grade and got a little over 1500' in baby-butt smooth air. After a while we were sinking slowly and headed for the launch area. We had seen Kurt launch earlier flying his big glider, solo. Now he went in and landed. Jon and I landed by the parking lot. Jon :55 min, Charley :45 min
Scot launched from in front of the parking lot, shortly after we landed, and gave us all an hour and a half sink-rate demonstration. He soared in 7 to 9mph winds and got to 1700' up on the Grade. Matt was so encouraged that he too launched in the light winds. He climbed some around launch then headed north where he sank out to a flat spot on the west side of hwy 1. Scot made his way back to launch low and worked hard to get back high enough to top land.
The wind never picked back up. It looked promissing so we all hung out for a long time. So we broke the Grade drought and in keeping with traditional Grade conditions, I did get rained on while loading my glider in the morning.
Maybe Matt will post a description of his LZ and approach?
Hangfly

Jon James Grade
Repetive is fine, the Grade is beautiful.

It was a great surprise to take off and zoom up 50 feet
immediately. Made 3 passes in front of launch and headed
north from low. It was into a quartering headwind but
the lift was good and there was very little turbulence
from ridges. Stayed is as close as possible. Was very close to Hwy 1 at times.

Rounded the sharp ridge where the cliffs get high, expecting to climb,
and found nothing.
The cliffs are too steep here, the wind too light, we were too low.
This is the area that brought Matt down later.
I continued across the bowl. On the north side, there was
an arm that was sloped, not vertical, and there was lift there.
Climbed slowly, about 100 feet/minute, to the top where the first redwoods are, to 1500.

Continued to the north end but found little lift. Up by the
slide, there was some turbulence, Scot encountered this later too,
and turned back. My vario crapped out, so I hung out just
over the redwoods on the biggest know and watched Charley work his way up.

What a beautiful place this is.

The lift began to subside. Leo radioed that the wind had
dropped to 10 on launch. Kurt had landed. I went in and landed
behind the parking lot, a nice one. Charley landed there a couple
of minutes later, another nice one.
Didn't see Scot's landing. Matt liked his LZ so much,
sheltered from the wind, sunny and warm, a great view of the ocean,
he was in no hurry to break down.

We talked to some tourists, watched Scot, watched for whales.
Eventually, all the tourists left and we had the whole place
to ourselves.

What a day.

Vince Endter Re: Funston
Scot and I met up at Funston. When I arrived the wind was mostly west but soon moved north. I launched in 32+ mph and did an ugly job of it but got off safely. I was able to climb to 700’ over the fort. I pulled on a little flap and was able to stay in one place, moving forward or backward by varying my airspeed speed. The main reason for flying today was to pick up Rich’s glider and equipment and to test my new spoilers. The new spoilers worked great! You can see them at:
vincenancy.com/atos/spoiler.html

I made a quick trip to Westlake (ground speed above 55 most of the way, at one point 67). The air was smooth and the lift good. At Westlake I quickly climbed to 1500’. I headed back at 45 mph airspeed and had a ground speed of 16. I arrived back over launch at 1300’. To loose altitude I did some 80 degree banked wangs out over the water. The lading was bumpy the last 40’ but I managed a good landing. I had about 45 minutes airtime.

Scot flew for an hour and a half or more. He also had a good landing considering the conditions.

Vince

MattsFlyin Grade LZ
Matt soaring the Grade
1 mile north of launch along Hwy 1 there is a small, flat spot about 75ft below the road. It's bowl shaped and has a handful of pampas grass plants near the upslope. I had seen this spot on a previous flight and thought it adequate as a bail out. As I slowly sank out at the grade this past Saturday I didn't want to fly back low so I hung out at the "bowl" and hoped to get up. At first I was maintaining right next to a redtail but after two or three passes I was losing it. I continued to ridge "soar" as I positioned myself downwind of my spot. I chose to try for a spot right at the bottom of the slope with my back up being a fly on the wall if I over shot. If I ended up short I'd just land on the flat area. I used 1/3-1/2 VG for good speed and zoomed lower as I arced along the bowl heading north. Expecting some turbulence and wind gradient I kept up my speed hoping not to be a fly "in" the wall. As expected I got rocked slightly and could see I was going to spot land right at the edge of the flat and upslope. After a strong flare and a no-stepper I put the glider down on my spot! Charlie finally found me about 30 min later, took a few pix and left me there (my request) so he could go fly. I took my time breaking down just enjoying the view and solitude of the moment. After a while I started the climb uphill and Donna stopped by to help.

