Hammondsport, Wednesday May 28th
I left work to tend to my ailing daughter, only to find the little shit was really just playing hooky. So I played hooky myself!!! I arrived at H-port to find Bob in the LZ at around 3:30. When we went up top, we were staring down the mouth of the windsock! For a while it just swirled around, no real direction- what happened to the strong N- NNW wind that was forecasted??? After one cycle wafted in a little straight, I decided to trust that the conditions would magically match the forecast and set up my shiny crispy glider. I was glad that I double checked my VG - it had taken a wrap around the cross bar- something that I have experienced a few times and don't really want to re-visit in-air.
I launched first, using a superstitious slant on this day- usually I let someone else go first- consequently I haven't had too many great flights this year.... I scratched a little after my somewhat weak launch, got up some, then told Bob to go whenever since I felt like it was solid. He joined me and proceeded to kick my ass a bit, then I thought I'd be crafty and find a boomer out in the valley- but all I found was sink and I was back to scratching below launch. I thought that I'd be at the church parking lot before long but suddenly things got better. We were boating around at 600-900' over, very comfortably, and I was thinking the only thing I could ask for in addition to this very sweet easy air was like another 1000' so I could wander around more. Well, ask and you shall receive... because pretty soon the two of us were climbing really well over the tower on top and before long I was at 2K over and then Bob sort of lost it. Then I was 3K over and cold as hell... I watched him come way out over the forests searching in back and he looked so low, then I saw him squeak over the trees to land in the top field. Damn, there goes my thermal marker! If not for him I would have lost that one much sooner and maybe would have landed too. But now I had room and altitude to play and I pulled my string 3/4 on and raced back to the valley- I got to 54 mph before I hit some bumps and let the VG off. Okay, now I know that this glider has some range even at 3/4 or so. And I can still control it- all good! I meandered around the valley now, ran the ridge to the north, then visited the car dealership and the prison. It was so easy to go anywhere, everywhere. The hardest part was staying warm. That meant staying low and that was the hard thing to do! I thought it was a wonderwind but as Bob was packing up, I got to around 600' over- low by tonight's standards- but then found another thermal, intending to take it just high enough to top land, but it was such a nice one-handed ride up and at 7pm it was going up at 300fpm... I took it instead to 3300' over and ditched it only because I WAS FREEZING!!! I was getting anxious about landing- my arms and hands were numb and I haven't really landed this glider well lately. I went to the airport and saw that it was running straight out of the north down there. That would be easy, but a lonely break down since no one is ever there. Plus I might get yelled at since it would be obvious I was scoping it out from up high for a while. So I headed over to the church to decide and saw it was blowing straight NW, or across Rt 54. That meant that setting up along that driveway would be okay (no potato chip behind the church for me anymore). I finally found some air going down slowly and started turning in it to lose height. The wind just about totally died when I was on final, and I thought I was going to overshoot now and wind up in this tall rough patch of weeds- kind of a hump- not good. I slowed up instead, lost too much speed to get over it that I had nothing left to flare with. Whacked. Again. Yuck. But I was right next to Bob's truck, so where I landed was so much better than how I landed. My wrist hurt and I was worried while I tried to use my useless hands to unsuit that I had done some lasting damage. But after I thawed out, it was just a little bit tender and today it seems just fine. Right around the time I started packing up Bob came down to help and said that Gary Ward was up top, mowing. I had seen someone up there and assumed it was the landowner. Thanks, Gary... Got home by 9:30, sated some, FINALLY...
Flights: 1
Airtime: 1:56
Alt over launch: 3300'
Truly the sweetest air I've flown in this year!

When I returned home from flying Hammondsport today, my dog greeted me- not with her usual unquestioning jubilence- but by glumly raising her head for half a second and giving her tail half a thump, before returning to her sprawled out position on the living room floor. I know she saw the gliders on the car when I left this morning, and I've been telling her it's a special spring time deer hunting season... but she's no longer buying it. I found THIS on my pillow addressed to the RAF....

And H-port was truly ON today. Right off launch a sweet climb to 3K over and later a little higher in the valley. I flew for just under an hour and thermalled right over the south end of the lake- very cool flying over water! It suddenly got really rough, so I left the lake, but only to find even trashier air wherever I went. It was NE up high, NW just over the ridge, and W on the ground some places and N on the ground in other places. Strange... I decided to land and gave myself the big airport in which to do so. One of the airport owner's employees came over and was really welcoming- I have heard his boss can be okay, and then not okay about us landing there so I didn't know which greeting I would get- but it was all okay. I got home by 5:30....

Flights: 1

Airtime: 56 min

Alt2: 3330'

XC miles: 0 (but not a ridge monkey!)

