| Author |
Comment |
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buzzett
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Re: Stonyford
Parade/float - 5/3
Scot made it to the house last night and helped finish the banner.
We left for Stonyford at 7:00 am. The weather turned out to be nice
for the parade. The sun shined the whole time. Several people made
positive comments about hang gliding and a few of the locals were
glad we could make it over for the fesivities. We tossed candy to
the kids ( we need alot more for next year). As the guys finished
packing down the glider, the rain came. We made a stop a Granzellas
in Williams for Lunch and then drove on back to my place.
Thank
you to the members that showed up and supported our Stonyford public
relations ~~Scot Huber, Daniel, Rich and Linda Sauer.
Linda
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|
Hangfly
|
Rock
Report - 5/4
I know it's only Goat Rock, but it was good when I got there and it
was still good when I left. When I arrived at the Rock a little
after noon JB was in his car at launch he was already aired out from
flying earlier. I set up and launched right about 1:00. It was
straight in at 15 to 17mph. About 2:00 it started picking up and
getting better. I landed at 3:20, it was getting pretty strong by
then but still flyable. Saw lots of TVs, Ospreys and Redtails,
including TVs diving at each other. (mating ritual?) Flew to the
south end, north to the river and out over the Rock. Got to 750'.
Big Fun. Hope it was good inland too.
Hangfly :p
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| Jon
James
|
Elk, 5/4
It was pretty good at Elk.
Raining in the LZ at noon, we
hung out at Rich & Linda's
until 1:30. It cleared, we
launched starting at 3:30.
I got to 4700, went to Pitney, got
up again, got flushed
to the Thistle field. Matt met the same
fate. You couldn't leave Pitney. Kurt and Brian flew for a couple of
hours.
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|
Hangfly
|
St
Helena Flight Report - 5/6
Tuesday at St Helena was great fun! Right before I launched, just
before 2:30, I told Matt, it looks like there won't be any straight
in cycles or thermals. Then I launched and slowly climbed straight
to cloudbase at 4500'. Matt was just seconds behind me and suffered
the same fate. We spent the next hour and 15 minutes boating in and
out of the clouds around St Helena. When the rain was finally
pressing in we went out and landed in Jane's field FULL of lupins.
The whole LZ smells incredible. You will all get to experience it
Saturday. We expected to be taking sled rides and got awesome
filghts, sometimes really close to three redtails. Afterwards we
spent a nice couple hours with Jane.
Hangfly :b
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|
Brian Padgett
|
My First Mini XC
- Flight report 05/04/03
The short of it...
It was great!
The real
story...
Wow! I started out Sunday morning, ready to fly. I
called Kurt early and got myself together for a great day of flying.
After looking out side in Santa Rosa, I was optimistic, but then
talked to Linda and felt like no flying was going to be done. I
stayed optimistic and loaded up anyway. On the drive to Elk everyone
sounded a bit bummed but about all the rain we were in and how hard
it was coming down. Matt turned around and we passed him in Hopland.
Kurt was able to talk him into turning back to fly with just a
little persuasion and we all were back on our way to the LZ. John
was far ahead of us and we never reached him on the radio to hear
his thoughts about the weather.
We ended up hiding from the rain
at Linda and Rich’s for a while, and then decided to take off for
the LZ when we saw a blue hole in the sky.
We grabbed the buckets
to help fill in the roots and on the way, it started raining once
again. It was raining enough that they were chasing the dirt bikers
out and making them go home. We were persistent about flying so we
hung out in the LZ in the rain talking about how much fun we were
going to have in the air. Matt put on his hood and shook head, Linda
and I hid under Gregg’s umbrella while John and Kurt stood under the
soaked gliders.
After a little BSing we thought we better go up
the mountain so we do not miss the next blue hole. On the way up we
pulled over scooped up wet gravel for the roots in the road and
continued onward. The gravel is really helping, so hopefully pilots
continue to help out with that. :)
Once we reached launch we got out of the trucks and looked
around. It was still raining, but the wind was coming straight in on
the North launch. We waited through the rain a little longer and the
next thing I know, Kurt was unloading his glider. I saw it as a sign
and did the same. Everyone was setting up as quickly as
possible.
I took a little longer getting ready since I was
setting up the Mosquito.
Before long John Launched, he looked
great and went right up. He didn’t hang out and Elk long. Matt went
shortly after followed by Kurt. Launches were looking great. I got
everything together, hooked the Mosquito on the Eagle, strapped in
and was soon ready to launch.
Linda guided my nose and Gregg
guided my Mosquito tall over to launch. I was over heating getting
ready, but knew I would be fine and happy I suited up so much once I
was in the air. Linda and Gregg watched my wires and I launched
unpowered with great success. (Thank you both!)
I hung out at Elk
knowing that everyone else had already left. After I got to 4500ft.
I decided it was time to catch up with the rest of the group. I
started the motor to ensure if I started to sink out that I could
get back up. I shut off and went for Pitney. This was a first for me
as I have never left a flying site before!!
I was
looking forward to my first XC. I heard that John was sinking out
and Matt got the same a bit later. It sounded like a long XC was out
of the question. :(
I am not
sure how long they stayed up, but they seemed to be happy to fly on
such a crappy start of a day. On my way to Pitney, the sink was just
too much for my glider so I had to power up and make it assisted by
the Mosquito. I was over Pitney at 4500ft so I shut the power off
and folded my prop. I had a good glide down wind and found enough
lift to stay up on my own and have fun. I started getting my but
kicked south of Pitney so I tried to work my way back. With a good
head wind and too much sink I was down at 3300ft and too low to
think about staying up. It was time to power back up! I flew with
power for a while and made to cloud base or just above it. I shut
the power back off and found very little lift up there above 5000ft.
I flew down to about 4500 and found sufficient lift over a nice
little meadow. I hung out and left that spot several time. I was
lucky to keep Kurt in sight to see what he was doing. At time he was
above me and then I was above him.
A great time in the air was
being had by both of us. This went on for over 2 hours. I had to use
power at time to regain my altitude, but that is why I got the
Mosquito, right?!
Soon, I found myself in a lot of turbulence (or
punchy lift) and I was quickly getting sick. I felt like if I went
weightless one more time, so would my lunch! Sure enough… weightless
again, and shortly after that I had racing stripped on my harness.
:o
My
eyes were watering and I decided that it was time to land even
though I only used 2/3 of my gas for the harness.
The thistle
field was in sight where other had landed so I went in to land
there. I unzipped and my landing gear dropped down. There was some
turbulence on the way down from the ridges but I just kept the speed
on and stayed focused even though I was feeling pretty ill. I
finally did a completely correct landing pattern that I felt good
about. My down wind, base and final all felt right. I had enough
speed and everything went as it should. I heard the landing gear of
the Mosquito touch and at the right moment a light flare and it was
a great two or three step landing. I loving landing with the
Mosquito!! Kurt landed shortly after me and looked good. No one
could yell whack or run to put ice on his knee
I realize
something every time I fly. This time is was that I need to work out
a better head set for my radio. My ear piece fell out and soon I
could barely hear a thing. It wasn’t bad, but if we had gone on a
long XC, it could have caused me problems if I lost sight of others
or needed direction.
In the end, it was awesome! I wiped off my
harness and speed bar (and myself) and packed up. Now I know I need
to get some medication before long fights like that especially since
all my fights should be longer now!! I am still recovering today but
looking forward to a real XC soon.
Great flying everyone! See
you at St. Helena in the air!!
-Brian
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|
Dave Clement
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flight report
5/9
I decided to take a partial vacation day from the firehouse and go
flying with the boys. Since my fire station is at the base of the
mountain, I could go straight to work when I'm done flying. I met up
with Robert Moore and a new face (pilot) Dave Merry (something) and
of course our trust- worthy driver Janet. We headed up the mountain
and stopped at Juniper launch and ran into Chris and Scott already
there. We set up and watched a couple rag wings get up and over the
back side. The day was looking promising. Clouds were setting up
everywhere. Robert Moore launched first in his rigid and was only
able to scrape at launch for ever. Two other pilots launched and
they were able to get higher. I launched at about 2:30 and was able
to slowly work up above juniper ridge but was unable to make it to
cloud base. Scot launched and he slowly went to cloudbase and was
met up there with Dave Merry- and Robert Moore and they all turned
downwind and headed towards Antioch. I can't say how far they went
East so I'll keep you all hanging for now. I ended up flying for
just over an hour and landed on the hillside next to Blakes
Restaurant at the Boundary Oaks Golf course. I had the Boys on my
fire engine come and give my a ride back to my truck. Another solid
day on Diablo. :)
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|
Lori Allen
|
Re: flight
report 5/9
Thanks and keep those Diablo reports coming. It's nice knowing that
Scot's getting in some good flights. Tell him his girlfriend says
hi. ;-)
Lori
|
| Chris
McKeon
|
Flight report
5/9
Hi Lori.
Scott took the Southern route that day. My
Heloper-driver Mark chassed him.
The reason he went to the
South and not to Antioch, was because he had lost a tip wand for his
Atos in the field he had out-landed at during his last
flight.
He had left it in a field where he landed and the tip
wand
did not make it back into the glider bag.
He landed
at the Altimont. Then they drove to the field
and Mark found the
tip wand.
For dirving and finding the tip wand. I would like
to vote
Mark for........"Person of the Day."
The deal was
to fly on Friday, and then work on Saturday. Scott wanted to fly.
This was fine with me it
was Saturday.
But it looked like
a good XC day for sure. So I let Mark
take the day off to drive
for Scott.
I do not know where Scott went. I spoke with him
on
the radio just before he went over the back.
I hope
he had a good XC flight.
If he did get a good XC flight then
he will be in good
spirits for work on Monday.
My helper
Mark is turning out to be a good driver. I am
sure Scott would
agreee for sure.
All for now.
Best
Regards.
The Big
Guy.
|
| ben
|
Panoche: FIRST
EPIC FLIGHT - 5/10
Well, I've been somewhat worried that all my talk about how great
the Panoche V. is would soon be ignored if something didn't happen.
So here it is:
Don and I woke at 9 am to small cumies poppin
everwhere. In particular, right over launch. We headed up the hill
and were setting up by 11. We were'nt ready until noon, and by that
time the cumies were gone and the thermals seemed lighter. This had
been my
experience on previous attempts, so I hurried up.
I launched around 12:30 and was at 7k within 4 minutes. With
that altitude I started WNW along the ridgeline for about a mile.
Unfortunately, all my altitude was soon lost and I high-tailed it
back to Sampson Peak. By the time I reached our old launch, I was
500' below the peak staring down at the Valley of Doom. I thought it
was over, but another thermal took me to 6.5k, so I headed out
again, this time following a ridgeline nearer the road because I
didn't really think I'd get far. Luckily, the ridge was fairly
barren and treeless, and it's mile long length generated thermals
which got stronger and stronger.
At the end of the ridge, I
headed for the next ridgeline, trying to stay over the hills that
had already heated east sides and currently heating west sides. It
was up and down for a while, but I saw a big rocky bowl ahead that
would surely get me high. Still, I couldn't
make it, and for 10+
minutes I scratched and circled 100' over the trees just southeast
of castle rock. The ratty air kept turning me this way and that, and
I finally had to give up and turn to east (road) side of the ridge.
I gradually sank until I decided to follow a spine out to the road.
All this time I was only two hundred over the trees, and as
luck would have it, another thermal put me at 6k. At least I could
make the south side of Griswold Canyon--a flight that would be good
enough to get other pilots out there which was my main goal. You can
see from the map that there is a valley on the way. I sank through
this and found myself at about 3k over Borbas Bump (where we'll fly
this Sat.). There was ALOT of lift, but I couldn't get over 4k.
Still, I could see the Panoche Inn and was hoping I could drop in
for a beer and a great sandwich.
Giving up hope of getting
higher, I headed out over the flatland. My altitude diminished, and
at 600' over I had pretty much given up hope of making the bar.
Then, another thermal got me to 5k and the bar was easy. When I got
there, I started planning the landing, but another dang thermal got
me high and I headed WNW out of Panoche Valley. At this point I
began to consider heading for Tres Pinos. It certainly would have
been cool to land at Pat's training field, but without a driver or a
radio and only an idiot for company, I decided to had
back to
the bar and land.
I would have (really) but you guessed it,
I was back at 6.5k. Ok, I thought, maybe I'd rather land at Mercey
Hot Springs and soak while Don brings the car. So off I went.
There was lift over the whole valley, but not enough to keep
me from losing altitude. Also, I finally figured out (thanks to
cloud shadows) that I was fighting a head wind. To top it off, I
didn't have VG thanks to some sand from Marina Beach. Anyway, I
arrived at the pass dividing Panoche Valley from MHS and caught
another one. It was just enough to get me there.
I was about
1k over and again planning to land when another pesky thermal got me
to 6+k. Ok, I thought, maybe I would really rather have a beer and a
sandwich. So, I headed back. By this time of course, I realized I
could go anywhere. If I had had a driver, I would have headed to I5
and then North. There was not inversion over the San Joaqin that I
could see.
Anyway, I arrived at the bar and literally forced
myself down. It took a while, but there I was, 150' from beer and
food.
4 hours and probably 100 land miles.
So, a
couple points:
This site is f***ing unbelievable. It's like
a mini Owens. There is always a road and an LZ within glide. A
driver would not have to freak or stress or work to follow the
glider because it would always be in sight and nearby.
Second, you need to set up and be ready to fly by 11am.
Third, would you rather land by the bar or the Hot Springs?
See you next weekend.
See the map at http://www.edit-write.com/images/pioneer_flight.gif
ben
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|
Charlie Nelson
|
St Helena
flight report 5-10
Cumis and beer go well together.
The Diez de Mayo was a great
success.
20 pilots enjoyed sunshine and small puffs of cloud over
the summit, [cloudbase was +/- 6700'msl]... and Sierra Nevada Pale
Ale and delicious Mex food at Jane's field.
Many sincere thanks
to the members who put all this on! This was my 3rd Cinco , and the
flying was the best I've seen yet. I followed the west ridge off the
peak and found the smoothest ,most long lasting thermal I've seen in
years. The circular lift started off a grassy hillside at about
1500' msl and extended up to 5500, :-)
allowing
hands free climbing at 400-600 fpm. and it stayed right there from 4
- 6pm. I wanted to delay landing because it looked windy on the
ponds, and this thermal was fun...... elsewhere, according to
witnesses at the LZ , the westerlies kicked in around 3 pm, about 20
mph , and created quite a gradient about 15 feet high that made it a
bit tough to land gracefully. A good number of pilots chose to land
500' or more east of the big oak to avoid the tree line rotor. By
the time I landed at 6 it had backed off a tad so I could go for the
bomb drop and the spot. neither effort was a prize winner but I
nabbed the duration, 4 hrs.
Bob Storms had the closest spot
landing , 28 ft.
Robin Taha won the flour bomb drop. +/- 60
feet.
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|
Hangfly
|
St Helena
report
Well, a great time was had by all. It would be interesting to have
everyone who flew post their flight times. I think we set a record
for airtime hours in one day at St Helena. Besides Charlie's 4+hrs
Matt was just a couple minutes short of 4 hrs and there were a lot
of flights well over 3 hrs! It was really cool to hang out in the LZ
and watch 20 gliders in the air at once and to see them raining out
of the sky in the end. Jane was very pleased with the whole affair.
She loves her jacket. Thanks Roy. We were visited by several
friendly land owners from the surrounding area. One may have a
possible training hill. We did a thorough walk about of the grounds
at the end of the day yesterday. The #1 item of trash I picked up
was plastic seals from water bottles. Four pilots flew Sunday, Me,
Todd, Kurt and Lou. We had two hour flights with rough air over the
mountain and very smooth light lift over the valley. Todd tried to
make Crazy Creek butts came up a little short.
Hangfly
|
|
Daniel Pifko
|
Flash: St. H
Newbie Has Great 1st Time, Thanks Organizers
This was my first flight off St. Helena, and I couldn't have asked
for a better time.
As appears to always be the case at SW
events, I found only friendly and smiling faces all around. The trek
up the hill zoomed by with anecdotes and chitchat and the pilots in
the albeit crowded setup area were nothing but accommodating.
The air was Goldilocks fat. Not too rowdy and not too light,
but juuuuuuuuuuuust right. I must fly that place again real soon
now.
The food and fun in the LZ was great, other than the
target being a half mile from its rightful spot under my flour bomb.
Thanks to everyone who organized the day, and special thanks
to those who pioneered the site and keep it open. It's much
appreciated.
Daniel
|
|
Ernie Camacho
|
Some
photos
Here's a few photos I took. I wanted to document everything, but I
was a bit too busy to take as many shots as I wanted. I know others
were snapping away so send me your shots and I'll add
them.
And, if you want to add to the caption of any of these,
send me the text and I'll add it.
Click here to see the photos
|
|
Hangfly
|
Reports
Cool pics Ernie. How can I do that with mine?
We need to see
more flight reports. I told all the locals I talked to to check here
and read about people's flights. Don't disappoint them. Out of 20
flights there must have been a few more interesting tidbits. Was the
air crowded? Did anyone fly to the end of the valley and
back?
Hangfly
|
|
Ernie Camacho
|
Photo
software
You can get a copy of Adobe Photoshop Elements at Costco, I
believe. It's about $40. It is a lite version of the full-featured
Photoshop, and allows you to do a lot of things with your digital
photos. One of those things is to assemble a bunch of photos into a
web-based photo gallery. Then all you have to do is copy them up to
the web somewhere. If it's club-related I can put them up on our
website for you.