Matt

buzzett Sunday stories
Come on you guys. Tell every the story of Elk. I heard it snowed and what about those downtubes?
Linda

Anthony A Tam on Sat & Sun - 3/15,16
Hey All,
I was at Stinson Beach on Saturday auditioning for another season with Shakespeare At Stinson. When I arrived at 1pm there were several hangliders in the air with cloudbase maybe 1000' over the top. Conditions were perfect. I was totally jonesing for the next couple hours and counted up to 8 gliders in the air at once. By the time I arrived at launch, about 4pm, conditions had od'ed and cloudbase was descending. There were still gliders in the air, just away from the mountain.

On Sunday at callbacks it looked like another great day for hangies (too strong for panties) but there was no one in the air.

soft landings...

Kurt Elk report 3/16
Do you know the spot on the road where the roots are? Well, Linda told us it had been raining the past few days and we should gain a little speed over the roots to make it over the steep mud hill on the other side. Thanks Linda. We made it. Five people holding themselves down in the seats with hands pressed against the roof, four plumes of mud shooting up from the tires we made it! At the top of the hill we were rewarded with breath taking views of snow covered mountains and green meadows. After the truck stopped rocking from the high winds, snow, hail and rain, we set up in rainbows and sunbeams. After Ernie gave us a muffled “it’s not so bumpy higher up” we twanged Brian off then me. My new flying partner and I were treated to a beautiful sunset as the moon came up. I can’t wait to see the pictures she took from 5,000ft. We had high winds on descent to the LZ. Brian was blown down river and landed on an island. We had reports of light wind in the LZ. Not a good mix. We came in, bar to our knees through the gradient, to flare over a ditch. Vince once told me about landing over ditches. We each took out a tube! I have said I would never land there again before, but the river was too high to cross for landing in the alternate. We had to get Brian off the island so I crossed the river anyway. It was after dark so it was hard to see how deep it was. Water splashed over the hood. Not too bad? What a great weekend for winter. I have become quite twiterpated too.

MattsFlyin Spring!
"I have become quite twiterpated too."

Well Kurt... Who's the twiterpater? :D

Ah, spring is in the air and so are we!

Matt

Brian Padgett I LOVE HANG GLIDING!!!
We flew Elk Sunday after a snow, hail and rain passed. I was amazing to think we were going to fly at some point as we sat in the truck and got snowed and hailed on. Once the storm passed there was blue sky all around us and the conditions looked good. We were not able to launch until around 3pm or so but 3 of us Kurt & Ernie and I were ready along with a new co-pilot. We had to launch from North launch which seemed a bit tight for me, but I had my wire crew to support me. I didn’t realize the footing was that bad when you are trying to control the glider for the first time on that launch. Ernie was our 'wind dummy' and was shot up like an elevator. After I was balanced my wire crew saw I was ready, I launched. I was climbing pretty fast and was amazed that I had the control and confidence in this condition. Within a minute or so I was several hundred feet above launch. I looked down for a moment and saw Kurt and our Ground crew Donna, Greg and Janet. I soared the ridge for over 90 minutes. The only reason we had to come down was because the sun was setting and we did not want low light on landing. Ernie landed early to test the landing and give us wind direction. Kurt landed next and then I came in. There was a strong gradient but I just kept up my air speed and penetrated through. I had a good landing but miss my spot. Later found out I was the only one that did not whack. My glider and I are still in good health and I do not need to order any spare parts. I plan on staying out of the "Down Tube King" Club also. It should not take long to get my Hang 3 at this rate. All I need is 10 hours and a few more launches. When are we flying again??!!
-Brian

