This was the year I turned forty. Oh yeah. What better way than to launch myself off Glacier Point in Yosemite for the first time? I arrived Friday afternoon and was able to grab a campsite along with John Simpson and Leah at Bridalveil Creek, more than halfway up Glacier Point Rd. This was more important than you may think because Saturday morning I had to get up bright and early to make it to launch in time for the highly regulated launch window.
After settling in at camp I knew I needed to check out the LZ but I also was hoping to bump into my family who had planned to be there for my first flight. Fortunately, they knew to drive up to the campsite and we'd eventually find each other. It was getting late and we thought we'd find the landing zone field but it turned out we were way off. To be honest, I was more concerned about consuming the cheesecake my mom brought than where the landing zone was. It pays to watch all those Yosemite hang gliding videos to know where the LZ is from the air and I wasn't too nervous about finding it since Chief was the first to launch and land, placing his glider in plain view at the LZ. It was truly an honor to fly with Chief on his 301st flight in Yosemite alone! It was also awesome being greeted by him and my family as I was second to launch and land on Saturday. Chief's wife brought out the champagne and we all celebrate the momentous occasion. It was a perfect 40th birthday. So much fun! I'll let the video below speak for the flight itself. In a word...SPECTACULAR! This will definitely be a yearly event if not more often. :)
Had fun this weekend at the annual Fort Funston BBQ/Air Races. Lots of people showed up despite the light wind conditions and many of us landed on the beach. Thankfully, I squeeked out my speed run to Westlake and back in just under 10 mins. My personal best. It was also my lowest flying at the fort...only about 50' above the beach for most of the trek south to Westlake and when I got down there I had to make an extra pass to climb up above the turn-around flag. Dirk won the king-posted division with his 8 minute lap and Enzo on his Ferrari of gliders took the topless division with a little over 6 minutes. That's fast!
Below are a few shots taken by my buddy Derron who drove all the way from San Luis Obispo to hang out. Thanks Derron!
Arrived at the main St. John LZ, Mary's place, around 10am with Ryan, shortly followed by Chris and Joe ready to head on up to launch. There were also some other familiar faces...Karl, Monte, Mike & Bob to name a few. The valley was filled with a smokey haze, no doubt from the fires near Hat Creek. We thought this might put a damper on the soaring conditions but wouldn't know until we were in the air of course.
St. John is huge! Launch at 6300', valley floor is around 1200'. I was intimidated by the bailout LZs which weren't that easy to get to from the air or the road. The rest of the valley was pretty usable once you were able to get up to about 9000'. We watched several rigid wings take off and get up high then disappear to the north on task. The task was pilots choice of XC as far as you could go or out and return where the return leg was double the points. I opted to stick to my plan of launching, soaring and landing without killing myself. However, once I was in the air I was able to follow Ryan and Joe around to get up to 9000' and decided to head north myself. Woohoo, my first XC! In reality I was just following Joe along the ridge searching for some lift but couldn't find another thermal I could stay in. Gradually I headed into the valley and away from the thermal producing mountains hoping to find thermals over the dry fields. Down I went and had to decide on a landing spot. That was the most nerve racking part... not knowing where I was going to land until the time came to land. Fortunately, as I began to head into the valley the first big field was a ranch that had an attached airstrip. Very convenient. There was even a windsock. Of course, I didn't see it until my final approach and came in slightly downwind...broke a downtube despite an otherwise sweet landing.
Sunday I hung out at launch and video taped launches before heading down the mountain in anticipation of the afternoon BBQ. Yummy food along with swag. I picked myself up a couple of vintage posters and a sailplane keychain/bottle opener. Woohoo!
Below is the video of several launches and plenty of photos of the event. Good times!
Well, it's been about a month since I've flown Waddell Creek. Mainly because the last time I flew there I got my ass handed to me and it scared me enough to take a break. Today was pure bliss. The ceiling didn't get very high, about 700' when I was in the air. Later on Dirk got to around 1000'. We took to the air around noon and spent an hour playing around. The video below shows our interaction on the back ridge. Plenty of sweet air to be had with mild punishment compared with previous Waddell experiences. Brian Spyksma, Steve Cahill and Harry Bircher showed up too. Harry and Steve enjoyed some high altitude flights even though the fog filled in pretty thick. Brian opted to move on to Funston for a more comfortable flight. All in all it turned out to be a great day.
The fog put on a show for us across the beach and along the bluff...
The past couple of weeks have been a whole lot of foggy fun at Fort Funston. Each night last week I was able to get up there after work and get in at least a couple of hours depending on the fog of course. On a few of the nights the ceiling was playing with us by filling in maybe 50' above launch but on other nights the ceiling lifted after 5pm and gave us a heavenly sky to fly in. The video below is edited down from one flight that lasted a couple hours. The air was absolutely buttery smooth and made it extremely easy to fly in without any hands.
