Flying Out 2010

It's the last day of 2010, and Windy Hill was the call. Seeing the forecast for East winds diminishing rapidly as the day went on, I opted for an early foray to the hill. I could not convince anyone else to join me in the LZ at 8:30am, so after setting up streamers I hiked my gear up the long trail to launch solo.

I was rewarded by winds light, but straight in, and an abundance of fog cloud forming and dissipating around the hill making for some beautiful scenery.





I set up quickly both to be ready to launch before the easterlies quit, and to stay warm. After chatting with a few interested hikers, I was ready to go by 9:45 am. I launched into a light breeze and enjoyed a wonderfully smooth sled run at my favorite local site. The hills were green, the mist was rolling, and I can not think of any better way to spend the last hours of 2010.

Does It Get Any Better Than This?
The LZ was wet, but the sun was warm and the quiet meadow brought a smile to my face.

I made a short movie of the flight to capture the mood of the day:

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I opted to do a self retrieve today and hike back up to the top, taking the opportunity to see from the ground that which I so often view from the air. It's a 1 hour hike at a brisk pace, and I need to do it more often. It's almost as nice as the flight down.


We have had some high winds lately, and the Eucalyptus and other trees show it.
The sky continued to produce spectacular views throughout the day

It has been another great year. I flew 5 new sites, including 3 sites in Florida (http://pilotneedsride.blogspot.com/2010_04_01_archive.html) and Makapu'u on Oahu (http://pilotneedsride.blogspot.com/2010_01_01_archive.html)
I've had some setbacks with an injury and, of course, work always interferes. But I feel blessed to have spent another year in air and to have shared it with good friends and my wonderful family.

I'm looking forward to another great year, and many more to come.

2010 Flight Statistics:

Airtime: 54:10
Flights: 127
Flying Days: 67

Mission, It's The New Funston

Four and a half weeks. That's how long it has been since my last flight. It is not often I go so many days without flying and I was in need of some air.

Fortunately there was plenty of good stuff to be had. I joined up with Urs and Enzo and crossed the bay to Mission Peak, meeting Tom Lo and Charlie there. Conditions looked a little light, but promising. I launched, scratched, and climbed in solid, smooth lift up above launch and behind. Once above 2,500' it was easy to stay up, with abundant lift by the peak and over the foothills.
Launching Into A Green Valley

Climbing Above The Peak. Charlie In The Distance

Clear Air & Good Views

I soared with Charlie and Urs, enjoying the view. Near 3,000' the air became turbulent and rather than try to break through the inversion, I opted to just stay below it where it was smooth.

Saying Hi To The Hikers

Over Launch. Diablo In The Distance

Unzipping? Or Dropping A Finger-Bang? You Decide

It felt great to get the dust off the glider. After only 30 minutes I opted to top land to end this short, but thoroughly enjoyable flight.

Banking It In For An Easy Top Landing

Enzo Landing Shortly After Me

Flight Time: 0:30
Max Altitude: 3,000'

Mexico

Every other year for the past 6 years, my family has gone down to Mexico for Christmas. We stay in a community called Bajamar, 10 miles north of Ensenada, and within a few miles of the La Salina flying site.

I opted not to bring my glider this year and save some time and hassle by flying down instead of driving.

It was a relaxing five days, and a good time to spend with family members I don't see often.

View from the deck

La Casa Johnson

Mountain Lions

Mountain lions are known to frequent the hills and woods of the Bay Area. Windy Hill is no exception. Fortunately, there are signs warning hikers about the dangers, and providing pictorial directions on what to do in the event of a lion encounter.

These techniques are controversial, but they have saved me on multiple occasions.

Marina! finally...

When I was a H2 and new H3, I took many trips down to Marina wanting to goon the dunes. I set up lots of times, but never caught the conditions right for getting a flight.

Years later I finally got it right and came down to Marina on a good day to fly with Ryan, JT, and Ben.

John was happy to see me

It's fun flying to low dunes in a low performing glider. Skimming the sand and landing without moving forward. Here's a couple videos courtesy of the one and only John Taylor.

Vertical landing practice...

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Walking into the air...

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After a couple hours of gooning and about 6 flights, I packed it up and headed home with a smile on my face.

A heartfelt goodbye from John to end the day

New Things

I had two new experiences today.

1. Scaring the crap out of a bobcat while on final (look by my boot in the photo below).

2. Beer with breakfast after flying. Who knew, beer goes great with hashbrowns on a fall afternoon.



Borrowed Dirk's glider today for a little Windy Hill action. Not much working but had some fun in light lift with Chris, low over the LZ. Think I'll try again tomorrow.

