"Once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk the earth with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return."
Leonardo da Vinci

Sunday, January 31, 2010

Spring Teaser in January

A teaser for the spring to come. A teaser because the sky looked so beautiful. A teaser because despite the flat bottomed cumulous they were low and the lift was light. A teaser because I got to thermal. A tow just east of Walker Ridge in Delta Romeo revealed Walker was obscured in low bases. Lift was light and the clouds seemed to follow the glide slope all the way to WSC. The town of Williams produced the best Cu marked lift with bases of only 2200'.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Sport 2 Test Flight at Diablo

What does every hang glider pilot need? Another hang glider. On local days when constrained by time or when an easy fun flight is in order, the Sport 2 155 fits perfectly. At 59 pounds, 7 upper battens per wing, light easy handling and a respectable low speed glide I decided to pick up a good used example. Today was finally the day for my maiden test flight on this wing.
Today also happened to be the perfect Sport 2 day. With high cirrus, low sun angles, a huge inversion, crossing winds at the Tower and a low stratus layer which would only break occasionally, I decided to set up at Juniper as the winds were light enough to get off. Kevin, Chris and Mike showed up, checked out my new bird and headed for the tower not to be seen again. I quickly finished set up and ran out a no wind launch with no time to spare as the 1000 footer had already become completely obscured in thick fog. It was a little aery as I headed towards a barely visible Pine Ridge over the stratus layer in my new, lower performance glider. Once out to Pine Ridge, Macedo Ranch LZ in Alamo became visible and I circled down quickly as low clouds were forming everywhere. The glide of the Sport 2 is respectable at low speeds however when you pull the bar in, the thing comes down in a hurry. Finding myself low on approach the Sport 2 was able to pull off a low downwind to final button hook turn for an easy uphill flare. Below is just after launch as I overfly the low broken stratus.

Wednesday, January 27, 2010

January Snow Covered Mendocino Mountains

After nine rainy days of biblical proportion I decided to celebrate the return of the sun in the Northern California sky by a thirty mile tow to the Mendocino Mountains in the ASW 24-B "Delta-Romeo."



I can't recall the latent heat capacity of snow, however Goat Peak was producing little thermal lift despite being post-frontal. The mountains were absolutely beautiful in January. This was the first opportunity for me to see them capped in snow. Letts Lake shown in the second picture above was completely iced over. With little lift in the mountains I headed for the foothills and then to the valley to find weak thermals which extended my flight for about an hour and fifteen on this glorious January day. Below is a clip from my long tow out of Williams.

Saturday, January 16, 2010

Ed Levin Almost Soarable

Ed Levin County Park's smooth grass covered hills, easy glide ratio and large LZ are known by Bay Area pilots as a premier training site. However, in pre-frontal conditions Ed Levin often transforms into a wonderful soaring site. The mountain provides a large, smooth lift band as it faces, unobstructed into the oncoming front. All of the Bay Area hang glider pilots read a well advertised weather forecast of this classic cold front hitting the Bay Area and were at Ed Levin when Gerry and I arrived for some mid winter soaring.
Winds were marginal in strength and frustratingly South-South-East. We regrettably concluded today was not the pre-frontal soaring day anticipated. After several hours of waiting with showers beginning to form over the coastal mountains we each took our turn at a slightly extended sled ride down the mountain.

Friday, January 15, 2010

ASK 23B above Williams

I felt the need for a little stick time. With low sun angles and high pressure I decided to take the ASK-23B "November-Mike" for a spin above Williams, CA. A high overcast, low broken stratus layer, cold moist air, stability and light winds were the prevalent weather for the day. The video below is a reminder to secure loose objects in the cockpit.

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

The Thousand Footer

It took twelve days into 2010 for a cold front to traverse Northern California. On the thirteenth day of the new year this cold front's wake left the first soarable day. I arrived at Juniper Launch to find Kevin and Mike already high above. I quickly set up to join in the fun.

On weak days with low cloud bases, after scratching the west side, the Mount Diablo pilot gets to perform the notorious landing at the 1000 Footer. Mount Diablo rewards advanced pilots by using careful weather observation, flight planning and skill use. The quintessential Hang-4 skill displayed at this site is landing in the oak covered foothills below the west slope of the mountain on the small hilltop called the 1000 footer. The landing calls for a right approach over North Gate Road followed by a low pass over oak trees remembering to keep the speed up for turbulence and landing before the fire road, because an overshoot would be highly undesirable. This is the hang gliding equivalent to an aircraft carrier landing and today I captured some video. Below are the landings of Mike, myself with a camera on board and Kevin.

Sunday, January 10, 2010

Ed Levin Speed Run

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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Monday, January 4, 2010

Mount Diablo Juniper to Macedo Ranch

Leaving Juniper Campground today on a warm January afternoon.
Today Robert and I decided to take advantage of a warm January day and fly from Juniper launch out to Macedo Ranch in Alamo. The winds were light, the atmosphere was stable and the temperature was warm enough that I actually flew in T-Shirt. The video below shows launch, mid-flight over Wall Point and my landing followed by Robert's landing.

Sunday, January 3, 2010

Sara's Powerless Flight School Project

Gerry's daughter Sara has the best school project ever, the project of powerless flight. Sara has already been tandem hang gliding, hot air ballooning and today I took her up for a sight seeing flight in California's Central Valley over Williams, CA (for purely scientific research) in the ASK 21. Below Sara and I immediately after takeoff.
A partially broken stratus layer over the center of the valley and unlimited visablitle above made for a spectacular view.
Of course I took Gerry up for a flight in the sailplane after Sara.

Saturday, January 2, 2010

The Stratus Finally Broke

I had to wait until the second day of 2010 to fly and it ended up an iffy way to start the new year. Gerry and I drove through a thick layer of clouds to the Towers Launch high atop Mount Diablo. We arrived to find a beautiful but surprisingly unflyable view. The stratus layer extended from the Pacific Ocean to the Sierra Nevada mountains.
After several hours of observation I became anxious enough to believe the National Weather Service. Their updated forecast called for a breaking of the cloud layer at 1400 I wanted to believe them. I somehow managed to convince Gerry to set up beside me. We were rewarded with large holes in the cloud layer to fly through as shown below.
We launched in light cycles and headed north over an obscured Bald Ridge. We flew over a sea of white and circled down through holes in the clouds popping out over Meridian Ridge. Below Gerry appears as the speck in the middle the broken cloud layer.
We then flew around the east side of Eagle and Twin Peaks to a nice light tailwind landing at the Mitchell Canyon LZ, which we managed to pull off (on our feet even) this time. Below Gerry parks his glider at the Oak Tree where we waited for our retrieve.