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Some pics from the weekend |
Sun Apr 22, 2007 5:25 pm
I have enough supervised launches to fly on my own now... FINALLY! Looking forward to starting soaring. Can't wait for my first ride to cloud base!
Here are some pictures from this weekend. Though I only flew at Lookout, I hung out with some guys who took me to other launch sites that work when the wind is cross or tailing at Lookout. A lot of these pictures are from those sites.
http://s145.photobucket.com/albums/r201/djnibler07/LMFP%204-20-2007/
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Day 3 |
Sat Jan 27, 2007 1:22 pm
Day 3 (1-14-2007)
Showed up to the training hill again at 7:45 am again today. This morning my legs were a bit sore... a common experience among hang glider pilots in training from what I am told.
There were four of us today on the big hill. The day before, two of us had to share a glider because there weren't enough gliders for our weight-range to go around. It wasn't a big deal but we weren't able to get as many flights in because of it so today I chose to fly a smaller glider so everyone could have their own and we could maximize or time while conditions were good. I am near the bottom of the weight range for the Falcon 195 and near the top for the 170 so it wasn't too big a deal.
My first flight was a straight task to feel the smaller glider out. It didn't launch as easily, it flew faster, and my landing timing was all messed up but I got it down after two flights. Now the fun began: TURNS!
As with all tasks, we were required to perform it as ordered, twice in a row to move on to the next task. My first task was to launch, turn 45 degrees to the right then land. As I initiated the turn, I held it too long and turned 90 degrees. I tried to turn it back but didn't have enough time before landing so I had to try again. A couple more tries and I had the turning thing down. You will read in the book that you usually "bump" your weight over and then return to center before your reach the desired bank angle. This is accurate, but what no book can tell you is: how far over, and for how long, and when you say to return to center "before" you reach the desired bank angle. what does "before" mean? Well no book can tell you because its different from every glider, pilot weight, and airspeed. Like everything else, I have learned you can't overthink it and analyze it, you just have to feel it. The only way to do that is to keep trying. Once you get it it's like riding a bike... you don't think about it, you just do it... it comes naturally. Like when you ride a bike, you might go over a bump or something that makes the bike lean over a bit. Without thinking, you perform the required actions to make the bike stand up straight. Same thing here. The KEY is not to get frustrated if it takes you a while... but if you are training with other people, more likely then not there will be others better than you, and worse than you. That makes it at least a little harder to get frustrated
After the 45, the next task was a 45 to the right followed by a 45 to the left. Then a 90 to the right and a 90 to the left. I had just completed each of these tasks twice when the thermals started popping and the winds came up so we had to call it a day.
I'm now up to 27 flights and although I have passed all of the tasks required to solo, I don't have enough flights. LMFP requires a minimum of 40 flights in addition to passing the tasks so I have another day or two of training before I will be ready to solo.
I plan on heading out again in two weeks (weather permitting) to complete these tasks and take one more tandem flight before soloing off the mountain. Getting closer!
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Day 2 |
Sat Jan 27, 2007 1:22 pm
Day 2 (1-13-2007)
I decided to maximize my drive and make a weekend out of it. The weather was cooperating and the Landing Zone at the bottom of the hill offers cabin and bunk-house rentals for reasonable rates. In keeping with my "cheap" theme, I chose the bunkhouse! It wasn't too bad, but would have been much better on a busy summer day when there were people outside to shoot the breeze with until bed time. At night I ended up watching DVDs I rented from the local video store on my laptop.. cheap way to pass the time since I just didn't feel like reading.
Wow, what a busy day on the hill. Last time it was just me and the instructor. Today there were about six or seven of us. The people were from all walks of life... a truck driver, a business owner, an attorney etc. They all had two things in common: the dream to fly and a friendly personality. The hang-glider park seems like one of the very rare places where you are guaranteed a high concentration of friendly people.... LOVE THAT!
