A different safety margin (probably good to not do what I did either)

So having been asked to contribute.....(this is mike L btw)

I had a pretty epic scratchfest at hull on saturday a week ago (and it looks like ill be going back there tomorrow). So here's how it went. Judge for yourself how bad my judgement was then (I am pretty much totally wasted now so whatever).

I launch. Not much lift at launch. Leave launch to red spot. Not much lift at red spot. Leave red spot toward switchbacks. Not much left at switchbacks. (Leon has already landed--didn't find anything and I am seeing why). Leave switchbacks toward house.

I finally find a thermal at a couple dead trees adjacent to a mild valley near the house (above and northeast of it actually). So I need to decide, will I stay up in this? I either go toward the rest of the house ridge or straight for the knob/LZ (airstrip) and I don't have a lot of time to make my choice as it is obvious to me that, if this lift is like the rest of the day so far, it sucks ass. So I decide I'll try to thermal in it instead of heading out.

One of the things that pushed me in that direction was my knowledge of the glider. The Sonic I fly now has a lot in common with the MarkIV I used to fly and pulses generally but, in addition to an improved max glide ratio has something far more important: It will turn smoothly and well-coordinated in almost any condition, including a stall. So when my nose enters a thermal and the 'correct' technique on some gliders may be to pull in to max glide or greater and then turn, I can just push out and left or right and begin thermalling immediately as the handling on my glider up to stall is perfectly acceptable.

So there I am, somewhat low but still with acceptable turning height, near the house and entering a thermal (weakly but its there). Do i leave? No, fuck that, I turn. And then I turn again. And again. And then I realize a fascinating reality: I am gaining elevation but getting CLOSER to the hill since the thermal is both weak and slanted. Well, I think to myself, that kinda sucks. But at the end I return to my original longitudinal/latitudinal location and see I am indeed higher despite and height lost in the return to the horizontal location I had been at previously. So I thermal again. And again. Always coming back to the same thermal ( a weak one but one that was there) and always turning back toward the LZ when falling out of it. In the end, after 1.5 hours, "it got easier"; I got high enough on the ridge behind the house that I decided to make a 4-hop or so trip from the house to the red spot.

I got to the red spot and was thermalling comfortably but when I tried crossing the fingers to the launch bowl could not find lift. I eventually got back up over the red spot but could not get above launch so I said fuck it and headed toward the knob/LZ. I crossed the knob with over 1000' of clearance (my scratching paid off in the end!) and landed comfortably in the airstrip a bit later, followed by some tasty beer.

I fucked up my landing the next day but thankfully Leon was there to grad by glider and turn it around..........lift in the LZ for the lolz.

-ML

Hat Creek and the Bionic Badass

It's been a thoughtful few days since our annual Hat Creek adventure as I recover from my fractured humerus in my left arm. 10 screws and a metal plate and I have now joined the elite and exclusive "club of broken arms the name of which I forget". I was not exactly angling to join any time soon.

Positives:

*Wonderful support from friends and the hang gliding community
*Shorter recovery period as I didn't break any joints
*Wicked, cool scar
*Bionic woman
*Random people tell me how awesome it is that I broke my arm hang gliding and not something lame like slipping on a curb
*Get to slow down
*Cute PT named Max
*Prescription to drink a lot of hot chocolate, and consume other milk products e.g. ice cream!

Negatives:
*Need not dwell on.

So, what the bleep happened? I had been enjoying a glorious glassoff flight, completely magical with the launch and traffic not worrisome, as I patiently waited for a few pilots to go land in the main LZ so I could observe their approaches. After about an hour, I was deciding between the two LZs, thinking the small LZ would be a good choice (less traffic), but I hadn't yet landed in the main LZ and I wanted to try that if I could. My height was above launch before I started heading out to the main LZ so I knew I had the glide, but as I was cruising along, I noticed 2 other gliders coming in at roughly the same time. This unnerved me a bit, but I held it together, did a tiny box (just shy of being too low), to get my glider into the wind (the wind sock was showing a slight breeze, but I now know it was relatively insignificant), and came in on approach. Initially, I was pulled in, but for some reason (read - mistake), I didn't keep the pressure on and as I came towards the ground I tried to run it out with out much of a flare, and the wheel caught on a lava rock, and I didn't let go. My nose didn't hit so observers thought it was a belly landing and relatively benign. I assure you it was not. It was bad luck and simply a mistake for not going fast, rounding out, and flaring as hard as I could. Some of us end up learning the hard way.

Another item of note: radios:

Honestly, if Dan had had his radio (he had loaned it to a H2 pilot) and I had mine turned on (was on my person), he would have gotten on and told me to speed up on final. Would I have hurt my arm then? Maybe, maybe not. Lesson learned: it behooves us to have our radios on just in case we need that extra bit of coaching now and again.

I need not go into the sordid details of getting to the hospital and all that, but I do want to send a big THANK YOU to all of those who helped, in particular Dan (sorry I couldn't enjoy the post flight beer you were bringing me), Henrik, Eric, Justine, Gergana, Anthony, Karen, Zach, and I'm sure others who helped. Thank you from the bottom of my heart - you guys are awesome.