buzzett 3/17 - the long story
I drove, Scot flew, albert & Allison played back-up, Landowner said anytime, and finally last but not least, I am bummed that we didn't get any snow while on launch. Scot will have to give the short story.
Linda
Scot Long and short of it
I launched the Atos at 1:50 and worked up to 7500 before heading to Pitney. Got there quick in the 22mph tailwind. Found more lift and headed on to Bartlett where I got to 8100. Headed over toward High Valley as the end of Long Valley was OD'd and dropping virga. Found one more good one and tryed to skirt the OD but found the lift to lite to work without my vario audio which isn't working for some reason. I headed out Morgan Valley Rd. toward the gold mine and landed alongside the road in turbulent conditions. Got it safely down though for 36.6 miles in 1hr.16mns. It was cold aloft and theres more snow on Hull and Snow then I've seen all year. Thanks for chasing me Linda. hh

Scot Huber St. Helena/ Flight Report 3/20
3.2hrs, 6400ft. East of Vacaville, 44.3miles MRX 700,
more details tomorrow, hh

Scot St Helena
I took off about 1:50 with Lou already in the air climbing over the top. We both left after I got to cloudbase at about 4800'. We went to the Palisades and scratched around low for awhile then climbed enough to head to Rattlesnake Ridge. Lou found something a little farther along and got high and headed for Angwin Airport where we had climbed out on our previous flight. I hung back getting higher watching him sink out and land in Angwin. I then stayed on the Napa Valley side of the ridge and worked it till I was at 5000' and had Chil;es Valley on glide. I left the cloud street I was in about the middle of Chiles and crossed to the one on the east of Chiles. It was getting higher and I climbed to 6495 under a good street headed straight to Mt. Vaca. Came over Vaca and had cumys forming over and under me. Climbed back to about 5000' and headed over Vacaville into a SE wind which deteriorated my glide considerably. I landed on Fry Rd. just north of the golf course at about 5:10. 3hrs and 20mns. 44.3 miles. Had a perfect landing along the highway and got the horn from a couple people jazzed to watch it. Gave em the thumbs up with a big smile. A truly wonderful flight which I hope to share as soon as I get the film developed. Have to thank Lori for letting me borrow her Flytec vario which I used for the audio portion of the flight. Scot

Albert Branson Elk Mt. Friday, 3/21
It looked like it was going to be great. Bill V. John L, and myself, with Allison driving, got to the North launch and launched around 3:00. There were nice cumies above us but just couldn't get to them. John launched first for a sledder, then Bill. Bill got over about 100' so then I launched. I was in my Vulto harness for the first time, so I did not know what to expect. It will take some getting used to. After launching, it wants to keep your head high until you muscle it foreward. Perhaps some of you Rotor veterans can give me a few pointers. After flying around just below the top for a half hour the lift just quit and headed to the LZ for a perfect landing, right in the middle of the biggest, deepest, mud puddle in the Elk LZ. I guess that means the new harness is broken in. Thanks John for the down tube loan, Bill for the glider bag (Linda is working on mine) and Allison for driving.

Jon James Volunteer Day - 3/22
Bill and I are back from the Fouts Springs Volunteer Day.

We arrived there at 9. Met Jeff Applegate and 2 other Rangers. There were 5 paragliders, 2 hang gliders, and about 10 or 12 motorcycles. A couple more paragliders
showed up later.

1 group went off to spread fertilizer and straw. We stayed near the campground and planted about 100 trees and bushes.

Then we went to the visitors' center and installed about
a dozen barricades. We were done by 12:15.

The work was not hard and there were a lot of volunteers. We worked and talked with the rangers. They are short on $ so they may ask for more volunteer help. Reports of the past Volunteer Days have made it to Washington, DC and we should continue to participate in these events.

Thanks, Justin, for the heads-up. I will send my e-mail to Jeff so he can notify us in the future.

Wind strong SW, down for Potato Hill.
There was a gate closing the road up St John until it dries out a little, should be closed for a couple days after heavy rains.