We started at 7:45 am. We first unpacked and assembled the gliders (each of us had our own school glider to assemble and fly) under the watch of the instructors. I then went back to the small training hill with one instructor while the rest of the students went to the big hill with another instructor.
My first five flights on the small hill were good (4 good landings in a row) so we joined the crowd on the big hill. Today we had two instructors so one instructed from the top of the hill and the other ran the 4-wheeler to tow us back up. This made it so nice because we got a lot of flights in and didn't burn-out lugging the wings up the hill!
The big hill is 30 feet hight than the small hill, but it is VERY steep, as in difficult to walk up steep. I wasn't nervous though because the hardest part is landing, and from the big hill I knew I'd have more air time which meant more time to view the ground moving by, more time to judge how quickly I was decending, and more time to set up and think about my landing. Not to mention I got to chat with everyone while waiting to fly.
When I got to the front of the line, the instructor told me my first task was to fly straight off the hill toward a target dead center about 300 feet away. I wouldn't be able to reach the target, but I was to aim for it to set my course. Then I was to land on my feet. After doing this twice successfully in a row, I would be able to move on to the next task.
Launching from the big hill was the same as launching from the small hill... walk, jog, run, then lift off. Only this time I had a LOT more altitude immediately; it was GREAT! My hunch was correct, it was actually EASIER off the big hill since I had more time to judge my speed and altitude, however, either due to a cross wind or slight accidental weight shift, my glider started to bank gently to the right. I compensated by shifting my body to the left but didn't do it right so it took a couple of tries before it straightened out. When it finally did I was pointed 90 degrees from where I was supposed to. Again, not a problem... the instructor was very encouraging and I certainly didn't feel bad about my flight!
When I got back up to the front of the line again, the instructor asked me what I did wrong, I told him what I thought, he told me if I was right or not, and why, then told me exactly what happened. My next flight was much better thanks to his advice!
After getting the hang of landings, I was asked to demonstrate the speed range of the glider. Without getting technical, for beginners the important speed is "trim speed" which means the speed the glider will fly at on its own with no input from you... yes, you can take your hands off the bars if you wanted to (they told me not to of course) and the glider will fly straight, level and at a constant speed. It was easy to find, after launch if the bar was pressing on my hands one way or another, I just slooooooooowly let it move where it wanted to until it stopped and that was trim speed.
The day continued using the same instruction, flight, evaluation cycle as before. By the end I had performed about 10 flights or so. We had to quit because the sun came out, warmed the ground, and started generating thermals. The breezes and gusts of wind associated with them make for dangerous beginner flying so we called it a day.
I went up to the top of the mountain and put a down payment on a wing of my own... what a great way to end the day
But then I realized.... I should take a tandem flight and see what it feels like to fly up high, and also to fly with an instructor right there so he could tell me what I was doing right and wrong....
A tandem flight consists of you and a qualified hang glider pilot strapped in to the same glider. You are strapped in a bit higher than the pilot, and hang a little off to the side. You can both reach and operate the controls, but being closer to the base-bar, the pilot has a better range of motion. The tandem glider has wheels that sit a good 8 to 10 inches below the base tube so you can land and take-off directly on the wheels without your body hitting the ground. To get airborn, you are towed up on a robe by an ultralight aircraft.
Tandem flights aren't included in the Mountain Package but are available individually for a charge. I bought two with the idea that I'd do one now, and one RIGHT before I solo from the mountain. This would get me somewhat used to flying at altitude and making my landing approach (which worries me the most).
Both the tub pilot and hang-glider pilot were VERY nice.... the tug pilot looked and acted slightly like a 20-something version of the professor from Back To The Future. We strapped in and the tug began pulling us down the field. It got a little bumpy for a second but we were airborn very quickly. We slowly clibbed up the canyone with the cliff to our immediate right. It was a very different sensation than the training hill. You look down hundreds of feet and there is NOTHING below you but the ground and trees. It was also a little bumpy and noisy from the engine and prop of the tow plane. When we hit 3000' elevation, we released the tow rope and pulled in to keep the glider from ballooning up into a stall.