Flight Log:

Aircurls - 3 flights, 1 hour, 58 minutes

'bout that safety margin

Subtitle: Don't do as I did.

I learned a cheap lesson this Monday. Really cheap. My lesson is done, but I'm adding my two cents here so you don't do as I did. I am the analyzing type, so post-crashing, there are two things that worried me - shock of the crash itself, but most importantly not understanding why it happened. 

I think I made 2.5 transgressions, each progressively worse. First off, I was really affected by aircurl's unfortunate landing the day before. Perhaps she wasn't going fast enough on final, she knows best, but she broke an arm, as she belly landed. I didn't have a better landing that day, but simply let go, or maybe my base tube did not catch, so I lucked out. The next day I kept thinking about that on launch, and kept picturing the landing sequence, and was quite nervous. That's the 0.5. You could say if I didn't want to land, I shouldn't have launched. I thought about that, and decided to launch to beat the fear, get it out of the way early. You could go either way here I think. It wasn't so wrong to launch, we are often afraid of things. I could have been more communicative though, and sought a bit of encouragement from my fellow pilots on launch. 

So I launched (I think a good launch), and had a good flight. Flew for about an hour, and got above 6000'. After about an hour I started sinking out, while still on the ridge. I made a few passes back and forth, thinking, "I've got LZ1 in my pocket, I can afford to try to get up. If I manage to climb back to launch, I'll attempt the glide to LZ2." I couldn't get back up to launch after 3 passes, even though I stayed close to the hill. I was now perhaps 30-50 ft below launch. Ok, time to land. This is where I made my first full judgement error. Not sure why - mind not clear? Being below launch, I should have just shot for LZ1. Now I could still see LZ2, and I let myself think there's a possibility out there. I decided to try flying towards LZ2, and check my altitude half-way and turn back if it looks impossible. 

Alright, let me emphasize, I think I knew LZ2 was a far stretch, but I attempted just in case. I can now see how that's a bit warped. Can't count on getting up along the way.

Well, that was an error in judgement but it wasn't grave yet. It is ok to fly forward and turn back if you see that you can't make it. But that only works if you continuously check your altitude. I looked back once. When I was half-way. That was mistake number 2, and ultimately the one that put me on the hill. By the time I looked back, LZ1 was far and surrounded by tall trees, and LZ2 was still too far yet. I chose the rocks and sparse trees on the hill, over the tall trees around LZ1. The rest happened fast. I avoided a tall tree, then sped up a bit, as if it was a true final approach, didn't flare because I was scared that the boulders will break my legs, and then in the end I let the glider take it. Hit small lava rocks, a dead tree and two bushes. The only thing on my mind during my crash approach was "let go let go let go let go let go". Best part of the story. I got away with a bruised left leg and no glider damage.

So the takeaway, learned for almost free:

0.5: It's ok if you didn't launch. Even if you flew in 6000 miles from Europe last week, and then you drove 5 hours, oh wait 9,  to get here. 

1: Just take the LZ that you can safely make. Can't count on lift on the way to your landing zone. That's the safety margin.

2: Always continuously check your altitude when gliding far. Not every now and then. Not half-way.

And yeah, let go.

Dunlap 6/18 - 6/19

Cleanpants here... we left early Saturday morning to go to Dunlap (way too early); we ended up having time to tour the Dunlap valley, walk the ranger station LZ, play soccer in Dan's LZ, go grocery shopping, eat at the mexican place, and still find time to wait on launch for a few hours. Robert Booth (wingman) was there and he launched early as did Dan Fleming. Dan sunked out almost immediately despite his best efforts to stay up. Robert, however, managed to stay up- barely. Not encouraged, I continued waiting a while before launching. Eventually, I get to launch and wait for things to improve, which they don't and decide to launch anyway. It turned out to be a hard day! The thermals were tiny and some were pretty strong (I went weightless a couple times falling out of the thermals). The best part of the day was near the end of the flight, when I was coming in to land. 4 gliders were in the air at the same level (Pat, clayble, Robert, and myself). We needed to get into some kind of landing pattern, and it was obvious that Robert had no intention of trying to get down. Being the highest up, I had to try to stay up to give the others time to land. So, Robert and I tried to work the weak lift above the LZ while Pat and clayable came in to land. It turned out Robert and I did this a little too well, because we both managed to climb up to ~5300'. Robert was going crazy on the radio trying to figure out who was climbing with him, but I accidentally had my volume too low to hear him. Anyway, I squandered all my altitude soon after, and had to come land anyway; I got an hour out of the day while I think Robert got close to 3 hrs.