Ernie Camacho Flight Report and object lesson - Elk, 3/23/03
"3/23/03 Elk to Clear Lake on 59 Via chalk hill. 30 miles 6500Ft max. Left Elk with 4500Ft."

That's what the Go-For-It flight entry from Kurt Bainum looks like. But, the day that produced that flight will be remembered by others for other things. It went this way...

Sunday, March 23, saw a number of pilots showing up at the Elk alternate LZ. The main LZ was way too crowded with dirt bikes racing all over the stream bed (where they're not supposed to be riding) for us to use the regular LZ. We ended up with 7 pilots and 7 gliders tied onto Kurt's double-decker rack for the ride up the mountain. Aboard were: Me, Ernie Camacho; Kurt Bainum; Daniel Pifko; Bill Vogel; Rich Sauer; Matt Jagelka; and Greg Sugg. When we got to the first rough spot on the dirt portion of the road in, the spot where the tree roots make for a bumpy passage, Kurt repeated his successful attack of yesterday - he got up as much speed as he could and careened over those pesky roots. The next section was slippery-looking and Kurt wanted as much speed as possible to carry him up and over.

Well, it may have been too much speed, at least it was too much for the load we had. It seems that we were short on tie-down straps when we loaded up the gliders. The gliders on the top tier, left side, had 2 straps instead of the three that I swore I'd always use (after having had my glider fall off vehicles 3 times in the past), and the front tie wasn't long enough to lace around the rack so it was looped over two gliders. Guess who's glider was on the outside? And guess what happened? Yep, my wonderful Laminar came off the rack when the front strap worked itself off the end of the rack and fell off the truck, breaking the back strap as it came down. Damn! I'm sure I've got the all-time record now for fallen gliders!

So, we stop the truck, reload the gliders, and find that we can't move forward - too slippery. Luckily, Kurt has a nice big winch on the front of his truck, with a lot of cable on it. We pay out the cable, tie it onto a tree, and Kurt winches his way up the slippery slope to firmer ground.

We continue on to find the wind favoring the North launch. I inspect my glider to find both forward leading edges and a downtube dented, and my glider bag shredded. Ouch! Instead of us doing a retrieve later for Kurt's truck, we now have a driver.

Everyone gets off fine. Daniel Pifko is the last one to go. He's new to Elk so we talk about the best way to work the weak ridge lift. Unfortunately for Daniel, he lets himself get too far away from the ridge, loses the lift, and finds himself slowly sinking out to the LZ.

Others had mixed success. Greg ends up at the Thistle Field, partway down the creekbed, Rich gets up and heads home, getting up to cloudbase near his house before circling down for a landing. Bill makes it up to Bartlett Peak, following Kurt, but loses it and heads out to Hwy 20 and a landing by the Sentry Market. Matt hung around Elk, trying to get high enough for a run along Pitney to Bartlett, but he waited too long. He didn't get as high as he wanted, and eventually came out to land at the alternate LZ with Daniel.

As for Kurt, he just kept going, Getting up to cloudbase at Bartlett, going down Long Valley to Chalk Mt., then when he saw only blue to the east, he hung a right and headed down the east side of Clear Lake, eventually coming to earth near the city of Clearlake.

I was on chase in Kurt's truck, with Daniel riding shotgun. Since the two of us had come with Kurt, this was the ticket. We found Kurt in a field alongside the road, breaking down. Just as I was getting out of the truck to go take a picture of Kurt, a small car zoomed to a stop in front of us and a woman jumped out and raced back to us, waving her arms. I wasn't sure if she was going to hug me or slug me - after some recent encounters with landowers, I was a little jumpy. Turns out she's a paraglider pilot from Texas who's parked herself in Clearlake for a few months on a job. We exchanged high-fives and gave her our website URL (she showed up at our next meeting!).

After collecting Kurt, and with some chatter on the radio, it was decided to have dinner at the brew pub in Middletown. It was a fitting end to a day that had the good (Kurt's flight), the bad (Daniel's missing the lift), and the ugly (those nasty dents in my leading edges!).