I decided to try a new view with the video camera out of curiosity and I think it turned out great! The camera was mounted on the keel facing backwards. At one point "Marginal Mark" sneaks up behind me to get himself fully framed and onto youtube. And, he flew as steady as can be even in my wake. Thanks for the cool clip Obi-wan!
It was unknown where I'd end up flying this weekend. There was talk of heading to the mountains for a camping/flying adventure at either Indian Valley, Hull, Dunlap, Slide or McClure. However, due to the storms everywhere and percentage of bad flying conditions I decided to stay local and soar the usual haunts...Waddell Creek, Funston...oh, and this little place called Mission Peak.
Saturday morning, woke up, called around to get a sense for flying conditions and ended up at the Mission parking lot a little after 11am. Just in time to slap my glider on one truck and my bag and self in another. I don't like separating from my gear but if I was going to get a ride to the top I needed to be flexible. Fortunately, I got the front seat in Don Burns truck. It was good seeing him since the last time I saw him was as an H2 pilot launching Wild Cattle in Big Sur 2 years ago.
It was obviously going to be a good day. Popcorn clouds everywhere, wind blowing just the right direction and intensity. The first few pilots launched. Dave sunk out after scraping for thermals at launch. I think a flush cycle may have forced him down. However, Joe Jackson, Don Burns and others went sky high indicating that it was on! I was a little nervous as I had only flown at Mission once and it was sort of a sled ride to the lower LZ...which I was not looking forward to due to the tight area and the glide ratio on my new glider. I'm still getting used to it. I wasn't thrilled about the top landing either only because of my limited experience on the new glider and not having landed there before. Turns out it's pretty sweet! So, my turn to launch...see for yourself... (2 words: cloud base!)
Sunday was another great day of flying. This time at Waddell where the winds were full on and in the right direction for some real action. Having said that, it was too much for my overworked shoulders from the previous day thermalling at Mission. Ben Dunn, Ryan Goebel and Brian Foster tore up the sky. Ben and Ryan made it to the north cliffs and soared up another 1000'. I think Ben said he max'd out at 1900'. Impressive for Waddell in such crazy wind. Below are a few shots of Ryan landing on his new LiteSpeed and Ben showing us how it's supposed to be done. Fortunately, my landing looked closer to Ben's than Ryan's :P
This weekend was a huge success for despite demo days being so fickle and moving around due to the weather. I was planning on attending but there were better places to fly. Saturday I ended up at Marina and would have loved to have tested a U2 160 at Marina. We flew there most of the day and it was sweet air. Diver Dave put on the best show dune-gooning with some impressive sliders and bunny hop launches. See video below.
Sunday, the best place to demo gliders was Waddell. I showed up around 10am and got in the air around 10:30 and didn't come down until noon after exploring the canyon maintaining around 2000', well above the top of the back ridge. Ryan will tell you differently but he showed up around 10:15am talkin' smack about the poor soaring conditions and didn't even unpack his glider until I was 30 minutes into my flight and soaring the top of the back ridge. Fortunately, Doug showed up with his Lightspeed and then Dirk showed up after I let him know Waddell looked "pretty". From now on that's the code word for Waddell being soarable. :)
The lift machine was working brilliantly but what was even more amazing was the exploration factor. Typically, the wind is so northy that you're constantly trying to penetrate the wind and just take what you can get. But, today was buoyant all the way to the north cliffs and well out over the ocean and way into the canyon. I ended up spending most of my time in the canyon because it was unusually smooth with thermals bumping me up ever so gently. Alright, I'm exaggerating but, the thermals were not folding and spanking like some of the days with the lift machine over the point. I decided to come down partially because the air was so cold but also because I knew Doug was there to let me demo his Lightspeed. Oh boy! See video below.
After I came down and took a break I was ready to get back into the air on Doug's Lightspeed. My first observation was how well it handled on the ground just walking to launch. The thing weighs a ton (75lbs? compared to my 60lbs. Sport 2) and the wind just whips on by. I'm so used to my billowing Sport 2. On launch the Lightspeed felt like a Cadillac and after a few solid steps forward I rose into the air, zipped up, took a couple passes on the lower bluff then headed for the lift machine. Oh my god! It felt like butter. I pulled the VG another couple of pulls taking it to about half VG and the thing felt extremely stabile. Not to mention trim. I think Doug and I may be the exact weight because it was dialed in. Very little bar pressure. I could stall and dive and whip around, penetrate the northy wind, and race back over to the point. Thinking about it just now, it was like a dream. Needless to say, I'm buying it as soon as Doug's new Lightspeed arrives for him. You can't live too long without a glider, so I'm letting him keep it until his new one arrives. :) Thanks Doug!
