[want2fly]

Hello All… First off this is an awesome site! I’ve been a virtual voyeur here for a while learning more about hang gliding, but this is my first post. I have really enjoyed hearing about how much you all love this sport

I recently moved to New England and have taken a sum total of one lesson on the training hill at Morninside; so I am still pretty naive about HGing in general.

I guess my biggest question for you all is what type of time/commitment does it take to get good enough to start thinking about XC flights or other more adventurous flying? Some of the videos I've seen posted here blow my mind, but connecting the dots between that and the training hill seems a bit of a stretch. Are those skills attainable by mere mortals who have jobs and families, or are the pilots in those videos some strange breed of mythical sky gods descending down from the heavens to taunt the rest of us with their unworldly exploits?

[sg]

XC is definitely attainable by mere weekend warriors.
You just gotta fly consistently for a couple of seasons, really work on your landing skills, especially putting it down in a tight spot. Make every landing a spot landing practice. Get those approaches perfect and then start making them tighter.

Of course, learn to thermal, climb well, and most importantly, get good at predicting where lift is going to be.

Definitely doable. No sky-god sign off required for XC, just solid skills.

[boarini2003]

Welcome to the forum! They are not Gods. Granted, to get to the level of many of them it would take years of dedication, but they're human and they have achieved it without divine intervention. The moment you clear the training hill and have your first mountain solo, you will feel like those goals are possible.

[Radwhacker]

[sg]

As he stares at himself in the mirror

[Radwhacker]

No, that would just ruin the fantasy.

[tizeagle]

Welcome, with one season and consistent flying you will be amazed at how quickly you learn. You may not be ready for cross country but most people on here work for a living and have family's so it may take a couple of seasons.

As for Rad or Hunter S Thompson I think there is more to the cigarette than tobacco.

Yes.


Just playing brother.

Yes

[Wingspan34]

[Lobido]

In my case, Sky God is , perhaps, a little modest.

[Wingspan34]

All Hail the Flying Monkey God/Pilot!






PS - and if he's just a Flying Monkey God (Non pilot), . . . Stone the Blasphemer!!

[m2b]

I've been crewing all summer for some of the New England XC boys, most of the time for Dennis, er XCHG, both here and on the VHGA message board.

Even though I've never flown, and probably good chance I never will, a couple of thoughts from what I have seen/heard this year might be of some help.

One of the big things you have to get used to in New England XCing is not knowing where your next LZ is going to be, err you can't see it. Instead of flying on a whim trust your fellow pilots, you can use to pilots to not only help you learn the LZs but you can also use them to further educate yourself in the sport while keeping your feet on the ground. Trust me, it has worked for me BIG time this summer. Why do you think I'm posting this reply.

One way to gain some faith is to get out and crew a few times NEXT SPRING for the XC boys when they go to fly Mt. Ascutney. Choose the better pilots like Dennis, Tom, Greg H, Dan, or Jeff B. I suggest them because they are the better of the New England pilots and they will have the longest flights. By retrieving them you will get a chance to see where some of the different LZs are and this will give you the opportunity to get more comfortable with the idea of leaving Ascutney behind. Having a flight plan in mind before you ever launch is very handy when flying, yet alone when flying XC. Knowing where all the potential LZs are located comes in quite handy with making your mental flight plan. You need to be use to trusting the pilots/know where the LZ area when they tell you its okay to leave the current LZ.

I live right between Forbidden Field(FField)(a LZ in Sunapee, NH) and Mt. Sunapee. One of the posts on the VHGA message board earlier this year was by Rodger talking about his first trip down to Bradford. He talks about how he had heard that if you have 6,000 feet at FField you can easily make Bradford, but even though he had 6,000 feet at FField he didn't feel comfortable trying to make it to Bradford cause he couldn't see the LZ. He finally made his way on down to Goshen Ocean, another LZ down south of FField and was finally able to catch a glimpse of the Bradford LZs. Quite often in this part of the country you are flying blind, sometimes, very blind. Another example, I went with Dennis a few weeks back up to Cannon Mt. From the parking lot, the tram ride or the launch, you can't see the LZ, it isn't until you get over the nearby ski area(Mattersill, sp?) that you can finally see the LZ. You just have to have the faith that the LZ is there and take the risk and go for it. You gain the faith in what you are told by getting to know the pilots that you will be flying around. Having faith that they won't lead you astray is a big advantage in flying XC in these parts.

Crewing will also give you more of a chance to get a feel for the normal launch conditions on Ascutney so you will have a better idea of when you are ready to fly from the mountain. I know of one H3, maybe even H4 pilot, that I will not wire for again. Talking with everyone, he has flown Ascutney numerous times. You could have fooled me! I would expect something like that from someone at Morningside but not Ascutney, especially someone that has flown Ascutney as much as what it sounds like he has. He needs much more practice is high wind CLIFF launches before he should ever tackle Ascutney again. Notice I didn't say DUNE launches...they, as I understand, are quite different from cliff launches. They may have higher wind reqirements but the launch technique is much different. I guess the individual flies the dunes at Cape Cod quite a bit but he has no confidence at all in his high wind CLIFF launches. His launch was fine but he totally lacked confidence and it took forever for him to launch, 45 minutes to be exact when everyone else launched(in worse conditions) in 2-3 minutes typically.

Bring to, and take home a different route each time you come up to Morningside and look around for different spots to land. I'm not sure what part of New England you live but more than likely this will benefit you no matter how you look at it. Looking at Google Earth is another good idea but I don't think it is as 'powerful' an idea as actually having seen the LZ with your own two eyes.