Every story has a moral. Here's this one's: Always tie your glider down with THREE straps! I'd done just that, but then took off the middle strap 'cause it was needed for another glider. I forgot that I have "emergency" straps in my harness. If I'd have used them, I'd have been OK. There's always lots of "if"s, but it comes down to you being the pilot in command. It's your glider. This error cost me $800. Well, not really. The damage was $800, but Greg Sugg insisted that he cover half of it since it was his tie-down job at the front of the glider that came loose. I tried to talk him out of it, but he needed to assuage his guilt, I guess. At any rate, I'm grateful for the help. Next time, let's all of us make sure that this doesn't happen again. And too, let's not go so fast over big bumps again - I notice that we're starting to put rocks down around those roots.

One last note: You'll notice that this flight report for 3/23 is being posted on 4/22. I guess no one wanted to brag about that day's exploits. Either that or we're all lousy typists. I'm only writing this up now because I want to pass this cautionary tale on to you, and since this is part of our club's history. The only way our history will be preserved is if WE ALL SUBMIT FLIGHT REPORTS!

Ernie out.

froehlich Tollhouse Recap
The Tollhouse Fly-in (3/22-30) was a true pleasure. Just driving up into the foothills was amazing. The greens were vibrant and the wild flowers were abundant. There were roughly 30 pilots with an even number of PG's to HG's. The greatest contingent of HG pilots came from the McClures
area. Though most of the flights centered around the working the consistent thermal cycles lifting off infront of launch there were a few pilots that explored other parts of the valley. Most of the time, flights hovered around 300' to 500' above launch with it feeling rarely crowded. For dinner Paul served up a huge smoke Salmon and if that wasn't of your liking there was an equally huge Turkey stew to stuff yourself with. Paul treated a number of guests to flights on his trike including my girlfriend Adrianna. She was all smiles. Sunday, the weather became increasing less favorable. Only a few PG's made it off launch. A large contigent of them stayed up there for hours upon hours. No HG's drove up to my knowledge. Most of the excitement came from Pauls solo flight in his trike. I set him up with a nice wing mounted 35mm camera. Unfortunately he took to heart my suggestion that flying near to the terrain made for more dramatic subject material. His side banked dives through the tree line resulted in his wing nipping one of the trees. However, he , the trike and camera were unscathed. Benn Dunn of the Marina bravely followed Pauls antics with two tows up to attempt some loops I followed with a tow allowing me to buzz by the inert crowd of PG's at launch. Not much after that launch itself was enveloped by a cloud/fog bank. Slights drizzles were felt and the majority of pilots left back home about twoish.
-Eric Froehlich

MattsFlyin Elk Creek Fire Dept. Fundraiser
I received this email from Ken Petlock, a pilot in the CSG (Cloud Street Gang), who lives in Elk Creek. Some of us met Ken two summers ago when he stopped by as we retrieved west of Elk Creek. We also met him again last summer and he and his wife offered to drive us back to our cars. The CSG pilots frequently fly from the foothills above the Diamond M Ranch and land on the east end of the runway there. Apparently they are in the process of relocating their primary LZ to a nearby field. In any case I think this is a good chance for us to boost our reputation in the area and I will try to attend their "fly-in". Any one else interested should reserve this Sunday, 3-29-03, for a flight, a steak dinner and an auction in Elk Creek.

Matt


<Howdy Everyone,

I’ve got two pieces of information to pass along. First the important stuff,
eating. Not really, but sometimes it sure seems like it is to us. The Elk
Creek Volunteer Fire Department’s annual steak dinner fundraiser is going to
be on March 29 from 4-8 pm, cost is $15.00 per person. Last year the CSG
pilots who were able to attend had a blast with club funds while they bid up
the price on some locally made desert items. If I recall correctly, we
donated/bid a hefty $70-80 each, for a number of cakes. This is a great way
to schmooze with the locals, have a great dinner and direct some of our play
money to a good cause. Weather permitting we need to have a few more pilots
land in the field adjacent to the EC VFD and wow the locals as we descend
from the sky with skill and ease. JC has the honors of being the last pilot
to accomplish this feat and then walk over to the Steak Dinner for a cold
one, chat up some flying with the locals and wait for the rest of the pilots
to show up (who all wished they were as skilled a pilot as he) !