So, all you folks who were at the fly-in,
send me your photos, and submit your stories right here.
|
|
cccfpd (Dave Clement)
|
Re: St Helena
flight report 5-10
I'm very lucky to have met and flown with so many great pilots and
friends of the Sonoma Wings Club. Saturday was my first flight off
of St Helena , and what a nice flight it was. My son Tom came along
too and helped his old dad carry his glider and gear to the
take-off. Then he went back and helped Kurt carry his rigid and
someones harness to take-off. I'm hoping that I can get him started
this summer with some lessons. I'm looking for someone who is
qualified to teach hanggliding locally. Please give me a call if you
can help us. Back to my first flight, it was fantastic. Almost 2
hours in the air and a great meal afterwards, it just doesn't get
any better then that. Mt St. Helena will certainly be in my future
more often. Thanks Todd for the ride up also, I owe you some fuel $.
Looking forward to the next outing with these wonderful pilots and
families. Hope to bring Fred next time. Thanks Dave Clement :D
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|
Ernie Camacho
|
More
photos
Here's a bunch of photos taken by Charley Warren, with a few by
Donna Matthias. They were taken on the Tuesday before the fly-in and
during the fly-in.
Click here for Charley's photos
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|
Chris Gallagher
|
Great flyin and
feedin
Here is my two cents worth. I don't know how long I was in the air
cause I didn't check my watch or set my chrono on the vario. I do
know I had a great time in the air and on the ground. I just turned
the tips up on my litespeed and was eager to see if it thermaled any
better. It did. I launched right after Justin went almost straight
up in his paraglider, into a nice thermal, right under a passing
cloud. Got out in front of launch and cranked it up to 4400 ft right
away. I followed it behind launch until I lost it then fought
massive sink just to clear launch.
I then flew
out to the spine and looked up at several gliders way above the peak
and tried to figure out how to join them. I worked broken lift along
the spine and out in front of the north face for what seemed like
ages before I found the express elevator up.
From then on
it was up down up down from 6500 to 5500 for the rest of the flight.
I flew all over the mountain and looked longingly back at Berryessa
as the cloud tendrils were touching my sail but some days it is not
all about the flying. I began to get very hungry and as the sky
began to clear of gliders I knew I better get down to eat some of
that excellent mexican food. As a good Texas boy I have a major
addiction to the stuff. I flew out over launch and then went on to
use Joe Montana's as a turn point. The lift in the valley seemed to
be everywhere as I slowly worked my way down. It got a bit rowdy in
the last 500 feet or so and I decided I didn't want to embarrass
myself in front of the crowd or break my glider so I landed in the
big field with the smell of lupine all around. My lovely wife came
out to meet me with a cold beer and a hug. My friend, Steve, who
brought his family for the festivities came to help me carry.
:-)
It doesn't
get much better than this. Beautiful weather, great flying, good
food and wonderful companions. Deborah, Steve and his family all had
a great time too.
Thanks to all who made this possible.
Sunday was mothers day so I gave the day to my wife and family. Hope
you were able to kill the keg.
|
| Scot
Huber
|
Flight Report
/Diablo 5-10-03
Got off the hill early as it was looking good. Nice fat cumies and
high cloud base. Scratched down Lime Ridge NW of Juniper launch
loosing 500' before I found a good core to 5000. Headed over the top
and climbed to 5200 before heading toward Windy Point to the SE.
Winds were from the west down low but NW above 5000. Figured if I
could get south of the Altimont I'd have a tail wind so went for it.
Got low at Windy but used ridge lift to work along toward Brushy
Peak. Was down to 1600' in front of Brushy but got a garbage thermal
off the land fill and worked it up to 4700'. Crossed the freeway low
to the south of the Altimont Pass but found a nice core back to
5000'. As soon as I was past the Altimont the winds went NW at 10. A
nice cloud street was in front of me and my driver (Thanks Mark) was
under me. I found a ripper a few miles farther south and was off and
running after a slow begining. I was topping out around 6000 and
making good time until I really had to pee about the 50 mile mark.
Lost 3000 ft taking off gloves and getting it done. Was out toward
Hwy 5 at Crows Landing exit and unzipped with a few more turns left
when I got a low save, which I had help in finding with 3 Redtails.
Back to 4000' heading down Hwy 5 I got low where I had landed on my
last flight but had enough altitude to work light lift until I found
a good one right at the dam on O'neil Forebay to the west of Santa
Nella. This one took me to 5000 and drifted me over the bay. I'm
guessing the afternoon sea breeze and warm valley air were
converging here as there was lft going off everywhere. I headed
south down five as it was getting late 6pm and figured the day would
soon be over. As I crossed the Hwys 152/5 interchange I got a boomer
to 6700 at 6:15 which was the highest I got all day. Go figure.
Worked the hills in zero sink for about 20 more miles and put her
down in a big field next to the freeway just south of the J1 Mercy
Hot Springs exit. It was 7:06. Mark was soon on the scene and we
whooped it up and celebrated a great day at( Ryans Place ) a good
resteraunt in Los Banos.
5Hrs. 43 mns. 102.3 miles Scot
ps,
special thanks to Chris McKeon
|
| Chris
McKeon
|
Re: Flight
Report /Diablo 5-10-03
To the team of Scot and Mark.
I got a voice mail
message from Mark today Sunday. He
sounded pretty tired. He said
he and Scot did not get home until very late at night. I think he
saiid he did not get home until 11:00 PM. He said Scot had a
_really_ long flight this time.
Being that Scot's Los Banos
XC was about 80 Miles I had good feeling that Scot might have
broken a 100
miles from Diablo.
Way to go
Scot!
Also we can not say enough about Mark my driver/helper.
He was the one who found Scot's tip wand in the
field.
He has been totally up for driving. And being a
Newbee
dirver he has done a excellent job.
I guess I will
hear all bout it tomorrow at work.
Best
Regards.
Chris.
|
|
cccfpd (Dave Clement)
|
Diablo
Report
After talking to Robert Moore on Sunday evening, I found out that a
few other local pilots also did well off Diablo on Saturday. Kevin
Dutt flew approx. 80 miles on a flex wing, a couple of rigids went
for about 55 miles each. Mark Grubbs and Steve (something) were the
pilots. Robert stated he took the wrong path and didn't go far.
Dave Clement
|
| kb6nyu
|
Diablo
5-10-03
Scot-
Good job and congrats on Saturday. Good thing for you
that you were on another frequency...we had to listen to Kevin
Dutt's VOX keying up through the whole flight.
-mark grubbs
|
|
Vince Endter
|
Re: Diablo 100
miler
Scot, congratulations! I told Nancy Saturday morning that it was a
100 mile day. I'm glad you proved me right. My shoulder should be
good enough to fly by this weekend.
Vince
|
| Bill
Vogel
|
Mt Diablo
Scot, when I saw your post, I could not believe it, never thought Mt.
Diablo had that kind of potential. I talked with Chris and he told me more.
Were you flying your flex wing or rigid wing? I tried to follow your
direction but do not know the area that well. I need to get a topo
and see what ridges you followed. Pretty amazing. Bill
|
|
Hangfly
|
Elk Mt
Report, 5/16
Saturday was windy and rough. Four pilots opted not to fly. Ray,
Matt, Charley, Greg S and Ernie flew. We got to 4500' in mostly
ridge lift with broken stringy thermals mixed in. I think I had the
longest flight, at 1:05. Everyone had good landings in the creekbed
dispite very turbulent conditions the last couple hundred
feet.
The club was not very well attended. Some locals who were
there to fly didn't even attend! Greg will be posting the full
report.
Hangfly
|
| MattsFlyin
|
Elk
The first annual meeting at a flying site was a huge...failure.
Poor flying conditions and even worse attendance at the meeting.
Who's idea was this anyway?
Oh
well, the few that did attend had a great time anyway.
Next
time I suggest we set the meeting place a day or two prior so we can
check the weather!! The whole purpose of this idea is to have the
meetings where we will get the highest number of members to attend
and to include those who live too far from Santa Rosa.
Looks
like the June meeting is back in town but I'll probably miss it due
to flying!
The July meeting could be somewhere awesome! Where
will most of us be??
Matt
|
|
Barry Levine
|
Owens Memorial
Weekend 2003
I hope Woodrat was fun--you missed some fun.
The NWS called for
general phatness Friday:
OWENS VALLEY AND ADJACENT EASTERN SIERRA
SLOPES-
> INCLUDING BISHOP...ASPENDELL...LONE
PINE...OLANCHA...MT WHITNEY
>
> NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE
LAS VEGAS NV
> 330 AM PDT THU MAY 22 2003
>
FRIDAY...BECOMING PARTLY CLOUDY... A SLIGHT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS
OVER
THE
> MOUNTAINS IN THE AFTERNOON. HIGHS IN THE MID
90S. LIGHT WIND. CHANCE OF
RAIN
> 20 PERCENT.
>
FRIDAY NIGHT...PARTLY CLOUDY... A SLIGHT CHANCE OF THUNDERSTORMS
OVER THE
> MOUNTAINS IN THE EVENING.
We drove down via
Tehachapi Thursday night, made camp in the Alabama hills
at 3a.m.
Friday we had launch to ourselves at Walt's pt, and
conditions
looked as good as promised. Windless, with first
cumuli popping before 9:30.
Scott got off first, I was about
fourth in sequence, at 11:02. I got up at
the saddle in big easy
lift (maybe we should have launched an hour earlier?)
and headed
north. By Whitney Portal, I was high enough to wonder why
the
radio was so quiet (turns out that I had neglected lock my
keypad, but I
wouldn't confirm that until after I had landed). I
didn't drop under 12k
from Lone Pine Peak until Goodale. Fluffy
white cu's around 17k, showing just a bit of South wind. The Wall
was just one more thermal
trigger en route. I arrived at Goodale
at 13k, left it at 15k (couldn't see
any evidence of my wreckage
there) and proceeded to Tinemaha, where a rigid
wing was already
high above me. I sank like a brick crossing to Tinemaha,
but
there was no evidence of West wind, either in my track or
in
cloudtracks. Actually, there were no clouds just here--just
Tinemaha baking
in the sun at 1pm. I topped out at 15.7k again
there, and was thinking of
crossing the valley when I blundered
into another core that took me to
17,842', still with little
drift. I set out gliding towards Black, through the usual howling
sink. Down to
11,8k over Lone Pine, I found a valley thermal and
climbed again to 17,8k. I
took the opportunity to thaw the valve
of my camelback in my mouth, take a
drink and a dried banana,
then arrived on top of Black at 12k. As I was
climbing over
Black, I got to watch two other gliders scratching its
surface. I
have never succeeded in climbing up on Black, and was glad
to
skip that stage this day. Topping out at 15k, I headed north.
At 11k over
Flynn's I got to experiment with unusual attitudes,as
I was pounded in the
Black rotor. The gliders lower than me were
having no more fun, and several
flights ended there that day.
Life was better after I got near Paiute. I
again climbed over
15k, then lost much of it crossing onto White. I found
myself
scratching up the face of White, on a phat day, from 10k. The
lift
was smooth, and I kept circling, from down below treeline,
wondering when the punchline would arrive.
At 15k I felt high
enough to pull on VG and point north. The vario didn't
stop
singing. Northbound at barstuff, I reached 16k, 16.5k, 17k. By
this
time, I was angling out towards route 6 and the edge of the
cloudstreet.
Finally, I reached Boundary standing in sunshine,
beyond the development. It
was disappointingly calm there. I flew
right over the peak without a beep.
By now I had run out of O2
(gotta get a bigger bottle). Since I had no radio
contact, it was
going to be Janie's. Big sink between Boundary and the
runway got
me down for an uneventful landing, 102 miles in 4hrs58min,
my
first 100miler. I pulled out the radio (confirmed that I
hadn't locked the
keypad), set it back onto our frequency, and
contacted Ryan. He completed
his first 100miler for the year
about twenty minutes behind me. He went on to fly another 100miler
Saturday, among the holiday crowd (60gliders?)while I chose to
drive. Sunday looked unpleasant enough that I tore down at launch.
Monday dawned bright and calm. I got up at the saddle, but it
took 40minutes to reach 11k. I started WORKING my way northward,
climbing on every bump, rarely getting over 11.7k. Finally I could
see Lone Pine Peak. It's tall, it's steep, it's out front, and it's
baking in the sun. Surely I could crawl up the terrain there? I
arrived below 10k, and scraped up Lone Pine's exquisitely rugged
face to 11.1k before jumping Whitney Portal. I made it back to the
same ceiling on the other side. Rather than run up the Sierra low,
as the highway got further away, I headed out. Scott had already
landed above Manzanar, and managed to lead me by the hand into a
thermal over his field. This got me out to I-395, and I managed to
connect the dots, drifting up the freeway in occasional bugfarts as
far as Independence before succumbing to gravity. A better pilot
might have crossed onto the skirts of Mazurka. 3hrs20min, never
above 11.4k for maybe 25miles. I would have been proud to pull a
long flight out of that day!
respectfully submitted this 27th of
May, 2003
Barry
|
| Scot
Huber
|
Owens Memorial
weekend/ flight reports
I took off late for Walts 11:37 Fri. morning. Beamed right up to
14,500 and headed toward Whitney getting to 16,500 before passing
over it. Beautiful cumy filled sky and a nice 10 mph SE tailwind
made the going easy. Any way I passed all the flexwings with Barry
the last at Tinnemaha where I was at 17,500 before heading out into
the valley. I only thermaled maybe 6 times the whole Sierras. Just
dolphin flying between 14,500 and 17, 000 and climbing to 17,500 at
Tinnemaha. I crossed following clouds and bypassed Black completely
coming in at Paiute at around 14,000 after catching good lift in the
valley. My driver had a tooth ache when I went to pick him up so I
was planning on an out and return, using my motorcycle to retrieve
my vehicle from the mt. It was sitting at the postage stamp which
was my planned landing spot. I flew to White Mt. and with virga
falling beyond it decided to turn back there. I was at 81.5 miles in
2hrs. 30mns. Wanted a 100mile out and return but not to be with the
OD. Anyway I flew 44 miles back toward Walts and then succumbed to
ground suck and the strong south wind. It was 5:16 . the return
flight took 3hrs and 7mns. to go 44 miles. I caught a ride with the
Berkeley gang back to my bike and then drove up and got the truck and
then retrieved my glider which was stashed in the mesquite back at
Aberdeen station Rd. where I landed. They had no room for my wing. I
got to Tuttle for a late dinner and then to bed about midnight.
I flew 125.5 miles total but my flight paths only crossed near
Black which gives me a 27 mile O@R to White Mt. for 108 GFI
points.
Sat. I decided to leave the bike in Lone Pine and do a
defined task which I had previously scoped out on the computer. I
also figured out a mount for my camera on the Atos on launch so got
off late again at 12:15. I flew over Whitney again but this time
right over the peak by 200 ft. Wanted to shout to some hikers but
none there as the Mt. is buried in snow. I flew to Mt. Keith which
is just past Mt. Williamson for the first leg. 20 miles. Got to
16,750 over Keith and headed for Mazourka Peak on the Inyos. Climbed
out at Mazourka and headed for Mt. Waucoba the highest peak in
Westgard Pass and my second turn point. took some work to get high
enough to make it there and out but finally did it after climbing to
16,500 at Mt. Inyo. It's 29 miles from Keith. I then turned and
headed for Cerro Gordo launch just south of Cerro Gordo Peak at the
south end of the Inyos.36 miles away. The lift was smoking over the
Inyos and I didn't turn for over an hour going 30+ miles into a
headwind of around 12 to 15 from the SEto SW. I stayed between
15,000 and 16,500 the whole way seeing numerous sailplanes all
around me but mostly below me. No hanggliders. I turned just beyond
Burgess Mine beyond New York Peak to get a wind indication on my
Aircotec. It showed SW at around 17 here. I was at 16, 000. I headed
to Cerro Gordo to the SE finding lots of lift with a cell developing
right over Keeler and approaching Cerro. I got my turnpoint and
headed for Lone Pine getting sleeted on passing through virga. Had a
nice rainbow behind me as I flew out into the sun. Hope I got it on
film. I wanted to complete a flight to Mt. Keith for a near 100 mile
triangle but it also had a cell over it and after working the
Alabama Hills for little lift decided it wasn't doable. so turned
back and landed in Lone Pine. Total distance on course was 101 miles
not counting the 8 miles I flew closer to Keith over the Alabamas
and back to Lone Pine. 5hrs 22mns. 101 GFI points.
Sunday was
clear with cirrus clouds so decided to head to Washoe and try for a
flight off of
Slide Mt. Monday getting some shots of Lake Tahoe
surrounded in snow. No luck it looked as bad as sunday so drove home
early to beat the rush.
I really enjoyed flying the task on Sat.
and landing 10 miles from launch was also great. I'm thinking we
should do more defined tasks and save our drivers and gas money and
hrs on the road for special days when it looks like a record is
doable. Maybe I'm just getting old
;-) Scot
|
|
Vince Endter
|
Re: Owens
Memorial weekend/ flight reports
Great flights for all who went to the Owens this past weekend. I
heard that is was the most crowded it has been in 4 or 5 years.
Scot, I'm glad to see someone else trying flights other than just
down wind runs. Rich and I have been trying to spread the word that
these defined flights can give a pilot a real sense of
accomplishment when completed. I have some ideas for the St. John
fly in.
Vince
|
| Leo
Jones
|
Defined
flights!!!!
Well!
