[nulld]

Thanks for the warm welcome, Lobido,

I live in West Virginia, which is central sites, but is close to none. My home site was Big Walker until the launch closed, but I have flown in Tennessee, South Carolina, and other sites in Virginia.

I flew with a great group at Walker from approximately 1998 to 2002--mostly paraglider pilots. When Walker was closed for approximately 2 years, the group gradually disbanded, which is a shame because Jim (the landowner) wants to see us back. I stopped flying because I was working full time and owned a small business. I finally closed the business and am now going to graduate school, which may give me time to fly. Now, I just need some training hill practice and to line out my USHPA dues. I miss the hang gliding community. I was an H2 by choice, and considering I haven't flown in years, I consider myself an H1.

I used to fly with Jim and Maggie Palmieri. One of the better hang gliding stories involves Maggie. Some may not realize that not too long ago, our organization was USHGA. We were at a gas station in Virginia when two locals came in who had seen the USHGA decal. They were excited about our organization and kept telling Maggie that they supported us 100% and was asking if we needed donations. They were talking about what happened in California and Colorado. The longer the conversation went on, we were getting confused because it was obvious that they were talking about a completely different organization, but we weren't sure what.

Finally, Maggie asked, "What do you think USHGA stands for?"

They answered, "The United States Hemp Growers Association."

LOL! I suppose it's one of those times that you had to have been there.

Anyway, I generally just lurk on the list, but I've enjoyed the conversations.

Back to lurk mode,

--Debbie Null
H2, AWCL, CL, FL, TUR

[Tom Benton]

Why lurk, when there is plenty of room and inquiring minds who would like to converse ...Welcome to this place and please stay and BS with us .......PS, post some pics and vids

[Lobido]

Hello again, Debbie.
Thanks for telling us about yourself. Good to hear you are coming back into the fold. Don't disappear into the lurkersphere, we need participants! So what are you studying as a graduate student? Do you ever make it over to LMFP? A number of posters here are regulars there. I even flew up from the Virgin Islands to give it a try. Nice flight park, indeed. Got in some foot launching there, which was very different from the aerotowing I was familiar with at Wallaby Ranch.
I look forward to getting to know you. My wife, Rauna, also posts here as Airheart. She will be pleased to have another woman on the forum.
Curt
(Lobido)

[Windlord]

Great history, Debbie. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Any chance the landowner, Jim, will see you back there?
If you have any pics of the site, from back then, please post them.
We love pics!

[nulld]

Usually, by the time I am reading the threads, someone has said what I would have said.

I'll chime in occasionally. I hope to have flying stories this year.

[HangDiver]

WAIT-A-MINNIT - You mean the USHGA isn't the US Hemp Growers? ...and that all this time I've been posting to the wrong forum?

nulld [/b]

[Windlord]

You're in the right forum, Rich.
The abreviations have been change to protect the innocent.

[nulld]

I am going back to school to become a teacher. I want to become a reading specialist, and WV requires that I teach for a year before I can become a reading specialist. Currently, I am a housing counselor for a nonprofit agency.

I do plan on flying Walker this year if I can get someone to fly with me or at least drive for me. In all honesty, I think the club has changed the rating requirements for Walker, and that means that I may have to get my H3. The launch is easy. The LZ can be challenging. Some choose to go XC to the Amish farm to avoid landing in the main field. Here is the club website which has some pictures from Walker from the new launch:

http://www.skywackers.org/index.php?page=news

If you look at the one picture of the paraglider pilot about to launch, you can see the LZ. Basically, land up hill in a bowl. Try not to land there in mid-day conditions because it can get interesting.

Here is a good pic from Tommy:

http://tommythompson.blogspot.com/2008/01/soaring-big-walker-mechanicsburg-va.html

I am a ridge runner because I wasn't good at finding thermals away from the mountain. However, I am good at riding thermals up once I find them against the mountain. This is the reason why I like Walker. I have approximately 50 miles of ridge to the left or to the right. It is a long mountain.

I posted two pics of Walker on the pictures thread.

[mgforbes]

[i8godzilla]

[Spark]

Hi Debbie!



Have you ever flown Spruce Knob (the highest point in WV)?

[AP]

Hi Debbie and welcome.

So Walker is open again, thats good to hear. I wonder why Walker was closed in the first place seeing the landowner was keen for flying ops to continue? Maybe you could tell us more. Its a universal problem with foot launch ops, ie keeping the sites open.

How long does it take you to get to the launch at Walker? And then the next nearest sites?

I drive 1:30 minutes each way to the nearest launches.

[Wagner24314]

Nulld it was nice meeting you at wallaby. welcome to the forum

[NeoFlier]

to the hg.or community Debbie! Glad to have you here. Where are you planning on doing your hill training at?
Lobido is right-on about LMFP. Great place to go. Hope to see you there one day.

[Skyhighwoman]

Carm

[nulld]

Hi, Wagner24314, it was good to meet you at Wallaby. I feel bad that I went at a bad time because I was involved with finals and getting my papers done. I don't regret it because I hadn't seen Buddy or James in a few years, and there were other friends that I met that I hadn't seen since I last flew Lookout. I am usually more social than I was. The good news is that I finished the semester with a 4.0.

AP--Walker is a story in and of itself. The original launch site was owned by another person. After her father died, she wanted $3000 a year from the club for launch privileges, which may or may not have gone up for each year. Jim owned land beside the original launch, and he wanted us to have a place to fly. He timbered his property, which provided us with a new launch. It took approximately 2 years to get the permits from the forest service to cut a logging road through the national forest and to get the work done, but by then, the flying community around Walker had faded. We can't ask for a better landowner than Jim.

Neoflyer--I have a couple of local training hill sites that are about 45 minutes away. I love going to Lookout because that is where I learned to fly. When I go, I usually go to the training hills because it is easy to get rusty. Walker is the closest site to me, and it is approximately 2 hours away. Tobacco Row Mountain and Eagle Rock are approximately 3-3 1/2 hours away.

I've been debating on what to do this weekend because the local club is having a fly in at Eagle Rock, but then again, the Tree Toppers are having their shindig at Henson's. I think I am going to stay local because gas is too expensive, and judging by the temperature pattern, the wind may be southerly.

Later,

Debbie

[nulld]

Ooops....I forgot to give credit where credit is due. There were members of the Skywackers that raised money and did work duty to help Jim with his "timbering." It has been a long time, so I don't remember everyone who was involved. Off the top of my head, I know that Randy Newberry, Richard Cobb, Johnny Graham, Tim Kingsberry, Dwayne McCourt, and many others were involved in the effort.

[nulld]

Hi, Spark,

I haven't had a chance to fly Spruce, but I want to to see it. I've heard that the launch is straightforward, but the LZs were interesting.

Have you flown Seneca?

--Debbie

[hgflyer]

[AP]