Ahh, now it was quiet. There wasn't as much wind in my face as I thought there would be and it was very smooth. That high up, it appears you are moving much slower than you really are. I guess this causes a lot of new pilots to fly too fast on their first mountain solos (note to self made). The instructor guided me through performing turns and a stall. It was a lot easier from altitude because the only thing you have to worry about is the turn instead of 1. the turn, 2. the ground approaching, and 3. how you are going to pull off a landing. The only odd sensation was the higher g-forces I experienced in a turn that's sharper than those I accomplished from the training hill. Because it was a new sensation to me and also possibly because there was nothing between me and the ground, i was a little nervous
After a while, it was time to make our approach. We used the box approach which is where you basically just fly a box around the entire landing zone and when you get to a certain altitude, you turn in and do a downwind leg, a base leg and then your final glide to the ground. The pilot took over control of the glider here as we hit some turbulence and performed a nice landing.... but I know I'm still going to be very nervous about the approach on my first solo. Judging altitude and when to begin your approach is very difficult for me right now so I am curious as to how it will go.
After training, I went to the top of the mountain and took my written hang-1 and hang-2 tests. They were about 45 questions each. I passed them both on the first try, but believe reading the book is what enabled that. Everything on the test was in the book. If you have read the book once or twice, the test is a piece of cake. Another student took his hang-1 at the same time I did and he passed it as well.
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Day 1 |
Sat Jan 27, 2007 1:21 pm
Day 1 (1-7-2007)
The mountain package consists of 50 flights from the training hills. They have two hills, a 65' and a 95'. You start on the small hill and work on tasks assigned by the instructor. Once you pass, you move on to the big hill and work on new tasks. Once you pass the big hill (usually within 50 flights), you may then solo on the mountain (under instructor guidance).
Today I showed up at 9am for ground school. They went over the dynamics of flight and how hang-gliders operate. Very easy to understand and all of it makes sense. I was at a bit of an advantage because I had read the book "Hang Gliding for Beginner Pilots" by Peter Cheney. I highly reccommend this book to any student or prospective student and so does everyone else I've talked to. The ground school lasted maybe an hour or so... it was not long an boring.
From there we went to the training site which is at the bottom of the mountain in the valley. I was shown how to unpack and assemble a hang glider, then give it a pre-flight check. The process is VERY easy and takes only ten or fifteen minutes at a relaxed pace. It did not require great strength and the whole glider only weighs around 50 lbs.
Once assembled, I put on a harness and helmet and hooked into a rope loop suspended from a high beam with a triangle of metal tube in front of it to simulate being hooked into a hang glider. The instructor asked me to demonstrate how to turn the glider left, right, and to pitch it up and down. This was all covered in ground school and if I forgot anything, he reminded me and allowed me to demonstrate again. Lean to the right to turn right, lean to the left to turn left, pull the bar back to climb (and slow down), pull the bar in to pitch-down (speed up). Easy stuff.
Next we hooked the glider into a small trailer on the back of a 4-wheeler and drove to the hill. We started near the bottom so we didn't have too much altitude... it was more of a long shallow slope than a hill. After hooking in, he instructed me to perform a launch. With only a foot or so of elevation and no wind, I wasn't going to leave the ground, but the glider would lift off my shoulders and support its own weight which was the point.... basically to get comfortable with running with the glider and controlling it during launch. I first walked, then jogged, then ran (as instructed) and very quickly the glider rose off my shoulders and stayed a few inches up until I slowed to a stop. We did this once again and then we towed the glider a bit higher up the hill.
