Tam Sled Run 11/28/2010

I made a quick video of the flight I took last week, sorry for taking so long to post, but I didn't want to obscure Aircurl's first update when I made it. Nothing exciting, but it's my first tam video:

600' continues...

Out at Ed Levin today with Barry, Ali, and Andrea to work on flaring and spots. Barry dropped me at the 600' and proceeded to head down and work with the A-team while I had a lovely time putting the glider together, walking it out to launch, and self-launching the West facing launch in dead wind. I have discovered that I am perfectly at peace with solitude (read: okay with being alone and self-launching), as people can sometimes be distracting. Well, actually, not the people, the 'incessant chattering' that sometimes accompanies people. :)

Launch itself was uneventful and fine - ran hard, kept looking at my target et voila, flying. 70 degree turn to the left, 90 degree turn to the right to head over the 300 while continually looking back at the windsock in the LZ. I have been kicking out of my harness on my downwind leg, going 1 hand up (right), one hand down on my base and final as I have much more authority and come in faster. I like. The roundout is lovely and smooth (way smoother than the Falcon 1). I got my hands up, mini-flared and landed on my feet.

I had lovely photographic opportunities but to my dismay discovered that the battery in my little point and shoot was dead. Heh...funny...had to laugh as I'm usually pretty good about THAT.

2nd flight was sweet. Took off from the South facing launch for the first time as all to date had been from the West launch. Light breeze, 1-3 mph. Landed in the spot, took a few steps. Interestingly enough, it was the only video out of my 4 flights I didn't get. Hmmm....but trust me, there were plenty of people who witnessed. Including Barry himself.

3rd & 4th flight - both cross wind launches. One from the North (3mph, 50 cross), one from the South (3 mph, 45 cross). Flying part great. Landing part close, but not quite. Definitely have the timing, just don't have the 'going ape-sh*^ on crack' as Mark likes to call it, or the 'pretend you're a gymnast' as Eric likes to call it, or the 'just punch the mother - fu*%@r!' as Chie liked to say. Or was that Ryan?

Great day. Alas, no pictures. :)

Flight Log:

4 off the 600'.

Ed Levin Training Madness

Alternate title: Musings on returning to Hang Gliding after a decade long break

Who is Ed Levin anyway?
Short answer – county supervisor

Long answer -- After a short bit of research, I discovered that Ed Levin Park is named after a former county supervisor who led a campaign to purchase what we now know as Ed Levin Park from the state of California in 1965. The poor guy died in 1966 and what was formerly known as ‘Airport Park’ was officially renamed Ed Levin Park in his honor, opening up in September of 1969.

But enough of the cultural landscape of the park, what about the flying???

Back in the Saddle
After taking 12 years off from hang gliding which began in 1995 and stopped in 1998 when a momentary lapse of reason suggested I paraglide for a few years, AND with the encouragement of Gergana and Anthony whilst on a trip to Dunlap in the Spring, I am officially back – a little older and a little wiser. ;-)

Many flights since 6/14
Wow. Super fun to be back flying again. Feels more natural than it ever did before and I am anxious to have flights longer than 3 minutes. I've got my training complete off the 300' and the 600' and am working on my spots in order to progress to the top which I am very much looking forward to. An 8 minute flight? Sweet!

Private Lesson on 11/30 - oh yah!
Barry and I went out for a lovely day at EL with conditions at 0-5, mostly W, NW which of course were exactly opposite of the forecast (supposed to be 7 S, SW). Cranked through 4 flights off the 600', 3 of which were on my feet, and 1 not. What I am personally working on is getting the flare timing and actually, well, flaring. This is the wonderful thing about our sport - there is always something to work on, no matter what your level. :-)

Flight Log - 11/30
4 flights - 600'

Makes 12 flights off the 600'. Still working on spots but ever so close!
http://www.vimeo.com/17352767

fogged out

An ocean of fog between us and the LZ ... dashed hopes, yet probably (I believe others believe that) most beautiful place to not fly on the planet? Don't know how to fit coherently in one story the thick fog, the wispy fog, the rain, the fog drip, the rave, the ravers, the law enforcement, driving at 3 mph, the thunder, the combat zone, the tank, and .... hmm, ask me later. Strange things happen when you don't fly.

 When the fog sits between you and the LZ, you sit and admire that 2000 ft higher ocean.

The shadow of a contrail on the clouds below.

 A beautiful place to be fogged-out nevertheless.

New Chick. New Glider.

Picked up my new Falcon 3 170 last Saturday. Sweet.

