| Author |
Comment |
| Scot
Huber
|
Flight report/
St. John - 9/8
Launched at 1:00 and climbed out quickly in a crystal clear sky.
Headed north with 9500 over the mother lode. Stayed deep and was
rewarded with lift to 10'000 at Sheetiron Mt. Found more at Alder
Springs to 8G. Got to the back side of Red where more lift took me
back to 7700. Got low behind the prison and thought I might be
dropping in for another visit but scratched it back up and crossed
the gorge deep and climbed the flank of Ball back to 8G. Stayed up
against the foothills and headed north. Got low about the 50 mile
mark down to 3600 but climbed out of a long retrieve back to 7800.
The winds had been showing every direction throughout the day and
Greg and Jon after hitting a headwind at Red Mt. turned back but
didn't get too far. They managed to retrieve themselves as Kurt and
Jim were after me with Kurt landing near Chrome. Anyway I eventually
ran out of altitude at Platina as my chase arrived and got the
windsock out as I made my final pass and I landed in a private
resort with a restroom within 100 yrds which I really appreciated.
Got 62.1 mi. in almost 5hrs. Was a beautiful clear day and Shasta
looked so close. One of these days I,m going to hopefully get there.
See everyone next weekend and hopefully get some good flights and
good times together. hh
|
| MattsFlyin
|
Big Clouds &
No Clouds
Lori and I got to Ramp Camp at 12:15 Saturday (9/7) afternoon. The sky
was developed to the point of OD'ing. Todd was setting up and so was
I as the wind crossed from the left. Dave Clement with his new-to-him
Laminar topless and Charlie Nelson with the same also came and
flew. Large dark shadows cast themselves across us as we stuffed
batten after batten. After a short wait on launch Todd was off with
me following within 30 secs. Literally 3 minutes later I was at
8600ft rapidly closing in on cloudbase. Over 1000fpm towards the
flat, dark-bottomed clouds. You know I pulled in fast and shot over
the back. Todd was right there climbing a bit higher before leaving.
As I sped towards the next ridge I flew fast thru the sink, sinking
fast. Suddenly I was in lift over the canyon and stopped to circle
for a few hundred foot gain. Todd flew by below me, now to my left.
As we made the ridge we both found separate areas of lift. I climbed
enough to glide towards a nice sunny slope in deeper while Todd
stayed put, slowly climbing. As I reached my target, I slowly began to
climb. But only a few turns later it was gone and my slow descent
began. I couldn't get back to the area of previous lift and had to
head out. Twenty minutes later I was chucking my mountain money out
the window. The silver lining to this story is that we got a chance
to meet another local landowner who is pro hang gliding. And he has
a dirt strip we can use anytime BUT he warned me to watch out for
his ornery cow! This cow has horns and an attitude so be careful
when landing on the Rd 308 dirt strip which is on the north side of
the road. 12.4 mi, 1hr 15min
Woke up Sunday morning and
couldn't see a cloud anywhere. Light left cross on launch. Set up my
glider as the gang arrived: Jon, Scot, Kurt, Greg and Charlie
Nelson. I launched first and easily began to climb out. Made it to
10k three times as I waited for Lori to drive down a bit. Decided to
head south since I found a nice tailwind working thru the canyon.
Made it to the hills west of the dome house at 5k and climbed out to
6k. Flew past Gilmore Peak but no lift till about a mile away.
Climbed several hundred there looking at "The Field" as a bailout.
Moved further south towards the north end of the Bear Valley Buttes
ridge. Good bailout there and a good thermal there for another
several hundred foot gain. Soared the Buttes next but very weak lift
only let me glide south barely sinking. Made it to the south end of
the Buttes but couldn't get high enough to make it worthwhile going
further. Landed right next to Lori near a big shady oak in front of
the CDF Sta.
21.5mi, 2hr 15min
No Complaints
Matt
Jagelka
|
| charlie nelson
|
first St John
flight
Most of the Sonoma Wingers can probably barely remember the first
time they flew St John. This story might bore you .....
I tried
flying this mtn three times over the last 9 years and got skunked by
north wind or OD. My glider bag was puffy with rain water as I drove
down the mtn after the 1993 (or so) fly-in cloudburst. Then in July
last year we went there and never drove up the mtn because a
monstrous cunim cloud was hiding the summit at only 11 am. My wife
and I lunched at the reservoir and watched that cloud build until it
was the size of the whole mountain, dump it's load of rain, and
then cleared off completely by 2pm, and soon cumies were popping
again. The mercurial personality of this mtn is amazing.
I was
glad to see Matt and Todd on launch Saturday, Sept 7th, to get some
tips on the LZ's. I just wanted to fly to Stonyford. I had spotted
five huge black bulls in the field East of the bee hives. Todd told
me which of the visitor center fields was good to land in. Dave
Clement desired the town route too, to get a feel for his shiney new
Laminar. So I had a guide to fly with. As you know, Matt and Todd
launched and went North immediately. Their rapid departure made me
think it was a bit rough. Mercifully, the summit cloud never
seemed to increase in size all day. I stood on launch for 20
minutes, becalmed. Finally the trees whooshed and aviation was
accomplished, at 3 pm. You guys built a fantastic ramp. I can't see
how you used to launch from that flat a slope before the ramp was
built. Got a fat therm at the East end. Approached cloudbase in
1000 fpm up. Smooth. Allowed my craft to experience a tad of cloud
suck, pulled in hard at cloud base, 9300, shot through some wispies,
fell out the South side and I was finally flying St John! Dave C.
launched at 3:15. After a half hour at the summit playing, the
cumies over Black Diamond ridge were looking enticing. The town
looked far away. I left at 8500.
Had a great time over Black
Diamond for an hour to 8000. I would easily make town. This was a
hoot! Dave flew out over town. He called and said the dumps usually
worked. Went over there. Of course he was right. The whole town of
Stonyford was going off. We boated far above the land. An osprey
circled with me for a minute, just ten feet off my right wing tip. I
sank out gradually on my Lam ST14 1998. Dave could maintain or
climb, with the same wing loading, on his newer glider. Those new
Lams are sweet. Had a good landing at the store. Now I see why you
guys love St. John.
............Sunday, Sept 8, I watched Kurt
and Matt launch in close succession. You didn't get long launchable
cycles this weekend. Todd coached me on when to go. Thanks Todd,
I'll watch that pine tree streamer from now on. a 2:30 launch, and
after searching for 10 minutes, got to 10,300 almost immediately,
and with a sail plane for a few minutes. With no clouds, and no
guide, I stayed between 8 and 10G for an hour, tried to go towards
Snow, hit a big sink hole, and went back to John. Eventually hit a
down cycle, sank to 7500, scratched, the mtn seemed very quiet,
and I headed out. Hit 1000' per minute sink over Black Diamond this
time. Reached town 2000' agl thanks to the topless Laminar. a huge
gentle thermal was over the LZ field. gained 4000' in it, back to
launch elevation. Yeoww .
The Stonyford store LZ was switchy
again. Kathy radioed 'it's North and then East at 5-8 and has been
the same for 30 minutes.' (Dave had bent a downtube Sat. when a
South puff made him into down wind lander.)
Sure enough, as I
turned base 40' high, the streamers switched to south. I
could see Kathy pointing her finger at the streamers with a look of
horror on her face. Her cheeks looked puffy. This is one of the
reasons that hang driving is emotionally challenging. The South wind
had made her into a fabricator. She didn't want to transmit on the
radio for fear of distracting me. Luckily it's very easy to turn the
Laminar down low, and the 10 mph south gust held long enough for a
big flare.
We had a high time there this weekend . Sorry I can't
make it back this coming one, but I hope you guys get to your magic
number of miles. Eventually I hope to progress out of the town
mode and get some XC exploring done around there. Once I figure out
how you guys pick your fields and which way that light and switchy
breeze is blowing.
...the other Charlie
|
| MattsFlyin
|
New
Member
Daniel Pifko, H3 from SF has joined us becoming the 59th member
this year. I don't think many of us know you yet Daniel but I'm sure
we will. Hey Daniel, do much flying with the Funston Gang? Maybe
we'd better revoke that membership right now! ;)
Welcome to the club,
Matt Jagelka
|
|
Daniel Pifko
|
Flying with
SW
Thanks, guys. I'm much looking forward to chatting, learning,
drinking, driving, traveling and, oh, yeah, flying with you. I'm
heading up to St. John tomorrow morning so will see you there.
I've been lurking on this site all year and decided to join
because of the friendly and helpful people I met at Hull Mtn and the
information on the web site/bulletin board.
Your flying
stories are inspirational (Vince's flight reports read like Mr.
Smith Goes to Florida), the flight tips, techniques and equipment
recommendations are irreplaceable, and the photos are spectacular. I
was actually amazed at how well everyone got along with all those
retrieves, and the recent argument/discussion has been an excellent
demonstration of how pilots with different needs and goals are able
to work things out. At the very least, it is the only place I've
seen on the web that describes how a growing pilot can transition
from club-type retrieves to competition-type retrieves.
