First Slide Trip this season

A bunch of us went up to Slide for the weekend, fourteen in all. I'll try to describe what happened from my perspective...and maybe Helmet Girl can fill in the rest.

Day 1: In short: I had the shortest flight of the day, screwed up the retrieve of the XC pilots, and I missed two later opportunities to launch... I was in a foul mood that day, and I apologize to everyone affected by my mood! On the bright side, everyone else had great flights, our driver got a flight off of Duck hill, and the chicken was absolutely delicious.

Day 2: Probably my best flight to date. It was getting late on launch, past noon, and Jonathon had already sunk out. If Jonathon sunk out, there must not have been ANY lift out there. 20 minutes later, Justine and Barry are pushing all of the new H3's off of the mountain. I volunteer to go first, having resigned myself to another sled run. Well, I had a good launch and immediately go for the fingers (a collection of four spines that run down Slide mountain). I knew everyone had gotten off of the foothills the previous day...but Robert had told me all the locals go to the right from launch, so I decided to follow that advice. After a bit of sink, I reached the fingers and...I didn't go up :(. But also didn't go down. I managed to maintain at roughly the same height for a long time. A guy named Billy had launched immediately before me and was working the fourth finger, so I made my way there eventually. I eventually got back to launch height, but it wasn't easy.

After maintaining for a while, the site turned on a little! I found two good thermals. A small, strong one was on the fourth finger, which took me very high very quickly, but was easy to miss and was surrounded by bad sink; and a wide, weaker thermal on the first finger, which was more mellow and where I got most of my altitude. Going between these two thermals, I eventually was on level with the top of the mountain. I never got any higher than that, but stayed there for a while. I even was able to see glimpses of Lake Tahoe. For the second time, I was unable to zip up all the way; this tired my legs out and made me uncomfortable. At one point, I was flushed all the way down to launch level, so I decided that I had had enough fun and went to the LZ to land. Had a great landing, but I had a ways to walk to the tear down area.

Video of my 2nd flight, with landing from my first flight (edited and sped up):

Flying Flynn's

My first flight in the Owen's Valley was....amazing! Helmet Girl, Kurtis, Lionel and I all reached the launch at 6:30pm (?) or so and it was blowing over 20mph. Lionel, being the instructor on this outing decided that it was too windy then, but we should still set up in hopes of launching later. By the time we've set up, it was blowing 15mph-20mph. Kurtis rushed to launch, jumping in front of Helmet Girl and had a good launch. Helmet Girl launched soon after, and climbs high very quickly. I launched last, and had some fun going up and down the ridge by launch. But, I noticed that Kurtis was a bit higher than me, and Helmet Girl was much higher than me, so I got a little jealous.

It turns out Helmet Girl found two thermals on the foothills and was going from one to the other; getting higher with each pass. But try as I might I couldn't catch up to her. I eventually caught up to Kurtis, but I was still only 100ft-200ft above launch. I went beneath her, still no luck; I went back to launch, no luck again. I resigned myself to ridge soaring in front of launch thousands of feet beneath helmet girl. Then one of my wings got lifted- a thermal- I know what to do now! I started turning and soon I'm a thousand of feet or more over launch. The thermal moved me back behind launch, but I always had a good glide back to the LZ. With plenty of height, I started looking for other thermal triggers. To the south, there was a pointy hill in full sun, so I tried my luck there, and it was great! I cored a strong thermal and got even higher. By now I'm the highest one in the sky. I kept playing with these two thermals I found and looked for new ones.

Eventually, I started getting lower than helmet girl, so my first instinct was to go back the the pointy hill again. I go there, and there's some lift, but not nearly what there was, and on top of that there was some turbulence! I look down at the sock on launch, and it's blowing hard north!! I was in danger of getting in the rotor of launch! I decide to make my way north of launch, but it was hard making progress in that headwind, and I started losing alot of the altitude I had saved up. At this point, instructors on the ground told me to go straight to the LZ, so I pulled in a little more than best glide and crab it all the way to the LZ. I came in with plenty of height, did a downwind leg, a base leg, a couple of S-turns (if I remember correctly) and had the easiest landing of my life. I didn't even have to flare! All in all, one of my best flights to date!

for the sheer entertainment of it

Still can't stop laughing about the music. Turns out sped up hang gliding and hilarious techno music go together! LOL



Logged: 20 mins

Dunlap - even better the fourth time around!!