The next item is the status of our primary Elk Creek LZ, the Diamond M
Airstrip. In the interest of trying to maintain neighborly relations with
Gonzalez, Reed Moore wants us to try and use an adjacent field to the
Airstrip as our new primary LZ. This field is approximately 15 acres and is
due north (just across the dirt road) of the 5 acre field at east end of the
airstrip.

Ken Petlock>

Jon James Elk Creek - 3/29
About 10 pilots and several guests met in Elk Creek at the store,
then went to the Diamond M ranch to scope out the newest LZ.

Matt, Charley, Donna, and I met the Morgans and the Cloud Street Gang, and Liz.

Launch was at 4400 ft, 3000 vertical. Set-up in the trees on pine needles was very nice.

Launches began about 2. Everyone flew. Lift was concentrated in one big area on the ridge. If you stayed there, you could stay up almost an hour.

Everyone landed at the Diamond M in the new LZ. It was a nice spot and a nice day. We broke down on green grass.

The Elk Creek Volunteer Fire Dept fund raiser was good and fun.
The Cloud Street Gang bought several cakes, Sonoma Wings bought one or 2, Charley bought a big chocolate cake
and started in on it with a fork. He was making good progress when I left for home about dusk. They camped.

Thanks to Ken, Bob, Jim, and Chris for getting my RC glider out of that tree.
It was a good day with fun folks.

Hangfly Elk Creek flying
We also met a nice old couple named Reed and Mary Moore who own a third of the airstrip. They were in their mid 70's. After we all landed they hopped in their small plane and flew home to Sacramento. Of course Reed buzzed the trees and us pilots right after take off.
The auctioneer, at the fundraiser, was great a couple times he acknowledged the generosity of the hang glider pilots over the PA system. It was awesome to hear 300 locals give a big round of applause for the Cloud Street Gang and Sonoma Wings. The locals were from around Elk Creek. This is a great way to spread good will amongst owners of our potential LZs.
One of the Cloud Street Gang, Bob Wirth, has a house on 230 acres at the foot of the ridge between Elk Creek and Alder Springs Rd. That's where we camped. We went to his place after the barbeque and watched videos of everyone's launches and landings. Even on video it was had to tell how I broke a downtube, but I did. Flared too late I think. We also played pool at Bob's. It was a fun time. There is a nice field to land in on his property. I look foreward to flying with this gang more in the future.
Hangfly the Airhead :p

MattsFlyin Fundraiser
Charley and Jon done said it all, 'ceptin' the part about the "skallarship" fund. The fire dept. ran the BBQ and the other part was the scholarship fund auction for the high school kids. Sonoma Wings individually and as a group contributed over $150 to the scholarship dessert auction. They had cakes and cookies stocked up for this event. We had to leave before we ended up with twenty cakes so we donated the remaining cash and headed for the hills with our chocolate stash, applause and accolades ringing in our ears . The people of Elk Creek showed their appreciation with a lot of applause . I was almost moved to tears ...HA! It was a great time and worth the 3hr drive . The spring greenery was everywhere and the steak and dessert was de-licious !

Matt

Greg Sugg Re: Fundraiser
Well, as one who didn't attend, I want to thank those who did: Matt, Charley, Donna, Jon, and Chris. This was an important event, and I am proud of the contribution the club made. Thank you all for representing me and the rest of the members of Sonoma Wings. My personal feeling is that I owe you all "big time". Now, with luck, we will get to know the people of Elk Creek and the other pilots who fly there better, forging a lasting bond in this important flying area.

