Hang gliding sets me free, not just from gravity, but from the hassles and business of every day life. Words and pictures can only begin to express how amazing it is... but I will try, here.
By 11, I had already been to 3 client sites & the rest of the day was Fubared. My daughter & wife were out for the day, it was too early to drink (barely), and no other work projects were good for a Friday.
I called Rob, the McBus was full, then I got an email: MikeB & Mike Z were driving up at 12:30. I left my driveway at 11:25. I left the gas station on the corner at 11:29. I hit the lot at 12:30, not easy to do in 67 miles of So Cal traffic.
The relief to be above the smog, literal and figurative, held me up for 3 hours and took me to an unexpected 6,800. Crestline, Pine, Crestline, Cloud, Crestline, Pine, Marshall, Crestline, Marshall, the University Flags, Marshall... whack! (ugh) (I need to drill procedures in for landings)
I bummed a ride up early to work on a video project (and the SD card needed formatting so the video was corrupted, among other things blah). Thanks Whack.
Marshall was the killing fields as the winds switched from North to East and back and forth. My wing got tipped by the wind when it was on the basetube with the velcro still on the wings. Then, even with a good wireman, I got turtled by a dust devil at the launch point, as winds went from 5 mph East to 15 mph West in a matter of seconds.
Thanks Rob and Dan for the help.
It was worth it.
10 minutes later I was at 8k. It seemed like there was a lot of lift and a lot of suck, so I didn't take my Falcon too far afield, as some did in their new sport 2s (**cough** Dave ** I-15** cough ** cough**). I guess my acrobatics on launch were scary: it took quite a while for everyone to launch after I did.
After 2 1/2 hours, my shoulders were sore, my hands cold, and my day complete.
Here are some pics (all pop):
Bracing for impact
Face down, *** up, that's the way we like to be ****ed.
Backfilling here. Dave, Owen, and I went out to Elsinore for a late Friday flight in moderate Santa Anas. Owen launched first, Dave second, I third.
Owen had a great flight, Dave and I met Mr. Lee. Mr. Lee Side Rotor, that is. While I was finishing setting up, Dave got spanked down into the bailout below the E. I went ahead and launched and barely made it... and it's only 5:1 from launch. The first portion of the flight was a rodeo ride. I actually looked up to see if my wing was assembled properly. The last third, I skimmed over rooftops, starting at 200' over them down to 50' over the last roof a quarter or third a mile later.
It scared the hell outta me.
But, I landed safely, kissed the ground, was delivered a beer by Spike, and vowed never to launch the E in North winds again.
The day was pretty murky to begin with (I think I saw Frodo and Sam hiking into San Berdoo), I didn't tweak the saturation on this run of video, and YouTube washed it out a bit more, but...
Here's my video of the day. Better quality option if you follow the link.
I was experimenting with three cameras. My verdict: it can be done, but it's a pain in the ***, worth doing for the most scenic of sites. The overhead camera records onto to a little portable recorder I got, on which I have to rerender from divx to mpeg to edit, as the divx it records to is too compressed for my edit software and causes it to freeze (Vegas, Pinnacle, & Premier, ugh!).
Having 3 perspectives at once is too much, generally. I like three cameras only for the variety of angles they provide. Two cameras were hi def, one standard, not that you can tell on youtube.
I got some good in air shots of Dave's new Sport 2, Jack holding onto his glider at Crestline, Wisconsin Paul, and one of the Atos boys at Crestline. They look better on the hi def.
This was also a video where I experimented on using my gps track to help tell the tale.
I give myself a B- on it, getting above a C only due to the sheer volume of raw material (I was flying around like a %%(!&! EA-6B Prowler). It's almost too much and the conditions were kinda crappy for vid; it didn't turn out as well as I hoped it would.
As far as the flight itself... holy crap I need a DS glider for days like that. It was w-w-w-windy & gusty. The only reason I was glad I was on a Falcon is I got thrown around by the hand of God a couple of times and was wondering if I'da been tumbled or something on a DS glider. Probably not, but the stability of the Falcon was welcome. But, there were thermals I couldn't follow because they would have taken me back into the trees. I had to leave Crestline while the getting was good.
The landing is amusing. I have to do 3 in a row into that circle, the next one with a right hand approach. I've done two, both just barely reaching it.
After a week of bungling weather forecasts, I was determined to get a flight in on Saturday. Looking at the Skew-T graphs, it looked like the clouds would be above Marshall but the wind would be growing in strength all day. My wiley scheme was to launch early, milk ridge lift, & enjoy the building energy in the air.
Dave, Mike Z and I left the LZ at 11:15 with Fez, a paraglider pilot. Marshall was honking when we got there, though lulls tempted Fez, he wisely waited for a more experienced paraglider pilot.