Right now, I am not capable of coherent thought, so I'm not going to try to give an accurate description of what happened at Dunlap these past couple of days. In short, I had four flights and after each one, I swore that that one was my single best flight to date.

I discovered that I like to hang out by launch. I got to see a number of people launch under me and some stayed with me and soared beyond me, and some left me behind and tried their luck further down the ridge. In any case, I had alot of fun flying with people I knew.

One vivid memory I had of my second flight was this: I was near the end of my flight after failing to find lift on the ridge behind last chance, so I thought I would do a couple of turns above last chance before going in for a landing. Well, one 360 was followed by dozen others, and soon Helmet Girl caught up with me and started turning below me. There we were, I was about 30' or so above her and we were turning in the same thermal. Soon a topless glider came and all three of us were in very close proximity trying to stay aloft in the same thermal. After a while, we all came down at the same time! I think we were all at the same altitude at one point as we each went into a landing pattern. Three safe landings later, I was all smiles.

Of course, the flight I remember best is my last flight. This flight was epic, by my standards! Helmet Girl and Leon launched before me, and they were already high before I launched. In fact, I never could quite catch up to Helmet Girl, although I almost got as high as Leon. Then, despite being higher than me, both Leon and Helmet Girl went down the ridge. I decided to play in the lift they were in, but I got completely flushed out. I continued on my flight plan, leaving the launch area about 200' below the ramp. Talking to Daniel afterwards, he tells me this is completely fine, but at the time, I felt stupid for letting myself get so low!

So, there I am, flying along the road lower than I've even gone before, and I notice that I'm slowly creeping upwards. I start flying closer to the ridge and pretty soon, I'm almost at ridge height again. I see Leon ahead of me, flying above the switchbacks, and since he was much higher than me, I was very tempted to go join him. But I reasoned that since I gained altitude flying south on the ridge, I figured I would also gain going north, so I did a 180 and flew towards launch again. This was the right choice to make! I got back to launch area at ramp level just in time to see Victoria on launch. I maintained for quite a while, and I got to see Victoria launch and make her way down the ridge. After playing around for a long time, I started finding stronger lift. So, I pulled some tight circles, and I started going up. And up. And more up. Pretty soon, Barry, who was still on launch watching everyone, was nothing more than a small white speck on the ramp; I was at least 1000' above launch and probably closer to 1500'. At the time, my mind was completely absorbed by two things: 1) find lift, circle, find lift, circle, circle, etc. 2) zipper's not working! my harness is getting really uncomfortable. These two thoughts were the only two things in my head until I looked up...and saw MOUNTAINS!!!

I had never seen such a beautiful view. I lost all track of where I was and could only concentrate on the view. I started making slow circles, I wasn't trying to stay in lift, I only wanted to have a 360 panoramic view of the whole area. I can't put into words how beautiful the view was, so I'm not going to even try. It was amazing.

After a while, my harness was putting too much pressure on my hip bones; too much to ignore, so I left the nice area above launch and made my way down the ridge. About this time, I figured out a way to partially zip, which made the situation a little better. I made my way to the LZ, but I was way too high, so I decided to have another adventure. I went back to the ridge behind last chance...but I didn't have enough altitude to go over the ridge, so I flew along side it until I was only ~50ft-100ft above the ground. I went back to the LZ and had a safe, though ugly, landing. I'm very proud of two things I did in this flight: I got back to launch despite being completely flushed out and I got over 1000' above launch for the first time.

Cleanpants - speck in the sky.

Log: a blur of flights by Mike L, helmet girl, boy wonder, cleanpants and cookie girl (4 each?)

Barry setting up in the shade away from the afternoon heat.

The beginnings of the straw hat beer swing pilots photo shoot series.

Aerobatics

Barry's truck with an insane amount of gliders on top on the way home.

Dunlap, round three

Or, when Hang 2's soar

A big crew headed out to Dunlap for Memorial Day weekend. Second time there for cookiegirl and me; third for cleanpants. After a bit of coordinating Friday, three cars headed out with 8 pilots, one instructor's very patient wife and their two kids. Three more pilots arrived Saturday.

