Linda Salamone's Blog

Tuesday, May 30, 2006

Linda Salamone's Blog

Here we go again- long delay getting this out- sorry! Life's been in the way a bit.

So Day 5 and 6 were cancelled, and that means that Task 5 was on Day 7 (Wednesday). Corinna was the only one to goal and I don't remember much about the first part of the flight but I do remember a huge climb to 7K but no climbs after that. It was a tough flight. I tried to pull another low save off at the end and it didn't pan out. Mark had a big retrieve on his hands because I landed yet again quite a ways away from a locked gate.... I was very grumpy. I found that Kari landed a little past me so I wasn't the only one who had a problem with the big blue hole. Judy did AWESOME on this day, proving that a kingpost isn't always a detriment. I was 7th for the day.

Task 6 (Day 8- Thursday)- Rick and Mandy had left yesterday morning and so had a lot of volunteers. My sister and Corey arrived so that was pretty cool. The task on this day was changed 3 times much to Dave Glover's dismay.... We saw a huge Cu-Nim developing off to the west and we just didn't feel like sending everyone STRAIGHT to it. So instead we flew straight north but the storm grew into our path. I had shut my radio speaker off for a little bit when it got noisy- when I came back on, I radio checked and when Fred answered me I said I had had my radio off for a while. No one ever said another thing as I flew next to the rain to the TP until I heard Kari say she was on the ground. I pressed on and dove for the TP, getting a little wet in the process. I glided as far as I could and saw the gust front below me in the trees. I headed way east to outrun it but wound up landing in a 40mph headwind. Not a lot of fun but at least I didn't have to run out my landing.... Primos and some other rigids landed a little later in my field (a landfill) and they said their task had been cancelled. I didn't know it then, but so had mine. Probably should have figured that one out sooner....

Task 7 (Day 9 -Friday) So even though I was inclined to call a shorter task (we did make a short 'alternate' task) we had a 85 mile downwind called. At this point we had not undercalled a single day and I was thinking we needed to. More T-storms in the forecast but Davis said they are in the forecast EVERY day so what the hell. I was doing really well this day, going fast, staying very high. Raean was struggling with her VG cord again and her harness was coming undone from top to bottom, but she was very tenacious and didn't let it stop her. She actually fueled my flight as I realized what she was dealing with. I stayed with Big Natalie (Natalia) for much of the flight and we both got very low over Silver Springs. I finally climbed out and got very high again- like 6K - high enough to see the storm to the west and the dark sky ahead. I had a way around the immediate cell with altitude to spare, and I saw a way around some of the stuff ahead- but the call came today from Dave Glover that the task was stopped. Stopped not cancelled- which I knew was good because I was ahead of most of the pilots. So I would get a decent score- turned out to be the best score I ever got- over 800 points for the day for 4th place.

On the homefront, stuff was getting wacky for my babysitter. Her dog had bitten my son on the lip and she had spent the wee hours at the ER having his face sewn back together. Friday afternoon my daughter blasted her ankle and the babysitter spent the evning between the pediatrician and the orthopedic specialist with her. Earlier in the week, Mark had run Dana over to the walk-in clinic with a raging case of Strep Throat. So inside a few days, all three of my kids had fallen apart. Mark was soothing the babysitter by asking her 'which kid did you break today?' every time she called. Poor girl is getting married next month and she will most likely never have children....

So I find out on Day 10 that I am in 6th place over all now. I am totally psyched that I have clawed my way up from 12 since the first day. Kari and Corinna are still duking it out as we go into task 8-
I got off tow and found NOTHING. I went for a relight but got some lift climbed out slowly instead. Very slowly. So slowly I got impatient. I went off to start at like 2000 ft. I did get a decent climb over Groveland and got to base at 3700'. Then I got decked. I was so crushed and I was certain I lost my 6th place spot. I held it together packing up but when Mark got there (another locked gate!!!) I just had to bawl. Last day and I was so disappointed. After all the girls hating me for being on the nightmare task committee and big Natalie throwing my cell phone in the pond (unrelated) and PMS and sick battered kids and camping for way too long I just lost it. Mark and I picked up Judy and he dropped us back at Quest (it was SO close by) and we waited to see Kari and Corinna come into goal. And that never happened. Disappointment all around when we found Kari back but with her glider on top of Brian's truck. I went a whopping 9 km today!