[tangent] I recently wrote a letter to the editor of the national mag citing the CSS as an example of a club that's got the HG/PG thing right. (that letter was referenced in this month's mag) What I want to add to that is that HG pilots should love PG pilots... they drive your vehicle back down on blown out days. Thanks Fez!!!! [/tangent]
Dave launched and hooted and hollered. I had enough electronics on my glider to make an Intruder pilot shake his head, so I was holding up the show. Mike Z, the most altruistic man on earth since Ghandi died, was waiting to help me off. I was testing out a helmet cam (Fail)(Archos sucks). As I was hooking in, snow started to fall. Light, flakey, and quick to melt, it sped up the launch process. I didn't miss any safety items, but I did forget my second layer of jacket. Dohp.
There was some ridge lift, but the only strong lift I found was cloudsuck, which I circled out of and didn't find again. I scratched for 23 minutes (handicapped by a bit of extra bar pressure and terrain separation due to the wet wing) in the hopes of drying out my Falcon.
The windsocks were dead on downwind, boring on base, and doing a &^%$#@~! tango on Final. I remembered some of Rob's instruction on the 80' hill (I'd recommend those Gator runs for anyone, they're fun) and decided to run it out. No swing at the pitch (i.e. flaring). I was taking a base on balls.
I was tempted to go back up, but watching topless glider pilots kiss the ground upon safe arrival killed that notion.
Here's the video. Follow the link and click the high quality option.
This morning, I figured I'd play hooky for a sled ride and some R&D on some camera setups and another project at the LZ.
11:00, I barreled outta OC and made it to the LZ with 15 minutes to spare, and spent 10 of them mollifying a distressed client. phsaw.
Running into a rolling McBus, the cast of characters was light, with Mark Hoffman & Gene (& Liz as a return driver).
Rebardan was already up top with his ATOS (Dan have you landed yet?).... and Dusty ran the McBus off Marshall Road to beat us to the top (okay, we dropped Diane off at the last fork for a hike).
Typical late winter / early spring weekday, I thought. Not so much.
Rob was out having fun, shooting top landings, one of which I got on video (pesky pause button got another). Gene showed his love of Rotorville & buzzed launch like Maverick in a full pattern, time and again. Dusty flew off into the distance and scared the bejeebers outta the locals ("people! they be fallen from dah sky"). Firefighters who showed up at the LZ just to watch said there was a hook and ladder chasing a distressed ultralight through town. Or something.
On that note, if you see a fire engine in the LZ & the lights aren't on, they're just smokin' pork chops, no emergency. I saw it and kept an eye out for the X in the Circle, figuring a paraglider had gotten hammered by some cross winds.
What a fun and different day. I decided not to borrow a jacket from Rob and got high enough to get cold. I brought three cameras out, but forgot something for each, and it was a clear and high day. I didn't pack my bags in my harness and it would have been a great day to explore a little more than I could without them.
I took the Marshall house thermal to about 5,600 and started back toward Crestline. I chickened out, got back on the elevator, and tried again.
"Ruh roh," said Astro, I was pretty sure I was heading into North winds. That pipe-filled U-Turn in the road looked pretty close. I could read "ACME Pipes and Fittings" on the side of one of them. In for a penny, in for a pounding. I was thinking about that bailout LZ and how to store my glider without a strap of velcro while I walked back to the LZ (lesson there). I looked at the Crestline windsock and it was either torn or pointing the wrong way.
Boom! There were two thermal factories there, though, on the spines on each side of the launch. Rob sauntered by and zipped up and away, fun to see him in the air without a student.
At 6800 it was time to explore again. I did a half circle to the front of the Pine spine and fund lift to 7,800. I last saw Gene heading toward Arrowhead and wanted to go that way, but was down to 6200 by Crestline, so I punted back to Marshall for another lap back to Regionals, Billboard, and Pine, nice thermals at each.
Topping out at 8,500 at Pine, I decided to see if I could reach the 215. I got there a bit above 7K & went down it to the golf course. There, I hit the inversion layer and felt like Saddam Hussein falling through the floor and called it a day.
My landing must have been amusing to watch, I thought the ground was a foot or two higher than it was and ran in air for a while, mushed out, and skidded to a stop on my knees.
Didn't care, though.
Rasp/blipmaps look better for tomorrow, though the winds look a little more westerly.
PM me for a link to some quick & dirty video. No torrent crap, high def. With Kyle's help, I got a lot of Gene, some dan & mark, and even a paraglider (Doosty). I got a bit of Rob, but I wish I had gotten more. He's just so relaxed. It's like watching Perry Como fly.
Hope I can play hooky again. My first non-sledder in quite a while has fueled more than my loquaciousness. (ooh big word)
Here's a youtube video of the track (follow link for high quality option):
15 years or so ago, I saw my first hang glider pilots... and they whacked hard.
