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Brace yourself!! |
Sat May 23, 2009 4:56 pm
I had an experience yesterday that I won't soon forget! Tom Galvin had rallied up a group of newer pilots to go to Brace Mountain, where MA, CT and NY all meet in the Taconic State Park. It's a gorgeous site, large smooth ridge, huge valley below, and a great LZ complete with serve yourself beer in the fridge upon landing. What more could a pilot ask for???? How about a road to launch. This place requires a bit of a hike to get to launch. 1.9 miles, up a rocky river bed. Now, 1.9 miles wouldn't be so bad if I was a PG pilot- but as a devout HGer this experience would take me to the limit of my abilities. This required three trips over this 1.9 mile jaunt. For every step I took with the glider on my shoulder, I would have to go back (empty handed) and get the harness bag. This continued every quarter mile or so till all the equipment was at launch. The last quarter mile was a steep uphill climb that just about did me in. Add to this a mistake I made navigating, while alone on the trail, which added another 15 minutes or so of walking. (luckily with the harness bag, and not the glider) Finally on launch, I took a moment to eat a skanky ham sandwich I bought at a gas station food mart. Until then I had had no food thus far in the day- it was early and I just passed on breakfast, not knowing that this journey would take us 3 1/2 hours. We all set up and one by one got off the mountain. The lift had really lightened up from the awesome conditions earlier in the day. Tom had rushed ahead of us sharing the load with a new pilot he was assisting, and brought back reports of super soarability to those of us still schlepping. Anyway I was #4 of four, and by the time I got in the air clouds had blocked the valley of sunshine and flushed us all down the drain. I was last to land after finding a bit of lift just before the LZ and maintained for about 10 extra minutes. So all in all, it was an amazing day. A great big Thank you to Tom Galvin for showing us all the way, and for encouraging us along the way. I don't know if I will ever do that again, but I am sure glad I did it once. 
Posted By: phantomflier 12 Comments (Post your comment) |
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Kangaroo Blues!!! |
Thu Apr 02, 2009 8:01 pm
Well it must be epic at Lookout this week, because I am here at Wallaby, and it's.. well....not. What an amazing place just to hang out though, and I don't get the usual resistance to talk about HG that I recieve from my peeps in New Jersey...imagine that! The people are wonderful- from my great house mates RickM and Axo; the people running the Wallaby machine; and the others from points all over this globe. The social scene is wonderful here. a better place to practice my hang waiting I can't think of! One of the highlights so far is beating Mike Miers at ping pong, with a new Sport 2 as the prize. He said he didn't fully grasp THAT part. Hopefully in the next two days I will achieve some flying. If you have your calendars handy, mark the week of May 10th to come down to Wallaby. I'll be at Lookout then, so conditions HERE should be fantastic!
ok...this whine and cheese party is over! gary
Posted By: phantomflier 4 Comments (Post your comment) |
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Utah Bound!!! |
Wed Jul 30, 2008 9:09 pm
OK kids, I am almost there. We left Sunday morning and drove to Sandusky, OH. Why Sandusky you ask??? Six Flags Cedar Point!!! We spent all day Monday at the park riding the most awesome rollercoasters in the world!! Even the kids are old enough to enjoy the more thrilling rides. Not all, but some!!! My personal favorite??? Millennium Force! Kids Favorite- Raptor.
Anyway, on the road for two more days brings us to Laramie, WY and the lovely Motel 6 (they accept dogs). My new truck has been a pleasure to drive- it's really comfortable, quiet and it's been getting 18 MPG!! I am pretty darn happy about that, I mean am I crazy?? 18 mpg for a big 5.4 Triton V8 fully loaded. I was pleasantly surprised. However, I am driving at 65 mph on the DOT and at that speed, the tach is well below 2K rpm. Anyway enough truck talk, I love it though.
Tomorrow we arrive Park City, and I have a couple of days of rehearsal and performances to make a bit of green to pay for my HG habit! Then it's playtime- my goal is to increase my logbook by 50%- which is about 12 hours. I think I can do it. I wanted to double my logbook, but I thought that was too ambitious!!
Wish me luck- gary
Posted By: phantomflier 4 Comments (Post your comment) |
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Go West Young Man |
Sat Jul 26, 2008 6:14 pm
[  Mood: Happy ]
[  Currently: Working Packing Packing Packing.... ]
OK- here it is...the night before we embark on a "Singing, Flying Road-Trip Odyssey" We leave early tomorrow for an intimate experience with Interstate 80 all the way across to Salt Lake City Utah. I am singing with the Utah Symphony up at Deer Valley Resort on Aug 2. Then, it's playtime!! Hope to hook up with Ryan Voight and have my wife do a bit of training on the fantastic T-Hill at POM. I hear one very awesome pilot trained there.... Anyway then it's off to see what the rest of Utah looks like from the air!! Then we are heading down to Northern AZ to do some family visit time. My folks and sister have homes near Flagstaff and that's where we'll call home for a few weeks of decompression. I am hoping to fly the Crater's near Flagstaff, and also Mingus. A true bonus for me would be if I could fly Shaw Butte in Phx, where I first witnessed Hang Gliding way back in the mid '70's. A true 'coming home' event!! We'll see. It's freaky hot there now, so I am not holding my breath. The plan is to leave my Falcon in AZ, and then buy an intermed. wing when I get home. We'll see how my Dad likes the idea of 19 feet of wing in his garage.
So please keep us all in your thoughts and prayers as we head west on a Hang Gliding adventure! I'll keep you posted right here!!
Gary
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Unfulfilled @ Lookout |
Fri May 16, 2008 12:04 pm
Well after 24 days, and over 6 THOUSAND miles in an RV with Beth and the kids, singing in little towns in the midwest, we finally made our way down south. I sang with the Huntsville Symphony, and then we skirted a few thunderstorms and tornados (last weekend) and then took off for Lookout. I feel the need to apologize to every Lookout pilot, because, as history has proved, every time I arrive at Lookout the winds turn nasty. This trip was no exception. Blown out both days we were there (Sun and Mon last week) Anyway, I did not fly, but my wife got some good time in on the T-hills late in the day on Monday. And I had a lovely time riding the quad picking up all the fledgling pilots. The biggest adventure of the day was getting a 30 foot RV into the training hill area!! pretty exciting...
Anyway, one of these days I am sure I will get a couple of great days at Lookout, but my odds have sucked so far. Next time I come down, I'll give everyone fair warning so you'all can plan non flying activities!!! We did however catch a local pilot Eric in a T2 who did manage to fly late in the day on Mon, entertaining all of us on the T hills, wanging and spiraling down, a fast T-hill flyby, and landing at the base of the small hill. A better advertisement for HGing I can not think of, as the newbies and all of us not so newbies stood agog at this display of amazing flying- thanks Eric. Overall two great days at Lookout. It's such a fun place even if I don't fly. But I did finally- after 3 years, and probably 8 trips to Lookout, finally met Matt Tabor, and had a chance to tell him what a great place Lookout was. We were poking around in one of the new cabins, and he came in to see just who the heck was trespassing on his new real estate!! a bit awkward, but we told him who we were and he relaxed. He knew of us, although we had never met. We had a nice chat, by the huge fish tank in the gorgeous new big cabin. We'll be staying in that one one day soon!! OMG- incredible. Anyway, just to keep you all up to date with my recent activities. been busy, but I still catch up with the '.org' from time to time.
Posted By: phantomflier 7 Comments (Post your comment) |
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