So the awards happened Sunday afternoon and I was happy to find I had held onto 6th place. We began the drive back to Rochester via Trenton Georgia. We dumped Judy off at 2am after barely rolling to a stop and continuing on. Dana tried to get gas with cash (remember cash?) and was unsuccessful. So she stuck my debit card into the reciept slot and it sucked my card up. Wow. But it got spit back out and the rest of the trip she laughed her ass off about the look on my face when it disappeared. Monday we get home and busy doing wash and cleaning up and right when the evening is winding down Emily (on crutches) finds my old cat Turtle half dead on the 3rd floor bathroom floor. So back out the door Mark and I rush to the Vet's. She is in renal failure and not likely to make it through the night. I'm not ready to say good bye when I hadn't even said hello yet to her so we give the okay to treat her. I started my new job at 8 am and visited her at lunch today. She is a little better but it is a short reprieve. I hope to get her home so I can have a chance to be with her in her last days. It's cast a shadow on the fun of the meet. Silly thing, really, but I have had her for 16 years and I just can't bear the end right now. So Adam with his stitches and Emily with her crutches and me with my half dead cat... Mark has a few more retrieves left in him, I hope...

Monday, May 22, 2006

Linda Salamone's Blog
Day4
Not much time to write so I will be brief. Yesterday the forecast was spectacular- Davis said he;d never seen anything like it. But then we were asked to make a "feel good" task to get more pilots to goal and have happy girls around. No one wants a bunch of unhappy women around...
So according to the forecast, I felt we undercalled the day. An out and return to Dallas and back, 66 miles or so. The forecast was wrong (again) at least for the northerly route we took. Cirrus clouds shut stuf off and made it very very tricky and slow. I was doing fairly well until the turnpoint, then I got hung up and watched KAri pull away. I was in slow climbs for a long time, found a place to land but got a decent climb at around 900' agl. So I took thant to fall 11 miles short opf goal. Carole (who is such a sweetie) was the last pilot I sawon course, she was turning way below me and I got over her and just never found what she was in. She literally climbed right through me while I floundered around. I had a decent landing next to the Turnpike, she went another 5 miles with her climb. I moved up to 7th place overall (one slot) and it kinda sucks because it was a teammate, not a foreigner whose place I took. But I feel good (tired but good) and I am going to go set up my glider for the task today... I have been telling all the birds that I encounter about my pact. They have been very accomodating showing me the lift.....

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Linda Salamone's Blog

It took me two days to get that blog up that is below here. Oh well....
So task 3: Bottom line: I can't eat chicken anymore......
Light winds forecast. We called an 80 mile "box the swamp" task that I have had a F%&&$% of a time with twice before. But I am determined to complete this one some day. Not today. I did get a fast start, got very high after the first TP (7K), and blasted over the swamp. No climbs there and I wound up just on the other side with only 900'. I stayed on course, set up a landing at 400', went downwind, base... and well I heard beepings.... saw a bird, took a turn, thought about making a deal with the buzzard to never eat a feathered being again, heard better beepings... sealed the deal (if you get me out of here i will NEVER eat a bird again) and blasted back to 5300' with hardly any drift back into the swamp. So, I was around 200' agl when I climbed back out. What I SHOULD have done was say if you get me out of here AND to goal.... Oh well. I tagged the second TP and went waffling up 301 with the French girl who never seemed to want to lead out although she was on top of me forever. I did manage to freak her out when I was following close behind at around 1200' and she went to throw a turn in. I think she was surprised to see me right on her ass. Note to self: clear your turns... Then I made sure that when she went down I picked a small field just beyond her... Fred Permenter and Mark shared the retrieve. Kari and Corinna made goal first and the Russian girl was later. I did okay- it was a good fight. Today looks awesome...