Dare I say ITYS?
It takes a few seasons maybe,
of getting blown downwind, before you begin to see the
light!
Leo
|
| Scot
Huber
|
Defined
Flights
I guess the superior performance of an Atos makes defined flights
so much easier to accomplish that I find them now more fun, although
had I had a driver I probably would of gone for the big miles.
There's just not many places around here to accomplish a hundred
mile task but I bet a triangle from Hull to Elk to St John and back
would be a good challenge. Anyone up for it this weekend? Lori will
be here to chase and I bet Linda could fire up Rich for the
challenge. Maybe we could have different pilots starting from
different sites that way if someone goes down on route they could be
retrieved locally. We could all meet up after for dinner somewhere.
Who can you make it? Larry may come out with his new Bird too.
hh
|
| Ashley Groves
|
Owens
Flights
I had my intro to the Owens via Eric Froehlich, Wayne Michelsen,
and Ben Rogers. We met Rob, another fellow pilot that Eric knows, at
the site.
Saturday:
Rob had a great flight Friday, and was
willing to be driver. The four of us launch. WOW is all I can say.
It was a lot of scale to wrap my brain around. I am scratching, yet
I am at 12,000 ft, that's 8,000 ft above the valley floor. I topped
out at 14,600 and should of gone back above the peaks, but I was
playing it conservative and skirted the front fingers on my first
day.
Eventually I made a silly mistake of blundering into the
lee side of a mountain with the Southerly winds while low, and then
I just punched out to the valley. I got out at 9,000 and decided
just to boat over the valley floor and land. I flew to 395. I was
going to see how far North I could go but that involved flying over
some strange black swirls mixed with the sage brush. I was not too
sure what that was, so I decided not to risk landing there. That was
a good choice, as that was nasty lava fields.
So I flew back
South instead. The descent was bumpy and trashy, but I had a nice no
stepper in the sage brush. I landed North of the Rest Stop, at 34.6
miles from the launch.
That was the shortest flight in the
group. Eric cleared Bishop. Ben and Wayne jumped the valley and flew
up the Whites, but did not push through some nasty looking clouds
further North and also landed up along 6.
Sunday:
Eric
volunteered as driver. The day turned out to look light. Rob and I
decide to save ourselves for an evening flight when the predicted
Westerlies flow in, while Ben and Wayne launch. Both of them beat
our predictions and the bulk of pilots and land up near Big Pine.
The wind was South all day, so no evening flight
happened.
Monday:
Even lighter but nothing to save
ourselves for. Rob volunteers as Driver. Eric and I land at the
postage stamps (closest bail out). Wayne and Ben get to Whitney
Portal, but cannot climb above 11, 500. Not wanting to fly low and
far from the closest road, they land near Lone Pine.
At least
1 good day, and I had a great time.
|
| Bruce
Rhymes
|
Memorial Day/
Woodrat Mtn.
Greetings, from Lassen County! Back home in Susanville, I'm glad to
be able to put faces with the names I see on the Bulletin Board,
now. It was good to meet and fly with you all at Woodrat. Wish I'd
chased Todd and Lou, though! My tandem with Liz Hern was a fun
ending to the weekend, and her first-ever hang gliding flight...
felt like we ran a loooong way on launch, and the cycle was
definitely lighter than I'd prefer. Knew it was safe enough, but do
any of you have a critique for a Tandem 1 pilot? Wings were level,
nose attitude felt right for me, just a long run... lemme know,
anyway. The landing was fine, just tangled our feet up on the
one-stepper. She's talking about becoming bi-wingual, and we didn't
even soar! See y'all at King, if not before. -Bruce Rhymes
|
|
Hangfly
|
Re: Memorial
Day/ Woodrat Mtn.
This was my first time at Woodrat and it was lots of fun. I've
never flown with so many paragliders. At one point I was flying with
literaly dozens of them. Nasty wakes! I made a big circle around
one. That was cool. I only flew Sunday. I'm sure people who were
there for more of the flying will fill you in on their flights.
Here's what I know. Lou flew 18.5 miles, Todd 18.1. Lou and I
both flew for 3:20 on Sunday. Matt got chewed out by an angry
landowner. There were 17 Sonoma Wings members there. Please fill in
anyone I missed. If my memory serves they were Bill V,Todd, Lou,
Matt and Lori, Donna, Kurt, Brian P, Charley, Greg S, Gregg H, Bob
Stanley, Albert n Alison, Dianna M, Larry Smith and Chris G. There
were over 100 pilots entered. I'm sure more than that flew because I
wasn't entered.
Hangfly the Airhead
|
|
Gregg Hackett
|
Re: Memorial
Day/ Woodrat Mtn.
Last I heard there were 116 entered. It was very crowded in the
sky, especially with those pointy things flying so fast...;0).
Grant, Iris, Mark B. and I went down to Heard on Sunday but by the
time we found the LZ and launch it was blown out. We then went to
Potato Hill and flew Monday. I think Sonoma Wings had more people
there than any other group. It was a lot of fun and I would
encourage all to go next year (oh yeah, we did all go).
Gregg
|
|
Albert Branson
|
Re: Memorial
Day/ Woodrat Mtn.
Just wanted to put in my two cents worth. Allison and I had a great
time. Gregg Hackett, Thanks for saveing us a great spot to camp.
Matt and Lori, what can I say... you ROCK! The dinner we put
together Sunday night was awsome. Hanging with you at the fire was a
great time for us. It was great to see Billy V and Cathy there with
the "palace". Thanks for the ride up. I still owe you. Kurt, it was
fun to fly around above and below you as you skipped through the
sky. Brian, it was cool to finaly see you fly the Mosquito. Charley
and Elaine. So good to see the two of you out and about in the
flying scene. Wish we could have all camped together. Todd, Susie,
Kelsey, and Luna, always good to see your family. Lou, dude it was
fun to watch you take on the air, and do so well. I will drive for
you anytime. It was also a nice drive back to Lake county with you.
You are a cool person. It is nice to get to know you.
I think I
will return next year if I can see you all there.
Albert
|
|
Ernie Camacho
|
Flying Hull
5/24-25
I didn't make it to Woodrat. The transmission in my Land Cruiser blew shortly after I
got on 5, up by Willows. I had AAA tow me and my tent trailer to
Rich Sauer's transmission shop in Lakeport. Luckily the 2 tows were
within the limits of my Plus Card so I didn't have to pay. Rich
picked me up at the shop and treated me to a night at his place.
Saturday morning the Sauer family and I went to Hull where we met up
with: Gunter, Roy Wormington, Doug Carmichael, Shawn Stiver, Mike
Kunitani, Steve Acton, Roger Butler, and Andy Long. The sky was
clear but the wind was northy. At Timberline we had to wait for
short respites from the right crosswind, then two or three would
launch in a rush. The lift was light and broken, but with skill you
could stay up for a nice flight. I didn't work the lift as well and
landed in the slot (the regular LZ is under water) after about 50
minutes.
Mike invited me to spend the night at his cabin,
which he was preparing for the season, and get a ride home with him
on Sunday.
Sunday found only Mike, Shawn, me, and Shawn's
driver friend Jim, at the LZ. The cloud layer was low, around 5,800
at times, but the wind was straight in and we were able to play tag
with the wispys as the clouds blew through from the west. It was a
fun flight, and a nice weekend. I just wonder what it would have
been like if I'd make it up to Oregon.
|
|
Hangfly
|
Re: Flying Hull
5/24-25
Yea for Rich and Mike! We wondered all weekend what Ernie was
doing. Thanks for helping him fly.
Woodrat was lots of fun. I've
never flown with so many paragliders. At one point I was flying with
literaly dozens of them. Nasty wakes! I only flew Sunday. I'm sure
people who were there for more of the flying will fill you in more
on their flights. Here's what I know. Lou flew 18.5 miles, Todd
18.1. Lou and I both flew for 3:20 on Sunday. Matt got chewed out by
an angry landowner. There were 16 Sonoma Wings members there. If my
memory serves they were Bill V,Todd, Lou, Matt and Lori, Donna,
Kurt, Brian P, Charley, Greg S, Gregg H, Bob Stanley, Albert n
Alison, Dianna M and Chris G. There were over 100 pilots entered.
I'm sure more than that flew because I wasn't entered. Ernie, I'm
glad you were able to salvage your weekend, you would have had a
great time at Woodrat!
Hangfly the Airhead
|
|
buzzett
|
others
Vince also flew on Saturday. He flew up in his cardinal and landed
at gravely.
Linda
|
| Shawn
|
Hull Monday
Report
Monday at Hull started with a solid overcast, and no wind at the
lake. As the morning progressed, the overcast gradually burned away,
and by the time we got to launch around 1pm, it had turned into a
clear blue day. After watching a raven chase off a pair of bald
eagles at launch, I took off around 1:45. The lift was scratchy at
best, but I was able to work mutlple cores around the Red Spot for
around 45 minutes up to about 5900' before the lift was shut off
like a light switch and I flew down the spine to the airport without
finding a single workable thermal. The wind was coming off the trees
in the slot so I made a non eventful landing at the airport in 5-8
mph winds. After I launched I got to fly with one of the eagles I
saw earlier, he made a couple of turns with me at the Red Spot
before heading on his way. Awesome!
Shawn
|
| Dallas
|
Idaho over
Memorial Day
Hi all,
I woke up on Friday the 23rd at 6am to take my fiancee
to the airport and then went to work, finally left Sacramento at
3pm. Took me 1.5 hours to get to Auburn (should have taken 20
minutes) however from there on to Twin Falls, Idaho it was smooth
driving. Arrived at my parent's house at 2am MST. Fell asleep by 3am
and woke 2.5 hours later at 5:30am for the 2 hour drive to King
Mountain. Arrive at King at 8:00am, wait for about 20 minutes for a
fellow aerobatic pilot Dik Kalbus to arrive, throw on with him, pick
up a bagger and the three of us plus my dad (as driver) head up
Coyote Mt.
We're set up and running off the very top of the hill
towards the backside (east) directly into the wind. I come around
the valley, follow the ridge a bit to gain some altitude and arrive
at the LZ with probably 2,800 ft of play space (no vario). Give a
hoop and holler, and nail a 5 full rotation spin right off the bat.
Pull out of the spin, come up, nice deep stall, and slam the bar
back to my toes with my knees at my chin. Dive dive dive, ease the
bar up, ease it up further on up over the top into another sweet
dive for another loop and then one more dive for a kickin' rollover
to the left. Bring the glider into a tight downwind base and
screaming hot uphill final to a nice no stepper.
Dik follows and
apparently almost launches unhooked (my dad saw it and saved him
from who knows what kind of pain) then I guess launched nose high
and had quite an eventfull and explictive filled runout. He gets off
ok though, but doesn't seem to find the lift that I found and gets
to the lz with only enough room for a 120 degree climbover before
landing.
We try to break down quickly but its hard with everyone
in the lz wanting to ask questions and chat. Finally broken down and
head up to King for the afternoon fun. We should have gotten up
there 2 hours earlier :-( Most pilots that day got to around 16,500
and many went south to the Arco airport though a couple hopped over
the back past Coyote and went to another airport who's name escapes
me.
My mom has a nice chat with Lori (Hi Lori!) while I'm setting
up and by the time I'm ready to go the wind has really shifted from
the north. No one is willing to risk the north launch so there's
lots of sitting around waiting. Kevin Frost finally barrels off and
is followed by another guy in what appeared to be a lighten-ing of
the north to allow a couple thermals to come up the hill. Wrong.
They acutally launched into a pretty nasty rotor and get hammered
the whole way out the lz. This spooks everyone and all but 4 people
break down and drive down the mountain. The rest of us wait it out
and watch the virga and cells dropping out in the valley. Really
pretty.
Finally Dik decides to try the North ramp, barrels off
and goes through the washing machine in that crazy scary looking
valley. Comes out ok and puts her down nice. After we loose sight of
him the wind stops. I means stops stops. Like the wind sock and
streamers are hanging limp. There's 3 of us left, the other two are
still really spooked and are afraid of a cell that's dropping a good
amount of rain about 30 miles to the south of us (remember the wind
was from the north most of the day so what's the problem?). I get
annoyed waiting and push in front. Wait for the streamers to go limp
again, and RUN run run run run. Perfect no wind launch from 7500ft.
Sweeeeeeet. Fly out over the lz and immediately start going up. Make
it to 8,600 ft before I test the boundries of this 'thermal' and
find that most of the valley is lifting and the sky has become
completly overcast. Spooked of cloudsuck and the possibility of
gusts/changing wind directions and run away from the lift, find some
cold air and duck back down to the lz for a decent into the wind but
downhill landing.
I guess Sunday up there was good too (report
Lori?) but people couldn't break through 9-10k. I worked on a new
camera mount all day at my parent's house then Monday went 20
minutes to a small town called Kimberly where I did two flights (15
min, and 45 min) off a 700 foot tall 3 mile long ridge that faces
due west into the prevailing wind. Tried out two camera mounts and
had fun scratching 50 feet below launch for awhile before gaining
enough to top land both times.
Drove back Tuesday and went to bed
:-)
-Dallas
|
|
Lori Allen
|
Re: Idaho over
Memorial Day
Dallas, I don't have a lot to report. I had a soaring flight on
Sunday but sure as hell didn't deserve it. :(
Surely you
didn't miss my launch that caused such a social stir at upper. I
obviously have an issue with jumping into my launch the first slope
launch of the year after not slope launching for many months. Work,
weather and a knee injury (from a bonked landing dammit!) are my
excuses.
Was
going back to the training hill this week but I've been ill ever
since I got home on Sunday which may have contributed to my rather
lethargic attempt to get off. I did this last year at McClellan and
bonked in. This year I got away with it, but it upsets me more
because last year should have taught me a lesson. Next time no
flying until I've done some training hill warm-up launches. I've
still got to many cliff-launch/tow dolly bad habits that haven't
gone away apparently.
By the way, your parents were totally
cool. Your mother seems to take your aerobatic activities in stride
it seems.
Lori
|
| Dallas
|
pics
Like I said, I wish I could have launched 3 or so hours earlier to
get the good sun light and rippin thermals but alas. Anyway here are
some pictures to whet your whistle for the upcoming meet...
homepage.mac.com/dallas_w...inMay2003/
|
|
Greg Sugg
|
Re: pics
Dallas, You're our primary anti gravity and unusual attitudes
technician. I was hoping for a picture or two with the horizon
upside down :-)
.
Thanks for your fun reports.
Greg
|
|
Hangfly
|
5/31-6/1 Weekend Flight
reports
Hull was not very good this weekend. Wind was mostly blowing strong
over the back. Scot and I flew Saturday. It was an uneventful race
to the LZ at the airport windsock. Sunday a lot of Berkley pilots
flew as well as a bunch of Sonoma Wings pilots. It was a little
better conditions but still pretty much a flight down. The LZ was
certainly more eventful. One Berkley pilot slid sideways 50' on his
belly on landing. Justin groundlooped hard and got a little banged
up. He broke a keel and downtube also. There was a severe gradient
coming into the airstrip.
My son Philip saw two gliders over St
John Saturday. Who were they? Where did they go?
Charley :b
|
|
buzzett
|
Sunday
On Sunday Albert and Bill flew Elk with Allison and me as chase.
They both landed in the alternate LZ. After the flight, Rich and
Daniel joined us for a swim in the creek and cheescake to celebrate
my birthday. Thanks Albert and Allison for making it a memorable
day.
Linda
|
|
buzzett
|
Saturday
I didn't realize my Sat. report didn't post. Here it is.
Rich ,
Bill, Daniel and I drove over to Hull. The cross wind was stronger
than the week-end before. The boys opted not to fly. I got to have
a great visit with Lori as we raced Scot to the LZ. I hope your cold
is better! After visiting with everyone and shareing a bottle of
wine for my B-day, we headed home to get Kim and meet Scot and Lori
for dinner in Ukiah at El Sombrero. What a great week-end all
around.
Linda
|
|
Chris Gallagher
|
Flight
Report, Reno 6/7-8
I only had one day to fly this weekend so I went to Reno and met
some of the Diablo regulars. We drove up to Slide and when we got to
launch at 12:30 there was hardly any room left to set up. The place
was packed I'm telling you. The paragliders were way up there and
the hang gliders were just beginning to launch. This was my first
time at Slide so I set up and watched a few launches and climb outs
so I could get a feel for what was happening. I wound up helping a
few launches and before you know it I was the last one off at 1:32.
I went over to the chutes and worked one up to 13.5K by
drifting back over launch. The winds were just then beginning to
take over from the NW and it got choppy and broken so I decided to
head south along the spine. The sink was incredible there so I
jumped the valley and got over Duck hill with about 7.9K. I
scratched around there for what seemed an eternity and drifted SE
along the hills till I hooked one back up to 11.8K. I then went
North of the Carson airport and then back out over Carson toward the
valley, staying just west of Prison Hill and Hot Springs Mountain. I
got back down to 8K at the south end of Carson and worked one up to
11K and headed South to Minden. Got down to 7.8K SW of the Douglas
county airport and was looking for landing fields when I found some
very light stuff to scratch in. I drifted SE of the Minden airport
and slowly crawled to 9.3K for about 3 miles of drifting along
watching the sailplanes tow up, when I caught one that took me back
to 13K. I then headed for the end of the valley. I didn't think I
was going to make it through the gap as the valley climbs back up
toward Bodie Flat and got really low just South of the fish
hatchery. I found a nice big, flat field right by 395 and began to
set up my landing. I unzipped my harness and started my approach
when my vario started screaming at 1,200 ft/min. I was then sucked
up to 15K and was grinning from ear to ear. I headed out over Bodie
Flat on a long glide with the intention of jumping the low hills to
the east and heading back up the next valley. It was not to be. The
bottom dropped out and I set up for a landing at Holbrook Junction
where 208 connects with 395. As I turned up wind I stopped flying
forward. It was a zero to one glide into a stiff wind. I stuffed the
bar to my knees for a 2 to 1 glide, managed to fly over the power
lines and at about 5 feet from the ground the bottom fell out and I
sacrificed a down tube to the XC gods. I was all fired up and my
chase crew pulled up just as got to the road. We started breaking
down as quickly as we could because we needed to pick up another
pilot who had flown over the Pine nut mountains to just NE of
Yerington.