Daniel
P.S. With Funston being a solid 10 minutes
from my house, it's hard to say no. And the individuals there are
some of the most interesting characters I've met. If you think I'm
going to touch the politics you're crazy ;-).
|
|
Eric Froehlich
|
St. John Fly-in 9/14-15: Panoramas on
Launch
Here's a link to the panoramas I shot on launch.
Thanks for the
great Fly-In!! I really had a fantastic time.
I learned a lot,
had some great laughs, am too grateful for the terrific ground
support. Again Thanks.
http://www.thermaling.com/sites/st_johns/panos/launch_01.htm
-Eric Froehlich
|
| Lijian Liu
|
St. John
pictures on Sep. 14, 2002.
I didn't fly, but did take lots of pictures on 9/14/2002 on St.
John:
rain.prohosting.com/lken/...ad/StJohn/
Enjoy~
Lee.
|
|
Ernie Camacho
|
RThat reminds me...
My launch on Saturday was quite unique. The
wind coming in wasn't all that strong - maybe 5 to 8 - but within
two steps I was going up, almost like a Funston launch. As I flew
out and to my left to follow the ridge, I continued climbing. I
didn't 360 at all, yet by the time I'd gone down the ridge a short
distance, then back toward the ramp, I'd climbed several hundred
feet. That had never happened to me here
before.
Unfortunately, this lifty situation didn't continue
as I tried to get higher. It turned into a typical thermally St.
John day.
|
| Leo
Jones
|
St. John Fly-in, Sept 14
- 15
Thanks to everyone who showed up - Jon J has the (nearly) full list
and it was over 20 pilots - that's a great turn out for St
John.
The meeting with the sergeant and "boys" from the camp
was really good. These kids jump to attention and call you Sir, and
behave impeccably! They were really impressed watching pilots take
off. They asked a lot of intelligent questions. It looks like they
will give us some help to fix the launch. More about this
soon.
Thanks for the panorama, Eric. Pretty cool! (I began to
feel sick after about 6 circles though!) Please come back in two
weeks time and take some more shots of us fixing the ramp. We're
really glad you had such great flying, especially after the long
wait on Sun. You all deserved good flights for having the guts to
carry up to the West launch. Good for you. It was fun following and
rooting for you down Bear Valley. Get maps, learn routes, and come
back and fly the hell outta the place. Until about three years ago
few of us knew the roads and routes to the north past Paskenta,
about 30 miles. That's changed!
We look forward to seeing
everyone again in a couple of weeks.
Leo
|
| Jon
James
|
Scores, St John
Fly-In
These scores are estimates only, my apologies for mistakes or
omissions.
Total Sat 9-14 Sun 9-15
1 Eric Froelich 46 17 Aldr
Spr Rd 29 s Bear Vly
2 Rich Sauer 40.5 Lowery Rd
3 Ken Muscio 24
past Red Mtn
4 Kurt Bainum 21 Chrome
4 Scot Huber 21
Chrome
6 Jon James 19 s of Chrome
7 Matt Jagelka 17 Alder
springs Rd
7 Leo Jones 17 Alder springs Rd
7 John DeAguiar 17
Alder springs Rd
10 Ernie Camacho 13 San Hedrin Ranch Rd
11
Jim Woodward 11 s of Elk Creek
12 Vince Endter 8 Stonyford
12
Rajiv 8 Stonyford
12 Ben Rogers 8 Stonyford
12 Brian Horgan 8
Stonyford
12 Daniel Pifko 8 Stonyford
Todd
Robinson
Greg Sugg
Wayne Michaelson
Keith
Erwin
Lew
Lee
Ashley Groves
Gary Princeau
23 or
24 pilots, good turnout, thanks for coming
!!
Drivers
Linda Sauer
Lori Jagelka
Nancy
Ferguson
Jess Camacho (with Ernie)
Attila(?)
Jim
Froman
|
|
Daniel
Pifko
|
St. John
pointers - 9/14
Just wanted to drop a note of thanks to Ernie, Greg S., Leo, and
the others who pointed out the hazards and golden paths of St. John
to me last weekend. It wasn't exactly an earth-shattering flight to
the reservoir and Stonyford LZ, but it was my farthest flight so
far.
As a new H3 I'm still trying to figure out where my
boundaries lie. A successful outcome such as this flight in light of
the words of caution and instruction from more experienced pilots
really feels pretty danged good.
Daniel
|
| Kurt
|
St. John
pointers
Great thing about hang gliding there are no boundaries. Have fun at
each stage!
|
|
Ernie Camacho
|
Re: St. John
pointers
I still remember clearly my first flight from St. John. Even though
I'd been flying for a long time and had some moderate XC flights
under my belt, getting up and out from the mountain, across the
gorge, past the nearest bailouts, and flying high over Stonyford,
made that first flight an indelible one.
You'll have many
such indelible flights. Savor each and every one of them.
I
love this sport!
|
|
Hangfly
|
Flying
Report - 9/21-22
Hull, Saturday, seven pilots flew in pleasantly unstable, punchy
air that sent us up over 11,000'. I went slack three times. Matt
flew around the world twice. Paul Sussman also flew on Friday and
reported getting to 12,300'. Doug said Saturday was his first time
over 11 grand. Lots of whoopin and hollerin and beer
afterwards.
Hangfly the happy Airhead
|
| Jon
James
|
St John - 9/21-22
St John was pretty good last weekend. Scot and Lou flew on
Sat, getting to the Chrome - Paskenta areas.
Sun Kurt, Leo,
Matt, Jon joined them for ramp work. Scot & Lou got to the
Chrome - Paskenta areas.
The planks from the old ramp are now
removed and planted sideways
to retain the fill from NEXT
SATURDAY'S WORK PARTY.
We launched at 5 pm, got to 9K to 10K,
and glided to the south for 15 to 17 miles.
|
| Work Party
|
St. John Work Party - 9/28
The Work Party to improve the launch ramp had enough comments that it they have been put into
a page of its own.
It has the whole story, and links to lots of photos.
|
| Scot
Huber
|
Flight Reports/
Owens / Slide
I arrived in the Crowley Lake basin Sat night in preperation for a
flight off Mcgee Mt. the following morning with Lou. Found a great
hot spring and soaked away the night for a few hours and talked with
a few local people who came out to enjoy the springs.
Sun. I got Lou
and Carolyn on the radio and we met at the LZ and headed up in my
truck. Carolyn who recently had knee surgery stayed at the bottom as
she didn't feel comfortable driving with her left leg down the
switch backs of the dirt and rock road to launch. 3/4 of the way up
the power steering line blows right out of the side of the pump in
my rig and we're smoking from the fluid hitting the hot engine. I
jump out glad I have a big fire extinguisher behind the rear seat
but after opening the hood see I don't need it. Lou and I gerry rig
the line back into the pump but fluid is still leaking so without
power steering we head down the switchbacks. What a job that was
since the road is mostly rocks and everytime a tire hits one the
steering jumps in that direction. I was lucky I didn't break a wrist
muscleing that truck down to the LZ. We got a new line in Mammoth
and after installing it head for the Glass Mt. on the other side of
the basin with a couple of Lou and Carolyns friends driving my now
fixed truck for us. We launch around 4:30 and climb up to around
9200 from the end of the ridge on the south end of the range. I head
up range to the north west to try and get an angle into the 15 mph
west wind so I can make it to the LZ we picked out 5 miles straight
west. I had a nice flight topping out at 11G over fresh snow covered
peaks and made the LZ easily in the cross wind flight as I flew
about 10 miles up range. Lou flying my ST, or I guess his ST was a
little more cautious about the jump up range but after some coaxing
from me made it far enough and high enough to glide to the LZ. He
was stoked as his previous attempts at making the LZ on his ultra
sport left him about four miles short.
I headed to Tuttle Creek
campground that evening in hopes of some distance off Walts Point
the next day. Lou and Carolyn stayed with friends in Mammoth but
assured me they'd be there by 10:30. They were. The day looked good
and we got off around noon with me going first and climbing to
around 10G over the saddle. Lou followed me soon after and we were
over Wanoga at 11G pretty quickly, but some high clouds were shading
the range for the next five miles to the north and things just
weren't happening. I decided to make a run for the sun on the other
side of the clouds but got fairly low (7800) before heading out at
Whitney Portal Rd. Lou left a little before me as I strugglled in
the canyon behind Tuttle and headed for the last bump on the western
edge of the Alabamas. He found some lift and started climbing and I
was soon chasing him but only found weak scraps of his thermal. I
landed along side the road with Carolyn tying a streamer to her
cruch to give me a wind bearing. Lou was heading out toward town and
doing pretty good so I broke down and was off chasing him with
Carolyn. He was finding pretty good lift over the center of the
valley but tryed to make the Inyos as there were nice cumies popping
by this time. He struggled at the base to the bottom of Black Eagle
where he landed for 23miles. Nice flight for a first ever Owens
experience.