Saturday, May 10th 2008

The forecast was perfect for Hammondsport (NNW) and although we got a conflicting report from Doug Stoner that it was blowing in at the Cliffs (NE), we stayed on track. Once set up at H-port, Mark launched and reported a pretty good cross. Twice he got low and I unsuited to go get him. But he had a nice save by the pond and was getting up again, so I went back to launch and waited until I got a straight cycle. I never really got one, but I picked something that at least wasn't blowing DOWN, and launched. I don't think I have ever had that short a flight at Hammondsport before. I headed toward the airport, mainly looking for a fat thermal tracking straight down the valley. All I got was rotor off the mountain: it was blowing the east side of the treetops that I flew low over on my way to try to make a field... I barely made it to the bovines. They sort of stampeded and then immediately marched in my direction once I touched down. They were very very bold and I was a little concerned about them licking my new sail or stepping on a batten. But after a few confident moves in my direction, they just as quickly dispersed to the woods out of my view. Later I found out that the farmer's son had thrown some hay out to keep them out of my hair while I packed up. It worked. So Matt came down and helped me get packed up and told me Mark was on his way to Harris. So we decided to fly the Cliffs and Bob R packed up on launch to join us.

At the Cliffs it was really honking. Dan was the only one in the air and I set up. No one else went and I waited a long time to launch. I've never flown the Cliffs in a lot of wind before (or if I have, my self-preservation mode has erased my memory of it) and I was a little freaked out by the intensity. Consequently, Mark, who I had picked up at the Harris LZ, got a lot of pictures of me just standing on launch... When I finally did launch, the glider got way ahead of me, like a ramp-sucky sort of thing, and the pictures show me fully stretched, reaching to stay with it, feet off the ground like I am falling on my face, then the next frame I have caught up and am running again. The time spent on launch should have clued me in to such an event. It felt funny and not loaded most of the times I picked up the glider. Even walking down the launch some didn't prevent this. When I left the slot, I got hit with that Cliffs "wall of air" and almost lost control once again, but I straightened out and just stayed AWAY from the ridge. A big bald eagle joined me and we climbed to about 1000' over in a lot of wind (16mph, too much for the Cliffs, I think). I hung around for a little while, and was going to try to wait out the wind, but after 20 minutes I was feeling like the fun factor was lacking so I went to the Harris LZ to land. Everything was going up over there and I got a chance to fly with a bald eagle again (same one?) and park the glider right over the state troopers who were doing a road check on Rte 352. So my landing was less than stellar, I landed in a cross, strong wind, and my back was screaming from over use. Mark and I got his new glider from Jack and met Doug and Dan for dinner. I dont know if anyone else ever launched after we left...

Flights: 2

Airtime: 4 minutes and 25 minutes

XC miles: 0

Alt2: 0 and 998'

Not a stellar day for me!!!!

I added up miles and hours for Santa Cruz... 243 miles, and 19 hours. Not bad for a week's work!
We had a really fun flight (although shorter than I would have liked!) at Bristol on May 5th. I got to try out my new sail (crispy!) and my freshly washed harness (no more Arizona dust) and 50% of my gear was great! Right after stepping off into a BIG ONE, I started climbing immediately and when I felt comfortable enough to take a hand off the control bar, I tried to zip up. No go. Not a budge. For the entire climb, almost 2K, I dicked around trying to get zipped up. I figured I would be in the air a while and I wanted to be nice and comfy while I played with my mostly new glider. I have no idea where Bob was except he was above me somewhere so I hoped he was paying attention while I focused all my energy on getting zipped. When I finally found that it wasnt the zipper, but a knot in the pull on the wrong side of the eyelet, I reached inside the harness and got it mostly up with the string. Okay so 15 minutes have passed and I see that I am not climbing very well anymore, so I look around for Bob. Well he is way out on the valley and lower so I go searching for something like what I had just had. NOthing doing, not a scrap of lift and we both searched the whole valley. I whacked in a landing (!) and Bob was right behind. We watched as we packed up and saw Karl have the shortest PG flight in history, and then when Mark launched for his second flight (first one was a doozy in a strong N cross) we figured he would be joining us soon. But no, Mark stepped into something and spent almost an hour taunting us. When I realized the keys to all the cars were in the cars on top, while Mark's car (with no keys) was in the LZ, I started looking at the ski resort for a ride up to no avail. Bob called his partner Tom and he gave us a lift to the top- thank God!

So at least I got to try my glider a little bit, even though I was distracted by the strong air and the zipper pull. And any day out flying is better than hanging out at work...
Oh and that's just a picture of my neighbor's house. Rochester is blooming right now...

Alt2: 2100'

Airtime: ? 20 min??