The months of December, January and February are generally unsoarable in Northern California unless you're lucky enough to find yourself on the front or back side of a strong Arctic cold front. With this reality in mind, a group of bay area pilots created a way to survive the cold, harsh non-soaring season here in Northern California. Chris created a "Speed Gliding" course at Ed Levin County Park off of Monument Peak in Milpitas. The best pilots in the bay area will compete during the last weekend in January. The course is the aeronautical equivalent of a downhill snow skiing competition and the flex wing hang glider is the perfect machine for this endeavor. With bleak soaring options available and my ability to always arrive first in the LZ, I decided to travel down to Ed Levin for a practice run at this speed gliding course. Below is the video of my first (very conservative) attempt at speed gliding. The start gate is the clip immediately following launch followed by red gates taken to right and blue gates to left. The finish gate has been removed from the LZ for safety until the competition. An amazingly fun way to burn up a sled ride.
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