Conditions were sweet all weekend. Four pilots went up for an early run around 1030 Saturday morning, myself included, as this was only my second flight at Dunlap. I launched third expecting a buoyant sledder and instead had my first and longest (and amazing!) soaring flight. I got a couple of bumps along the ridge on my way out and headed for last chance ridge, already starting to think about an approach. Much to my surprise, I was going up the whole way out! I made a few passes back and forth in front of the ridge before feeling high enough to start turning and then spent about 20 minutes playing around. It was exhilarating - hard to describe - to know that I was up and could stay up. It was pretty smooth lift, not too strong, and I didn't quite make it back to launch height. For as long as the sky was working though, it was where I wanted to be.

My arms were growing a little tired and I wanted to make sure I was ready to make a good approach, so I gave the ridge a few last turns and headed over to the LZ. A few more turns to put me at the right altitude, a left handed box, and a slightly off flare put me (and a wingtip..) on the ground and a big grin on my face. 35 minutes overall, we think..

Cookiegirl and cleanpants managed to squeeze in three flights each on Saturday, since they were ready to go back up as soon as I landed from my first flight. I got one more in later Saturday. I was eager for more of my morning's flight, and I think I got pretty close to a half hour. Cookiegirl shared the pattern with another glider on one flight, which was a little exciting, but he made a quick turn and dive while she went up the runway. It all worked out, but her tights did get a little grassy - since she was flying in a miniskirt. We agreed that sharing the air will become more manageable as we progress.

S'mores and wine by the fire Saturday night, and one flight for everyone on Sunday. All workable lift, and the more experienced pilots stayed up for a few hours.

It's soaring season!

Log: boy wonder (3 flights, 40 mins! first soaring flight!); cleanpants (4 flights); cookie girl (4 flights, first miniskirt flying; and first traffic experience); Mike L aka karaoke star (2 flights, 1st mountain flight!, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ygwCpDhAwik); thomas (4 flights, most soarable)

Owens Valley

happy clouds forming over petroglyphs

With one launch from Piute and two from Walt's Point, but no real long-distance flights logged, (Lionel had the longest with almost 15 miles), I didn't get to test my driving and navigation skills much over Memorial weekend. The Owens were still absolutely beautiful though, and not the worst place to hang out even if you don't get long flights in.

I was (obviously) not concerned with getting conditions for long-distance flights for myself, and was very happy that everyone put in an effort to find me some launchable conditions so that I could have some flying to show for the weekend. Knowing that my glider was on the car, I was pretty much itching to get a flight in, and we made it over to Flynn's, a 1200 ft training hill which would take me to an LZ about 5500 ft above sea level - making it the highest I had ever landed.

When we got there the winds were coming in at around 15, but occasionally reaching as high as 23, which is why I set up faster than I ever have, determined not to miss my window before it got too strong. Thankfully, the winds died down a little, and I launched at 7pm into a smooth 10mph cycle which quickly took me above launch. I soared the ridge for a while until I fell out of it and headed for the LZ. I quickly flew into a few other workable thermals, and almost worked my way up to launch-height again. This is at least what I have been told by those standing on launch watching me, as I found it nearly impossible to discern what altitude I was at, having to measure it by either sagebrushes, tiny knobs or the actual Sierras (both a daunting and impossible task.)

Before I went up I was told that my roundout would be shorter and my flare-timing earlier, which ended up being a little more no roundout at all and flaretiming? I flintstoned it in, but managed not to hurt myself or the glider, thankfully.

All in all, I had a great trip, which has left me more prepared to navigate the Owens as a driver on a trip with more long-distance flights.

Log: helmet girl - 1 flight from Flynn's (25 minutes)

Up

When I was standing up on launch at the top of Ed Levin this morning, I was fully expecting an uneventful sledride, a warm-up flight more or less, for what was forecasted to be a pretty good day. Which is why I, stupidly enough, left both my gloves and my sunglasses in the car. My camera, still unused at this point (though equipped this time with both battery and memory card), was also left in the car. Turns out, as these things often do, that I launched in what was the best window of the day, and I ended up getting a pretty fantastic hour-long flight.

I launched into a 7-10 mph smooth south cycle, and flew into ridge-lift as soon as my feet had left the ground. After making a couple of passes in front of launch, I decided I was too low, and headed for the 1200, figuring that was going to be the most I would find for the whole flight. This is, of course, where I found thermals going off in every direction. I started circling above the 900 until I was high enough to make it to the 1200, and was pleasantly suprised (read: pretty fucking ecstatic) to find that I was actually making my way above launch. Resisting the urge to go explore in different directions (I was still not more than maybe 300' above launch), I repeated to myself the soaring mantra of: "love the lift you're in", and kept 360ing.