Thanks, Greg

Donna Matthias Re: Fundraiser
Greg,

You should have been there.....we had a blast! Everyone we met was wonderful. The auctioneer made mention of Sonoma Wings and the Cloud Street Gang many, many times with great applause from the crowd. You should have seen Charley bidding on a German Chocolate cake (he got it). Cost him $26.00 and as Matt or Jon said it didn't take him long to dig in. Bob Gay, I think, kept bidding on a tin of Oatmeal cookies - he got it! Cost him $56.00. They were worth every dollar he spent. I have got to say the Cloud Street Gang are a bunch of GREAT people. It will be nice to meet up with them again. Liz, what a gal. I bought $20.00 worth of beer tickets that we did not use so as the night was ending Liz and I roamed the auction and handed out beer tickets. Compliments of Sonoma Wings and Cloud Street Gang. People thought we were wonderful. Good PR and alot of fun. Camping at Bob Wirths place where he said we can land was awsome. Anyway, that is my take on the weekend. It was great - didn't want to come home.

~Donna

rjbay Elk Creek Fire Dept.BBQ
Good to see all you guys again!
I can say all the Cloud street gang pilots really apriciated you guys showing up. see ya soon.
Bob

Allison Scott Flying 3/29-30
HI All,
Flying Elk this weekend was great! Panties and rigids all in the air at the same time. No records set(sorry Kurt) but lots of fun anyway. Most of you probably met Catherine at the last meeting, she's a new face in town for a little while, we got to enjoy her company this weekend and she got her first flight off of Elk. Thanks to Linda, as usual she put on a great spread for all of us...good food, and awesome company! Albert had great flights both days, averaging about an hour each day...(getting ready for King :D ) He's still getting used to his new Vulto harness, but it looks awesome in the air, and he says it feels great too. Thanks you Linda for driving, and Susie for taking care of Nova. It was great to see everyone, lets do it again real soon.
Allison

Brian Padgett Re: Flying 3/29-30
Radio Check... Has anyone seen an LZ? Oh there it is... was.
Yes, a great time was had by all that went!! And we thought we were not going to get any flying in because of an East wind. Never listen to those weather guys; launch was great even for this newbie. Staying up on the other hand... I have a lot to learn! The thermals were light and I just have got the experience in enough lift to hang with the big boys! My time will come, and then look out everyone! :D I just look at it as more focus on landing in these new sites. :\
Thank you Linda for driving, catering, caring, EVERYTHING!!! You are great! I still owe you that bottle of wine for the loaning the vehicle so I could get a second launch on Saturday. Michele had a great time meeting you and everyone and loved driving your F150. I guess I know what we'll be looking at in the future (in blue I think).
Saturday evening was a blast too. It was a lot of fun to see everyone having such a great time and we were not even in the air!
This is an amazing group of people and you all have made me feel at home! Kurt is the most optimistic guy I know! He will always find a way to get us in the air! Todd shared his words of wisdom and had me thinking about a lot on the way home. Rich the ALL KNOWING is great. I feel like I can ask everyone questions even when they are silly. Albert and Allison, what can I say... You are great! Gregg and Katherine, the baggie crew... Amazing people! Bill, thank you for the ground support! Sorry you were down early on Sunday. Thanks to the kids and ladies that I did not name for cheering us on! Thank you everybody!!!
Your Friend,
Brian

Albert Branson Monday Flying - 4/7
Was a fun day at St. Helena. Allison and I met with Chris Arai, Justin, Anthony and Scot. I forgot just what a pain in the pizazz it was to hike out to launch. Oh well, a bit of exercise did me good. I was last off watching everyone else get high over the mountain, but I worked hard to get up in punchy lift. Finaly made it over the top after 20 minutes. The view is spectacular this time of year and with the visability so clear. The Sierra and the coast were both easily visable. Flew out to Jane's for a bonk landing in a field full of Lupin. This harness is going to take some getting used to. Let's ALL get some airtime together soon.
Albert

  Vince and Rich in Florida - 4/12-26
Vince and Rich are in Florida for the Quest and Wallaby competitions.