Now I would get the chance to actually fly! It would only be a few seconds in the air and maybe a few feet of air, but this was a the real deal. The goal of the flight was to perform a nice launch, fly straight ahead, and land on my feet. So after hooking in, I launched by walking, then jogging, then running..... the glider lifted off my shoulders like before, but that was it... until the hill started sloping down a bit. As I ran further down the hill, I could feel less traction on my feet and right at that moment, I was running through air and the ground began to drop below me. It was very smooth and slow. I admit to being just a tad nervous at the top, but once I was in the air, the nervousness went away completely. The ride didn't last very long and I was able to land on my feet by performing a mild flare (a technique where you push the down-tubes of the glider all the way up and out bringing the wing to a high angle which slows you down quickly).
We moved higher and higher up the hill with each flight. I biffed one landing because I had too much speed and couldn't run fast enough on the landing. The wheels rolled on the ground but got caught on something bringing the glider to a hault. At that point it nosed into the ground. The only damage was to my pride, but it happens to everyone and the instructor was very positive and supportive the entire day.
I ended up with about 11 flights.
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Background |
Sat Jan 27, 2007 1:21 pm
My background: I'm 30, and live in Atlanta Georgia. I have chosen Lookout Mountain Flight Park (LMFP) in Rising Fawn Georgia because it's a great site, fairly close to home and their training prices are the cheapest I've found. I've also heard many great things about the people that run the place and instruct. LMFP is about 2 hours Northwest of Atlanta.
LMFP has several options for training. The cheapest of them all is the Mountain Package and it provides all the training most people need in order to solo off the 1300 foot mountain (which gives you a Hang-2 rating). Despite the great price for the Mountain Package, they even had a end-of-year sale on it so I paid for it over the phone during the holidays and decided to begin training in January. Why January? No reason other than I wanted to start ASAP. I've been waiting my whole life to fly and since I've paid for the training, there's no reason to wait... certainly not for the weather because even in the dead of winter its often pretty nice in Rising Fawn.
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My experience learning to fly |
Sat Jan 27, 2007 1:20 pm
I have been posting a diary of my experiences learning to fly in the flight reports forum, but to make it easier to view without all the comments between the posts, I am re-posting just my diary sections here.
My purpose in doing this is to show people how fun and easy it is to learn to fly, and hopefully provide some motivation to those who are thinking about giving it a try.
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Day 4 |
Sat Jan 27, 2007 9:03 am
Day 4 (1-27-07)
I went up for one day this weekend because the weather report looked really ugly for Sunday. Drove up Saturday morning and it looked good, although it was so cold within a half hour the entire bottom of my face was numb and my speech was slurred and slow. All part of the fun 
There were more people at the training hills today than I'd ever seen which is funny for this time of year (I think). I did finally get a chance to meet a bunch of the Atlanta people so that was cool (Han, Jeff and Slava). Anyway, we get to the top of the hill and there was a gentle breeze, but it was a tailwind  We lined up and waited probably 10+ mins per person for a quick moment when the wind died down so someone could launch. We did that a while and when the sun came up, we started to get a better wind direction but the thermals started popping as well so we had to give up early.
Since I've already completed all of my tasks, I'm now just trying to reach 40 flights so I can solo on the mountain. I got in 7 flights today and used them mainly to work on my landings. It was tough because I was landing in a tail-wind and am used to using the ground to judge speed. Half the time I'd go to flare and there would be nothing left. The Falcon that I train with doesn't seem to give much in the way of bar-feedback.... or maybe it's just me... so I end up trying to go off of ground speed for the flare timing. Guess I will have to keep practicing that to make perfect. I don't have any problem flaring in a head-wind or dead air.
So now I'm at the point where the next time I go back, they will ask me to perform a trim flight, a 45 degree turn, a 90 degree turn, a reversing 45 and a reversing 90, then a speed run and they'll sign-me off for the mountain. I've already completed those tasks twice before so it shouldn't be a problem. I would have done it today but the wind was crossed on the mountain so no chance of a launch up there. Hopefully it will happen next weekend!
Ordered a harness today so it should be ready sometime in March (I hope). Guess I'll have to borrow a knee hangar for my mountain flights in the mean time.
Oh, and thanks TB for praying to the weather gods: I got my 7 flights in today so it worked!
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