Choose Your Flying Buddies Carefully

Early on in your flying career, you may choose one or more flying buddies to learn with, fly with, and have adventures with. It is important to choose carefully as you will have to live with the consequences for years to come. Me... I've been getting schooled for 6 years now.

Here's my landing from today. Low turn over the surf onto final. Seen it a million times. Booooring!

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Now here is CRV showing us all up. Slayin' It!

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Nice flying Brother!

How To Speedglide ACP Style

...In 5 simple steps

1-Make sure you are color coordinated
2-Launch in slightly downwind conditions towards a barbed wire fence
3-Attemp an intimidating battle cry, but have it come out more like a whimper
4-Be too light on your glider and cross the finish line at 200'
5-Tell everyone how much you dominated

Various Kinds Of Crappy

After waiting hours for conditions to improve at Funston today, it finally looked good enough to soar and I took to the air. As soon as I left the ground all I could think about was landing as soon as possible. The air was bumpy, chunky, nasty. And it was hard to stay above the cliff.

After about 10 minutes I got high enough to top land and brought it in. Chris was walking his glider to launch and asked how it was. I told him it was various kinds of crappy. He gave me a thumbs up and off he went. 15 minutes later I was down at the beach helping him break down his glider and carry it back up.


Another day of ACP domination!

Slayin' It

The day has finally come.

After months of championing the ACP revolution, myself and Ace Comp Pilots Chris Valley, John Taylor, and Ryan Goebel are proud to announce the first edition of the ACP Newsletter "Slayin' It"

At long last a medium has been created that is large enough to hold our bloated egos. At long last our big talk, exaggerated stories, and mediocre flying skills will be archived for all time.

We bring you "Slayin' It" on the official ACP website

http://www.acecomppilot.com/

Yosemite-On Board

Typically when I post a video, I have spent countless hours editing. I've usually secured several advertising contracts, spoken to the major networks, talked with Quentin Tarantino about the proper placement of scenes, what to leave in, what to leave out, etc. This time I'm breaking from tradition and posting a flight through yosemite in it's raw, uncut form, from start to finish.

I know my sponsors will complain. They'll say I'm giving away the goods without properly promoting their wears. But sometimes you just gotta say screw it to the million dollar deals. You have to say "No, I don't care about the fame, the groupies, the money."

So here it is, Yosemite!


Link

It Didn't Happen If It Isn't In Your Blog!

I was feeling very pleased about reassembling my glider and successfully test flying it without falling out of the sky. So pleased that I forgot to blog it. Aerochris was kind enough to inform me that it didn't happen if it's not in my blog. So there it is...

Another Kind of Soaring

Ace Comp Pilot Extraordinaire, Matt, has been slaying the sailplane scene the last couple years. See his blog here http://mattsoaring.blogspot.com/

I was prepared to launch a full on begging assault to get a ride with him some day, but that proved unnecessary. On Tuesday I asked Matt if I could take a tandem ride with him sometime, and Friday afternoon we were out at Williams Gliderport ready to go.

Our Ride For The Day. Slippery...
Ready To Go!
We towed towards St John Mountain and pinned off in a small convergence line east of the peak. We flew here for an hour or so, flying around the clouds. It was odd to be above cloudbase. You can almost never get there in a hang glider.

On Tow
Instrument Panel Of the Duo Discus
After about an hour we decided to make a move to another, better looking convergence line to the south. It was far away and we thought the attempt might deck us. But we made the move and happened to stumble into a wave forming on the backside of the mountain range. Flying in the smoothest air I’ve ever felt, we climbed. Passing 13,000’ we reminisced about our conversation earlier in the day at Matt’s house. “Are you taking your oxygen system?” “No, there’s not going to be any waves today…”.

Climbing High Above The Clouds In The Wave
The next hour is a bit hazy, but I remember staying diligently under our 14,000’ limit…

Just Under 14,000' With Clearlake To Our West
Boating around in the wave, Matt did some lazy 8s and a couple negative G pushovers. Too much fun!


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After leaving the wave we flew out over Cash Creek, cored a couple thermals, and hit another convergence line. This second convergence had to be one of the best flying events in the history of flying. Cool cloud formations, lots of dynamic flying, and despite the banking and diving and spinning, I didn’t even throw up. Bonus!