We awoke the next day to overcast and wind and decided
to drive up to Horseshoe Meadows for something to do. Did some
hiking and as we were leaving it began to snow. We got back to camp
early and Lou and Carolyn headed to town to call his employer to see
if he could stay another day. I headed for Cerro Gordo to check out
the launch and road conditions which I heard were deteriorating. I
found my way up easily and found the road in good shape and the
launch fantastic, with a rounded knoll which offers launching in a
east south or west wind. I think this site has some possibilities
for a long distance flight as it's as far or farther south then
Walts at almost the same altitude and you don't have to cross the
valley which we all know is tricky and burns up precious time. I'm
definitely going there on our next trip to the Owens. Anyway Lou
finds out the weather up here is bad also from his employer and they
don't need him back to go ballooning so we party down that night in
my trailer with Caroly cooking a great dinner and having some fun
with a few drinks.
The next day dawns about the same with overcast
skies and strong north winds. Lou and Carolyn head out for home and
I head up to Mammoth to soak in the hotsprings before driving to
Washoe to meet Lori for her birthday on Friday and some flying off
Slide. Wed. night at Washoe was in the 20's and I'm thinking
we'll have to rent a room at a casino or something to be comfortable
for the weekend but Thursday night it rained and Friday the temps
were back to normal with clearing skies. Lori shows up around 11:30
after getting up at 4:30 to make the 500mile drive from SLC. What a
gal and on her birthday.
We spend the day (indoors) before going for
a late afternoon hike and then head to Reno to the Peppermill for
dinner. Great buffet in a tropical rainforest setting with moving
trees and water falls and lightening and thunder.
Sat. we head
up to Slide as Lori wants to fly from there as she loves the setting
and the launch. It's blowing east but lite and after a few cycles
she decides she needs a stronger first time launch wind and bags it.
I go and have a pretty good flight to the end of Wahoe Lake along
395. There was anumber of locals there along with Dennis and Rose
Carter, and XC Nick, who hadn't flown his flexwing in 2 years. He
top landed with a thud behind the chalet on the ski slopes but was
uninjured except for his pride.
Sun. the winds are predicted to
be a little stronger from the east so we head back to Slide to get
Lori a flight. She has a beautiful launch from the south end and has
a nice flight albeit rather short with a decent landing. I am still
on the hill after getting behind a launch potato in line but am off
soon enough and find my vario audio line to my helmet to be broken
as I forgot to pull it the day before and stretched the line on
landing. I manage to find enough lift to get me over the top and
head down range to the south. I find better lift there and top out
at 9600 looking down on Tahoe. I fly the deepest ridge for about
8miles in the hopes of an out and return but alas the lift begins to
peter out. I bail over the back because I've always wanted to land
on the shore of Tahoe. I'm low and getting trashed in the 15mph east
wind but pull on my VG and stuff the bar so I'll have speed going
through it. I come through the trash over the lake and head down to
where there is an unobstructed beach to land on. I misjudge my
approach a little bit trying to miss people and find myself 100yds
off shore at about 100 ft. over the water. Luckily I've still got my
VG on 2/3ds and I make shore with 10 ft. to spare in a cross wind.
There are some smiling people and excitement as I belly flop in the
sand not even bothering to pull my feet out because I was so worried
about getting wet. Sand is soft and dry and I'm happy to be on it.
I'm at the Incline Village beach park. Great flight with some nice
pictures as I had the camera on. No miles to add to my GFI score
though so will have to get a triangle or something soon. hh
|
|
Lori Allen
|
Minor
correction
Had to correct the main reason why I chose not to fly Slide that
first day so you guys don't think I'm a total weeny, just a partial
one. I had been sick for several days (boy did that timing suck!)
and still not feeling good, plus it wasn't just light -- it was
CROSS and the straight in cycles were only a couple of seconds
before crossing again and I don't like launching feeling the way I
did in crossing conditions because I couldn't get the wings to
balance (then I had a hard time even picking up the glider). After
30 minutes of waiting, I was just too doggone tired and feeling that
sick achy feeling. Of course, as soon as I backed off (not an easy
thing with those guardrails), of course the cycles would improve but
I decided to call it.
However, the next day I caught a 4,
maybe 5 mph cycle, but it was straight in, I was feeling better so
it was no contest -- run hard and keep the nose down. So other than
the fact that I was still sick and eventually sank out after 25
minutes on my one flight, flying off of Slide was so much fun!!! The
Peppermill was a great place to have dinner, but bring your gas mask
through the casino -- they don't have it ventilated very
well.
Thanks for making my birthday so incredibly special,
Scot! Definitely worth the lonnnnnnnnnnnnngggg trip. Take good care
of my pristine (chuckling) glider and harness until I can get there.
Hope it's flyable somewhere in November.
Lori
|
|
Ernie Camacho
|
Scaro
Gordo
Scot,
Back in the early days of the Owens, Cerro Gordo was THE
place to launch from. Several competitions were held there, as
documented in HG magazine. Back then the road was so bad that it was
called Scaro Gordo. I think that one reason Walts became popular was
because of the road.
It may be (and I think I heard) that
some work, of a mining sort? was done in recent times up on Cerro
Gordo. That may be why the road has been improved.
I'd like
to try it out next time we're down there.
Back to Scaro
Gordo!
|
| Mike
K
|
Cerro
Gordo
The first hundred milers in the Owens were flown there since the
relatively poor performance of the gliders in those days made
crossing the valley very difficult. The launch used many years ago
was much higher up than is currently used, at the top of the
mountain ridge. It was called Scaro Gordo since one has to (still)
cross a broad ridge in front to get to a safe landing. This was a
really flat glide out in a single surface hang glider. Today there
is a bed and breakfast at the old mining site, which is one reason
the road is a LOT better. Since the current launch is much lower
than the ridge top the glide out to a safe LZ is still a bit
intimidating. However, the few times I have flown from the current
launch it was not too difficult to find some lift to carry over the
front ridges. The scariest part of the current launch is the
potential for tire damage from all the sharp rocks one has to drive
over.
|
| Vince
|
Flight reports
10/5-10/6
Matt, Leo, Kurt and I arrived in the Hull LZ at 11:30. Nobody else
was there. When no one else showed up by 12:00, we went looking for
someone in the campground who would drive for us. We met someone
named Bernard? He was fixing his lunch and said he could not take us
up right then, but he would drive by the LZ later and drive one of
us to retrieve my truck. With a promise and a prayer, we set off for
launch. The wind at timberline was blowing in so we decided to
launch there. There were good cycles while we were setting up. By
the time Leo was in place at launch, the wind had change to over the
back. While he was standing in launch, a HUGE dust devil formed (I
have only seen bigger in Chelan). We started yelling at him but the
dust devil was not heading up launch so he stayed hooked in.
Suddenly it turned right up the back of launch. Matt took off like a
shot to get to Leo, but just as quickly the devil turned to the
north and was no longer a factor. The column of dust must have been
over 300' tall.
I got in line behind Leo and we started the
waiting game. A very weak cycle came in (more of a fart than a
cycle). Leo look it and was off. He sank for a long time and for a
couple minutes it looked like a sled ride. He finally caught one and
took it right to 10,500 over Red Spot. I waited for over 20
minutes. Every time it looked like something might be coming up,
Kurt (who was behind me) would say it was at his back. Finally I was
so tired from standing in the sun that I backed off and moved behind
Matt for a rest. After another 5 minutes, a weak cycle came in. It
was at my face 40' behind launch so Kurt took it. Matt hurried up
and less than 10 seconds later, with the wind crossing from the
right, he was off. That left me all alone. The wind was now crossing
ninety degrees from the left. I had a bit of a struggle getting to
launch because my wing tips were getting stuck in the bushes up to
launch. Those flex wings as short enough they miss the bushes (note
to self, trim bushes next time I am there). I was at launch about 30
seconds after Matt launched. I waited another 20 seconds and the
wind switched to about 30 degrees crossing from the right. I look it
and had an easy launch. Kurt said later it was a hang 4 launch and
we all agreed.
By the time we three had launched, Leo was
specked out and turning into a glidasicle. He was getting ready to
go land. I climbed to 10,000 and decided I was high enough to fly a
small triangle of 20.2 miles. I made a glide all the way to Tule
Lake. Just past the lake I found a nice thermal 600 up and climbed
back to 9,500'. I flew northwest to Little Signal, got my turn point
and headed to the LZ. There were lots of small threads of lift that
I was able to use by pushing out when I hit them. I never had to
circle. Using this method, I made it to the LZ, only losing a couple
hundred feet. I turned toward launch. I came in 500' over launch
and was able to climb right up from there. I climbed all the way to
11,500' because I wanted to do a longer triangle for the second one.
I was going to try for the towers between Little and Big Signal, the
dam, and back to the top of Hull. This would be a distance of 25.7
miles. We were all starting our triangles from the furthest point
east of the peak of Hull before it drops off. This would give us
another mile on our triangle legs.
I headed out from Hull at
11,500 and using the strands of lift I made it to the towers at
9,800. On the way to the dam, the sink was worse and I lost almost
3,000'. I passed over Matt, who was working on his first triangle.