As we were breaking down I looked up and saw an
EMT walking through the sage toward us. I then saw a fire truck and
two paramedics in full turnout gear right behind him. I walked over
and assured them I was fine and talked them out of a medical exam.
After we chatted a little bit they turned around the other fire
truck and invited us to their barbecue in town. We went back to
breaking down and as I turned around I was face to face with a
sherriff who was standing right behind me. He asked me if it were a
"planned landing", to which I replied I planned to fly further but
when I couldn't I picked this field and put her down. He was happy
because he didn't want to file any paper work. After a short radio
conversation he was satisfied and on his way.
3 hrs 20 mins.
Go for it miles--44.15 (a new personal best, thank you)
|
|
Albert Branson
|
Re: Flight
Report
GREAT JOB CHRIS! Congratulations! A great story too.
Albert
|
| Bruce
Rhymes
|
re: Flight
Report
Nice going, Chris! Your flight beats my best flight at Slide, and
I've been there a bunch! We'll try to add more miles at King with
you and the rest of the bunch... Bruce Rhymes
|
| Dallas
|
My First XC! aka
I went to slide too...
homepage.mac.com/dallas_w...lide60703/
(I
hit the hood of my lens on the guard rail so it blocked the corners
of my lens which is why they're black, oh well still turned out
pretty good).
Short version: 2.5 hours, 32 miles for my first
XC flight ever!
Longer version: I was the first one at launch
at 9am on Saturday, but one of the last to finish setting up because
of mounting a camera and being an abassador of the sport to a couple
really nice tourists. Finally get ready to launch and waiting in
line I get frustrated looking at the paras and a couple other
gliders hanging out at 15k while no one is launching. So I move to
the east launch, as soon as I get over the rail, the somewhat south
wind stops, so I level the wings and run off in a no winder and
immediatley start going up. 3 turns later I look back to see the
lemmings pile off the mountain.
I stick close to the
mountains for most of the flight, only taking a quick detour out to
Carson City for a ride back up to 16k from a lonely small but
forming cloud before heading back to the range. I got to 16,200 at
one point according to the vario and also hit 1200fpm that was so
silky smooth and easy to core that I couldn't believe it. Most of
the flight was ratty in lift (but really strong if you could find
it) and 600-1000 fpm down outside of it. Flying along at one point I
felt some light lift, started to turn left, and saw a golden eagle
off to my right, when I came back around he was 250 feet above me so
I turned to follow him and was rewarded with a much stronger and
smoother core.
I landed at the intersection of 88 and 206
when the rotor from the westerlies and the wall of storm stopped me
cold. Nice big cow pasture, downwind, base, final to a no stepper to
the northwest.
All this flying right side up is messing with
my head
-Dallas
|
| Scot
Huber
|
Flight
Reports - St. John
Nice flying Chris and Dallas. Nice pics. too. Wish I'd have been
there instead of St. John. it sucked. I flew around for 2.5 hrs. and
never got above launch. Some serious inversion in the valley. Landed
in town. I'd be up for Slide again this coming weekend if ST. J.
looks the same as this week. Scot
|
|
Charlie Nelson
|
Slide
short version... 30 miles to Rte 88 at the Carson River
long
version...... This was my first XC off Slide. I assumed I was
following a seasoned Slide pilot, who turned out to be Dallas :-)
I was
below and behind him most of the way, , getting to 15.6 K west of
Carson City. .......... .. I didn't see the eagle , should've been
higher I guess. .......
Great flying Brian, you must have
skirted the OD at the South end of Carson Valley. I saw virga there
at 2 pm......meanwhile I was scratching down low at Verdi, headed
out to land at the foot of the Sierra near a golf course, and hit a
big bubble at 500 AGL that took me to 10,000. Dallas was a short
distance above me , in the same thermal. He went to 11k or more,
nice work. I landed by a big cottonwood for shade , next to the
Carson R., it was about 92 degrees on the ground,and cold above,
making for a tremendous day.
Thanks for the ride Dave, Dallas,
and esp. Sarah for driving.
the
other Charlie
|
|
Albert Branson
|
Last
Sunday at Hull (6/8)
Nice day at Hull on Sunday. There were great folks flying that I
haven't flown with in a while. I really like this time of
year....reuniting with people you haven't seen all year, meeting new
folks showing up for the first time. Andy Long was waiting for
Allison and I at the Potter Valley store at a predetermined time so
that we could ride to the mountain together. After two years Kemosbe
and Tanto ride again. The flight was not memorable in terms of epic
flights, but the air offered a good challenge. Not a lot of time
over the top, but great practice scratching. It was great to see and
fly with Mike K. Andy, Greg Sugg, Bob Stanley. Nice to see that Todd
and Susie showed up, although I didn't get to fly with Todd much,
it's always great to see them. Kurt was there with Donna and the
family for some tandems and rigid stuff. Met Doug and Cindy. Great
folks. I hope to see them at the sites more this year. All in all, a
fun day.
Albert
|
|
Ernie Camacho
|
Grammar
Alert!
Grammar Police citation:
a. "Andy was waiting for me at the
store"
b. "Andy was waiting for I at the store"
Which sounds
correct? Right. So it has to be:
"Andy was waiting for Allison
and me at the store"
And I can see that your comic book
reading has been slacking. It's Kemosabe and Tonto.
And who
is this Bob Stanley fellow? I seem to remember someone by that
name...
Good to see you had fun Sunday. Saturday was similar,
with the inversion keeping us from getting up. Although a sledder is
always more fun than standing on the ground, a longer flight would
have been nice.
The sight of that sky diver falling out of
the sky was fun. He opened late enough to cause me to hold my
breath.
Some of the Elk Creek gang - Bob, Bob, Ken - came
over to fly. It was nice meeting them.
It was nice seeing
Brian take his first flight off Hull, a place he'd been to many
times during his life, but never before seen from this new vantage
point. Several pilots experienced Hull for the first time this
weekend. Makes me feel old...
Ernie
|
|
Greg Sugg
|
Flying XC
XC rules! Those of you who haven't flown XC should give it a try.
XC is a new definition of hang gliding to those who haven't tried
it. It rejuvenates hang gliding for those in the sport over ten
years like Viagra rejuvenates other things for those in the "sport"
for over 60 or 70 years. Even if you haven't been a pilot ALL that
long, If your launch and landing skills are good, and if your
judgement is good, try XC.! you'll love it. "I guarantee
it"!
Greg
|
| Leo
Jones
|
Training
hill - 6/8
On sunday 8th June, Jon, Matt and Laurie, Justin and Karin, and I
went out to meet the Meyers at the Foot Ranch, and to check out the
possibilities for using a hill on their land for limited
training.
Bruce and Margery Meyer were very gracious and made
us very welcome. I put up some nestboxes for owls to control rodents
on their dam. We had fun checking out the training hill. I tried to
fly an old "Dream" that was a piece of junk with a horrible left
turn in, as I found out (see photo). Jon had more fun with his old
Magic. Justin wowed the crowd with his paraglider.
It was a
very fun and productive afternoon. I think Ernie will put up links
to photos.
Leo
|
|
Ernie Camacho
|
Training hill -
Photos
Yep, here's the photos Leo sent me. They're up on the web site, but
the only way to get to them right now is:
through this link.
I'll
make a link to them from the St. Helena page as soon as I figure out
what to call it, or when it becomes more of a sure
thing.
Great work, all!
|
|
Vince Endter
|
Regionals 2003 flight report (6/20-22)
I don’t know if there is anyone left that will read this, but here
goes anyway. Rich, Jon, Bill, Larry and I flew at the regionals at
McClellan this past weekend. For reasons that are too long to
explain, I did not enter but was a wind dummy for the rigid wing
pilots. The lift of Friday was good with climbs to 11,000+ for some.
The sink was greater than the lift a lot of the time. I made goal in
three thermals. At one point I left one at 10,000’ and hit sink
greater than 600 fpm until I was on final to land next to hwy 50 at
the dry lake. I hit a little lift and was able to work it back to
8,000’ and an easy glide into goal. It turned out that most everyone
was making low saves that day. Jon was the first into goal but he
was one of the first to launch. Rich was 6th for the day. Bill got
flushed and landed about half way to goal. Bruce Barmakian was able
to glide from his first thermal at McClellan to a couple of miles
short of silver springs where he had to climb a couple of hundred
more feet. His time was 43 minutes.
Saturday was much like
Friday but with a little less tail wind and stronger sink. I was
over Virginia City at 11,500 and my vario said I had Silver Springs
by 600’. I went on glide and at one point it said I had it by
1,600’. Then I hit the really bad sink. Rich’s vario said 1,500+
down at this point. Mine said 1,100+ down. My vario showed that I
was 1,000’ low to make goal at 8 miles out. I turned in some lift
and was back in the black. As soon as I left the lift the bad sink
was back and I had to stop again to take a couple more turns as soon
as I found lift. I made goal by 200’. Rich was down so low a couple
of miles from goal that Jon (who was above him) said he did not see
how any air could get under him to lift him up. He pulled it out
though to win the day. Jon again was first to goal and was also one
of the first to launch. Bill made it and came across goal 3000’
high. He was having trouble coming down.
I left for home
Sunday morning after getting Scot’s WW control frame wires set up.
Linda called and said that Jon was again the first to goal and that
Rich had the fastest time to goal. Rich finished 3rd for the meet.
Jon said he had never been first to goal before this and now he does
it three times in a row.
Vince
|
| Dallas
|
Good
fun
Thanks for the report Vince. I free flew up there so didn't really
follow the comp. Here's the story I posted to FlightPlans:
I
went to regionals this weekend with Eric Froelhic and Ashley Groves.
We met up with Dave Merriman early Saturday morning in Carson City.
Dave is flying Clifton Moody's WW XC on account of doing a downwind
landing the day before and breaking a le on his Stealth. Dave sets
up first and goes to launch. Mushes off and takes out a downtube :-(
The rest of us launch near the end of the pack. We all get up and
Eric, Ashley and myself head over the back at different times and
altitudes. I go around 9,800. I continue my reign as the
one-thermal-wonder and find nothing but sink and dolphin flying all
the way to Dayton or about 15 miles. Eric makes it further up along
50 and Ashley wins our little group day by making it to the dry lake
bed. Dave drove, and after stopping at Ray Leonard's for a new
downtube picks us up.
Dave has the darn swell idea of
breaking down lickity split and hustling back up the mountain for
the glass off. We do, and Dave gets off first, then Eric, myself and
Ashley. Its blowing pretty darn strong but silky smooth. I had a
crumby launch but pulled it out ok. We soar around for about an
hour. I kissed 8k a couple times but that was all the higher we got
and had to be pretty careful about penatration. Dave and I decide
its our "mission from God" to terrorize Eric, and we chase him all
over the sky doing wangs and spins and flying tip to tip and trying
to get Eric (the only topless in our group) to let us stand on his
wing. Eric doesn't think this is near as much fun as Dave and I do
and keeps flying away :-) Eric and Ashley land while Dave and I
slink over to Duck Hill which we work for probably a dozen passes or
so, never more than 150-200 feet above the ground doing real slow
and flat turns, just milking every bit of it. We land after the sun
passes below the mountains. Sweeeeeeet.
The next morning,
Sunday, we launched from Slide. Dave is going to drive and we
corrdinate radios w/a great group of Berkeley pilots. I get sucked
into ambassador work and spend a good hour talking to tourists so am
the last one off in our group. Things were looking pretty weak but
we all get up and are flying around. Most headed across the valley
at about 12,700 while I'm at about 11,500 (being late off the
mountain and all). We all arrive at McClealan at about 9,100 and
right when we get there all the comp pilots start bailing off below
us. Being a bit higher than the guys who left in front of me, I find
the real thermal first, get up to 10,500 and head over the back. I
hear Ashley is on the radio at 10k over Virginia City and that's the
last anyone hears from Ashley for about 7 hours (his story, he can
tell it). I end up flying alone going along 50. At least 3 times I'm
down below 1,000agl before finding a life saver back up to 10 or
11k. Lots of sink in between and really ratty when it was going up
and very light drift. I get past the big lake/resivoir and am on
course to make it to the 95/50 junction by Fallon. I hear Dave on
the radio telling me he's on his way about 15 miles from me but to
be aware the wind on the ground is 10mph from the North. Well, I
don't believe its blowing north down there as the cloud shadows are
still going from the southwest and that had been the drift all day
and the day before. I dribble along and am coming in to land at the
50/95 junction, turn to the south on final, cross through the
shear!?! around 75-100 ft agl *&^#@!!!! and radio to Dave that
I'm going down and am going to go down hard (you can use your
imagination for my exact wording). BAM! Black... I come to really
quickly, open my eyes and see blood. Lots of blood. "Dave hurry". I
stand up, unhook from the glider (its on its nose, wheels in the air
all aluminum intact!?!?) and realize that I don't hurt. Like nothing
hurts. I'm shaken but not stirred. Get my helmet off and realize the
blood is from a cut on my forehead but all my bones are where they
should be and seriously: nothing hurts, not even my head.
A
lady comes running up yelling to her husband to bring a first aid
kit. I told her not to bother because I carry one with me :-) She's
a nurse or something and cleans and bandages my cut. The cop that
also happened to see my wonderful "no-stepper" and the lady's
husband help carry my glider over closer to the highway. The cop
stays with me untill Dave gets there (only about 15 minutes after I
fell) and we break down then go grab Eric. Dave and Eric go on a
hunt for Ashley while the Berkeley guys give me a ride to the
emergency care center. There the doc superglues the laceration
together and tells me to not drink tonight and if I've already
started (duh!) to stop (shaaa!!) and that I can't sleep for 12 hours
and can't get the cut wet at all for another 48 (washed my hair this
morning in the sink). The cut is about an inch long vertical above
my right eye. With any luck the eye will blacken and chicks will dig
it ;-)
So let the Harry Potter jokes
begin.
-Dallas
PS 2:45 minutes and 50.7 miles on that last
flight! Whoot! Sail off inspection to follow. Hehe :-) So my totals
for the weekend are: 4h30m, 60-70miles, $350 bill for my insurance
company, and a smile that hasn't stopped yet.
|
|
buzzett
|
Linda's
report
The family pulled into Carson at 11:00 p.m. Thurs.and got a hotel
for the weekend. Friday looked pretty windy. Rich Finished fifth for
the day, but had a 14 minute spread between him and the first place
finisher. I helped with launches during the meet. Not to much
carnage. Saturday dawned and I was out finding 2 Harry potter books
at 7:00 a.m.. The kids decided to stay at the hotel and read by the
pool that day. Rich finished first for the day. Had the usual dinner
at micasa 2 and enjoyed everyones company. Sunday, Rich again
finished first for the day. The awards were held at Bully's sports
bar in Carson. 1st, Phil, 2nd Kenny and Rich third. Ray commented
that this was a very close race. Drove home and arrived at 10:30
p.m.. What a great trip. I got to visit with other drivers I hadn't
seen since last year and met many wonderful new freinds and drivers.
Great week-end
Linda
|
| Ashley Groves
|
Sorry,
I got excited and wrote too long
Early Saturday AM myself, Eric Froehlich, Patrick ??? (Saturday
Only), and Dallas Willis rendezvous with Dave Merriman in Carson
City. Time was wasting, so we ditch 2 cars and take two cars up
McClellan. Dave has secured us a driver, his dad and step mom, so we
are pretty pumped about all of us having X-C potential. The sun is
shining and our hopes are up.
We arrive to find the
competitors have set up and are waiting to launch. We all get to
work and are ready just when the last of the competitors are
launching. Almost all of us get off with good launches and Dave is
now the driver.
We are all in the air hunting for the
thermals. Dallas, myself, and Patrick are circling up above 9K. The
thermal dies, I am hunting around for another thermal when I see
Dallas heading over the back. We are at the same altitude, but he
has a mighty lead on me. I choose to play catch up; it is my first
time over the back of McClellan. Hot Dog!
I pull in to
follow. I am constantly at his altitude, but he has the advantage of
being further ahead. He circles... once. A little higher. I find
something, but it is small and ratty. I push on. The game continues.
Altitude is dropping. I realize my ploy is foolhardy, I'm playing
the leaders game, not my own. I find some light lift and hang back,
scratching in and out of a small and elusive thermal, but my gains
are small at best or I hold my altitude at worse.
My thermal
isn't a boomer by any measure, but I am up 100 or 200 ft every time
I check my altitude. As I watch I see Dallas fight a long and slow
fight but eventually he lands at Dayton. Or, in the terms of my
knowledge of the landscape it is: Down- the- only- two- lane- road-
off- 50- that- crosses- the- only- river- at- the- narrow- part- of-
the- only- naturally- green- patch- past- the- residential-
community- to- where- it- is- one- lane- and- he- is- on- the-
right- in- a- nice- clear- patch. Just in case we have to find
him.