13,500', looking East To The Second Convergence We'll Hit Later

Cash Creek

Cockpit Of The Duo Discus

Way Above Cloudbase, With Mt Diablo In The Distance

Matt, Focused On The Controls As We Approach The Second Convergence
The gliderport radioed in to say there were shutting down and leaving. We stayed in the air for a while longer and then Matt brought it in for a perfect landing after 4.5 hours in the air.

Goose, I'm going to hit the airbrakes and he'll fly right by
This day was a real treat. Matt was a great pilot and guide and the 4.5 hours went by far too fast. Can’t wait to do it again.


Total Airtime: 4:30
Max Altitude: 14,000'
Type of Air: Convergence, Wave, Thermal, Convergence

Going Big

Today was truly epic. Yes, I know "epic" is totally 2008, but I'm still saying it.

Today was a flying day in the northern central valley.
In the air over Saint John, it looked like maybe the day wouldn't be so great. Couldn't have been more wrong.

I'm tired now and will write more tomorrow, but here's the teaser.

4:30 hours airtime
~80 mile triangle (haven't looked at the track log yet)
Got in a wave and had to leave lift at 14,000'
Zigged and zagged through some unbelievable convergence

Epic!

What's Wrong With Waddell?

Dirk picked me up and we headed down the coast to Waddell today. I've had mostly a love/hate relationship with Waddell, but it does tend to put out. Just not always in the way I had hopped.

Today it was on. As usual, we could have been there 1 hour earlier, but despite the mean looking ocean it was steady and smooth. We set up quick and were soon airborne.
+ Looking North. Wind lines on the water.

There was a fair amount of moisture in the air and fog would form, swirl, and dissipate at about 4-500 feet.
+ Cloud line forming to the South.

+ Flying the fog.

I was on the Pulse since the T2 is in the shop. It's a nice glider to fly, but slooooooow. Dirk was literally flying circles around me.
+ Dirk zooming below me

After about an hour I had had my fill and landed to say hello to ACP John Taylor who had arrived to see the action. Packed up the gliders and headed home. A nice day at the coast.

The Glider Repair That Wasn't

Had some serious glider work to do and waited patiently for my much needed parts to arrive. Finally picked them up on Thursday and got to work replacing the leading edge on Friday.
Leading Edge Off

I have an old Moyes Lightspeed sale which I use as a floor covering for all my glider work. Don't let anyone tell you that lightspeed sails aren't good for anything. They make great tarps and working surfaces.

Unfortunately I found that my new leading edge was damaged before it got to me. The machined cross-bar bracket was bent out of shape.
Somethings not right...

So, after weeks of waiting, it's back to waiting...

Armchair Flying

Got some time to kill, so I dug up my footage from Makapu'u. Here is just the launches. I like the keel mount perspective looking straight down the cliff.

A Day In The Life

Of a Northern California Hang Glider Pilot...

We've been hitting the fort a lot lately. It's consistent there this time of year. The air is smooth and sweet. Flying there is care-free, social, and fun. And you can get lots of airtime.

Last weekend I flew a little over 5 hours over two days. I took it easy, flying my pulse, and got some footage of the day

(The video looks best if you select 720p from the pulldown menu once it starts playing)

Link

Easy Flyin

Headed to Funston again today, this time with Christina in tow. I flew my "floater" glider; a 10meter Pulse.

It is a whole different experience flying a slow, easy, beginner glider. It turns effortlessly and just gently plods along. Flying to Westlake in a slight south headwind, my ground speed was less then 15mph. The scenery looks so different when you can comfortably fly slow, low, and close to the terrain.

I think tomorrow I'll go fast again...

The Early Bird...

With high temps and high pressure, Funston was the place to be this weekend to escape the heat and get some air.

Saturday was Rex's memorial, and after saying goodbye to our friend, we hit the fort late in the day. It was packed and by the end of my third flight I was completely frustrated with the crowds, and a few pilots in particular who just weren't paying attention to the traffic.

Sunday was a different story. I headed to the fort early, thinking it would blow out in the afternoon. I was the first to arrive and was soon joined by Enzo and CRV. It was already on and we had the whole place to ourselves. We played around the Fort, and cruised down to Westlake. The fog bank started at about 650 feet. Plenty of room to fly beneath.

I tried out a new boom-ish mount for my GoPro camera, and I think it worked great.

As the day progressed, I watched the cars rolling into the parking lot with gliders on the roof. I flew for about 2 hours until the crowd had finally finished setting up their birds. Once the sky began to fill I came in for a landing and called it a day.

Funston, have I told you lately that I love you?