Slide Trip report - October 10

Here's another, this time of Slide:

Hull Trip Report - October 3

Here's a video trip report:

Dunlap 9/19

noteworthy
clayble had a flat tire
cleanpants's first wingover

birthday cake, happy one Capt J!

missing parts is an opportunity to show patience
attempted traffic on camera with only marginal success



Log: cleanpants (2 hrs), clayble (1 hr?), cookie girl (twice a sledder), "bubba" (1.5-2 hrs?), Capt J grounded

Team Berkeley

At the Hull fly-in ...... first place was ours!

Cleanpants here, Cookie Girl and I left really early Saturday to participate in the Hull fly-in. Originally, I had planned to go to a workday, but was convinced to have fun instead ;-) Anyway, we arrived bright and early in time to meet with Robert, Azucena, Victoria, and Eric. Charley, a local Sonoma wings pilot, explained all the events and the scoring before we all raced up the hill.

I didn't want to be the first to launch, so when Eric H got up, I decided to get my glider. Robert, Eric, and Cookie girl all had the same idea, so I had to wait a little while to launch. It took a little while, but it started cycling nicely, so Robert launched and went up. Soon Eric launched, then Cookie Girl. Then it was my turn! I was sure I was going to do well, I had been having really good flights at Hull up to this point. I caught the next light cycle after Cookie Girl, picked up and had a great launch (and the judges agreed on this point!). I got away from the hill, expecting to go up....but I didn't! I went to the hairpin, and I saw Cookie Girl and Robert way above me. I found a small bit of lift, circled...and lost altitude! Next, I went to the Red Spot and the same thing happened! I crawled to the house, my last chance to get up, at 4300'. At this point, I thought my day was over- I would go have a nice landing and have fun judging everyone else's landing. I wasn't actually planning on even turning- I was low enough, I didn't want to go any lower. Looking back, I saw dozens of gliders, and they all looked like they were above the peak. I was a little jealous, and sad that my day was about to end so soon. But... I found lift, and I kept going straight, and I found even stronger lift! It was a very wide, strong thermal over the house. I gained enough altitude that I felt confident turning in it- and turn I did. I was soon over 6500' over the house, so I started making my way back up the ridge. On my way, I noticed Cookie Girl over the hair pin, still hundreds (thousand?) of feet above me. Well, I found another thermal behind the hair pin and took it up to 8K or 9K. Now, I had the height to go to the peak of Hull mountain. Once I joined the gaggle above Hull mountain (there must have been at least a dozen gliders up there), I heard Robert call out "Hey Eric, Anthony is here, over the peak" or something like that...all I could think was "yes, I've arrived!"

I spent the next couple of hours above 7K. I went down Windy Ridge a little bit, I explored lift between lower launch and the peak. Over time, the number of gliders in the air dwindled. It's not like I noticed anyone fleeing, it's as if gliders just disappeared when I wasn't looking. Eventually, there were four gliders in the air, me (in my pulse), Robert (in a pretty Sport 2), Ryan (local pilot in a Discus), and Jon J (in a new T2). It seemed all of us were going for the duration prize, desperately trying to stay longer than the rest. But, it gave me an opportunity to compare my flying style to the others up there. I noticed that I tend to circle in very tight circles when I find lift; even flying in the same thermal, I would fly in a circle that was about half the radius other people were flying. I think all four of us stayed at about the same level (modulo flush cycles), but I was luckier sometimes. Later, Robert told me he was getting sick of seeing my undersurface :-P

Eventually, I decided that the other guys deserved to win more than me (I was really hoping for Robert), and I didn't really hold out any hope of placing, so I called it a day the next time I got flushed to 7K. I flew out to the LZ nice and high. Right before I reached the LZ, I took out my streamer to toss, but it came undone as soon as I picked it up! So, I was flying with an open streamer flailing behind me. I collected it, and lost some altitude before dropping it. I thought the streamer would behave like a rock, and I needed to toss it before I flew over the spot, so I tossed it high, about a quarter mile before the spot....and it flew backwards! I missed the spot by at least a mile! Well, that was it, I definitely didn't win duration, I knew Mike K won the altitude, and I lost the streamer drop, there was NO WAY I was going to place in this competition, or so I thought. I planned a nice high approach, but I didn't go far back enough; usually there's a stiff wind coming from the lake, but this day there wasn't. I didn't properly account for this, so I ended up missing the spot by 250ft. I considered doing S-turns to burn altitude when I first went on final (I had alot of altitude), but I decided against it. I had a nice 2-step landing, very satisfied with my flight. Robert came in and had a good landing, but Jon J whacked in the spot (though got it dead-on), and Ryan pulled some crazy maneuvers to get into the spot and broke a downtube (and punctured a leading edge?).

Turns out I had the best landing of the day, and I did pretty well on my launch (Leo only gave 2 perfect scores, and one of them was to me)! Combined with my pretty good duration and altitude was enough to win me the competition!