After the dam I headed back to Hull and could see Kurt working low
over the knob at the end of the runway. This was not a good sign. He
was trying to finish his first triangle, which was as big as my
second triangle. I came in over him and just below the house. Matt
showed up and it was the three of us trying to get back and complete
our triangles. We each had two good climbs and each time we lost it
before the final thermal that took us back over the top. As I headed
back from the east end of Hull, the entire area lifted off. There
was no sink to be found. In 7 miles heading out over the lake, I had
not lost any altitude. Kurt was finding the same thing so he headed
over to Snow. When Matt heard this, he decided to do another
triangle. Working hard and coring sink when I could find it, I spent
almost 45 minutes just trying to get down. Bernard had showed up at
the LZ and drove Leo back up to get my truck. He had to ride in the
back of the guy's truck and was covered with dirt by the time they
got up to launch and my truck.
We all had good landings
and a great time. While in the air, we could hear Todd and Rich over
at Elk. It was good over there as well and they also were able to
complete a triangle. I had a long drive and got home around 11:30
PM.
Vince
|
| Leo
Jones
|
Dust
devils
I was standing on launch at Hull waiting to try out my new harness,
the others were just finishing setting up, when I heard someone
yell, "Dust deviiilll!". I didn't know if it was a big 'un or a
little 'un, and I looked around but couldn't see anything, so I
yelled "where is it?". "Behind You," came the response. I still
couldn't see it, but I lowered my keel and hoped it wouldn't come
near me. I was still thinking, "small dust devil", but then heard
all these, "Oh God", "Jeez", "Look at that!" yelps. I still couldn't
see anything (ignorance is bliss).
Turns out that this was
one big mutha that could ha' made mincemeat of me if it had come my
way.
If there are dust devils around it's probably best not
to be hooked in - ya never know!
Leo
|
| Vince
|
World records at
Hull?
I believe that Hull is the perfect place to set a world record for
speed around a triangular course of 25 Km. The current class 2 (soon
to be class 5 for world records) record is 50.4 kilometers per hour.
The class 1 record is 50.8 kph. My first triangle I flew this
weekend was 35 kilometers and I averaged 48.3 kph. Had I flown just
a 25K triangle I believe I could have easily flown 3 kph faster.
Toward the end of the day when everything lifted off, I would guess
8 kph faster was possible. I will look into what it takes to
register such flights. Maybe next year Hull could be a world record
site.
Vince
|
| Mattsflyin
|
GFI flight at Hull
Flight #8
Saturday, 10-5-02, 62.3 points, 3hrs 27mn, 1 sm. whack
I flew 62.3 point triangle at Hull. Also flew about a 56 pointer
the second time around trying to beat the first one. Conditions had improved
during the first round but were cooling down during the second one. Still I was
able to gain over 4,000' at the house on the second lap. As I soared towards the
peak I slooowly sank and cleared it by only about 50'. Went upright too late and
whacked lightly on the spot almost.
In the interest of playing by the rules, Jon please change my score to
show only the longest of my triangles per flights #7 and #8. I'll get two more Go
For It flights before the seasons over.
Matt Jagelka
|
|
Albert Branson
|
Flight
Reports
While everyone else was doing multiple triangles and fighting off
dust devils, I sunk out from 7200' over Elk and landed in Clover
Valley for a mere 8 mile flight. God do I need practice.:l
|
| Leo
Jones
|
Crazy Creek,
Sunday, 10/6.
Kurt and I arrived at about 11 am. Philip, Charley's son, was
already in the air for his first glider ride. He said he liked it
better than hang gliding!
Charley went next and discovered
the joys of looping! Then Kurt, then Vince, then it was my turn. I
hadn't logged any sailplane time for 7 years. My first tow, I was all
over the place to start with. Jim was my instructor and we got off
low, but then we couldn't get up, so we landed and tried again. This
time I was more relaxed and did better, towed good and climbed to 6k
in a thermal. There was no audio on the vario, so it was hard to
keep looking at the vario to see if we were going up. Jim remarked
on how good hang glider pilots seemed to be at finding the cores of
thermals. When we came in to land there was an airplane sitting on
the end of the runway waiting to take off. He had about five minutes
to get on with it, but he just sat there, so I landed on the grass
beside him, apparently without any help from Jim!
|
|
Jane and Jim
|
Jon and
Jane arrived, and Jane got the limo ride, in a DG505 (V.slick 2
seater) with Jim. For this she had to wear a parachute, because it
forms the seat cushion. It was fun getting her to put the chute on
and into the glider. "I could NEVER jump out of a plane with a
parachute. " she declared. Jim came right back with "Oh if I tell
you to, you will!" She had a great flight - loved it.
Jon
went up and didn't come back for over an hour - his first flight in
a sailplane for over 20 years! He did a 30 mile O&R for the
Go4It (the rules don't say anything about having to do it in a hang
glider!)
What a fun day!
Leo
|
| Jon
James
|
Soaring
It was great to fly a sailplane again. I flew the entire flight,
except for the aerobatics, and even did 2 loops and some wangs
myself. There was a lot of slipping and skidding but that got better
with practice. It was fun.
It is a little pricey. $47 for a
3000 foot tow, makes Joe look cheap. I can drive to Hull $20 for gas
$10 for breakfast $20 for dinner and beer and be gone all day for
the same $.
I'm trying to figure out how to score my 30 mile
o&r for the go-for-it. A sailplane would be like a rigid,
wouldn't it?
Jane seemed to enjoy herself thoroughly.
|
| Vince
|
Crazy Creek on
Sunday
Hungary Joe was supposed to be towing last weekend at Crazy Creek
glider port, but canceled because he could not get enough students
(there was enough of us who wanted to tow to keep him in the air all
weekend). Leo decided it would be a good time to pay for Jane
Campbell to get a glider ride (she is the wonderful landowner who
has the only LZ left at St. Helena). At the same time, a bunch of us
could take a sailplane lesson. About six of us Sonoma Winger's
showed up on Sunday to try our hands at stick and rudder. Leo and
Jon both had sailplane ratings but had not flown in a long time. I
have a single engine rating, but no sailplane time.
Everyone
did really well, even those who had no stick and rudder time. These
are my impressions of my first sailplane flight as the pilot. My
glider was an ASK-21 (about 34 to 1 as claimed by the
manufacturer).
The takeoff roll was similar to a tail
dragger, but there was no need for right rudder (no engine). The tow
was about the same as towing a rigid wing hang glider, which is to
say easy. It was a thermally day, but the glider handled OK with
just a little slop on the controls. The response was a little slow,
but I expected this in a plane with such a large wingspan. I
released at 3,500' and did some Dutch rolls to get the feel for how
much rudder co-ordination I needed. The instructor pointed to an
area known for lift and we headed over there at 60 knots. Sure
enough we found about 400 up. The instructor said "how about that"
referring to the 400 up. I guess I took some of the wind out of his
sails when I said I was in 1000 up yesterday at Hull, and I was a
little disappointed at 400 up. I thermaled at 50 knots and climbed
for about 1000' before heading north on a small out and return. I
just flew around for about a half hour. This sailplane did not have
a variometer, just a VSI that lags about 3 seconds. There also was
no audio. I did not like to keep watching the VSI for lift. I did
manage to stay above a DG-505 (44 to 1) for about 15 minutes. Then
they headed north. I had climbed to 5,500' by then.
The
instructor was just sitting back enjoying the view. He finally asked
if I wanted to do some more unusual attitude flying. Sure why not.
He showed me an aileron/barrel roll. The ASK-21 did not have enough
rudder to get it around nicely without adding some down elevator
while inverted. I then did one to the right and one to the left.
Next it was loops. Entry speed was 110 knots, which I found took
quite a bit of forward stick. It loops very nice. What I like most
is the lack of rudder required. In a powered plane, your feet are
dancing back and forth depending on how fast you are in each stage
of the loop. I did 4 more loops by myself. The VNE was 150 knots.
With the stick forces at 110, it would seem difficult to get to 150,
even at the bottom of the loop I had to push forward to get to 110
for the next one.
Next came inverted flight. He rolled
upside down and I took over and flew an inverted pass over the
runway for about 10 seconds. I was surprised how much down elevator
it took to keep the nose up while inverted. The airspeed indicator
was showing 35 knots (obviously not calibrated for inverted flight).
I rolled back upright and he showed me a wingover. In my plane, I
keep the ball centered through the entire wingover. But he said in
this sailplane you neutralize the ailerons at the 90-degree point
and use rudder to "kick" over the top. That method worked well. I
did about 6 of these. Then we went back over the airport and I did
one more loop. He said we could do a low pass so we came back 45
degrees to the runway. He kept saying lower and faster. I leveled
out at 10' and 110 knots, pulled up right into the downwind leg. I
pushed over a little aggressively and we went negative for a couple
of second to which the instructor said, "a little easier please".
I turned base to final and using the spoilers (them things
are GREAT) I touched down about 50' from the end of the runway and
"taxied" to within 18" of the line boy standing in the parking area.
Landing was more like a tail dragger as well. I had plenty of rudder
to turn once on the ground right up `till we stopped.
I was
not very comfortable the entire flight. The seat was too short for
me. Even though it had adjustable rudder pedals, I had to sit on my
tailbone in order to keep my head from hitting the canopy. My knees
also hit the canopy joint. It looks like I would have to wear
kneepads in this sailplane as well. The rudder use is much easier in
powered planes, which changes with each speed and amount of power.
In powered planes the rudder use can even reverse at high angles of
attack and high power setting. I found it harder to feel the core in
a thermal. The instructor said with enough hours you figure it out.