The next day was much stronger. We ended up launching at about 1:30-2pm instead of the 3:30-4pm I had been getting used to. Lots of people launched and everyone managed to stay up. Andrea, a new mountain pilot managed to get about 1.5 hours out of the day- very impressive! Quite a few Berkeley pilots made it to Sampson (I unfortunately was not among them). K-dog decided he was bored of the Dunlap ridge and didn't want to land in cross conditions, so he XC'ed over to the pizza joint with his new glider and had a few beers. My flight wasn't particularly interesting, I got up and got low and got up, and nearly reached cloudbase (I'm now looking both down and up for thermals now). I had a 2 hr 20 min flight which was well worth the trip.

Lovely Weekend at Dunlap

Punchline:
- First mountain flights for Henrik, Andrea, and Lise
- More mountain flights for Aircurls, Jeremy
- Other pilots flew - Clay, Cleanpants, Dan, Barry, Leon, Victoria
- No incidents other than coming in too high on final, radio malfunctions, and whacks.
- Taught the boys how to tear down my glider. $1 a pop.
- Seed planted for 'Men of BHGC' calendar.
- Meat was consumed.

Flight Log:

Aircurls - 4 flights
Everybody else got some too...just don't have the stats. :)

Dunlap....Encore

A few of us headed out to the Sierra foothills for some fun mellow soaring flights. Cookie Girl, Leon, Eric, and the Hardys were out in force to take full advantage of the conditions.

Flight log:
Aircurls 3 flights, 500 over launch
Cookie Girl - 2 flights, highest at Dunlap so far (6500')
Leon (needs a nickname) - 2 flights, longest flight to-date (7000'?)
Erik - 2 flights (8000'?)
Dan - 2 flights

Enrique's first from 1750

Flying Solo....

Headed down to EL solo to get some training in on my flares only to find slightly soarable conditions (W, NW 7-15) which necessitated at least 1 flight off the top prior to heading to the 50' or 40'. If I'm going to set up my glider anyway....

I quickly gathered a motley crew - Ella, H3 and my blue sticker pilot (I still need a buddy until I get my H3), Sergei, paraglider pilot, Armand, H3 who was willing to be our driver as this was his first day back of the season and wasn't sure it was a good 'first' day back for him. His loss was our gain and we quickly headed up the hill.

There were two other hangies on top, who were miraculously just setting up their control frames, which I thought odd given they had driven up the hill 30 minutes prior. Their names were Tom and Terry, which conjured up images of a cat and mouse cartoon. :)

It looked good so I quickly set up, minimalized things (no vario, radio) and had Armand and Ella join me walk out to the N, W launch. Slightly gusty so I waited for a gust to come through and begin to lull prior to launching. One item of note, I had just done a hang check followed by my other checks (shoes tied, leg straps, backup buckle on harness, chute pins, helmet secure, gloves, brain, hooked in) and a nice cycle came in so I picked up the glider, stated 'target', and 'wings balanced' during which Ella asked me 'Do you have a flight plan? Do you know where you're going?' I ignored these questions and launched as I was already in the zone...note to self and lesson learned - be sure to tell your buddy what your flight plan is prior to heading out to launch so they don't possibly distract you as you are about to launch.

Launched and turned left, found lift close the ridge, did a few 180 passes and was above launch. Headed out to the 1200' as a paraglider was doing nicely far above it so I thought I'd explore. Lost a bit on the way out, found scattered, tiny, punches hear and there but nothing I could really work (read- knew how to work! :). Went over to the 600', did a 360 and only maintained. Headed over the 300 found some lift, and did a couple of passes between the 300' and the 600'. At this point I felt it more important to think about my landing approach (which I had been doing since the 1200') then maximizing the bird farts as there were cows! in the lz scattered mostly in the north/north west zone, yet encroaching on the H3 spot. I focused on the H4 spot as it was clear of cows and as I came around onto final, I tried to transition my hands during the turn, in a bump and ended up grabbing my left side back wire which put me in a rather exciting steep turn - whoosh! I quickly recovered, came in fast with wings level, landed on my feet just past the H4 spot.

Flight Log: 1 flight off 1750'
Zero flights off 40' and 50' due to too many cows

Dunlap May 7-8 - Mother's Day Weekend

Dunlap May 7-8 - Mother's Day Weekend, a set by kristymaja.

Happy Mother's Day aircurls, and thanks for shooting!

Saturday offered most pilots two flights, except for cleanpants who kindly watched Owen and Liam in the LZ. The air was calm in the morning, made my arms sore at 3 pm, and boaty at 5! Aircurls and another new H-2 (whose nickname shall not be named here) checked off 20 min flights with several passes at launch! I finally found some stubbornness to get up in the launch thermal, and got above launch both flights, high over ... though I found the best thermal over the switch backs. Took me to 5400' the second time, and to 5000' as many times as I wanted to play in it. The panorama of snowy Sierras in the back... Dunlap has finally been good to me. 

Rain drops on my sleeping bag woke me up Sunday in the early am. Slightly wet and sleepy, we packed camp, enjoyed Mother's day breakfast, and set sail back to the bay.

Flight log: aircurls (2 flights, 30 min total? soaring launch), cleanpants (1 flight, 30 mins?), cookie girl (2 flights, 1 hr 25 total)