It was at Big Sur, they were landing in the small, downslope LZ by the stairs to Sand Dollar beach. They both enthralled me and scared me. Since my first tandem, I have been dying to fly Big Sur, so I scheduled the campground 10 months out.
4 flights, all short but memorable. The first was in a beautiful sunset. The second, I punched through clouds. The third, Dave and I flew wingtip to wingtip in another great sunset. The fourth, more clouds.
The camping was fun, the food good, the beer cold, and most important, the guys on the trip great.
Pilotguy taught me the best lesson I could possibly learn. He flew across the country, rented a car, stood at launch... and waited... for 6 hours. Then he broke down and didn't fly. The glider had some "issues" and he didn't feel right. I loaned him my glider the next morning, but the clouds rolled in while the bacon cooked (and cleared minutes after his departure).
Jeff, you have carte blanche use of that Falcon on a trip to So Cal, in payment for the "cheap" lesson you taught me. I would have launched. You made the right call.
I highly recommend the site. My next flight, on my return, was of similar sled ride length... and the only flight I have yet to be disappointed in. It was just too hard to accept 11 minutes over the Inland Empire after similar sled rides over one of my favorite sites on Earth (you can also scuba dive, hike, fish, mountain bike, and surf there).
Everyone has them: the dreams that they are flying.
Today, I lived that dream. Not because I set any personal best, not because I flew long or high, but simply because the air was smooth and buoyant... simply because I almost gave up and sank out, but held on to find idiot-proof lift. Wherever I flew, the steady, almost constant chirp of my vario assured me that I was the envy of raptors.
Sixty miles to the West, the Sun bounced off the Pacific Ocean on a wedge of water between the Cleveland National Forest and Santa Catalina Island. Below me, chumps, suckers, and the better part of the Proletariat Class schlepped down the the Ortega Highway on the way home from oppression. Winding down the same road, invariably stuck behind a truck, motorcyclists looked for a way to pass and put their lives in the hands of housewives in SUVs. My life was in the hands of God and today He favored hang gliding.
While I floated, as relaxed as Gilligan in a hammock, my only concern was a mild twinge that I started this sport too late in life... coupled with the sad knowledge that I would have to wake up before sunset and land, to join the chumps on the Ortega Highway.
But, I am not a sucker; I picked the right day not to work.
Radwhacker and DocSoc (and his lovely family) barreled in from Vegas, GTPowell drove over Santiago Canyon road, and I took the toll out to Elsinore.
It was pretty strong in the morning, but by the time we launched, it was good for ridge soaring. I was the first to launch and the last to land. My track log is pretty repetitive. Back, forth, repeat. But, it was smooth and fun... and relaxing not to have to worry about life. Normally, I wouldn't have stayed up quite so long, but I've been so frustrated by sled rides, I waited until God flicked the off switch on the winds (i.e. until the paragliders could launch).
My patience rewarded me in the LZ; the winds went catabatic and I got to land uphill. From my perspective on high, the LZ was "the killing fields" for most of the day, so I was relieved to nail the touchdown.
Cold beer flowed and smiling pilots chased the sun down.
Pics to follow, when my DocSoc posts them and ETeam Jack mails them to me.
Here is a closeup of my tracklog of my approach and landing:
Here is a panned-out Google Earth shot of the LZ from the same angle, with the Launch in the upper right corner.
Having started flying a year ago, I chugged along to Hang 3 with pretty decent efficiency, so I decided to calculate how far I am from Hang 4. I was surprised when I did the math.
There are 3 reasons I want to get to my hang 4 as soon as possible:
1. Fly Torrey 2. Land on the beach at Santa Barbara 3. Of course, fly Yosemite
I did the math, to get there I need:
- 18.7 more hours (easy) - 25 flying days (I average one day a week) - 2 more flights at Dunlap (will do next spring) - 4 more flights at Elsinore (no prob) - 5 flights at Big Sur (going Presidents Day Weekend, if I can get 2 a day, this will happen). - 5 flights at a 5th site... could easily be Kagel, but will likely be a beach site.
Here's the hard part: - I need 120 more flights.
Ugh, I am down to 1 flight per trip to the hill... maybe 2. I don't want to game the system by going to Dockweiler and doing a bunch of bunny hill runs.
That leaves a beach site like Funston or Torrey. If I were to do the 25 days (and the other site requirements), I would need 95 more flights. That's a lot. I could maybe bang out 20 a day at a beach site like Torrey, but I wouldn't want to get dangerous about it and push myself too hard.
One other little brainchild would be to go with my wife to a business convention in Salt Lake this spring and go to Point of the Mountain for a couple of days.
In the end, I have no complaints, just an observation; Hang 4 is definitely more than twice as far as Hang 3. I'm glad the requirements are significant and I look forward to meeting them.
My goal is to have it by the end of the summer, so I can fly Yosemite late summer and fly Torrey when my family goes down to San Diego in September.