I guess some day when my knees are too shot to foot land; there
could always be sailplanes.
Vince
|
| Vince
|
Flight reports
10/12-10/13
Saturday saw quite a few pilots at Hull. Roy, Doug, Scot, Jon, John
D., Leo, Greg, Matt, Kurt,
and a few others.
Most everyone was ready to fly before 2:00. Jon launched first and
proceeded to slowly sink out. It looked like a few times he would
climb back out, but gravity eventually won out. Everyone else backed
off and waited another half-hour before launching. I think Roy went
next and managed to hang on. Leo may have been before Roy, stayed up
as well so everyone else was soon off. The wind at timberline launch
was just about perfect for launching.
I saw Scot getting up
just to the left of launch so I headed that way and found what he
was working. As soon as I was a couple of hundred feet over launch I
headed back to the right of launch and quickly climbed above the top
of Hull. At 8,000' I headed to the east of Hull to get the furthest
start point I could. I needed a really big triangle to try to stay
in the lead for the Go-For-It. Leo was climbing well and climbed
above me. I came back in front of Hull, climbed to 8,500' and flew
off toward Tule Lake.
Just before Tule lake I found weak
lift (about 200 fpm) and worked that back above 7,000' were I felt
better about heading more over toward Tule. Sure enough the lift got
better and I was able to climb to 8,600' and drift with it all the
way back to Little Signal peak. I then made a dash to the towers for
my turn point. I wanted Big Signal peak for my turn point but the
lift was not good enough. I lost 500' to the towers. When I turned
back toward the dam, I noticed I had a 14 mph head wind and I was in
serious sink. I'm sure I was plenty high to get back, but I did not
like the feeling. Back over Tule Lake I met up with Matt and Scot.
They were also trying for a triangle.
I lost a lot of
altitude by the time I got to the dam, down to less than 6,000'. I
decided to fly toward Pine Mountain. I went about 2 miles further
south of the dam and still did not find any lift so I headed back at
5,100'. I had a good tail wind and made it back just above the
house. Matt came back below the house and did not find anything to
climb in so he set off to land. I worked weak lift over the house. I
saw Scot arrive over the knob at the end of the runway low. He tried
to get up, but had to land at the runway. John D. was the only other
pilot left in the air. He had climbed above 9,500' earlier. I
climbed to 5,000' and headed toward launch. I could not make it
around the corner and had to come back. I climbed back up at the
house and tried again and again failed. Nancy radioed and said if I
did not close my triangle, she would eat my piece of cheese cake. If
I made it, I could have it. That was all the push I needed. I again
climbed up over the house, this time to 5,600'. I made it across the
red spot and back in front of launch. This closed my triangle,
though a little shorter than I had hoped. I ended the flight with a
great landing and a piece of cheesecake :-)
Sunday, we awoke
to see a fire over by Tule Lake. There were helicopters, tankers and
spotters in the air. They dropped 14 smoke jumpers into the area of
the fire. Greg, Nancy and I headed to Elk and met up with Rich, Kurt
and Albert. There were several paragliders already there when we got
to launch. They were doing OK. We launched at a little past 2:00.
Greg climbed up quickly to the right of launch. I was in something
just in front of launch and made two turns and this was as high as I
would get. Rich climbed up over the top of launch. Albert joined me
on the way down the mountain. He stopped to look at pinecones,
spotted a red tail and followed it back up. I headed south and found
nothing exciting enough to climb in. I had another good landing
after an extended sledder.
Rich was working back up over the mountain
after getting low over the thistle field.
Everyone had nice
safe landings. Kurt managed to stay up in his big glider three times longer
than my flight lasted. I think this just proves that tandem,
kingposted, single surface gliders need a significant penalty in the
Go-For-It.
Vince
DSL, static IP
|
| Vince
|
More random
thoughts
Matt will have to tell us more about the tuning he did on his
glider. He passed me so fast that I thought I had stopped flying. I
almost unhooked to see what was wrong ;-)
Nancy said this was
the first time she had been to Elk and did not have to take someone
to the hospital :-)
Greg said that the last guy to launch, flying a
seagull, looked like he was having trouble at launch. He also
overshot his landing by almost a mile. I thought he landed there on
purpose because he was staying at Oak Flat. Did anyone talk to him
after he landed? Had the lake been higher, he would have been
wet.
Vince
The real me
|
|
Gregg Hackett
|
Elk PG Fly-in this
last weekend
The fly-in went very well. It was nice to see hang gliders and
paragliders sharing the sky and having a good
time..............
Gregg Hackett
|
| Greg
Sugg
|
Saturday at Hull
(and Sunday at Elk)
Vince's second post here was all refering to Saturday at Hull. Kut,
pardon me, Kurt brought out a couple of new guys, both sky divers. Dave had recently learned to HG and was
flying a Comet 2. His buddy Sean came to see what this HG was all about and came away with the desire to
learn.
So, Saturday, I
launched for the first time in my spiffy new ROTOR harness. Way
Cool! I was hanging too low, so it was quite a strain on my
shoulders (deltoids). Also, the shoulder straps were too tight,
compressing me in the harness. I flew around for about an hour,
cruising out to the dam and then to the LZ. On Sunday, at Elk, I had
the hang strap about right (still a little too low), and the
shoulder straps adjusted better. What a sweet harness to fly in.
First of all, it is snug enough that I feel swaddled like a
pappoose. It's a very secure feeling in tourbulance, much better
than my old CG-1000. Secondly, there is vastly more stowage room
that the CG. Thirdly, the "Kick Ass" pitch system is unbelievably
good. The harness is very aerodynamic, AND it's not falling apart
like my dear old CG-1000.
It was a fun flying weekend. BTW,
the Mother Lode Skyriders are having their Holloween Fly-In at
McClure soon. If you want some fun flying, come on down!
|
| Jon
James
|
Flight Reports
10-19, 20
Nine pilots at Elk Sat 10-19
Rich, Charley, Matt, Ernie, Todd,
Jon, Albert, Lou, Caroline, Linda, Dave (on a Comet 2), Sean (Skydiver who wants to learn HG).
Most got
about an hour, 5400 highest reported, lots of
scratching.
Birthday cake in the LZ for Charley, thanks Linda.
|
| Kurt
|
Flight Reports
10-19, 20
Saturday Scot & Kurt test flew their new planks in heavy fog at
Funston. I broke two down tubes after I found the LZ! Those new
breakaway down tube links passed my rigorous testing. $1.00 for each
side. Thanks for the spare links Vince! Scot Kurt & Matt got
nice sled rides at Hull on Sunday in northwest wind.
Bummer!!!!!!!!!!
|
| Matt
|
Flight
Report
Sat 10/19/02
Was going to go to Hull but heard Hangfly was
aging and need help hoisting his beer at Elk so...
Got to the
LZ/dust cloud at the usual time and was amazed at the turnout. I
guess people heard Charley needed a lot of help with that pint
glass.
After an enjoyable dance party in Todd's "Disco Truck"
we made it to launch all revved up and ready to fly. The south
launch was looking good so we set up there. It appeared to be
dustier at launch than I recall. Maybe we need to let the native
grasses remain a bit taller next season. Anyway after about 40 min
Jon, Charley, Rich and I were ready so we launched with the wind
starting to cross from the right.
I was off first and luckily
flew into a thermal just to the right of launch. After a few minutes
I was over launch but not by much. The lift I found to be difficult
to center in and not very abundant. Charley, Jon and Rich soon
followed. Unfortunately the wind was beginning to split the ridge
and conditions were marginal for soaring. The rest of the group
carried down to the north launch and had to wait awhile for the
right conditions.
A few folks sank out fairly quickly and the
rest of the survivors were scratching as best they knew how. Just as
Todd launched we entered a sinking phase and I lost my thermal over
the west knob. As we struggled to stay airborne a few others, I
think Ernie and Lou, joined us. With only light lift in isolated
pockets it became apparent that all of us could not stay in the best
spot. That was just the excuse I needed to head south with a
whopping 4K.
I cruised past the LZ over to the grassy patches on
Pitney Ridge trying to waft my way uphill. Yeah right. I did a
u-turn and began to set up my approach pattern. Switchy conditions
in the LZ but generally north so I did an approach from the point,
heading upstream and towards the LZ/dust cloud. Landed just short of
the short fenceline and had a great seat to view the rest of the
gang. Jon and Charley were there already so we helped Charley drink
his beer and my beer and Jon's beer and...
A few interesting
landings later we all sang Happy Birthday to Charley and ate some
cake provded by Linda.
Sun 10/20/02
Hooked up with Kurt
and Scot at the Pillsbury LZ. Tied up Scot's dirt bike and drove up
the hill. Crossing from the right but not too bad was our reception
at Timberline. A lot of people were driving out that morning for
some reason. I took the loooggggiiinnnngggg road in(washboard city)
and passed several departers. Scot and Kurt said the county road was
amazingly busy.
After setting up the Talian the conditions were
degrading but still launchable. Scot and Kurt were still setting up
when I launched. Glad to see them being so careful cuz you know they
wanted to fly right now!
