FormerFF's blog :: November 8th

November 8th - Family Tandem Day

Mon Nov 16, 2009 6:48 pm

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Mood: Amused ][

Currently: Listening to Linda Ronstadt ]

Back in February, LMFP was offering discounts on discovery tandem flights. Although I’ve been at this for a couple of years now, my family has never been to the flight park, as it would be rather a lot of standing around for them. While I’m not going to push anyone into flying, I thought it would be nice for them to experience it at least once, and understand why I keep disappearing off to the mountain, so the offer is made. Towards the end of the month when the offer is slated to expire, I remind all of them to let me know by the end of the month. I’m slightly surprised when my wife tells me that she would like to go, and considerably more surprised when our (then) eight year old daughter also agrees. The seven year old decides against it.

We had planned a trip during spring break for them to take their flights, but the weather did not cooperate. Life, and some extremely rainy weather prevented us from rescheduling until now. My birthday was coming up, and I decided that I wanted to celebrate it with my family at the flight park, and they agreed. The forecast was for warm temperatures and light and variable winds. If all went well, I could get a mountain flight in, and my wife and daughter would almost certainly have great conditions for their flights.

Rather than try to fit four people and a dog in my Focus, I stuck a ladder on top of my wife's Odyssey van. It has a factory roof rack, but the crossbars are some sort of plastic material that doesn't give me all that much confidence, but if it can't hold a 50 pound Falcon and 10 pounds of ladder, it's not much of a rack. I find that it works fine up to about 65 mph, but I still spend the entire trip with an eye on the glider. We arrive at about 1:45 PM, at which time the instructors are launching pilots on observed flights. We go in and get Linda and Allison signed up for their tandems, which are scheduled for the 3:00 hour, then I start to set up. While I'm doing that, the wind starts to switch around to both crossing and tailing. In addition, I'm a little nervous about being distracted while building the glider, the two that are flying look a little nervous about their upcoming flight, and we're all a little distracted because the dog seems nervous and is all over the place.

Since I'm concerned about being distracted, I plan to make two very complete preflights before launching. Sure enough, on the first one, I find that I've missed connecting the top wire on the kingpost. Embarassed

Once that is corrected, I make two more complete walkarounds to double check that the glider is properly assembled.

The wind's still going between a crossing tailwind and absolutely slack, so I head over to get on the ramp and wait for a cycle. On the way over, I ask my wife to pick up the glider bag and put it in the car. Once I get to the base of the ramp, I ask for a hang check, which I get, along with a question about whether I really wanted to launch in a tailwind. I say that no, I intend to wait for a windless cycle, and if I don't get one, that I'll tie the glider down and come back later. When I get up on the ramp, the tailwind kicks up for about 30 seconds, then goes to slack. I take this opportunity to launch. Set the pitch, get the wings level, look straight ahead and go. I feel myself switching from grapevine grip to bottle grip too early, and have pushed out a bit as well. I'm still running, so I correct the pitch, and get a bit of a nose low launch. I'm not really expecting anything in the way of lift near the ridge, so I fly straight away from the mountain a bit, then work on flying slowly. I do find one pretty good thermal on the way over, but don't really try to core it, as I'm kind of focused on getting my wife and daughter to their tandems. Thinking back, I should have made a few turns in it, it would have been good practice. Next time, I will make sure I do so. Hey, it's not like their tandems will leave without them, right?

All too soon, I'm over the LZ and at approach altitude. The approach goes very well, and there's a bit of a crossing headwind, so my ground skim tracks across the LZ a bit. I don't flare as aggressively as I would in no wind conditions, but probably should have done a little more, as I have to jog three steps. OK, but not perfect. I think I'm going to have to spend a morning on the training hills to get my flare timing nailed. I can use it to practice launching with my hands still in the grapevine grip as well.

At the breakdown area, I call my wife, who tells me that they missed my launch. I'd asked her to take my glider bags to the car, and she had interpreted that to mean immediately, while I meant to wait until I'd launched. Grrr, I'm sorry they missed the launch, but that's just another reason for them to come up again.

Now for the main course - tandems. As soon as my wife and daughters arrive, we head over to the tandem operation, with just a brief interruption while the dog makes some friends. While I was up at the mountain launch, I asked Matt Taber about how to get them nice, mellow, relaxing flights. There are a couple of pilots whose specialties are giving thrill rides, which is not what we want. He suggests that I ask the ground crew for just that, and that they will get them with the right pilots. While we are walking over, a golf cart rolls up and offers us a ride, much to my younger daughter's delight.

We arrive at the gazebo, and Sky_walker is there to take pictures. Since he's a local now, I'd asked him to come out and meet my family, and he was gracious enough to do so. It's about 3:15 at this point, and the afternoon's tows had started. People are getting clipped into gliders, while those who have just landed are sharing their excitement with their friends and family, and any nervousness that my two were feeling just evaporates. Lookout has a video that tandem students are required to watch, so that is set up for them, while my youngest and the dog and I hang out with Sky_walker.

There's not a real big crowd today, so in short order, it's time for my two to get harnessed up and go. First up is my daughter, who is flying with Pete. Off they go without any drama. I was a little concerned that she might, well, freak out, but there are no signs of that as they climb out to the ridge. We see them release, and float along the mountain well above the ridge.

There are a few mid level altocirrus clouds in the very blue sky, and the low sun refracts through them into rainbow colors. We're probably about a week after the best fall color, but there is still some, and the day is pleasantly warm as well, We've been waiting six months to do this, and we couldn't have been favored with a better day.

Now it's my wife's turn. She's going to be flying with Dan. He gets her clipped in, and off they go. My daughter is still in the air as they climb out. I suspect they've found a little lift, plus since she's so light the glider doesn't sink as quickly as it would with an adult passenger.

As they begin their approach, a couple of solo gliders come in and make an odd pattern. I'm thinking I'm glad I'm not the one flying right now. Pete handles the approach like the professional he is, and as they fly overhead, I can hear my daughter saying "wheeee".

The golf cart heads out and picks them up. My daughter seems very happy and excited over her flight. She's never been in an airplane, and I'm proud to say her first flying experience is in a hang glider.

EDIT: Added pix. Thanks Sky_walker!!! thumbsup

My wife is still up on her flight, but she's lower than my daughter was as the same point. I'm guessing that they didn't find the same buoyant air. They have the LZ to themselves, and Dan makes a straightforward approach and landing. My daughters bum a ride on the golf cart and head out to get their mom. When she gets back, her only complaint is that she would have liked a longer flight. thumbsup

On the way back, my wife tells me that she'd like to fly again someday, and even hints that she might consider taking instruction someday, and she now knows why it is I keep going up to Lookout.

I've had 52 birthdays, and although my actual birthday wasn't until the next day, I can unequivocally say that was the best one I've ever had. I'd like another crack at the ridge before the holidays start, but the forecast isn't promising. If there's a good possibility of a couple of sledders on one of the weekend days, I just might take that. If that doesn't work out, there are flyable days in most Januarys.

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kermit
3 thumbs up

Joined: 28 Feb 2008
Posts: 148
Location: central Ct.

Posted: Tue Nov 17, 2009 5:04 pm Post subject:

That's a great story thanks for sharing it. I see that day in my future. My 8 year old wants to go now and the 5 year old jumped off the top bunk wile inside his sleeping bag and got lumped up hitting the dresser on his way down to a no step landing on his head. When the crying stopped, he was asked why he would do such a thing he said "he was hang gliding like daddy" I am also 50 with young kids flying a Falcon, good to see I'm not alone. Thanks again Kermit