Linda Salamone's Blog

Women's Worlds Task 1

So the first day was so bad for me that I didn't even want to write about it at all because to do so would mean I would have to relive it. Knowing that attitude is the biggest game going I figured I would wait til I could handle it.

The task was a dogleg, mostly crosswind, to the south. I got towed up, but wound up low and downwind after half an hour so I decided to take another tow rather than fight back up and drift even further downwind. It was really strong and the climbs were weird- I still didn't have it figured out so starting at the first gate was unlikely for me anyhow. So I took a second tow and for some reason, the tug took me WAY downwind. I believe he thought he was doing me a favor- thinking that was the way we were all trying to go… If I wanted to go back to the field, I wouldn't even make it. I fought with it a while but I was so upset. I felt pretty screwed- everyone else took the first start and only a few rigids were around. They have an easier time with the long glides between thermals (into strong headwinds even) and they were not going to be too much help to me. So I blundered downwind of the courseline as far as I could. I never even made it TO the actual course line, and I had Rt 27 behind me and a steady 18mph wind. I was a wreck the whole flight. I just knew there was no way out of this. I did fight a good fight- but after a few low saves I had none left. I landed in a cow pasture near a mine and had one of the mine employees call the Polk County Sheriff. It was all okay so after giving every vital piece of information about myself to the cops (height weight eye color SSN DOB home work and cell numbers address blah blah blah!) for NO REASON at all, they let me leave with my ride. I asked what would happen next and the deputy was like, “well I suppose you'll fly tomorrow, maybe land out here, they'll call us, and we'll ask all the same questions and the next day will be much the same….” They don't care and they know we are not trying to cause trouble, but it seems to me that Florida is one of the most unfriendly places to fly hang gliders XC in the USA. Dana was a little freaked out by the turmoil… So I placed really shitty as the scores show this first day but that leads me to…

Women's Worlds Task 2

60 something mile task to the south- big cross wind task to Avon Park.

First tow- couldn't stay up. Wacky landing.

Second tow- couldn't stay up. Wackier landing.

Third tow- didn't have my VG set, sky-ed out on the tug, popped my weaklink, belly landed fully zipped right on the runway.

Fourth tow- (and they are surely getting sick of me on the launch line) tug bridle broke, leaving me with the rope at like 30ft. I am too low to do anything but what I did when I popped my weaklink so I try to roll it out straight ahead, but my right wing gets gusted and I am doing a huge wingover that turns me downwind and screaming across the ground with a couple hundred feet of rope dragging…. Wackiest landing.

I should say here that I am not the only one taking multiple tows. I wont name names but… oh yes I will!!!…Kari, Raean and Lauren… well lets just say the US team was getting their money's worth! Conditions pretty much sucked and the high overcast was just over us… some of the rigids were still towing and it was almost 3 oclock and they had to get to the Florida Ridge- 125 miles away….The wind at least wasn't quite as strong as I had seen in the forecast.

Fifth tow- finally I get all the way up and go on course line. I had my first decent 600fpm climb 5 miles out. Hurray- it is maybe going to be okay! I had all my teammates nearby except for Judy. We stayed together a little and I pimped off Lauren and Raean some. We parted ways and when I thought the day was spent I headed off downwind. We'd been trying to fight the headwind as much as possible so I was way upwind and had a lot of room to just glide. By this time I heard that everyone was on the ground on my team so I was just going for make-up miles from the day before. I landed 34 miles from goal but I think it might be pretty good for the day. (Shittiest landing of the day!!!) I landed in a field with ONE COW but it was otherwise occupied and left me breaking down in peace. Mark and Lauren came and got me and it was a much better ending than yesterday.