I sank all the way to the knob at the
airport, found light lift about halfway from there to the LZ and
boated around for a few minutes while evaluating the conditions in
the LZ. It was pretty much straight thru the trees towards the lake
occasionally turning a bit west. I figured I didn't want to be
anywhere near the trees on final so I landed about 300 yds out
towards the lake. A bit much but perhaps not since it was
uneventful.
Kurt helped Scot launch and then took off too. I was
very happy to hear they both had launched. Kurt almost didn't fly
and waited until after Scot had landed for the conditions to
cooperate.
Although it was sledders all around it was a nice warm
day and we were aviatin'!
MattsFlyin
|
| Leo
Jones
|
Weekend
report, 10/26
Sunday at St. Helena
The first day the clocks went back, so
we all had an extra hour's sleep, and still we are all late! Larry,
Justin, Donna, Scot, Lori and me finally arrived at nearly 11 am by
Jane's ranch. It's nearly midday by the time we are driving past the
geyser, and there's a north wind. It's warm and pleasant - a
beautiful fall day. We wonder if we will be able to take off with
the forecast of light north or even north easterlies, but the
blipmap looked promising. On the way up the mountain we talk to Todd
and Lou who tell us they are on launch and it's blowing in. Todd was
hatching some alien plague and felt too sick to fly. So was Lou but
he set up anyway.
On launch it was warm, with light cycles
coming in, and only a few mares tails clouds high in the sky. Lou
went off first, as he hadn't flown there before, but ten seconds
into his flight it was obviously pretty bouyant, so I hurried to
join him. By the time I launched he was about 1000ft over. I quickly
climbed up to him and we both flew around with a sailplane for quite
a while.
Everyone flew - Justin skied out in his paraglider,
and Scot was enjoying his brand new dirt cheap Atos. Lori flew and
got up but was having real right turn problems - it turned out she
had a badly bent batten, - probably caught it in a bush carrying
down to launch. Nevertheless she climbed out and flew for nearly an
hour, for a nice first flight at St Helena.
We landed in at
least two of Jane's fields, though Larry attempted to land between
two of them. Winds were light and a bit switchy. I (lightly) wacked.
Scot went from warp 3 to stationary very quickly - a bit like
hummingbirds do, and flopped onto the ground. The cows enjoyed the
show but they get bored very quickly with hang gliding. Jane came
out to see us.
It was a very pleasant
day.
Leo
|
| Larry
Roberts
|
St.
Helena, 10/26
My lack of flying this year showed on Sunday. I parked at launch
for way too long, but had a good launch. The wind was almost dead
when I landed and couldn't decide which field to land in so
straddled a fence. Really, I blew the approach and let the glider
stay in ground affect too long.
Nothing hurt, just a hard
flare at the fence and ended up with me on one side and my control
bar on the other.
Overall it was a good day. Got up over the
top, the thermals were smooth, had fun. Got to get out and fly more
often.
Leo, thanks for calling me. Donna, Thanks for
driving.
Bill, Justin, thanks for helping me get my glider off of
the fence. Oh yes, did I thank Donna enough for driving?
|
|
Lori Allen
|
Wake-up calls
and other schtuff
So my personal lesson for my flight at St. Helena? Yup, you guessed
it. I got a wake-up call to not let a few measley rocks distract me
from doing a thorough preflight (got a good bruising on the
hindquarters from kicking myself and having to shorten what would
have been a delightful soaring flight). My left arm is also killing
me today spending all that time muscling the glider around to just
keep it going straight. I'm still glad I got to log 40 minutes
though. The effort was worth getting up over the top.
But I
sure had fun enjoying my first inland California site and getting to
see spend time with everyone again. Thanks Donna for awesome driving
and thank you Leo for a great barbeque afterwards. It was also cool
getting to see Linda and Daniel the night before after Flugtag. (Of
course, it's always wonderful to see Scot ... dreamy sigh ... (oops,
sorry *blushing* -- can't help seem to help myself
*grin*).
Rich and Todd, I hope you are both recovering
quickly from your respective ailments.
Lori
|
|
Shannon Raby
|
MLSR Halloween
Fly-in Results, 10/26-27
Ernie,
The Mother Lode Sky Riders
would like to thank all of the Sonoma Wing Pilots that supported the
M.L.S.R. and for the donations the Sonoma WIng Pilots gave to Rick
and Sarha O'Connell.
The fly-in was great! And the Sonoma
wing pilots are Great!!!
Thanks so very much. Let us know
when your next fly-in will happen.
Ernie, let all the guys
know just how much their support helped the M.L.S.R. and Rick and
Sarha.
Thanks again!
Shannon
|
|
Vince Endter
|
Rigid
advantage?
I flew over to McClure today (Sunday) only to
see Kurt on his new Stratos bottom feeding the stack. What's up with
that? When I left around 12:30 the air felt like it was starting to
happen. I hope everyone did better later.
Vince
|
|
Kurt Bainum
|
Howl flight
report
Bottom feeding the stack? Yes I was for a while.
After 25 years of rag wings I am having trouble making the
transition. I tend to over control it. I was trying to stay away
from the gaggle whale I learn the new handling but every time I
found a thermal everyone would come over me. So I would leave. Using
my "rigid advantage" I went way away from them, found one, and got
above them by the time they came over. I don't think I got any
higher than the Laminars. Vince, you were right. Landing with full
flaps is great but you tend to whack after flair! What a fun
weekend. We had a great turnout! Aerobatics and speed gliding were
great with spiral dives, flat spins, wing-overs and multiple loops
in a Millennium!
|
|
Jon James
|
Boo!
The Halloween Fly In was great. Weather was
excellent.
Camping was nice, nights were warm.
Days
were perfect, with lots of sun, lots of thermals, and a sky full of
pilots. 9 'Wingers, counting Vince.
My landings were great,
next to the spot.
The BBQ on Saturday was good. The Mother
Loders put on a fun weekend. Thanks, guys.
|
|
Ernie Camacho
|
Great
Weekend!
Sonoma Wings made a good showing at the Halloween
Fly-in.
Kurt and kids stayed with Steve Bickford and Rebecca
Lance, coming over each day to fly. Kurt got in some good practice
on his new Stratos.
Charley came over from his job in Manteca
(is it?). Matt and Jon came together, bringing Charley's
glider.
Both Greg Sugg and I came with our tent
trailers.
Some other pilots joined us in the campground,
among them Dallas Willis and Eric Froehlich.
Saturday started
with a speed-gliding run in the morning. The course consisted of
taking off, going out past a big pine tree, then turning right and
diving for the flag on top of Bugfart hill, then a 120 deg. turn and
a dive for the finish line near the picnic table at the start of the
chute up to the LZ where you tried for a spot landing. Great fun,
especially since the pilots didn't have to get close to the
ground.
After prizes were awarded, we went up the hill for
duration, XC, and turnpoint attempts. It was the best day I've had
there, with my max altitude above the 2000ft. launch reaching 5700.
Others got even higher. I managed to complete the first 3 turnpoints
of the 7 turnpoint task, but when I got back to the ridge everyone
was low and scratching. I eventually lost it and came in for a nice
landing, right at the spot, on my knees. No points.
We had a
nice awards ceremony for the day's winners (Matt got a prize for
spot landing). The McClure pilots had done a bang-up job providing
prizes, food, and fun. We hung around for quite awhile before
retiring to our campsites to sit around the non-fire.
Sunday
was a repeat of Saturday, with speed-gliding in the morning (won by
Ken Brown on a Lite Sport) and boating around in the afternoon. We
couldn't get as high (I only got to 3000 or so), but I managed to
find consistent lift over the water tower near the lake so I played
around until I decided I'd had enough. After another nice landing
almost on the spot (dropped straight down from 2 ft. up), I watched
the rest of the show. Another awards ceremony (Matt got a nice
smoker for hitting the spot again), and we packed up for the long
ride home.
This was the best trip I've had to McClures yet.
Good weather, good company, good flying, and a looping Millenium!
|
| MattSmokin
|
My First Speed
Gliding Comp.
2002 "Howl"oween Fly-In, Lake McClure, CA
Day One
My first
attempt at "Speed" Gliding was, as you can probably guess from my
punctuation, not very speedy. I was actually beaten by a few .ah,
shall we say. "mature" gliders. To put it in perspective the fastest
time was 1:05, the slowest about 1:45. My time was1:38.
The
planned launch window was 9:30 to 10:30 but here's how it actually
went:
8:00am - Jon and I arrived at the LZ for the pilot's
meeting. One ground crew member present and one pilot present but
still sleeping in his vehicle.
8:30am - A few more pilots show up
with one other ground crew member.
9:00am - Meet Director
arrives.
9:30am - The rest of the pilots arrive and the meeting
begins.
10:00am - Meeting is over and drive to launch
begins.
10:30am - Start glider set-up at launch.
