Saturday, March 21, 2009- Stid Hill, South Bristol NY

The organizers at the Bristol Ski Resort asked us to set up a glider for their Spring Carnival for this weekend, and, being that I am the Public Relations rep for the RAF, I tried to muster up some enthusiasm for the exposure it could create. A beautiful forecast, warm and sunny, and light winds- great for flying there, not so good for skiing. But they have a pretty good snow base left and only a few trails looked closed. I had more than an hour to check it out from 3K above, in baby ass smooth lift. But the flight was of course after the obligatory "manning of the booth" and at 1:30 I was relieved of my duties by Karl and Katrin, and Ron actually had carried in and SET UP my glider at launch. Wow.... Mukrim, Doug and Mark all had sledders just as I grabbed the PGers and went up with Ron. Ryan reportedly was climbing out over the parking lot as we rounded the back side of the hill. We hiked in from Piscotti's, seeing as I had nothing to carry- it was easy! I checked over my glider and launched after Mukrim climbed out. Ryan was nowhere to be found but I did see him high overhead during the hike. I scratched a bit, not finding whatever Mukrim was in, and decided to leave the ratty ridge. I found nothing but sink all the way to the parking lot and began to set up a landing. But as I extended my glide towards the skiers on their slope, I got beepings!!! I cranked and banked a while and when I looked at my borrowed (shitty!) vario, I was still 300' below launch. So after that nice low save I wound up at 3200' over and got really really cold! Mukrim and I just cruised wherever we wanted and flew over the slopes a while. It was weird being over there, usually I go over the back or north. I began to look at the LZ situation and to my surprise saw the wind shifting from the south now. Ron and Rick and a few others were scooter-dragging down there so I asked Rick what it was looking like. Light, mostly westerly.... OK, I can do that. I searched a while for some sinking air- tough to find! and tried to leave all my options open as I set up a landing. Then it starts coming from the north and I took my final in that direction. Staring right at the sock I see it flip around and now I'm in a tail wind. Damn. Eating up the distance to the break down area, a weak flare... and a pound into the ground. I caught my kneecap on the base tube as I did my "tuck and roll". Ouch. But I got off easy considering....
Here's Lon's video link of my crappy downwind landing. Right at the beginning. The windsock is obscured by the glider in the foreground. The rest of the video is pretty funny too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCJEY_BMN64
Karl, Katrin, Doug, Mukrim and Ryan all had great PG flights in the late afternoon. Spring has sprung!!!
Marty took care of the PR stuff there the next day- thanks Marty. And special thanks to Ron for hauling my stuff in and setting it up- I owe you big!

Friday March 13, Dansville, NY

I left work early thinking it could be good- at least it was warmer- like mid thirties.... On launch it felt like 50 or so since the site faces SW. When I was driving into town, I saw a PG up over the mountain and climbing nice. It was Matt, and I went to the apartment LZ to pick Ryan up on the way. Matt was still doing pretty well for a while and he was way out in the valley with no drift really. The wind was wafting in at times while I set up. Mark and Matt were ready and I was going to wait until later when I figured it had to get better than this... I spotted a hawk going up good to the lower right of launch and Matt and Mark blew off like 5 seconds apart. Mark grabbed the climb from Matt pretty well while I raced into my harness. Too rushed and I broke my zipper trying to get it to go over my ski jacket.... I figured the chest buckle should be enough to hold me in and I turned the glider around... wondering if that were true...

Mark and Matt ready...

Matt's launch: I wound up waiting quite a long time for another cycle. It never happened as it had crossed out from the northwest. I was still waiting when Mark came back after landing at the airport. It was so obviously cross but Ryan and Matt got their gear onto launch again, only to pack up like I did. Ah well...

Saturday was the 'chute clinic, organized by the tireless Katrin. Here's a funky simulator for PG deployments.

We were all anxious to go fly Bristol, with a great forecast, so Joe was busy repacking. He was going so fast even his hands were a blur... I got one deployment off but it was more than 10 seconds to get the thing out of it's container. The side mounts are tough.

The Subaru made it up Bristol and we got there in time to see a perfect light breeze from the WSW, complete with hawk climbing out in front of launch straight up... gonna be GOOD!

NOT! In the next 10 minutes the freight trains started to roll through and Ryan launched into a corker and went over the back like two minutes later. Mark launched next and did exactly the same thing. We'd thought he got blown behind the mountain low, but I called him on the radio and he went north to escape the ratty air and he wasn't having too much fun. Ryan called and said he got hammered behind the mountain and landed at the golf course. I decided to wait a while.....
Matt, Doug and Doug showed up and we all hang waited for a while. By 4:45, Doug F launched and things were definitely better. I got ready but he landed, and I waited while it began to blow harder again. But now it was steadier, not gusty and I launched into some really nice smooth lift. Using an old vario that was driving me nuts (mine had the battery fail the day before), I surfed the ridge to maybe 600' over (haven't really checked) for the next half hour or so. I coaxed Matt to launch and then it shut down on us. Doug got off as we landed and gave the skiers a show.
Hang waiting at Bristol....

Sunday the forecast looked like Cliffs, but that's a walk in, so Ryan and the gang headed to Harriet, but I begged off. I haven't quite gotten over my blown launch there and the forecast was too iffy. The thought of running the topless off there in very light wind gave me pause. So updates came in from Ryan all day as I tortured myself with the prospect of a nice Harriet wonderwind. But later it was obvious we had made the right choice by staying put and getting the yard into shape on this 60+ degree Sunday.

So beautiful weekend, good company, but lots of waiting around with not much actual flying. Sounds like hang gliding in Rochester in the springtime.....