Lift is small but always there. I loose it, hunt around,
head down wind and I find another snack in seconds. I drift this way
from the back side of McClellan to the far side of 50, over Dallas.
Breaking no land speed records I am finally at 9.5 K. The landscape
opens up, and I cruise down the right side of 50. Eventually I
ponder if I have gotten myself into a blue cloud street. Then I
notice the big cummies to my left on the far side of 50... all in a
line... that looks where all the gooood lift is.
I pull in
and jump the cloud street expecting sink, and I find it. Just cut
through until I hit jackpot I tell myself. The sink pulls me down as
I cover ground, but the clouds are never close enough. Far from the
cloud street, and far from 50, I cut my losses and return to 50
knowing the following sink will end my day. I have 50 on glide. As I
drop I go to open my pod. Where is my string? I fumble and fumble as
my easy glide to 50 deteriorates.
Eventually I curl up to
look for my string. Despite my preflight check the Velcro tab has
gotten loose. I reach down, grab it, and look up. Dang it!!! I have
gone 180 during my groping and lost valuable altitude and distance.
I am doomed to a good distance from 50, but fortunately there are
dirt roads below me. I pick a nice clear patch and have a clean
landing.
16.8 miles, and somehow the furthest for our group.
Upon breakdown I notice my VG is still wrapped around my down tube
for launch. I forgot to use it in my whole flight!
The crew
contacts me on the radio. Judging by the sun 50 seems to run SW. So
when they ask me if I am North, does that mean parallel to the road
or perpendicular??? After confusing them thoroughly they eventually
find me. I thought directly towards the sun from the salt flats was
pretty clear, but Eric rejected such directions.
I pick up my
harness and glider and get going towards the car. Dave gets a road
pretty close, 100 yards or so, and parks. I close in and they hop
out of the car just as the combined weight really is taking its
toll. "These guys are great", I think to myself in expectation of
the relief from the burden. But then they get into a discussion with
hands waving in the direction of the sun. I guess I deserve
that.
Dave secures a new down tube and is jonsing to fly. So
we head for a glass off on McClellan. I had imagined wonder winds,
but it is just strong head wind with ridge soaring. We all launch. I
did not find this flight a satisfactory as Dave or Dallas, but then
again I am not whooping it up with acrobatics. After a touchy fight
with some penetration, I land on the far side of the LZ. Eric, who
was on a mission to break a recent landing funk, had a nice clean
landing.
Sunday it is Slide, it is my first time there. The
sky is over cast with some altostratus clouds and we do not expect
much. I confirm with Dave the plan is to jump to McClellan over the
back and down 50, but I expect a fight against a sledder.
I
set up and hang back to watch multiple pilot negotiate the guard
rail and launch. Most pilots are scratching hard, some low or in the
bail out, but I see one pilot high.
Being one of the later
pilots my long wait is rewarded with a cycle that is much lighter
and slightly cross, but I run hard and have a good launch. On my
second pass in front of launch I blunder into a thermal that takes
me up to 12K. I see almost all the gliders below, but a lone Berkley
pilot above me, but my thermal gets rather turbulent and nasty so I
leave and look for another. My second thermal also trashes out at
12K, so I decide to test the air in the valley.
I pull on VG
and head out. The valley has some buoyancy, so I drift slowly. I am
over 10K and 2/3 of the way over to McClellan, so I radio my jump to
the guys. Committed, I head to McClellan. Dave had suggested
crossing North of McClellan as a better route, but I want to cruise
over the WW Regionals. I hit some mighty sink as I speed in toward
the competition. All the gliders are set up, two on launch but no
one in the air. I hope my victory pass over the group does not turn
into a sink- of- shame as I start dropping to 7K when I find some
lift. I return to 8K, fly over the top of McClellan, hit 10K and go
over the back. Likity-split. Maybe Kenny B. pointed out the climbing
LiteSport to the crowds.
I radio my jump over the back in to
the group. I find more thermals, and life is easy. I am slow and
patient. I am not racing, I just want to stay aloft. Eventually I am
over 12K and cold, so I leave lift and I push downwind. Near the
salt flats I radio in that I am at 10K. I see a small group of
competitors fly far below, I no longer have the air to myself.
Shortly afterwards my radio battery dies.
I watch the small
gaggle reach finish as the clouds and I drift lazily down wind with
the Westerlies. I am looking down, and several other gliders have
already made goal, slipped past undetected from my height. But the
are pointed E, into the wind. What is that about? I watch a glider
making goal land... but he never turns. Not down wind! Turn! But his
landing seems OK with some running. A second glider lands going
West. A slight bonk, but OK. What the??? I am confused. A third
glider lands going West, and the landing is clean. I spot some
water. East wind on the surface? Yes! West winds above? Yes! I feel
unsettled by this, but it seems true.
With my radio dead, I
decide to drift down wind (upper winds down wind) but not fly too
far down 50. I don't want some late night retrieve or other snafu.
Past an intersection that I later learn is alt 95, I half heartedly
laze in passing thermals. Eventually I get low. A few hundred feet
up I ask myself, "Are you really going to land going West?" All
evidence say Yes. I wish I had not left Eric's streamer in my
unreachable harness bag.
Then a gift, one last tell tale to
tell me the truth. A car pulls of onto a dirt road! But it teasingly
putters at 2 MPH, raising not a whiff of dust.
I unzip, and
pull in for some speed as I get low. I get upright. Power lines off
to my left, guard rail and road to my right, I pull in mightily. At
no more than 70ft up BANG! a thermal tosses my glider left, nose
down and towards power lines. No way man, and I fight back and make
a correction on course.
The thermal fights the glider, and I
fight back. Legs down and ungainly being tossed like a frog being
held for dissection, I am in the thermal. My vario screams 1K up as
I shoot up. But at this point the object is to land, and not
continue the X-C. On the far side of the thermal, I pull hard in. I
am going to land ½ mile further down the road now. Ground closes
in...air speed up... ground speed dropping! I am 10 ft up and
finally convinced of the wind direction. WHOHAW! The area is clear
of obstructions, I start rounding into ground effect, eyes on the
horizon, I have a nice landing in the bag. This is where I blow
it.
I have my right hand on the down tube, my left on the
control for speed. I transition my left hand to the down tube as I
push out... only my left hand misses the down tube! I have pushed
out only with my right! Quickly I give a hard correction with my
left hand but, like some sort of flailing monkey I miss a second
time!!! My spastic hand pushes only on air, and my weight follows.
With my weight left, right wing up and high air speed (Oh yeah,
still half VG too!) my glider banks hard left.
I get my left
hand on the down tube only after my left wing tip hits. I whimper.
The glider banks high and hard. This is not going to be a lazy
ground loop where you run into a uncoordinated heap, this is going
to hurt.
My glider and I are facing straight down. This is
probably one of my better wingovers, with the exception I am 6 ft
up. I have flown the glider as far into the crash as possible, I get
my hands off the down tubes, curl up and squeeze my eyes shut.
"F*CK!!!" A thud shortly follows.
Feeling nothing but dazed,
I open an eye. I see sky, sun, and a wheel. huh? I am lying on my
right. I spit sand out of my mouth and look around. I am laying in
the dirt next to my leading edge. The glider is on its king post,
but the sail is completely exposed to the East winds. I leap up and
quickly remove my carbineer before a gust pulls the glider over with
me on top.
I remove myself from the glider and give it a
quick inspection before I try to move anything. It seems fine! I
right the glider, quarter it to the wind, colors facing highway 50
about 30 yards over. I do a quick check and I am unhurt. Expecting
at least a bloody or broken nose, I find nothing, Thank You full
face helmet! I have a slight headache, a slightly stiff shoulder,
and a bruise below and above my right kneepad, which was almost
removed on impact. I think I saved my knee some serious grief by
wearing one. I recheck my glider. Down tubes straight... I feel no
defects felt in the leading edges... King post OK... Keel seems
OK...hmmmm. I will have to do a better inspection later, but I can
pack up like normal. The worse damage seems to be the mud.
Apparently my camel back had squirted water all on the undersurface
of my glider which immediately combined with the dust to make mud.
Miles in the dry desert and my glider gets muddy. Figures.
I
do find the trace my wing tip made in the sand. And the impression
my body made in the ground. Head, neck, torso, leg, knee, feet, all
there. Thankfully the sand was so soft. This could have been so much
worse. Literally inches from my face, my glider's leading edge had
unearthed an ancient and desiccated cow pie...
This was about
2:45 PM and 39.4 miles. Not a bad day, crash excluded.
So I
get my back-up battery into my radio turn it on, then pack up my
harness and glider. Attempts to raise the ground crew failed. A car
with a man and a women pull over and ask if I am OK. I tell them I
am fine and people are coming. They mentioned something about a
crash of an ultra light down the road. I make some small talk and
warmly thank them for stopping. In hind site I now wonder if these
are the people that helped Dallas.
I sit by the side of 50
and wait. Hungry, I snack on some of my emergency desert rations...
some beef jerky. Which was good, because I was miles away from
anything. A cop car pulls over and also asks if I am OK. I tell him
the same thing as the couple and thank him. He mentions there were a
lot of gliders landing up and down the road. I now wonder if this
was the cop that stopped for Dallas. After 30 minutes I figure
something may be wrong. I had drained my camel back while eating, so
I refilled it with my reserve water, stashed my harness and glider
in a ditch out of sight, and started walking. I had expected to see
the Dave mobile any moment coming down the road, but it never does.
At 7:00 PM and 4.5 miles later I get to a phone, but I have
no one's cell phone numbers with me. I think and the only phone
number I know that could be helpful is Rajiv. I call him and there
is no answer, so I leave a message. 7:30 the same. By this time the
crew had gotten worried. Calls to my wife (who was not home), to the
State Troopers, to other pilots all turned up nothing. Later I would
learn that during this turmoil Rajiv was at home and was snoozing on
the couch watching a boring movie on TV. At 8PM Rajiv answers just
as the machine picks up.
Rajiv doesn't know any of these
phone numbers, but he gets to work. Eventually he gets Wayne's home
number off the Yosemite trip list and gets the info from Wayne. I
finally get back through to Rajiv around 8:20 and call Eric. Thus
the retrieve is concluded.
It is still a little uncertain how
the retrieve had missed me. It seems like I was ahead of Dallas
time-wise. I launched earlier, passed McClellan before pilots
launched, and flew a shorter time, 2.5 hours. Clearly they had
passed me to get Dallas (he was 10 miles past me on the road) and
after the retrieve.
I was in very clear view of highway 50.
Maybe 30 yards, unobstructed view both ways as I was in an empty
field. But this was at a slight curve in the road and not a
straightaway, so I would be in view for only a few
minutes.
Dallas had written, "The cop stays with me untill
Dave gets there (only about 15 minutes after I fell) and we break
down then go grab Eric." This would have put Dave rushing to Dallas'
position when he passed my location, (about 10 minutes down the
road) and was probably going pretty fast and not looking around like
a tourist while I was busy packing up.
They then had to pass
a second time. Dallas was probably still pretty dazed, and Dave was
probably not expecting me a mere 10 minutes down the road on ground
he had already passed. I should have spotted them on the return,
provided I was finished. Dave was helping Dallas pack up, so it
could be possible that they were ready first. I was finished and
sitting by the side of the road at 4:35 PM.
The only time I
was out of sight was when I stashed my gear and when I later got my
water. Both of these times would literally have been maybe 30
seconds each out of the 4.5 hours I spent out there, and would have
to have been incredibly bad luck if that is when they
passed.
Another question is why I did not hear the chatter
between the car and Dallas as Dallas passed overhead. I should have
definitely been able to at least hear Dallas on the radio. I did
notice the antenna was somewhat loose on the long walk back, and it
never was before. I may have damaged it in the crash. I have to
inspect this as well as my glider now.
After getting Dallas
stitched up, the search resumed. Upon getting back to 50 alt 95
junction Dave and Eric cruised up alt 95N looking for me.
Unfortunately this was never mentioned before, but it is the typical
route. I, like Dallas, had stayed on 50, the plan before launch.
After checking 95, they returned to Washoe. They talked with other
pilots, none of whom had seen me. As most pilots stopped at goal, or
would have gone up Alt 95, none had passed my location. After that
thoughts of my landing out in the desert went wild and tales of my
demise became exaggerated. But truth was duller than fiction; a
recheck of highway 50 was all that was needed.
The retrieve
turned out to be kind of a bummer that day, but all in all I had a
great time, a great adventure, and some great flying. It was a good
way to observe the summer solstice.
Take home
messages:
Whether you are driver or pilot, be sure everyone has
everyone's cell phone#. It can save a lot of hassle.
If you
have the option of choosing your landing, land near civilization,
where there are phones (and beer).
Some Firsts:
First time
over the back at McClellan.
First time at Slide.
First time
over 10K in Reno.
Some not-so-great firsts
First time
needing reserve water.
First time needing reserve food.
First
time being thankful for full-face helmet.
First time being
thankful for wearing kneepads.
First time biffing hard into the
ground.
Some notables:
Saturday X-C flight broke my
75-hour mark.
Sunday is my new personal best record for X-C, 39.5
miles.
Eric "In a landing funk" Froehlich gets the golden landing
award. He is the only one in our group who did not pummel his body
into the ground.
|
|
Vince Endter
|
Rich's
track log from Friday
|
|
Vince Endter
|
Rich's
track log for Saturday
|
|
Vince Endter
|
Rich's
track log for Sunday
|
| asaceu
|
Flight Report over top Regionals - washoe valley (6/23)
Although I paid to enter regionals - I crashed, and crashed again,
THEN w/ a new DT from Ray, flew aerobatics w/ dallas in the
glass-off, skipped out on the party and ended up driving for the
non-entrants at slide. Some sacto / sonoma wings / and bay area guys
flew over folks at regionals. Even on a marginal day - some
performed their personal bests at XC. Dallas and Ashley flew beyond
Silver Springs.
www.todir.com/hang
|
|
|
King Mt. 2003 - 6/21 - 29
The week at King is documented in pictures and stories on the
King Story page.
Here's the links to just the 2003 King stories:
Photo Gallery (over 200 photos)
Ernie Camacho's Report
Kevin Frost's Report
John WoiWode's Report
HG list discussion
|
|
Andy Long
|
Hull, 6-28-03
Saturday found 8 of us up at Timberline at 1 pm. It was pretty warm
at launch, no doubt from the scorching airmass of the past few days
still hanging about. But at least it was coming in lightly at
launch. Steve was off first, went right and began climbing out in
front of Lower Launch by boating around without 350ing much. This
was surprising, inducing the rest of the gang to suit up. As Brian
Scharp waited on launch, Steve left the upper part of the mountain
for some reason and headed for Red Spot.
Our spirits sank as
he hit nothing but smooth sink as soon as he left the launch bowl
area. Brian launched soon after, went right and slowly started to
climb out in front of Lower Launch in his vintage Gemini…
thermalling very slowly, doing a great job, and not showing any rust
from his long break from flying.
But after a few minutes of
the widespread sink that followed, he was digging down low in front
of launch. As I got in line behind Roger, the group watched with
great interest as Brian hung on by a thread way down there. At the
same time, the launch conditions deteriorated, going from
consistently left cross to over the back.
The usual
from-the-ground, Monday morning quarterback commentary accompanied
Brian's valiant struggle down below. "Creekbed." "I never should
have set up." "He's in big trouble now." "I want my
Mommy."
After a long wait, and graciously offering to step
aside half a dozen times so I could launch, Roger finally got a
cycle that came straighter in and got off the hill. He didn't find
anything and followed Brian towards the airstrip. We watched with
long faces as Roger got lower and lower, not hitting so much as a
bump. But not nearly as low as Brian who was now kicking pine cones
way, WAY low… looking like he was going to not even make the
airstrip. I was now standing happily on launch with it consistently
coming over the back.
But when all seemed lost, Roger found
something way out there and began to slowly climb. Brian, who was
weaving in and out of osprey nests in the tree tops, somehow found
the bottom of what Roger had and began to dig himself out of the
hole he was in. After a few minutes of watching our determined pair
begin to put together a slow but steady climb, I was beginning to
get a bit ansy to get off the hill and dive on over to them.
But no dice. I was stuck. It was still coming steadily over
the back. Before long, Roger and Brian had gone from zeros to
heroes, climbing past launch height and still going. In desperation,
I recruited Roy to begin to give me regular reports as to what it
was doing on the launch crest. Sounds of boots kicking dirt and
regular, "Blowing down. Blowing down." added to the tension as now
Roger and Brian were in fat city. After a long time of asking Roy
what it was doing he finally reported that it was dead and, with the
launch streamer hanging completely limp, I did my best imitation of
Carl Lewis and did the hundred yard dash off Timberline in no
wind.
A fast glide out to below our two lift indicators
concluded with my blundering right into a nice core embedded in the
bottom of the light thermal that Brian and Roger were in. What a
difference a few minutes can make as in no time Roger and I were
exchanging whoops of celebration in the realization that we weren't
going to get skunked.
Eventually, everyone got off the hill.
But it was still a hard dig at times to stay up with those who got
off last having to dodge the tree tops while spinning like tops in
the small stuff down low while a thousand feet higher Roger and
Brian made it look easy, having mapped out the big area of light, up
air that coming out of the Red Spot area.