For the journal of their adventure, Click Here

Brian Padgett Elk, Fri. 3/28
WE BE FLYIN'!!
Kurt and anyone else wanting to fly Elk...
I am packed and ready to go. Kurt I left a message with one of your girls at 9:30 to call me back. Hope you get the message. If not... here is a back up.
Elk was launchable today if you had faith and were ready for a possible cross or change. I was on launch with Linda but no other pilots. I was set up and hang waiting for over an hour. It just didn't feel right even though there were a few nice chances when the wind was coming in pretty straight. I chose not to launch not wanting to take the risk and not seeing anyone else launch. The wind was coming in was very light then crossing from the east as predicted. It was a beautiful day spent on Elk with my son Austin and Linda even though there was no flying today (Friday). Austin sure wanted his dad to fly, but it was a good lesson about safety first. But I have hopes for tomorrow, so give me a call!!!
I believe Rich will also be flying Elk tomorrow. I am calling Linda at 7:30.
-Brian
PS. I will be up and jonesin' to fly be 6:30am Never too early to call about flying.

Greg Sugg Re: Elk, Fri. 3/28
Brian, Excellent judgement! The problem at this stage for you is that you don't know what it is that you don't know! It is very wise to err on the side of safety. Kurt and Rich and the others (myself included) have (slammed in enough times at Elk to have acquired) good judgement of the conditions there. With luck you may be able to learn from their experiences and advance at a good pace because of it. Good luck this weekend!

Greg
Dave Clement flight report 4/11, Mt. Vaca
After clearing some brush and shrubs the last couple of weeks, with the help of Chris Gallagher and my son Tom, the launches were ready to be flown from. One of these sites was an old launch from the early 90's, that flew off of , one the other one is a new one 300 to 400 hundred feet higher. Your all probably asking where are these sites? Well their on the Vacaville ridge that faces the west with no real LZ's at the base. This site has to be flown on days where the take-off will let you climb up and over the back side to the east. Pucker factor ! So with the help of my older brother who was visiting we went up to the ridge and I set up to fly. The cycles were coming in steady between 10 and 15 mph with only slight let off between them. So off I launched at about 3:20pm and I stayed up for about an 1 1/2hr. flight. The thermals were small and punchy but I mantained 300 to 1400 hundred over. That got me up to 4100 the highest for the day. Cloudbase appeared to be at about 5000 ft. My goal was to make cloudbase and head towards Sacramento. Maybe the next time I'll make it. :D
Dave Clement

Lori Allen Sunday, 4/13, at the Grade
Scot and I headed for the coast since it was looking strong and post-frontal. When we got there, it seemed too strong to me and I was in the process of weeny-ing out until Scot reminded me that it was a coastal site but it looked like it could start raining. In the meantime, we got busy trying to fix the zipper on my Sonoma Wings jacket. By the time we gave up on that, it was looking good and the cell to the south of us that had concerned me earlier had moved inland. So we set up and launched. Scot headed toward the Grade and encouraged me to follow. I was hitting a little sink not long after leaving the launch area but followed Scot anyway. Bad choice. I would have been fine if I had listened to my little voice and stayed around launch and boated around. Instead, I followed Scot, and his ultra high performance glider, who has tons more experience than me.

I made the Grade, sort of, although I'd give me a D minus. I made it to the area where it's easy to gain lots of altitude and I was able to maintain for a bit. Unfortunately, the wind decided to die and I couldn't get up and I couldn't get back. I had to land in Matt's LZ except I got rotored (in spite of the fact that I had pulled in like hell anticipating rotor) and ended up landing in a less docile part of that little "canyon" and my landing wasn't pretty, but I got away with just a slightly bent left down tube that Scot straightened out.

Yes, I got away with a bad decision given my lack of experience in landing on interesting terrain, but it doesn't excuse the violation of my commitment to not go where there isn't a landable field. Scot ended up having the same problem as me after Greg Hackett warned us on the radio that the winds had died off dramatically. I think Scot was hanging around to make sure I was okay and ended up having to make the same landing decision. Scot's landing was obviously uneventful and in a much better spot for hiking out.

For w