Lightweight report

Peter K writes: 

This is for anyone who is interested in the Hang Gliding world. Maybe just Rick…. 

I just got home from the Bobby Bailey Hang Gliding Nationals in Groveland, Florida.

First thing to state is that I do hang gliding competitions for pure fun. Like-minded pilots, a formal task and a dedicated retrieve driver make it very fun. I try not to come in last, but often I am close.

I had three practice days to try to remember how to fly after not flying since last Spring down there. Just like in my Discus at Post Mills.

First Comp task was a 135 km box around the Green Swamp, finishing by flying over Seminole-Lake Gliderport and back to our takeoff. Very difficult in a hang glider. I made it to within 12 km of the goal. I flew 5 hrs 15 mins. In addition to not making it, I missed the first turnpoint due to my well-documented technology issues… Great day. Would've been 7th…. Near zero score. OOPS.

I won’t go into details about every day. On the second to last day, I was too slow and decided not to fly over the city of Groveland to get home. I flew 93 km.

The task on the last day was a 106 km bow tie. I had a very bad Start, behind everyone else. I flew the entire Task alone, which is hard. And that made me think a lot. It was a very good day with 7000 foot cloudbase and light wind. I made it home with 900 feet and 4 hrs15 mins. A great way to finish.

All in all, including short practice flights, I flew 20 hours and nine days in a row. That might be my record.

I hope I brought some better wx back with me…

Celebrate diversity

It has long been accepted that you can't teach a glider pilot how to tie a knot.  Just ask Andy or Rick.

It has also become clear that you can't teach everyone the language of our sport.  Everyone brings their own language to the melting pot that is PMSC, and people are reluctant to give up their native tongue.

We should not fight this.  We should embrace diversity, and do our best to understand each other, regardless of our various cultural backgrounds.  To this end, we offer this cross-discipline guide to gliding nomenclature:

Study this, and the next time someone advises you to take good care of your trainers, you'll know exactly what they're talking about.  Copy?

Slacker report

We had a pretty good day of flying today, but it was never a sure thing.

The towplane was down for maintenance yesterday, and we knew that Andy, who was doing the oil change and the brake job, was out flying in the Champ. Our hopes for flying on Friday sank when Andy returned just at sunset on Thursday.

However, late that night, Andy reported that he had finished the work on the L19 after dark, and he said that it was ready to fly on Friday (thanks, Andy!)

The lightweights, Dan, Dennis, and Greg, took advantage of the opportunity to fly, and Tim was able to tow. Dan (3J) and Greg (PM) launched at around 1pm and were able to stay in the lift for an hour or so. Dennis and Rick took some pattern tows in the Blanik. Bob showed up at the end of the day to help launch Dan on his second flight of the day in 3J.

After flying, Greg spent some time cleaning PM, and Dan siphoned gas into the airport tank. The two of them are planning another gas run tomorrow. Thanks, guys!

Weekend report August 25 - 26

After a brief holiday, PMSC News is back.

Both days of the weekend were summer-like (I guess that's to be expected in August), with haze and the threat of thunderstorms. As it turned out, the storms never came and there was lift to 5000 feet under the clouds both days.

On Saturday the turnout was relatively low, but that gave us a chance to celebrate Dan's first solo in sailplanes and to tune Greg up for his flight test. Skip and Thomas worked all day in the hot sun figuring out Skip's new one-man-rig device. We made about ten flights, with Bob doing all the towing (Thanks, Bob!)

At the end of the day, Mary, Sue, and Petey whipped up an impromptu cookout, and Thomas and Dennis provided the beverages.

Sunday was even hotter, and the lift started earlier. Dan and Greg conspired to be in the air at the same time, and we enjoyed listening on the radio as the two experienced pair-flyers chased each other from thermal to thermal. They reached the end of their allotted time aloft at about the same time their transmissions became weak. They dutifully returned. They aren't saying where they went.

Christopher, who gets full credit for working all weekend, finally got a chance to fly the Blanik. One of Christopher's projects is to install an oxygen system in that glider. It's not an easy job. Help him (or at least thank him) if you get a chance.

Probably the happiest pilot of the day was Kevin. He finally had an opportunity to go soaring on a good day in his glider. Nathan was a big help on the golf cart, and he was the photographer for Dan's solo flight.

Skip (JS) and Thomas both worked on their gliders, and Skip flew toward the end of the day. Andy Lawrence shared the 1-23 with Bill and Greg, and he shared the 304 with Doug, who stuck around to give Dennis and Rick a couple of tows at the very end.

Lightweights

I think we should have a new membership category.

I was a student pilot when hang gliders first became popular. In those days, their safety record wasn't very good, and I was told by my instructor that I was smart to stay away from that thrill-seeking cult of daredevils.

I have to admit that it was easy to adopt the prejudice that those guys weren't real pilots, and that they were just an aerial version of a motorcycle gang. I had never met one, and they were easy to ignore.

I was already totally immersed in gliding when paragliders came around, so they were easy to ignore, too.

Over the years I have become vaguely aware of the advances made by hang glider pilots, both in the capabilities of their aircraft and in their attitude toward safety. The USHPA is a mainstream organization with over 10000 members - they can't all be outlaw bikers, right? Also, I began to meet sailplane pilots (Rick Roelke, Steve Arndt, Tim Donovan, Tim Chow) who had a background in foot-launching, and they didn't seem crazy at all.

At the beginning of this season I was comfortable in my belief that there are two different sports, and that I am interested in only one of them. That suddenly changed when I met Greg Hanlon, Dan MacMonagle, and Dennis Cavagnaro, cult members all, who joined our club all at once.

I have to say that these guys know a lot about micro-meteorology and its application to soaring. And they really know how to fly. Here's a picture of Greg outclimbing a sailplane (which one, anybody know?) at Newport, NH.

It has been a real eye-opener for me as the person tasked with introducing these guys to sailplanes. Learning, in this case, has definitely been a two-way street.

Here's what I have learned:

They are really good at thermaling and knowing when to stay and when to go. They are really bad at using the rudder properly. They are really good at looking where they're going. They are really bad at aerotow (at least at first). They are just mediocre at keeping the home field within range. They are really good at helping other people fly, fixing things that are broken, and partying after flying.

For their part, they have learned (I hope) not to dive or do S-turns on final, not to pay too much attention to 200-foot fields, and not to throw their bodies around the cockpit when we hit a bump.

These guys are in a class by themselves, and we need a new membership category for them. They aren't Students, Private Owners, or 304 pilots, and, so far, only one of them is a Weekday Slacker.

All we need is a name for their sub-group. ("Hell's Angels" is already taken). Hey, I know...

Lightweights