At one point I was
just able to get up over Lower Launch when I remembered what Roy had
said about it seeming like there was lift coming out of both
Rattlesnake Canyon as well as up the launch bowl which was
accounting for the fickle launch conditions. Taking my several
hundred feet over the ridge line, I flew east until I was almost to
where the spine drops into Rattlesnake Canyon in search of an area
of converging lift.
And sure enough, Roy was right. With no
warning I plowed into a small and very turbulent post of vario
pegging lift. Hanging on for dear life, I put the glider on a tip
and spun my way up to 8,400… drifting northwest in the very apparent
southeast flow higher up. From this perch I was able to make some
smooth air glides way to east in search of lift and enjoy my new
long sleeved bike shirt and speed sleeves combo which ended up
keeping me the perfect temperature throughout the 6,000 plus foot
deep lapse rate of air I was visiting during the flight.
At
the 2 hour mark I began to make final preparations for splashing
down at the standard LZ. The water had receded just enough to make
you think you could land there after looking at the water perimeter
from the ground. But from the air it was looking pretty small,
surrounded by lots of that intimidating shiny stuff.
I didn't
want to undershoot as landing in the ditch would have meant about a
neck deep penalty so I did the next best thing; I set up too high.
Realizing my mistake I threw in a couple of turns but then the
bottom began to fall out so I had to cut the corner from the
southeast so as not to come up short. Observing my skim over the
water cross wind, the gang were wondering if my harness and toes
where going to do a bit of waterskiing but all went well and my
Funston landing practice again allowed me to finish off the flight
with a gentle no stepper right in the pile of wood that used to be
the spot.
A fun ending to another flight of ups and downs at
Hull… which still seems to be in pre summer slumber mode.. I'll be
back during the weekend after the 4th of July. Hope to see you guys
there!
- Andy
|
|
buzzett
|
St. John Saturday, 6/28
Rich and I got up early and ditched the kids in order to head out
for St. John. Got to launch at 11:30 and set up the glider. No one
else was around and it was blowing straight in. Rich launched at
12:50 and immediatly caught a thermal in front of launch. I headed
down the hill and played catch-up the whole flight. The thermals
were punchy and torn up, but he finally got to 9000 at about 1:07.
He headed north and glided 13 miles before he got a bump and it
wasn't any good. Then he glided another 5 miles and then he was able
to climb enough to make it to Red Mountain. As he flew over the top
he saw 3 buzzards sitting on the antenna on Red Mountain and knew
that is wasn't a good sign. He worked the top, sides and all around
red mountain to no avail. He would have been better off to just keep
going. He then baled towards the road to paskenta and continued to
work lite lift till he made the 29.6 mile mark. That is where I
finally caught up to him. The bright spot was the number of
grasshoppers in this field. Were were able to catch a weeks supply
for the summer school daycare lizard terarium in my living room.
On sunday Vince came up in his plane and Rich and I rode with
him scouting out the next 100 miler from St. John. Learned about
some new roads and had a great time seeing the pilots "birds eye
view" of the possible flight.
Linda
|
| Mike
K
|
Hull
Report, Sunday 6-29
Only one truck went up on Sunday but was joined by another much
later in the afternoon. The air had cleared up quite a bit over Sat
(or so they told me, I wasn't there Sat). I was the first off at
Timberline in perfect launch conditions; straight in 5-15+, choose
the speed you feel comfortable in. A 100 yards out I started
circling, then returned over launch to work the Lower Launch bowl.
It was really easy to stay up, no one even got to Red Spot as the
lift was abundant before that. At the beginning it was difficult to
get very high. At about 7200 the drift over the top of the mountian
would switch from South to West, often blowing apart the lift.
However, it eventually got better, as I got to the mid 8000s over
the top and finally to 9+ then later to 10.2K over windy ridge. If
you want to go to the top of Hull, there is still snow covering the
back road to the top of the Mt. but the front road has been clear
for a long time.
The LZ was small, but the lake is dropping
almost 1 ft/week, so next week should be no problem for anyone (just
don't land short, the ditch is deep and wet). I had a perfect
landing on the spot in a moderate wind the usual direction. It felt
like Summer again.
Mike K
|
|
buzzett
|
St John
Friday, 7/4
Well, The boys had great flights. Vince 96.7 for a new rigid record
and Rich 84.4. According to the sounding, the day was not going to
be that great. Matt and Gregg also had flights over 50 miles.
Everyone will have to tell their own story. Lori drove for Matt and
gregg. Matt gets the awesome friend award for keeping Lori posted on
Greggs progress. Gregg had a problem with his radio and could only
hear. Both sets of pilots seemed to be team/buddy flying. This
situation made the whole retrieve faster, safer and more enjoyable.
Kudos to Nancy for staying at the creek with my kids and then
bringing them to Willows so we could switch everything around. You
are one in a million. What a great way to spend my last day before
heading out for Texas. Good friends, flights and
fireworks.
Kim and I are heading down to Texas. Hope everyone
has safe and fun flights while I'm gone. I'll miss
you.
Linda
P.S. Rich is still here until the 23rd and
he has his other glider to fly.
|
|
Vince Endter
|
Re: St. John Record encampment 7/3 - 7/6, results
The turn out for the second annual St. John record encampment was
smaller than last year. Most of the Sonoma wing pilots had just got
back from King and could not make it. Matt and Lori as well as Greg
Sugg came strait from King, without stopping by their houses first.
Thursday, July 3rd we had Vince, Nancy, Matt, Lori, Greg and Jon
present. Matt had an incident at King, which took his glider out of
action for the time being. Jon was nice enough to bring up his spare
Fusion for Matt to fly. After we had all set up, Greg noticed a
problem with the heart bolt on the glider Matt was going to fly.
Greg and Matt started working on the problem. It was getting late,
almost two o’clock when Jon and I decided to fly and if Matt and
Greg could fix the problem, they would join us.
I launched
right after Jon and had to fly over to the switchbacks to find any
lift. Jon had found something to the left of launch. We climbed over
the top of the mountain to 9,500’, which was the top of the lift,
and headed north. I did not find the convergence line as well as I
have in the past and was getting lower than I was used to. I heard
Jon say he was climbing at Alder Springs road. This was the last I
heard from Jon until he landed. I arrived below the mine at Red and
climbed my way over the top to continue toward Paskenta. The lift
turned on just south of Paskenta and I was on my way. When I was at
the 48-mile mark, I heard Jon call that he was on the ground on
Lowery road just north of Paskenta. Nancy was already past him by
this point. Matt and Greg had just landed at the airstrip on 308 and
said they could pick up Jon.
The lift along my usual route
was not as good as times past, but I had a good tail wind. There
were a couple of times I was working zero sink and drifting almost 6
miles. I was low past Anderson and climbed 200’, which gave me
enough to glide to a field on Hwy 44. I landed there and was greeted
by a nice gentleman named Michael Shufelberger. He owned the field I
landed in. He said he was on the phone when he looked out and saw me
on the ground. He told the person he was talking to that a plane had
just crashed in his field. I said it was a much better landing than
a crash. Nancy arrived just after I landed. The distance was 82
miles.
Jon went home on Friday and Rich, Linda and the kids
arrived a short time later. I launched first, a little earlier than
Thursday but probably not early enough. I found a great thermal
right in front of launch and climbed in it all the way to 10,500.
Rich was climbing right under me and we left north at 10,500. At the
first ridge heading north we found another good thermal and climbed
back above 10,000’. I was able to find the convergence line several
times flew in it for more than 7 minutes during which time I did not
sink at all. I could have made it all the way to Paskenta on a glide
from that second thermal. I stopped a thermal a couple of miles past
Red to wait for Rich. Once he caught up we flew together for most of
the rest of the flight.
The lift was much better than
Thursday, with many climbs above 6,000’ out over the flats. The wind
was much lighter so we were not drifting as well as I had hoped.
Just south of Anderson we got stuck for 14 minutes in very light
lift. We only climbed 1,000’ in that time. This did give us enough
to get up Dechutes road. I had left first and was down to 1800’
(about 1200’ agl) when I found a good thermal. Rich came in under me
by about 300’ and found the lift much lighter. I was climbing at 400
to 500 fpm where he was climbing at 200 to 300 fpm. I topped out at
5000’ and he about 3000’. This I where we separated. I glided over
to the field I landed in the day before and climbed back up to
4,500’. Rich was really low and managed about three more miles than
I did on Thursday, about 85 miles. At the 87-mile mark I had another
great climb to 6,200’. I climbed with 5 hawks for most of 3000’. I
was flying up Oak Run road headed for the 100-mile mark. The terrain
climbs about 2500’ at this point. At the 96-mile mark I was at a
pass that I could just glide over, but I could not see what was on
the other side. According to our reconnoitering, there should be a
field there to land in. Not being able to actually see it I chose to
play it safe and land at the 96-mile mark. A new absolute distance
record for St. John! There were three fields to land in, but none of
them were very close to the road. The one I chose I had to hike my
gear about 200 yards up hill to get to the road. Rich helped me hike
my glider out. Thanks Rich. Linda was right there to pick me up.
Thanks Linda.
During the flight we could hear Matt and Greg
having a great flight. Actually we could hear Matt because Greg’s
radio was not working. They managed to fly together quite well in
spite of the radio problems. Matt landed on Johnson lane at 51 miles
and Greg landed at 54 miles.
We left for home Saturday so
Nancy could get some time off driving and have some time for
herself. Matt, Lori and Gregg also headed for home. Saturday looked
even better than the previous two days. Even though we did not have
a great turn out, we did manage a new site record as well as some
darn good flights. Matt got his third best at 51.7 miles; Greg tied
his best at 54.7. Jon made it past Paskenta 35.1 miles(he could have
flown much further if his radio was working). Rich made his second
best flight with 85 miles. I had flights of 82 miles and 96 miles.
It is just a matter of time before someone cracks the 100-mile
mark.
Vince
|
| Roy
Wormington
|
Hull 7/4
Me Doug and Roger will be flying Hull today. It was good on the
4th. I got to 9350 ft. It was nice and cool at the lakeside LZ,which
is getting bigger every
day.
Roy
|
| Shawn
Stiver
|
Lakeview
Report, 7/6
Just back from an outstanding week in Lakeview. Pulled in last
Saturday just in time for a quick paraglider flight off Blackcap
which turned into an hour long glassoff flight which got me 1500’
over launch and lasted for an hour, before going into Hunters for a
perfect landing to meet Phil Ray and Judy who had just pulled into
town. It was a great way to start what was to be a great
week.
Sunday morning Phil, Ralph Hyde and myself went up to
Sugar. It was blowing fairly hard from the south, and only a couple
other pilots were there. Ralph launched first at 11:45 and started
getting up and out. Phil and I launched about 45 minutes later. I
topped out a little low at 9500” but decided to go for it and headed
out. Ralph had headed out up the front range towards Lakeview, so
that was the route of the day. I found myself over the lava flows
low at about 6500’, but was able to work light lift up to around
7000’. I headed north along the front working light lift along the
way, averaging anywhere between 6100’ and 7000’. I was able to fly
for some stretches in zero sink low along the ridge, sometimes
stopping to turn in 50 to 100 up for awhile to get back up to 7000’.
This went on as I worked my way north until I got to the quarry
where I caught my first real thermal since the lava flows. This got
me up to 8000’, and I started to feel that Lakeview might be a real
possiblity. I got to Blackcap about a 1000’ over, and caught up with
Ralph at this point. He suggested we continue north instead of going
into Hunters, and I was all for that plan! After Blackcap we started
finding more consistent lift, and we both started climbing up
through 10,000. We crossed over 395/140, still climbing. Ralph
headed for the east side of the valley towards the Pallisades, about
a mile in front of me. I stayed on the west side as I had found very
strong lift and climbed up to 11,500. Next time I looked, Ralph was
getting drilled on the other side of the valley, and was forced down
in less than 5 minutes. He landed at the north end of the valley at
about 35 miles from Sugar. Going through the pass out towards Aber
Rim my I was alternating between 7 – 1000 up then a couple of miles
of big sink, followed by strong lift again. I cruised up to Valley
Falls still high, but chickened out following the lift over Abers
Lake, and instead headed up the road leading towards Paisley. This
put me quartering into the wind which was coming from the west now,
and started losing altitude. I was hoping I would find enough lift
along the road to get to Paisley, but eventually sank out about 10
miles short, for a total of 55.4 miles, a personal best! 3 hours, 24
minutes.
We were able to get in the air every day of the
trip, one 20 miler over the back towards Adel, two others up the
front side at 12 and 20 miles, and a couple of really awesome
glassoff flights off Blackcap. We had only one day at Sugar where
the winds were not already blowing 20 or greater when we got there,
and found out that no wind on Sugar equals getting eaten alive by
noseeums at launch! Many thanks to Ralph and Julie for their
unwavering hospitality!
Shawn
|
| Ashley Groves
|
Another Lakeview
report
Went to Lakeview for a week, stopping in Reno for a weekend
en-route.
Saturday, Met up a Slide with Eric Heinrichs, Dan
Pifco, Rick Hawkins and Frank Peel.
I
launched early, plans were over McClellan or South on 395 if X-C was
possible. I was able to get up a few times, but my searchs for X-C
proved empty, about 1 hour flying. After everyone had landed in LZ,
Heinrichs heads North, goes 50 miles into palimino valley with Pifco
chasing.
Sunday, Blow out, Heinrichs and I head to
Lakeview.
Monday, Eric is still tired so he drives. I go up
Sugar and head over the back. I could not find lift, landed on ?RT
133? parrallel to 395. 8.3 miles, but the furthest pilot went only
approx 10 miles. Light day. I set up a nice uphill into the wind
landing, but I was not paying attention. I stalled the glider about
5 feet up, broke a down tube and tweeked my right arm. Real stupid
landing.
Tuesday, Eric's turn to fly from Sugar. Goes about
40 miles then lands as leni's were setting up to the North. I fly
glass off on Black Cap. I discover my arm has excruciating pain when
in the motion of flying. My hand shakes from pain. I figure a pretty
hard run on landing as I really do not feel like I can flare hard
and it is a no winder. Then my shoe falls off on set up. Glad I have
those wheels.
Wednesday, I drive due to my arm. Eric goes
from Sugar just passes Hunters and lands near Jules' house. (~30
plus miles)
Thursday, Eric flys from Sugar again. I forget
where he lands but it was a good distance. I try to glass off Black
Cap again. Arm hurts still, but much mellower. I decide to try on
Saturday.
I keep offering to drive for folks during the week,
but they already have a driver. Sometimes you can't give this stuff
away.
Friday, Eric rests, I chase for Sridar, Bobby, and
Rajiv. Rajiv goes well over 20 miles, just pass Sridar and
Bobby.
Saturday, I fly Sugar, arm feels fine. Drifting in
lift over the back, I lose the thermal fiddling with some radio
problems. I pull VG and head out looking for lift, but find only
sink. I pick a real nice big bail out and land behind Sugar (3.3
miles), landing next to Lassen Creek. I retrieve myself.
Lots of
pilots make Hunters. Shannon Raby, Jim Woodward, Eric Heinrichs to
name a few. I have not heard official trophy dash results
yet.
Sunday, Drive home.
Ashley Groves
|
|
Gregg Hackett
|
Re: Another
Lakeview report
Lakeview was awesome again, like last year. We had quite a few bay
area pilots of both persuations.......
At least 3 of us had
personal bests XCs........
Flew Black Cap, Sugar Hill and
Hadley Butte.
Had a personal best off Hadley.....22.3 miles
2hrs 20min.
Gregg Hackett
|
| Ian
Riedel
|
Flight report
7-8-03 by Ian
Hi All,
First off a major huge thanks to Andy for sitting on the
cliff all (and I do mean all) day waiting for the wind to come in. I
arrived at the upper parking lot to find it is no longer there, to
be repaved next week. Andy arrived a few minutes after, at 10:00 am.
Andy questioned me for a while and was comfortable with the idea of
pushing me off the cliff so we set up as the wind started to blow
in.....and then back out again. At the peak of boredom, around two
or three in the afternoon we decided to do a no wind (Does two or
three mph count?) launch. Having the bottom drop out as it does on a
running cliff launch was a good learning experience and really quite
easy. The flight down to the beach was painfully short though. After
a hike up Andy took a run on my Gemini, vintage 1983. Not long after
the wind started picking up and it looked like real air time might
actually happen. Around 5:30 it looked real good so I suited up and
got set to jump with Andy on the nose wires. I could go into great
detail about the flight but as you all know there is no way to
describe your first soaring flight. I will say I learned more about
flying in 50 minutes at Goat than the past ten flights off the 600'
at Ed Levin. At this point the memory that sticks out the most is
hovering ABOVE the Red Tail hawk that was in the bowl.
Thanks again Andy and all,
See you at Hull real
soon
Ian
|
|
Ernie Camacho
|
Re: Flight
report 7-8-03 by Ian
Fantastic, Ian. This is just the beginning of many, many, memorable
moments you'll experience. Welcome to the world of free flight!
|
|
Greg Sugg
|
Re:
Flight report 7-8-03 by Ian
Ian, I am so glad to hear of your flight! I've been away from the
computer a lot lately, and when I did log on, I missed your post.
Even though you have a bunch of sledders off the 600 at Ed Levin, a
real soaring flight makes all the difference. Exploiting lift is a
very special experience, and it always puts a smile on my face. A
first soaring flight is something you will remember always. Thanks
for letting me in on it vicariously.
|
| Roger
|
Anyone fly
at Hull Sunday?