Get used to recognizing what corn, bogs, hay, etc looks like at different altitudes. Knowing if a particular field is suitable for landing makes a big difference in your confidence level and will help to make you become more willing to set off into the unknown. Once you start flying at W. Rutland/aerotow at Morningside pay attention to what the fields you see around the mountain look like at different altitudes and then go check them out after your flight is over. This will give your mind something to reference to in the future. Use this knowledge to give you the confidence to leave the mountain and head out XC. One concept you could follow is to keep doing this same maneuver(sp?) over and over at W. Rutland each time flying further and further from the mountain, err refuse to pick sweet corn by not landing in the corn field, LOL!!!!!!!!. The same concept could be done aerotow from Morningside as well. Just get used to identifying good fields to land in and then continue to make longer flights each time you fly. Don't get stuck in the rut of always landing in the same field because it is safe/you know the field. Go learn what to look for and then start landing out. The sooner the better.

One other landing issue I will suggest, even though most guys don't make mention of it, get used to landing without a flag or windsock available. Quite often when you land XC you are landing on your own with no 'easy' help in determining which direction the wind is coming from. Get used to that concept and remember if you are flying on a day with variable wind it can change on you at a moments notice. I know Mike had himself pulled off the ventilator and died a day or two ago after having the bad landing at Morningside a couple of months ago. The wind was funky and very variable that day and it ended up changing direction on him as he was about to land. Anything can happen at anytime. It just seems, to me at least, like all the newbies get so used to relying on that windsock at Morningside and W Rutland that they don't train their mind to get use to landing without one and it ends up 'paralyzing' them into only being able to land where they have a windsock. As a result they aren't willing to take the risk of leaving the mountain and head out to fly XC.

In New England, XC flying is all about having altitude to get you from one LZ to the next, safely. Generally it seems like any direction you fly from Mt Ascutney/Morningside that you will hear everyone suggest 6,000 feet. Granted on regular glide you may be able to make it from only 3,000 feet but to avoid possible problems with getting hit by massive sink, etc you normally have enough safety margin built in with 6,000 feet MSL over the current LZ.

As a result of needing 6,000 feet you need to get used to forecasting the weather. Get used to recognizing the good days for flying XC. Flying at Morningside and flying XC are two different things altogether. You don't need high cloudbase to fly at Morningside but to fly XC you do need high cloudbase. It's a little difficult, more often than not, to make it to 6,000 feet if cloudbase is only 4,500 feet.

So far I have noticed that the two key indicators of good XC days are to have at least 24 hours since the last decent rainfall. The drier the ground the better the thermals, that's my theory and I'm sticking to it. Also you want warm spring days. The warmer the better. The earlier in the season the better. Again, that's MY theory and I'm sticking to it.

A crazy formula that I came up with this spring and used with magnificent results through the end of June was to take the forecasted high temperature in Lebanon, NH, subtract 5 and multiply by 100. This would essentially always give me the cloudbase/top of lift over Mount Ascutney on any good XC day. It would hit the mark right on the money within 100 feet everytime. Yes, it is a crazy formula but for springtime XC flying it works beautifully. Ascutney just happens to be at the right elevation to make the formula work so well. Once the ground warms up, early July time frame this year, the thermals aren't as good and the formula doesn't work as well either thanks to warmer ground conditions. Yeah, all are MY theories on what stunts thermal growth.

One other thing I started doing right off the bat this spring was to save the TI chart data(soarforecast.com, typically ALBany is used for the sounding balloon and then I always use LEBanon for the high temperature forecast model since I live 30 minutes from Lebanon and both Ascutney and Morningside are only 30 minutes from Lebanon) both morning and evening. I have went as far as to put the weather conditions for the day in the filename of the html file. For the morning sounding data I put the sky conditions, today for example:
082407 AM Cloudy til 9AM, sunny til noon then partly sunny

For the evening sounding data I put the actual high/lo temperature and if any of the boys flew I try to get what they saw for top of lift and climb rate and include that as well as my forecast for both, for example:
082407 PM hi 85 lo 66, forecast 8000 3-400 fpm, real 7600 2-300 fpm

I don't think anyone has flown all week but the evening example is just that, an example. I make those the filename when I save the charts on my computer. This makes for great cross reference for future use. I have a weather predicting concept that I came up with several years back and have kinda watched it a little over the past several years. By keeping the data like this will let me watch as the year goes by and see if the idea has any basis to it or not. Plus it will also serve to answer a few weather questions that came up this year thanks to hang gliding. Definitely some very strange things that I have noticed this year. I used to be a weather geek, now it seems more like I'm a weather nazi thanks to this darn sport.

Hope these ideas help, and like I said in the beginning, get out with the XC boys and help them out they are always looking for the help and they are always willing to give help as well to beginner XC pilots.

[HuttoRhino]

It takes time and practice... that is about it. Concentrate on solid piloting skills and you will be able to do XC before long. You can also learn a lot from locals by flying with them and doing what they do.

[Wingspan34]

m2b,

So, when is your next book coming out?

Actually, you should polish that up, add more details where useful and post it as an XC and weather Article on the new WiKi site - under XC flying. Give it a catchy name like "XCing in New England , As Viewed From the Ground - Up"

[want2fly]

Thanks for all the info... I guess like all good things it just comes with practice and hard work

One other question... and this might be covered in another thread already, but I was wondering how often you all fly (ie number of times a month/week etc..) both before and after you reached "sky god" status?

[Lobido]

mentally or physically?

[TomGalvin]