At most times during my flight, I was constantly turning to stay in lift. And whenever I would make it above launch, the thermals would be less defined, and harder to keep track of, and I would eventually sink back down to where I started. Having that much time up there gave me a lot of opportunity to try to figure out what I had to look for in order to find lift though, and as it was a partially cloudy day, I tried as much as I could to stay above hills that were in the sun. (Also handy because my fingers were turning blue at this point.) It was also fun to work on techniques when turning in lift, trying to make them as efficient as possible (discovered that I am much more comfortable turning left than turning right).

Normally, our go-to training site is not one of those places known for allowing for a lot of inefficient turns before you are forced to start doing a landing approach, but today Ed Levin was very forgiving. I managed to work my way back above launch 5 times in the course of the flight, one of those times from a couple hundred feet above the 600'. And of course, the last time I started sinking down towards the 6, I was sure that I could do what I had been doing since I launched: slowly work my way back up to launch. Unfortunately, there was not much to be found, and instead I spent the last minutes of my flight playing around over the LZ in bumpy conditions.

The rest was pretty standard. I had a decent landing, and despite needing help after to hook out (my fingers were non-functional at this point), I quickly decided that I had not yet had enough. And so, with the help of Stan, I made it back up to the top for a much less exiting second flight. Which was fine, I guess I didn't deserve much more excitement for one day.

Log: helmet girl: 2 flights (1 hour + 10 minutes), cookie girl: 3 flights (and a sign-off!), thomas: 2 flights (one of them 38 minutes).

Wally

I feel obligated to post this incredibly cute picture of Helmet Girl and Wally. Wally is so-named because he fell from the roof and landed inside of a wall. When they peeled back the wall, they found this kitten. This was at the shop near Hull where I had my tire replaced after ignobly bursting the side-wall of my tire. I had burst two tires driving up to launch and some incredibly awesome guys stopped and helped me out. Robert and I had already tried to replace one of the wheels with the spare, but both (three?) attempts ended in failure when the car rolled backwards and off of the jack. Then these backwoods angels came out of nowhere and plugged the hole in the tread of one of my tires and tried to repair the sidewall in the other (unsuccessfully). I will admit, it did look kind of ghetto after the third plug was inserted into my sidewall...we decided that adding more plugs just made the hole bigger.

Like Helmet Girl said, the flight was terrifying. I'm starting to realize there are various levels of terror. This one fits somewhere between going to the DMV and flying straight into a barbed wire fence. The adrenaline was pumping for sure, but I didn't feel the all-consuming panic. Overall, I'm looking forward to the next flight. I know my glider can do it, and I know I can do it, so I can enjoy it next time.

Hull

So, flying Hull was pretty scary.

Standing up on launch, after hearing all the stories (and the flight plan, for that matter, which made it sound like I would be picking pine cones off the tops of trees on my way down), made me slightly concerned about whether or not it would be possible for me to make the glide down to the LZ. I had to watch both cleanpants and boy wonder launch and make it safely down before I even felt like flying at all.

Although everyone on the ground told me I had plenty of clearance over the trees, and I stuck to the flight plan and had a good launch and landing, the first ten minutes of that flight were spent thinking frantically back to previous ground schools teaching us about how to best crash into the types of trees I was looking down on (flare over them? fly into them?). That, as it turns out, was not necessary.

Even in my worst bouts of anxiety, I was determined not to let my panic get the best of me and fly the straight flight to the LZ in sink though, if I was going to crash into the trees it was going to be while following the flight plan down to a t.

The trip was not all traumatizing flights however, as our instructors got a good couple of hours of airtime, the weather was great, the lake was warm, the food was good, and we got acquainted with a large part of Hull's classy locals. Some of these locals, wearing the hell out of their trucker caps, wife-beaters and tribal tattoos were very much helpful after cleanpants managed to blow two (!) tires on his way up to launch, and also give the Subaru a couple of attractive battle scars (officially inducting it into the line of worthy hang gliding vehicles). Also, since the next sledride we have from hull will have to be exponentially less scary, I think it would be safe to call this a successful trip.

cleanpants video:

Log: helmet girl (1 flight), cleanpants (1 flight), boy wonder (1 flight). All sled-rides. All scary.