Have to ask since I saw all you guys driving in as I was driving
out. Was real Northy when I left the LZ. Was it launchable ?
|
| MattsFlyin
|
Hull
Sunday, 7/13
Did we fly? Yes and no. Dustdevils were all over the place at
launch. Three pilots got off for 15 min sledders, the rest cowered
under their gliders yelling "What's it doing now?". The finale was
the ripper that tossed Leo to the ground while he feverishly
unhooked himself milliseconds before it hit him filling his glider's
nosecone wth handfulls of launch gravel. He excused himself from
launch and proceeded to break down his glider. Devil after devil
came thru. It was amazing to see so many. Earlier while setting up,
a ripper tore thru the set-up area lifting Jon's Laminar completely
off the ground. Jon held onto the basebar and one wire and "flew"
the glider for several seconds!
Matt
|
| Leo
Jones
|
Dust
devils
As we drove into Pilsbury basin we passed several hg vehicles going
the other way. When we got to the LZ Sridar (sp) was the only one
there, but he soon left. It was blowing quite strongly out of the
N-NW, but the forecast had said nothing about this, and they are
always right, so we drove up anyway. The soundings had seemed pretty
good. We were convinced we'd sky out, and rub it in
good.
When we got to launch it was blowing in - not strongly
but very launchable, and cycling. I set up in a hurry. It was calm
in the set up area and had that "dust devil" feel about it. As we
were setting up a ripper of a dust devil came through. The first
thing I was aware of was a strong wind blast, then I looked up to
see Jon doing a ballet with his glider. The only damage was a ground
up nosecone. I walked out to lauch to see what it was doing, but by
now it was either over the back or easterly. I stood there for
nearly half an hour and not once did it blow in. A couple more small
dust devils went through the parking lot.
Jon came up all
hooked in, closely followed by Kurt. They waited for nearly 15 mins
but nothing launchable - it was at best 45 degrees cross from the
left, and usually blowing over the back. However we were all sure
that if we could get off in these conditions we'd speck
out.
Eventually a big dust devil tore through the parking
lot, and this sucked in enough wind to enable Jon, Kurt and Ernie to
take off within about 3 minutes of each other. They proceeded to
sink out very quickly.
I then got on lauch quickly followed
by Brian, Gary from Oz, and Matt. It was not launchable and the dust
devils increased in frequency and severity. I hooked in, then a
series of nasty devils started off my right wing, all going away
from my glider but without any great purpose in their eventual
direction, which made me feel very nervous. Then a bigger one took
off again in the parking lot. Donna grabbed my keel, just as another
smaller one tore across right under my basetube and away under my
right wing. covering my instruments and me in dirt, and making my
glider buck violently. I unhooked. The wind was still from the east
- 90 degrees cross. Another dust devil started off to the right just
a few feet from my wing tip. I didn't mind if they started on my
right and kept going that way but of course they now started on my
left and blew right through launch.
Then came a lull and I
hooked in again, but no sooner had I done so than a really nasty
ripper started in the bushes 50 ft away to my left. I desperately
tried to unhook, and had just succeeded when it blew through,
spinning my glider round and almost flipping it over as it did a 160
degree pirhouette on the nose cose, half tearing it off, and filling
the nose one and sail with gravel, tripping me up as it did so and
covering everyone with dirt. My ASi and instruments were full of
dirt and I had wire burns on the back of my leg. I hooked back in,
but then thought "what the @#$%^&* am I doing" and decided it
really wasn't worth it for a 15 min sledder. After I got off launch
yet another big one blew through and the others decided the same
thing. I could just see me, or someone, getting really eaten by one
of these things. I've never seen so many. There must have been 20 or
30 come through while we were there.
What a fun
day.
Leo
|
dallas
|
tollhouse story
Hi All,
If you haven't heard yet you will soon... Really really
short version: Tandem launch accident at Tollhouse on Saturday, 7/12
everyone ok but could have easily killed us both.
Slightly
longer version that I posted to FlightPlans:
I'm not sure I'm
the right person to talk but since it happened to me I suppose I
should ante up but as everything is still a bit of a jumble I will
only tell a very brief version of what happened.
Go to
launch into silky smooth glass off on Saturday night with a very
light (110 pound) passenger borrowing Ben Dunn's tandem wing. Double
pre-flight the glider wait for the winds to calm down (penetration
fears), walk to launch with two experienced hang glider pilots for
wing men. Get the glider pointed a bit north directly into the wind,
ask for control of the glider, it feels steady so I yell "CLEAR",
take two steps, left wing is not moving forward... there is a dog...
stutter step... pull like hell on the right wing and try like hell
to keep running off the cliff... left wing is still not moving!!!!!
now we're turned 180 degrees back into the cliff where the passenger
and I procceed to fall 15-20 feet down the face of the cliff taking
large portions of my skin and glider sail with it.
We come to
a stop on a 4 foot ledge just above another 50 foot drop which leads
to a big pile of bone breaking boulders. I'm missing a decent amount
of skin, the glider's LE sail is more or less non-existent, my
passenger decided her skin was prettier than mine (how right she
is!) so she kept her's intact and ended up with just a bruise on her
right calf. Needless to say I'm still scared and wigged out and even
though I flew on Sunday I really wasn't into it.
______
There's somewhat more to the story but until
things settle a bit I'm keeping mum.
-Dallas
|
| FredClement
|
Owens Valley
Flight Report from 7/17/03
There I was #4 on launch right after my brother Dave, I waited
patiently for the next cycle, made a hard run and was off. About a
second later the bar was almost jerked out of my hands by the
thermal. I held on tight and started turning. A few turns later and
about one minute after launch I was about 2 grand over launch and
still going up. That was by far the wildest ride I have ever had in
my 30 years of hanggliding. I got up to about 12000 but the air was
very turbulent. I got weightless about 3 times. I hang out above
launch til everyone was off. The air was too rowdy for everyone over
the Sierra's so we made our way out toward lone pine airport. I came
out at about 11500 over Lone Pine and just maintained for awhile. I
probably could have made it across the valley to the whites But I
chickened out.I was the last one in the air to come down. One hour
and ten minutes. And a good safe landing!
|
| Mike
K
|
Launches from
Walts Point
I presume your message was about a launch from Walts. It must have
been close to 20 years ago I had a similar launch there.
Larry
Tudor used to give us some hints while waiting around for his
desired 9:30 launch: "See the lower branches on that pine tree way
down there?(the tree is larger now) When those branches shake, a
good thermal is rolling through, get ready to launch." Recalling
this advice while I was on launch in front of the "Walts" rock, I
saw the pine branches shake much more than before, so I picked up my
glider (Delta wings Streak) and felt the breeze pick up. I launched
and three steps down the 40 degree slope the wind now felt like I
was running downwind! I held the nose low and ran as hard as I could
until the slope dropped away about 4 more steps downhill. One last
lunging step and a slight push out to get flying. Less than 1 second
later the nose jerked up sharply and my vario started to scream.
Fortunately my vigorous launch was enough to maintain flying speed
as my Culver vario now pegged while I was still on the downtubes. I
eased my feet into my cocoon harness (pods hadn't been invented yet)
as I initiated my first 360 about 150 ft directly above launch.
Apparently the thermal was so strong and just out in front that it
had "sucked" the wind downslope for a short while during my
launch.
The remaining pilots on launch were so impressed with the
strength of the thermal that they folded up and drove down!
|
| Jon
James
|
Hull
Sunday, 7/20
Hull was good today, with flights over 2 hours
and altitudes to
9600, several over 9000.
About 15 gliders.
|
|
Lori Allen
|
Scot in
Texas (7/20)
Well, since the e-mail came from the Texas Open meet director, this
is pretty cool news but until I hear from Scot personally, I won't
know the exact details but according to Sam the meethead, Scot had
another personal best at the Texas Open today -- 146 miles. I bet
that was a real shot in the arm after Zapata was such a
disappointment.
Lori
|
|
buzzett
|
Texas
Yep, Scot did an outstanding job on the last day of the Texas open.
He also set a new site record for Leakey. I had the priviledge of
keeping score, doing registration and getting to stay in that
wonderful air conditioned trailer. Kim is tri-wingual now. She was
being totally spoiled by all the pilots. She also learned how to
help with tow launches. There will be no living with her now. She
wants to start taking lessons as soon as we get home, only I'm not
sure which wing type first, the dragonfly or a hang glider. I could
not get any internet service while in Leakey, TX. and the cell phone
reception wasn't great, but the locals were the best. I have never
been so well taken care of with food and drink! (Leakey is a dry
county)
We have been moving around alot, Zapata, Leakey, Big
Spring. These are all a few hundred miles apart. Been driving,
packing and unpacking alot during this trip.
My pilots should
arrive tomorrow. I'll write more later.
Linda
|
| Mike
K
|
A few more Owens
Pictures (7/24)
Unfortunately not wing mounted, but land based images from our last
Owens trip. Franz and I both got 2 100 miler flights and Gib one.
Not epic conditions, but some fun flights with nothing too scary.
I'll take it. An epic
location!
www.fototime.com/inv/714F496B7FB48ED
When
viewing the pics, click on the first too see them all. You can
change the size of the image by clicking on the size desired on the
left hand margin.
The last few weeks there have been OD with
moisture from hurricane Claudette. However it is forecasted to clear
out some soon. Have fun Matt.
Mike K
|
|
Gregg Sugg
|
Injury at Hat
Creek Rim
I heard about this from a friend a couple weeks ago, but was unable
to varify it until now. I had him forward the following email to me.
It appears that Barry Lavine was injured at Hat Creek Rim. I have
not been able to contact him by phone because our web site phone
number for him seems to be wrong. I wish Barry a speedy recovery.
Drink lots of milk Barry!
Greg
From: Charlie/Kathy
Nelson
Sent: Tuesday, July 08, 2003
7:15 PM
Subject: Hello there Mr Glider pilot, from Charlie
Nelson
this is a group email to 7 pilots I
know......thought you'd like to know the following..
I hope you
had good flights this Fourth of July.......
Kathy and I went
to Hat Creek this weekend, flew four days , good every day, SW, to 3
K over launch........
the Berkeley Club had 20 students there.
All newbies showed good skills.......! they train em right over
there !
But Barry Levine , leader of the Berkeley pack,
seemed to stall a wing in a left turn about 15 feet high on final in
LZ 2 , on Sat the 5th , 8 pm , landed on fist sized rocks still
prone , and broke his left ulna. this large rocky area is to the
East of the wind sock, ie on the ridge side of the sock.
he lost
consciousness for a minute.
the arm bone was protruding . My
Kathy , RN got to work him right away, keeping him from moving too
much, ...... Page Perrin used his Ham radio to get the ambulance to
the scene within 30 minutes, and they brought Barry down to the CDF
station at rte 89 . they flew him by chopper to Redding, because his
arm bone broke in more than one place, and there's bone chips in
there. so he'll need a good orthopedic surgeon. they x rayed him all
over and the rest of him is OK.
Keep yer speed up, I KNOW you
will....Charlie and Kathy
|
| Roger
|
flying at Hat
Creek (7/24)
I only flew one evening when Keith and I went up last week. There
was no one in LZ1 or 2 but ran into a Para g on the way out. I
didn't launch until 8:15 pm. was fairly good ridge lift for about 15
or 20 minutes, but no wide spread magic lift anywhere. Talked to the
paraglider pilot and he saidridge lift was all he's seen after three
days of flying. I know launching at 8Pm I shouldn't expect much, but
these "great flights" are they during the day as in thermal flights,
or the fabled glass offs? I'd like to go up there again maybe with
some folks who know the ropes, and another vehical for
retrive...later
|
| Ian
Riedel
|
Hull report
Saturday 7/26
Weeeeeeeee!!! Saturday was my first big mountain flight and it was
BEAUTIFUL! I launched at about 2:15 into a light cycle and
immediatly climbed as Leo's old school vario beeped away (thanks
Leo. Yea, I know, it took a while). My brother was half a minute
behind me as we both flew a fairly straight shot out to the LZ. I
threw in a couple 360's and worked a bit of lift on the way out, my
brother was at a bit of a disadvantage not having any instruments
and flew a fairly straight flight. A big thanks to Mike for the ride
up the hill, Andy and everyone else for their launch, flight and
landing input. Both my brother and I had picture perfect two step
landings and huge grins for the rest of the day.
Any input on a
vario purchase would be appreciated. I just starting to look around
at what is available. A basic unit is all I think I want but will
listen to arguments to the contrary. I don't have any real desire to
chart flights on a computer so those types of functions don't
interest me. Being able to hook to a GPS is something I'm not sure
about. Anybody have any used but not to abused units they would like
to sell?
Thanks again to all and see you soon at Hull.
Ian
|
| Dave
Clement
|
Flight report
Sunday 27th
Chris Gallagher and I decided that St John would be our best shot
for a day trip, so we asked my son Tom to be our driver. We got to
lauch at noon and Greg , Kurt and Lou were already set up. The
thermals were already coming in hard and strong. I set up and Chris
stated that his stomach wasn't feeling very good so he elected to
not fly. Kurt and Greg launched just after 1:00 and immediately went
to 11'000 ft and turned north off the mountain. Lou launched about
1;30 and had to work it a little longer to reach 10'000 before he
too went north. I then got ready to launch and the cloud cover came
in and shut things down for awhile. I had to wait for 50 minutes
before the thermals started to come in straight again. I lauched
about 2:50 and went straight to 12'700 the highest I've ever been on
St. Johns. I too headed off to the north and only made it past Alder
Springs Rd. for my first ever attempt XC from the mountain. A great
day of flying on St Johns. 
|
| Leo
Jones
|
Exceptional
Sunday at Hull (7/27)
Hull was awesome today. Many pilots got to over 12K, some to well
over 13K, and there was a report of 14K being reached. There were
great clouds with bases over 14K - I don't think anyone got into
one. It was possible to range far and wide from these altitudes.
Potter Valley, Alder Springs, Covelo, all seemed within easy
reach.
I think I may have flown the first 100 point triangle
at Hull.
Turnpoints from my GPS -
Big Signal Peak N39.30.851,
W 123.05.580
Beyond Dam N39.24.260, W 122.57.434
Eel River
approx 5m NE of Hull
N39.32.454,W122.51.799
=10.7 miles+10.5
miles+ 12.4 miles = 33.6
X3 = 100.8
The only thing is I
closed the triangle along a leg - the top of the mountain, rather
than at one of the turnpoints, so it may not really be valid. I
don't care, I had a great flight, got to 13,300ft, a personal best
at Hull, flew further in each direction than I have ever been there,
and flew for almost 3.5hrs. Much bigger triangles were possible.
Leo
|
| frankcpeelhotmailcom
|
Re: Exceptional
Sunday at Hull
Leo wrote: Many pilots got to over 12K, some to well over 13K, and
there was a report of 14K being reached. There were great clouds
with bases over 14K - I don't think anyone got into one.
I
can confirm that cloudbase was 14,300'.
Frank Peel
|
|
Ernie Camacho
|
Re: Exceptional
Sunday at Hull
Huh? Were you at Hull on Sunday, Frank? If so, then that's two
reasons I kick myself for not flying Sunday!
Ernie
|
| Frank
Peel
|
Re: Exceptional
Sunday at Hull
Yep, we were there. Mike Connell and I came up Saturday morning.
This was probably my third trip to Hull. Mike's been there many
times. I flew Saturday and spent most of the day down low to stay
out of the helter-skelter traffic patterns over the peak. It was
more relaxing scratching around down low! Once most of the crowd was
gone I climbed up to cool off before heading out to land. Couldn't
quite break 9K', but it was around 6PM by then. The memorable part
was that the conditions in the LZ were absolutely the smoothest in
memory! Bouyant and not a ripple in it. Tip-toed out of the
sky.
Sunday was fun because: I had a 9K' altitude gain in the
thermal that took me to cloudbase. Used that altitude to fly to the
ridge on the west side of the valley for the first time, putzed
around in a convergence line for half and hour or so, got back up to
9.2K' south of the airport, then flew to the dam for the first time
before heading in to land. Conditions in the LZ were almost as nice
as Saturday. :-)
|
|
|
HG Nationals at Big Spring Texas
The whole Story is on a separate page. Click Here.
|
| John Spurlock
|
King Mountain
Report (8/11)
I just got back from King Mountain this weekend. Conditions were
unbelievable! J. Pricer got the long flight to Challis,landing after
moonrise. Long glide, he said he did not turn once after Leatherman
Pk. I went x-country for first time landed at Pass Creek could not
cross safely. Yesterday conditions were very good-launching in the
lulls at lower launch and going straight up. I launched in early
afternoon, stayed up till dusk. Lots of smoke from forest fire
defined upper thermal layer-about 14k ft and I reached 12.5 several
times. Sailplanes put on a show over King doing loops and slow
flybys while I stayed pretty much in one place on my Falcon-next
year I will have a better glide. John Spurlock (I have the T-shirt)
|
| Gary
Herman
|
Thanks From
OZ
Gary here back in Australia just wanting to say thanks for the
hospitality the Sonoma Wingers gave me while visiting. I had some
good flights while I was there and created some friendships that
will hopefully come to OZ and let me return the favor. Thanks
especially to Lou, Ernie, and Todd for loaning me some gear. Anyone
interested in visiting or other info., my email is
wendi.herman@avondale.edu.au
Thanks again,
Gary Herman
|
| MattsFlyin
|
Sierra Nevada XC Comp
Results (8/7-10)
Just a quick note on the comp till later.
Scot - first
place
Zack Majors - second
Steve Rudy - third
2 of top
three flew rigids... a definite advantage due to the high winds at
launch. Once over the back with altitude things were more even but
if one couldn't climb out high enough from launch... you were
toast!