11:00am -
First glider launches (Brian Horgan) and scores a 1:05 to win the
day
Second place (Unknown) scored a 1:11
Third place (Ken
Muscio) 1:21
Seven others finished up to 1:45
By the time the
first glider took off lift was beginning to form and the rest of us
had to deal with the increasing thermal activity. I have to admit I
was a bit nervous just before launching. While standing on launch I
comforted myself by remembering that the only pressure I felt was
that which I imposed upon myself. I recalled my goals and reminded
myself that "I" was controlling my own destiny here so there was
really nothing different about this particular flight. I decided to
fly conservatively with my goal set for a clean launch, a safe
landing and an uneventful flight meaning no unintentional wingovers
or close encounters with mother earth. I set my VG to ¬ and Goed For
It! (somehow "Went" just doesn't fit)
The course was simple.
Launch straight ahead, go 50yds, hang a right around the big pine
tree in front, fly along the hill for 500yds, hang a u-turn at the
flag on the little peak, make a bee-line for the white pick-up truck
parked at the end of the LZ. The only catch was that the pick-up
truck was obscured by the bushes along the road! After the u-turn I
got popped up in lift, pulled in as much as I could and headed for
the only vehicle in sight which I soon realized wasn't white and
wasn't a truck! Where the hell is that truck! Now that I was off
course I decided to forget about the truck and to zero in on the LZ.
As I got lower I finally saw the truck and flew over it in record
(slow) time. I coulda been a contenda, I coulda been somebody, I
shoulda used my GPS!! As I landed I knocked over the spot cone with
my base tube and stopped 10ft long on my knees. Next time, more VG,
don't get lost and put feet down! I wasn't last but it was
close.
The rest of the day was spent freeflying to Horseshoe Mtn.
Conditions were good and many of us soared for as long as we wanted.
My second landing of the day was a no stepper 10ft short of the
spot, good enough for first place and a Smoker/BarBQue. Now I can
smoke anything I can get my hands on!
Day Two
After the
delays of the first day things went much smoother. Kenny Brown also
showed up to compete.
I was ready to launch at about 10am almost
1 « hrs earlier than the previous day. An additional task was
offered as well. We were to attempt a spot landing after blazing
across the finish line!
This time I was not nervous at all, in
fact I was really excited to fly. But wouldn't you know it, the wind
was blowing down at launch. Of course we all set up anyway with the
thought that downwind launches meant faster times! Fortunately it
turned around for us and everyone made it off.
After verifying
the position of the finish line/pick-up truck I took off with ¬ VG
and as soon as I turned right I went for _. I started to get a bit
askew and only made it to « before I decided that I needed to keep
both hands on the bar. I carved a really nice descending 180 at the
flag and spotted the truck immediately. This was more like it! I
pulled on the speed and passed over the finish about 20ft above it.
Banked over about 60ø into a climbing left turn followed immediately
by a 180 while letting off the VG. Now I had the spot in my sights!
Moments later I had another no stepper 10ft to the right of the
bull's eye. My time was 1:25 and was good enough for 4th place. My
landing was good enough for 1st.
We all flew in T shirts or
light long sleeves and of course no one used instruments. It was fun
to fly fast and low and I definitely recommend it to all. I learned
a few more things about myself and my glider.
Kenny Brown had the
best time of the weekend with a 1:05, a few hundredths less than
Brian's 1:05 the day before. Ken flew a LightSport, had ballast and
launched and landed with lots o'string hangin' out. He overshot the
spot by about 10yds and had perfect form. We watched his run again
on video and it was amazing to see the large amount of small
corrections he made. He was constantly in motion and yet the glider
remained smoothly on the optimum line. Ken crossed the finish about
3ft above and remained at that altitude all the way downslope,
upslope and while flaring. He neither turned nor released any VG.
What can one say but WOW! Ken Muscio took second place with a 1:15
and Harold Froeling got third with a 1:21.
During the weekend
many landing were made and I have to compliment Jon, Greg and Ernie.
Jon had two amazingly long, smooth, fast approaches with perfectly
timed flares very close to the spot. I saw one of Greg's landings,
again very smooth with a well timed flare close to the spot. Ernie
also made a nice approach and landed practically on the cone! The
reason I won both days' spots was a combination of good form and
accuracy. If any part of your glider touched the ground you were
disqualified so if I wasn't the closest of all I was the closest of
those still qualified. Plus I was lucky! And yes there were even a
few good whacks by some Sonoma Wingers. One non-SWer whacked so hard
he split the top of his sail at the highest cambered section of the
nose rib!
MattSmokin'
|
| Leo
Jones
|
Saturday 11.2
report
What a bee-yoo-tiful fall day - oh the colors, perfect launch
conditions at Hull, but unfortunately you still need ALL your
battens to fly. Which is what I did not have. I was missing a #2 tip
batten. (New expression - "Just humor him - he's a batten short!") I
ignored suggestions to "take the other one out", figuring that
whilst leaving a batten in the LZ last week was stupid enough,
crashing because I flew anyway would certainly earn me the Turkey
award, and could be painful and expensive!
Everyone else -
Matt, Kurt, Roger, Roy, Wayne, Doug, Steve A, had pretty nice
flights, (mostly) good launches and good landings. Everyone stayed
up, even if no-one got much above the mountain top, no-one had a
sledder.
And it was bee-yoo-tiful up there at
Hull.
Leo
PS I found my batten in Jane's field at St
Helena.
|
|
froehlich
|
Aerotowing with
Paul and Dallas - 11/1
Just east of ChowChilla five of us were aerotowed behind Paul
Splan's trike Saturday. Assisting Paul was Dallas Williams who
additionally on repeated flights provided a show of his aerobatic
talents, doing loops, stalling spirals and more. Most of the group
were individuals who went to the McClure's Halloween Flyi-in,
Clifton Moody, Dangerous Dave, Dallas, Paul and myself. Wayne
Michelson, who had been trying to coordinate things with Hungry Joe
for areotowing at Crazy Creek was also there. Also there was Ben
Dunn a Marina pilot.
The flights were short overall, with my one
and only flight being the longest having found the one rare thermal
that broke free for the day. However everyone was pretty stoked at
being at a ground breaking day for
aerotowing in the area.
Additonally a neighbor landowner came out with a load of snacks and
her son's an 11 yr old and 9 yr old gave us a motorcylce stunt
show.
-Eric Froehlich
Anyone interested in aerotowing at
this location should contact Paul Splan of Fresno. For those of you
not familair with him he's the owner of the LZ at
Tollhouse.
Here is a mapquest url for the runway
location:
http://www.mapquest.com/...
|
| Kurt
|
Sunday Hull
report 11/3
You Guys blew it. I got to 8,000 feet! We flew 'til it got late.
San Headroon was not happening but I went to faraway ranch twice and
back. Ernie, I waited for you. Barry and James? had good flights
too.
|
|
Ernie Camacho
|
Sunday at St.
Helena
Mt. St. Helena - Sunday 11/3
I showed up at the intersection
in Knight's Valley at 10:30 to find Greg Hackett already there.
Shortly, Justin, Matt, and Leo arrived. Matt had no glider. He had
some time to burn and came to drive. Leo had checked the forecast,
felt it would be a sledder day, and was planning on driving. When
Matt showed up, Leo decided to spend his day otherwise and headed
home. Todd was waiting at the gate up on the mountain, with Lou and
Caroline on their way to meet him.
We found conditions at
launch to be very light. There was a very light easterly breeze all
morning (downwind), but at launch it was coming in light from the
warming down below. Todd didn't set up his glider and eventually
decided not to fly. I set up and launched around 2:15. I waited
until the yarn on my flying wire actually lifted, then ran like
hell, just clearing the streamer in front. I immediately went around
the corner to my right, found a lot of nothing, hunted around and
eventually found light disorganized lift over the rocky knob to the
northwest of the spine. Do we have a name for that knob? I did a lot
of zero-sink before I found a core that would actually take me up.
My max altitude for the day was a bit above 4000ft. It turned out to
be a fun flight. The whole time was spent going as slow and flat as
I could, trying to maximize the light lift wherever I found it.
After the rest of the group saw that I was getting up, Greg took to
the air in his paraglider for maybe his second flight here(?). He
played it conservatively, didn't get up, and found himself landing
on the hillside near Ida Clayton Rd. A while later Justin's red
paraglider joined us. Justin managed to work the light lift well
enough to get up and hang out. By this time my lift had died so I
decided to see if there was anywhere else that might have up air. I
worked most of the area along the spine and out in front of it to
the northwest, but found nothing. It seems that the only place
working was that one knob. By this time I was too low to get back to
the knob so I just pulled VG and headed for the LZ, playing tourist,
ogling all the wonderful fall colors and the almost-crystal-clear
view. Over the LZ I had a bunch of altitude to burn off so I
practiced wing-overs (well, wangs actually). I haven't really done
any on purpose for many years and now's as good a time as any to get
back in practice. Besides, they're fun, once you get `em right. By
now Lou had launched and I could see he'd found the lift over the
knob. My landing was almost perfect (dropped the bar). An elderly
lady had stopped her car to watch and when I went over to say Hi,
she said she wasn't sure if I'd planned on landing here or not and
she wanted to make sure I was OK. I thanked her and we chatted for a
while - another booster born! Justin, and later Lou, came in for
perfect landings in the basically calm air. I was in the air for
about 50 minutes. It was just another perfect autumn day with good
friends and fun flying. Thanks for driving,
Matt!