So that's it for now. We are so damn busy that it's hard to just e-mail or write this stuff up. We are comfy and cozy and its chilly so easy to sleep. I am looking forward to the lighter wind that is in the forecast.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Linda Salamone's Blog
test from quest

Thursday, May 11, 2006

The last 4 days were really awesome for flying here in Upstate New York. It was like a repeat of when Rhett was here and we had high pressure East and NE wind.
Sunday at Finger Lakes Aerosport Park was a perfect day for everyone to get all they wanted in the air. A photographer from The D&C came out to do some shots of me for an article ( I think I finally am going to make the SPORTS section!) and she agreed reluctantly to get in-air shots from the Trike. The Messenger Post article came out today too so it was pretty cool to be in the spotlight... So I took two tows- the second one was because Marty thought Scott Rowe was me and she was snapping pictures of him for a while and missed my short flight. Mark towed me up again and the Trike followed me this time and then landed. It was pretty soarable by now but I had tandems to hook up so I landed and told everyone else the day was "on".
My daughter and 3 of her friends all took tandems with Mark- all but one got to soar for a while. Mark was giving some of the single gliders a thermalling lesson with the tandem glider! They were all smiles when they landed and I was anxious to get in the air now that everyone was sticking! I got a 45 minute flight to around 5K right off tow and played "last feet on the ground" (and won) while the day shut down. I think I was the only one playing...
Monday we had no tug pilot so HG Bob and I headed to Italy. We left Bob's truck at Bristol with lofty plans to fly there (and back maybe). Well, Jack the Sky God showed up and beat us all to the punch by launching first and sky-ing out while Bob and I sledded. I had a scary launch again and I am resolved to fixing that problem. (Harness issues). In the LZ, while packing up, we see Bob's truck come around the corner, driven by Jack, just to add insult to injury....
When we got back up top, Mark was there with his PG ready to try- his flight was a little more extended than mine and Bob's. Dinner at the Middletown Tavern was our only consolation and the waitress even forgot to put our order in!
So Tuesday, light NE wind. Joe Schmucker and I decided on FLAP, Bob was going to head to Harriet later after work. We didn't get towed until almost 4pm and the lift was dying out. I wound up too low and too far to the south and just took it on glide hoping to get something to get me up and over to Honeoye. I landed just 4 miles south of FLAP... Joe retrieved me and when I called to see how Bob was doing, he was just about to launch at Harriet and it was cycling in nicely. Later he calls and says he flew over an hour at 2K over and top landed... well, it just goes to show you: right place, right time... same lesson as the two days before....
Okay so now I am filled with THREE days of frustration- all great flying days- but I can't seem to get it together. No one wants to talk to me because I am getting a wee bit cranky. Looking at the forecast on Wednesday morning was really stressing me out. I sit here at work doing NOTHING for 4.5 hours a day and watch the weather. I can tell it is going to suck after this day, and it may be the last time to fly before I head to Florida. I can't tell if it's Harriet or Italy and I didn't think I could get a tug pilot out.
By 11am, Mark realizes his life will be MISERABLE if he doesn't come to my rescue. He puts his nose to the grindstone at work and meets me at FLAP by 2pm. I'm set up and ready to go- he has a girl there he is mentoring for a school project. We show her and her mom what a nasty 200' lockout weaklink break looks like. Plus the fully-zipped-up-prone-with-VG-on landing... Wow. Can't remember my last weaklink break! Mark was just about to give me the rope! So, I try again and we hit another boomer but I stay on. I climb to 5700' just after tow, and fly all over. Doug asks me on th eradio if it's worth getting towed since it is late. It's still really good so I tell him to come join me. I pimped off him for an hour or more and we had some really nice air. Smooth, big, and high. There was a defined convergence we were in, the wind on the ground was ENE and the wind aloft was ESE, E, and S. We got back to over 5K and I was on the radio still with Mark who was giving his "student" a pretty cool firsthand glimpse into hang gliding. I waited until Doug was safely on the ground before I came around to lose some altitude. It was around 5pm and there was still some lift left. Go figure. It was blowing pretty hard from the ENE so I had a decent landing. Not that anyone was still around to see it.....So I had flown for over two hours and thanks to Mark I scratched that itch that was plaguing me for days! I packed my glider up very carefully since the next place it flies will be in Florida.
Okay so that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Monday, May 08, 2006