Todd got a long flight of almost 100 miles on the
first day.
Ernie had a nice 32 miler on day two.
I sucked hind
tit for the entire comp.
Matt (at least it was a tit) Jagelka
|
| MattsFlyin
|
Comp
Results
Here are the official daily miles flown during the comp with the
total points earned (DNF means Did Not Fly). All flights were from
McClellan towards Winnemucca:
Scot Huber - Atos - 99.62,
151.94, 49.41 = 243.78
Zac Majors - Stealth - 96.48, 113.33,
36.69 = 219.385
Steve Rudy -Atos - DNF, 51.75, 128.66 =
146.13
Sam Cox - Fusion - 47.04, 9.54, 102.13 = 141.25
Jeff
O'Brian - Predator - 4.86, 25.57, 78.62 = 109.05
Todd Robinson -
Lamnar - 96.88, 9.42, 3.07 = 97.34
Ernie Camacho - Laminar -
32.18, 16.21, 2.5 = 45.29
Dave Merriman - Ultra Sport - DNF,
2.62, 25.1 = 27.72
Tim Washick - Icaro - 28.06, 2.62, DNF =
27.31
Matt Jagelka - Talon - 13.27, 11.9, 2.62 = 24.73
Dave
Smith - Fusion - 17.13, 2.62, DNF = 17.58
Rick Effenburger -
Klassic - DNF, 2.62, DNF = 2.62
Ron Smith - Lite Speed - DNF,
2.62 , DNF = 2.33
Bruce Rhymes - XC - DNF, DNF, DNF = 0
As
you can see there were many DNFs, mostly due to the conditions but
with a few late arrivals, equipment problems and pre-comp injuries.
Good thing too cuz it kept me from being dead last!
It's
also interesting to note that even with the rigid advantage some
flexies still beat them. I attribute this to pilot skill AND luck.
Like I said before, if you missed out and didn't get high before
going over the back...high toast probability...due to very difficult
high wind conditions until Fernley when it was reported to be much
easier to stay up.
Day three was the toughest of all because
the wind just wouldn't let up. The wind was left cross and a strong
20-25. We watched for the west wind coming across Washoe Lake and
timed our launches as best we could but even after the west finally
filled in we weren't safe. After launching I could see the crossing
south wind push back through again. At that point Scot, Todd, Steve
and myself were in the air close together. Scot and Steve slowly
climbed out (rigid), Todd and I slowly sunk out (flex). Some pilots
decided to break down and others never set up.
Now before I
sound too whiney about rigid and flexies let me just say that by
comparing similar wings one can see the difficulty factor involved.
For example Steve and Scot had opposite results on days 2 and 3.
Also Zac and his Utah buds Sam and Jeff had opposite results on day
3.
After the comp we had a blast at the BBQ. Great music by
Mark. Jerry smoked ribs and chicken all day and his margaritas were
POTENT.
Just ask the Ernies...I swear I saw four of them that
night!!
Congrats to Todd for winning day one (points not
miles) in tough conditions against great pilots.
Congrats to
Ernie for beating me AND Todd put together on Day 2 in very windy
conditions.
Congrats to Zac for setting the comp flex record
at 113.33 on Day 2.
Special Congrats to Scot for kicking butt
and setting another personal best and a Sierra Nevada Cross Country
Championship record of 151.94 miles!!! Winnemucca??
Mutha*ucca!!
There are more great stories to be told from
this comp. The personal best of Sam...Rec Class winner is one. And
how the hell did Jeff climb out on Day 3? Also two free flyers Pat
on Day 3 and Andrea all three days...tell us a story.
Dennis
and Rose...Thank You for doing a great job organizing and directing.
Thanks to Ron for the weather reports.
And last but
certainly not least thanks to EC (Ernie Camacho's son Ernie) for driving!
YEEEHAAA!!!
(note from Ernie: there's yet another story about Matt and
EC and my new truck on the night of the BBQ. I'm in there somewhere too!)
I can hardly wait till next year. The wind should
stop by then...maybe. You owe it to yourself to
attend!
MattsFlyin
|
| Lijian
|
Hull Mt.
Pictures (8/10)
http://www.fungliding.com/album/2003-08-09%20Hull%20Mt/index.html
|
| Leo
Jones
|
Re.
Thanks Lijian for the great pics. We are really glad to have you in
our club.
Leo
|
| Todd
Robinson
|
sonomawinger
tumbles (8/4)
I just got a call from lou. He had just hit the ground hard from a
tumble in the owerns! he is o.k. but the glider is not. I'll let him
tell the story when he gets home.
|
| eric froehlich
|
Where was it
that Lou tumbled?
I was wondering if it was the same stretch of the Sierra's that
tumbled Berry? Figure it would be good to know since I'm planning on
flying there this coming Lbaor Day Weekend.
-Eric Froehlich
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| Mike
K
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Tumbles in
Owens
Eric, its not the place but the conditions. Most of the tumbles I
have known in the Owens were either further down the Sierra range or
in the Whites. If you are in the Sierras and the Westerlies kick in
it can become extremely rough. That can occur at any time of the day
(like 7 AM), but the early afternoon is more likely. If its late in
the morning (ie noon to 2 pm) the strength of the lift will also be
stronger than earlier in the flight. Thus in the Sierras most of the
tumbles occur from Onion valley northward for the reasons cited
above. Barry tumbled at Goodale. However, I have known of HG tumbles
in the Sierras as far South as Wanoga (ie the peak behind Walts
point!). Of course the Whites are well known for their powerful
thermals and occasionally very strong winds and big development. I
even recall Leo saying the roughest air he has ever experienced was
over the switchbacks in front of launch. There is no substitute for
a careful eye to the weather (which can change quickly and
dramatically) and good judgement.
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Greg Sugg
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Accident Reports
Save Lives
Lou Bartell tumbled in the Owens recently. I've spoken with a few
people who know about it or witnessed it. There are definitely some
valuable lessons to be learned that might save someone else's
life.
How about an accident report Lou? That's the way the
rest of us are able to learn from these things and avoid getting our
selves killed.
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Donna Mathias
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Wings Over
Wine Country - the Son. Co. Air Show 8/24
The airshow was great. Ashley, Kerri and I went. Saw Gregg Hackett
and his daughters, heard that Larry and his family, grandsons were
there but we didn't run into them. We paid the $5.00 to sit in the
bleachers and watch the show. It was worth it to be that close to
the planes taking off and landing. Especially the F18! All day long
Ashley kept asking to go up for a ride....so after the show I got
her a ride in a Katana. She and the pilot Solon flew for a half hour
and she loved it. They flew up to Healdsburg and buzzed her dads
house, which he got on tape. Went to Todd's parents after and
visited with everyone, Todd, Susie, Fatima, Jon, Leo, Mike and his
wife, Charley, Brian, Kerri, Veril, Lou, Todds friend from Dayton
(sorry forgot his name). Thank you to Frank and Dee for your
hospitality. Had a great day.
~Donna :)
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Hangfly
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Hull
Hull was pretty good Sunday. About 10 pilots flew. We were getting
just below 10 grand. I was greatful to get to launch and land on my
still gimpy ankle, after seven weeks on the ground. Launching was
OK. I was afraid to land but it went OK. I should have run the
landing out but whacked lightly instead. A couple pilots completed
triangles and Scot flew away to Lake Mendecino. We had some small
cloud development. I got really close to one but couldn't quite get
in it. Leo and Matt reported seeing a Golden Eagle at altitude. Good
times! Yee Haa!
Hangfly :b
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|
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St. John fly-in
The club fly-in at St. John was held the weekend of 8/16-17.
There's a lot of stories about it, so they've got a page of
their own:
Click Here.
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| MattsFlyin
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Owen's VAlley
Report (8/21)
Lori and I arrived at Tuttle Creek last night about 10pm to light
rain at camp and lightening off in the distance. We sat in the jeep
for a few minutes hoping for the rain to stop. Mars was visible thru
the light overcast but nothing else. A few minutes later it stopped
so we set up the tent and went to bed. Woke up once during the night
to a little downburst but just zipped up the flaps and went to
sleep.
This morning we awoke to partly cloudy skies.
Unfortunately the partly cloudy part was low over both ranges on
either side of the valley. I went into townand got a few groceries
and a haircut. The barber, Kirk, had autographed pictures of Chuck
Yeager on the wall along several original family photos of the
barber and his flying buds during WWII. Later we went for a hike to
the Stone House up Tuttle Creek and enjoyed the sage filled air and
magnificent view.
Hope to fly tommorrow.
Will post
again
Matt
Tomorrow looks
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| MattsFlyin
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Owens
It sucked! Too much wind Friday and over the back too. Saturday was
still over the back at 10am. Went home to fly Hull.
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| MattsFlyin
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Owens
Again
Got to it try again at Walt's. So far this year I'm 0 for 5 there.
Looks like me, Greg and Ernie for sure with Bob Stanley possible.
Will report if there is anything to report.
Matt
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| MattsFlyin
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Owens
Flight! (8/29)
Actually made it off launch today! Eric Froelich and myself were
the only Sonoma Wingers there along with a handful of others. I
heard that a group of pilots were going to try Cerro Gordo today
instead of Walts. Launch conditions at Walts were light but cycling
in with no hint of westerlies. We launched about 11:15 which sounds
a bit late but the lift was light also. It wasn't easy to climb out.
Took me three tries to finally get high enough to leave. Eric sank
out to the postage stamp and made a clean landing. I went to the
next ridge up the range and watched a pilots struggle to no avail. I
met the same fate and bailed to the airport. Had a great launch and
landing. Decided to save it for a better day, like
tomorrow!
Till Then,
MattsFlyin
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| MattsFlyin
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Owens
Flights (8/30)
Today was pretty much like yesterday with lift topping out about
12-13k and mostly over the knees. Launch was full with pilots on the
road hoping to move forward. Launch conditions were light again and
many people didn't fly till after 12. All Sonoma Wingers were off
the hill by then and we scattered ourselves from 30-50 miles north.
There were a few other pilots out at the 50 mile mark still in the
air but over the valley low. Conditions were getting rougher as I
approached Goodale and 13k so I decided to leave the Sierra and try
crossing very low. Made it to the 47 mile mark after 3h
10m.
Matt
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| Ian
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Hull report
8/30
Third time is a charm! Saturday morning drove up to hull and found
several pilots in the LZ area waiting for the hoards to arrive. At a
little after 11:00 a small crowd had gathered and was beginning to
get motivated when the Berkely club showed and that kicked things
into high gear. After rides were decided all headed to the top,
about fifteen gliders and one paraglider in all. Winds were light
and the cycles were random and weak (by my limited measure anyway)
The paraglider pilot lined up and in a light cycle launched. He
gained little until he was a good distance over the valley and then
climbed effortlessly. Everyone waited for things to build a bit more
and as Roy, Rich and my brother lined up at launch the wind shifted
to a steady easterly and held there for about an hour. With the
first launchable cycle Roy and Rich were off within seconds of each
other and my brother a minute or two later. As I readied myself I
looked for my brother in the direction of the lake expecting to see
him halfway out to the LZ. My girlfriend pointed to where Roy and
Rich were, over the top and there was my brother right with them, no
vario and only his second time at Hull. Several of us waited at
launch another 20 or 30 minutes as the wind came up from the east
again. Finally launching shortly before 4pm I was treated to lift
everywhere and a quick ride to about 3k' over launch, lift over the
summit, lift over Windy Gap, and well lift pretty much everywhere.
After about an hour I was getting quite cold and decided to head
out. A beautiful ride out to the LZ and at 1k' over the spot I found
I had to work to go down. I circled over the LZ and out over the
water for about five minutes and had barely lost 100'! A little more
effort was put into losing altitude and I ended my day with a no
stepper in the circle. Most if not all of the Berkely club were
first timers at Hull and as far as I am aware everyone had great
flights. A large part of my time flying was spent looking at St
John, knowing a number of people were over there, longing for the
day when XC is within my grasp. Sunday I worked.
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| Bill
Vogel
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Hull
1
Matt Rich and I flew Hull on Saturday and went to 12500 but big
sink at San H. We are flying Elk Monday, Low pressure and light
winds. Bill
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Scot
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Summer 2003/
Flight reports
Flight Report/ King Mt. thru Sierra Nevada Open 2003
I had a good first day at King making it to Dubois airport.
The next day
Route 3 again and I went deep trying to follow the mt. tops.
I eventually sank out and landed around 56miles out.
Day 3 route 1 is
called and I'm well behind so I go for broke. I cross to the Lemhis at
McCaleb but I hit a nasty north wind which I can't make any progress
in so I turn around and head back toward launch as I'm well outside
the corridor . I land on Pass Creek Road in valley 2.
Day 4 they call
route 3 again and I'm so far behind I fly way deep hoping to make up
some points. I cross at Diamond Peak into valley 3 and am making good
time but find nothing on range 3 and am on the ground way outside
the corridor.
One day left to try for a trophy flight, I figure I can
get the Eiji Memorial Trophy for longest flight and possibly a third
place overall if I put together a long one. I take off early in
strong wind conditions figuring route 1 is ridge soarable in a west
wind. I make good time to Corner Mt. but get hung up there for a
little bit. As I'm getting ready to cross May-Paterson Rd and jump
to Ginzu Ridge, Bill Soderquist comes around Corner and in under me.
This put me into overdrive and I stuffed the bar till the end of the
Ginzu's then found a good one to around 15000' which I took across
valley 2 around Patterson.
I had no intention of going to Salmon as
I knew I needed Anaconda and the bonus points to make it into trophy
land. I came in on the Bitterroots around Tendoy and worked it up to
make the jump over the back, moving north as I did. I made the jump
just in front of a cell building behind me so I figured that would
close the door on anyone behind me. The lift would shut down if I got
too far out in front of the cell, so I had to stop and wait for it to
catch me.
I was stuck at Jackson for the longest time. Finally the
lift turned on and I climbed to where I could move NE toward
Anaconda. The problem at this point was that the cell moved more east and
I didn't know the roads well enough around there to use it to my
advantage. I stayed on course and worked some broken lift in the
blue till about 10 mi. north of Wisdom on Hwy #43 where I landed.
139.1 miles out. A personal best for me and good enough for the Eji
Trophy.
Zapata had too much rain and conditions were poor. I was
pretty disappointed as I wanted to get a long one.
We moved up
to Leakey in the hill country to escape a hurricane and to do some
flying before the Texas Open. Conditions were better but not great,
until the last day of the comp, when I set the site record and got a
personal best of 146.3 mi.
I didn't tow up till 3pm and landed at
8:26, so I was making pretty good time on a great day. I called in my
flight but the awards had been handed out around 7. I was told varying
reports on who actually had the most points for first place. Some
said Paris had it, but others said I had beat him. I'd still would like to get
official news on that one!!
On to Big Spring and the Nats.
With this being my first racing comp, I figured I wouldn't do great. I was
right. On the first day I somehow figured you only needed to be
within 1.25 miles of the turn points instead of .25 mi.. I made it
around the course all right, but I hadn't gotten close enough to the
turnpoints so I ate it big time. Live and learn.
I can't remember all
the days in order at this point. I had a good flight on the 104 mile
task, taking the first start clock and not getting into any trouble.
I placed fifth that day.
On another day, I was running hard but hit an
area of sink which a lot of us landed in. On another day I was
catching a gaggle out in front of me. I climbed a little higher in
the last thermal after watching them leave on final glide, figuring I
could stuff it and catch them. I did catch them, but we all came up about a half
mile short of goal, I thought those guys knew what they were
doing!!!.
Most of the other days I made it around the task all right
but never real fast. Racing is a different game than XC flying. It's
you against the clock and the other pilots. You need to go for it
and not dally, otherwise you will be left behind. I much prefer open
distance flying as it's less stressful and you see new country over
the course of the day. Racing allows you no time for sightseeing and
you're usually covering the same ground, and it's usually flat and
not very scenic (Texas). Why not have the Nats at King again? Or
the Owens?
On to Carson and the Sierra Nevada Open. On day one, I
had the longest flight but Todd and Zack beat me on points. I had a
100 miler but turned back and landed near a gate I thought might be
locked. It wasn't. I got 99.6 mi.
Day 2, I crossed before Lovelock
to the range east of town. I climbed up and used the west wind to my
advantage, working the range toward Winnemucca. I had a slow time
between ranges and then climbed enough to glide into the airport at
Winnemucca for 152.0 miles. Another personal best and enough points
to put me in first by a good margin.
Day 3, I made the stupid mistake
of not staying high enough crossing at Fernley and I ended up on the
ground at around 50 miles out. I figured I might have blown it but on
getting back to Washoe saw Zack sitting at a table eating and knew I
had won, unless Steve Rudy got 250. He didn't and I took home the
first place trophy!!!
All in all a good summer of flying for
me.
Scot Huber
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| Scot
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Driver
Thanks
If it hadn't have been for Lori Allen being under me for most of
the summer (in the truck, driving), I would not have done so well.
Thank you Lori!
Unfortunately, she figured it would be like this from
here on out and so she left me heartbroken, after Carson. Maybe I'll slow
down my flying one of these years. It's murder on the love life.
Also thanks to Linda Sauer for coming to Zapata and chasing me,
although she didn't have to drive too far once she got there. Thanks too, Linda, for driving at Big
Spring and all the other times throughout the summer.
Also, thanks to Donna Matthias, her daughter Karri, and
all the others who helped me achieve my dreams of flight.
Scot
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