Ernie
p.s. Maybe next weekend I'll go to Hull for
that triangle.
p.p.s. Sorry, Kurt. I wasn't sure you'd still be
at Hull.
|
| Kurt
|
Flying
Sounds like you have bonded with this glider Ernie. No wind launch
and no wind landing, wangs! I'm glad you had a good flight. How
about calling it Ernie's' Knob?
|
|
highhuber
|
Atos Demo flight
Today (10/22) I test flew Vince's Atos at Funston. It handles very easily
with minimal control effort and tracks very nicely. After a short
flight I flew my Laminar again and was having problems with PIO's.
Vince and I raced down to Westlake and he got there higher and
faster. On the way back I gained on him but he was much higher and I
was forced to turn back and gain some altitude to make it to
Funston. I than flew the Atos again and got a real idea of it's
performance advantages over a flex wing. I definitely will be going
rigid. On a long xc flight the ease in handling is enough to make me
want one but the performance will be very nice to have also. Now I
just have to figure out how to get one in Europe and save 3000.
bucks. Any ideas.. hh
|
| Vince
|
Atos demo
flight
Another convert to the dark side ;-)
Vince
PS On the
way back from Westlake I was flying with one hand and resting my
chin on the bar until I saw Scott catching up. Then it was just a
little pull in and bye bye Scott.
|
|
John Blacet
|
Re: Atos demo
flight
Just stop it, right now. We are putting you guys in a different
category in the GFI!
Another advantage/disadvantage is that
you can only get maybe three of these beasts on a truck--lots of
pilot room, less social.
|
| Vince
|
Funston on
Sunday
I flew for about 1/2 hour today. The winds were light and I only
got about 190' over launch. I did some testing on stall speeds and
flaps. As I was breaking down the wind was picking up. I left about
3:30.
Vince
|
| Jon
James
|
Flight Report
Sat 11-9
6 gliders at the Grade, Todd, Kurt, Leo, Jon, Lou, John
were
teased and set up but did not fly.
Justin and Greg were
headed to Goat Rock later.
|
| Leo
Jones
|
Saturday 15th,
St Helena
Jon, Matt, Charley, Chris G., Greg S.,John D. and me all flew. When
we arrived at launch at about midday, it was blowing straight in at
up to 20. It looked like the last person off might have fun.
However, just as the forecast predicted, it dropped off rapidly.
Jon, Greg and Matt got off first and stayed up in weak thermals,
Matt doing best by staying in close, like REALLY close - there were
squirrels running across his wing to get from tree to tree. John D
took off and stayed up for a while too. Eventually the wind got
light and they all sunk out.
On launch it got a bit warmer,
and more cycling, but very light. I took off and found nothing at
all until I was 800 over the LZ, where I circled in a patch of lift
for few minutes and gained 50 ft. There was almost no wind on the
ground, but everyone had good landings, though John D failed his
"vast unrestricted LZ" signoff by arguing with a power pole.
It might be better tomorrow.
Leo
|
| Leo
Jones
|
Sunday Goat
report
I got there at 10.30 and Matt was already set up. It was warm and
sunny - you could have sunbathed, but the wind was SW at about 5
mph.
I set up and we waited. And waited. The 5 mph SW got
lighter. There were no wind lines as far as we could see out on the
ocean. Cloud lines and sun came and went. No wind. We listened to
the bouy reports. It said 17 -20 at Bodega buoy. Not at Goat
though.
Kurt showed up at 2.30 - sucker!! But wait, through
binocs we could see whitecaps far out to sea, and a wind line. It
got closer, And closer. When it got to the rocks half a mile away
Kurt began to set up in a hurry, Matt and I put on our
harnesses.
Then it was here. It went from 2 mph to 16mph+ in
just a few minutes. At 3 pm Matt took off, then me and Kurt. It was
perfect Goat!
We flew around in peachy conditions, getting to
around 750ft + at the south end. Anthony showed up with his
paraglider. but reported winds to nearly 30 on launch.
Around
4.15 pm it began to drop, and we began to sink. After us 3 HGs
landed Anthony took off and soared for a while in the lessening wind
as the sun set.
What a nice day.
Leo
|
| Todd
Robinson
|
Good
Flite
Lou and I got a two hour flite from Hiddin Valley to Angwin! lots
of fog and some whiting out!!! I think it was about 20 miles.Max
Alt.was 4500ft.
|
| Leo
Jones
|
Elk Work Party 11/31,12/1 - Thanks
everyone
On Saturday, Rich, Scot and JW did some great work on the road,
trimming trees and cutting and improving water bars.
On
Sunday the main gang turned up - eighteen in all!
Present
were - Matt, Albert, Greg Sugg, Jon, Leo, Sterling, Wally, Justin,
Linda, Rich and Danny, Barry, Greg Hackett, Anthony, and Madeline,
Ronald, Kurtis and Eric ? from the Berkely club.
We went at
the North launch with a vengeance - it's probably better now than
it's ever been! We cleared a lot of brush, especially from the left,
widening the launch considerably, and removed all those small but
ever threatening trees below launch. The improvement is huge.
Many hands make light work - we'd finished and were all bush
wacked by 1.30 pm. Those wise enough to bring gliders all got to
fly, with good cycles coming in on the South lauch and cumies
forming overhead. Everyone got up, 5 PG and 3 HG. Rich even flew
back home!
Those of us who drove down did some more work on
the water bars. Elk is now in good shape!
It was another
beautiful day. Thanks to all who showed up
|
| Scot
Huber
|
Flight Report/
12-1-02
Met Todd at the gate with Suzie driving at 12:15. I had planned to
go to St. H today to clear a setup area for my Atos and saw Todds
post so brought the 700 along.
I launched into a gentle cycle at
around 2 and headed to the main spine where I found good lift to
cloud base at 4300. 200 ft. over launch. I drifted back to launch
waiting for todd but he was stuck for a while as it died and cycled
down for 15mns. I headed back to the spine and climbed into and
through the clouds to about 4600 ft. The clouds weren't very thick
and I could see the sky above as the mt. dissapeared below.
Todd got
off shortly but stayed below the clouds not wanting to be up there
with me disappearing and reappearing. I left for the south knob to
give Todd a chance to try the clouds for a while over the top. He
climbed up to their base and was soon leaving for Crazy Creek as I
got low.
I caught some lift over the old launch and got up to 4300
and heading back to the top where I climbed up and through the
clouds to almost 4900ft. I headed for CC also as Todd was reporting
very bouyant air and that he was there already. I sure didn't think
I would make it but just figured if he did I would also. Cleared the
last ridge before CC with a couple hundred and had it made, made a
few turns and came across the runway in front of the tow plane which
had just landed and stopped for me to land.
After a light whack in no wind, I waved at Jim as he
powered by me .
A sweet day of flying
for Dec. 1st. Just over 1hr. Thanks Suzie for driving, and thanks
Todd for posting. hh
|
| Scot
Huber
|
Cloud
Flying
I just want to tell people that read my report of flying in clouds
at St. Helena that if you don't have a Top Navigator or Galileo
flight instrument with an integrated GPS which shows your heading
and air and ground speeds, you may not want to try doing this as you
can get very disoriented in a very short time and lose control. I
just focused on my instrument when I was totally whited out and flew
by it. I found that as soon as no visual references were in sight I
was getting spooked but by looking at my instrument I could maintain
my heading and level flight and fly out the side of the cloud.
I
just don't want some rookie trying this and getting hurt because
they heard me say I did it. It's not hard to fly by a good instument
if you're experienced. If you just have a regular vario and
altimeter and try this you may end up in a tumble or worse. Cloud
dodging is one thing but total whiteout is a very spooky and
disorienting experience and I don't recommend it to anyone. hh
|
|
Hangfly
|
Goat -
12/29
The plan, based on the forcast, was to launch around 10:00 and fly until
we sunk out, due to diminishing winds, around noon.
We arrived
about 9:10 to find winds blowing in about 3 to 5 mph. Had we missed
it? We were confused. It seemed that the forcast was wrong! How
could that be? We have plans. We went down and walked on the beach
in the copious foam. Soon the wind began to pick up. We scrambled
back to launch to find winds straight in 12 to 15. We set
up.
Matt was concerned that the wind would lull and we would sink
out so he waited. I was concerned that the wind would die off to
nothing and we would have to bag our gliders so I launched.
I
went around 11:00 in 13 to 15mph winds. I flew for 40 minutes before
sinking out in 10 to 12 mph wind. Matt waited quite awhile for winds
to pick up. He went at 12:50 in 14 to 15mph wind. He flew for about
an hour as conditions improved to 15 to 18mph winds. It was still
soarable when we left at 3:30!
Fun way to end the year! I was
surprised not to see any other pilots given the lack of flyable days
lately.
Hangfly
|
|
Shawn Stiver
|
Funston -
12/29
Funston
was soarable pretty much all day, winds NW 15 t 18, but not so
strong as to make the LZ a washing machine. Lulled a couple of times
to marginal soaring, but nobody went to the beach. Good thing too,
as the storms have washed away most of the sand leaving big rocks
everywhere. Lots of large slides from the cliffs to the south. Great
day!
Shawn
|
|