Friday, May 5th
from the flyhg@yahoogroups.com :
well it started slow and cranky. 300' over was all i could get. then itgot worse. jack came back from near the gliderport ridge and we duked itout - me below launch. then ron added himself to the mix (?) and we all duked it out. i got a little something just in front of launch, long enough to wait for the "real" one in front of the low part to the leftof launch. it got me and jack outta there and put ron on the deck. i had suggested to Mark a goal of blue swan and back, during the ride down, so i took that climb til my hands froze solid, and saw that no one else was climbing at the ridge. then i just headed on a slow, indecisive glide towards blue swan. jack hung around, getting way higher than i could stand. it was shaded where we were (under a cloud- duh!) and i tried to glide into the sunshine, jack went more to the left near katydid. i just kept an eye on his progress as i went towards dan's hill. i was hanging out at around 4K over launch and even though i wasn't really thrilledwith the temp up there, i stayed as much facing the sun as i could. that seemed to help. i got right over the X at the NW end of the runway, and turned back to try to get at least to katydid, if not back to harris. jack got back near me and we just climbed and glided and followed the ridges. i was much slower and he got way above and ahead. near the prison he had a great climb with a hawk and i was too late. i tried to max it out but i had to leave. landing areas were few and i couldn't see what was over the next hill in front of me that jack was working low. so i just bagged it and landed behind the hill (nice rotor!). i left myself extra altitude to figure out what was happening in that field and it was an okay landing. except my zipper pull on the side of my harness became one with my rear wire. so it was hard to get unattached to the glider. a man came over and helped me roll the harness/glider out of the plowed field to break it down. mark said my coordinates put me six miles away from the LZ at harris. he and ron came to get me even though people were headed to the cliffs to fly. we had to break the zipper pull right off the harness to free the wire. weird! they passed jack landing nearer to harris LZ and when we went past the cliffs we saw a bunch of gliders high. i had been at 5300' over launch earlier, jack must have been over 6K. it was bulletproof up there, 600fpm avg- wrapped vario at times- not at all like what everyone else had at harris ridge. i think if i had made up my mind to get there and back and not been so hesitant, the outcome would have been better and i would have needed no retrieve. but it was a late start for such a task so i am pretty happy with it. oh and i flew for 2 hours 10 minutes. i would call that pretty epic!

Wednesday, May 03, 2006


I like this pic! Taken at the Flytec Meet 2006 by I don't know who.

Tuesday, May 02, 2006

just to note this: the post that i thought got lost in cyberspace magically appeared on my blog. i tried to rewrite it a couple days later but i will leave both posts up there. probably some inconsistancies... so they are dated properly. April 24 and April 26th are two separate write ups on the last two tasks at the end of Flytec.


We have been flying our butts off here in the northeast for almost a week now. Friday, April 28th was less than the stellar H-port day I was anticipating. I had a 5 minute sledder! I did learn a thing or two about footlaunching my new harness: it aint fun.
Saturday, the 29th was Day 1 of the chute clinic and we got to tow during a midday break. High pressure thermals, climbs to around 4K agl, and a whole bunch of fun in the air. Not every one stuck and Rick blew out his keel with a bad low tow release. I got an hour and Doug won the 'last feet on the ground' award!
Sunday was even better- climbs to just under 5K agl, and almost two hours with lots of pilots who stuck. Dave Perrin, Bob Roth, Jeremy Swerdlow, Dan Spier, Scott Rowe, Mark Frutiger and Joe Schmucker... who else? I'm missing someone.... oh air-pig... Well anyways, it was a blast and I got really cold and flew all over without losing any altitude. Very fun.
Monday, May 1st- I flew alone for an hour before Doug towed up into mostly dead air. When I first got up I climbed to 5700' and couldn't find any sink. I drove all over the sky-I went to Padgem hill and back, never really losing much until I headed back to mess with Doug. His tow was long and straight to the NE and he headed back without turning at all so I knew the day was pretty much done. I of course landed before he did seeing as he IS the air-pig, but today we are both going to try to get up earlier. I towed at like 2:15 yesterday- trying for 1:15 today. I think I was flying in a widespread convergence zone since the upper air was mostly E or SE. And the shift past the Tow Park happened right around 3:15. Lets see what happens today....


 
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