A lesson in Hang waiting...to long

slimchance — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 21:32:19 GMT

[ Mood: Embarrased ]
I grew up in a southern California town called Taft. We go out there to visit family on occasion. I use to hate going home. Now that I Hang Glide I don�t mind to go back home to visit. There is a hill outside of Taft called Midway Peak. I know in the 80�s it was a active site. Now it is an unregulated site and sees little action. This past week I went to Taft to visit a family member who is sick. Needless to say, I brought my bird. I have flown Midway once before, but it was a sledder. I have a friend from High School who fly�s the site in his bag. I called him to meet up for a flight but he was busy until Saturday. My father in-law told me he and his friend wanted to shoot his new AR-15, and would drive for me. Ok, new site, no other pilots�.hmm. I thought I would give it a shot. The lz I picked out is a 5:1 glide so it should be a no brainer. I got up to launch around 3 pm on Thursday. Shot the AR-15 ( nice gun by the way) set up and was ready to go. I launched at 4:30 and flew around in ridge lift for an hour, hit some 1000 ft/min thermals, played around with stuffing the bar (with no PIO!). Overall, one of my best flights. I saw the forecast for Crestline calling for an inversion. So, I called the Vegas HG crew and told them to come on out. Hey, its only 5 � hours, why not. The Vegas crew loaded up and left around 7 pm Fri. They arrived in Oakey town Taft around 1:30 am. We downed a few beers and racked out. We awoke around 8:30 am and I took them to a local choke and puke. Breakfast tasted great, so we headed for the site intro. I took them to the LZ, then up to launch. Launch is 3600 MSL and the LZ is around 2000 MSL. After the bumpy road up to launch the Crew was not feeling so great. So we headed back down to the house for a much needed nap. After the rest, we ate a quick bite and headed up with our gliders this time. We put streamers in the LZ and got up to launch around 3 pm. One of the crew was still looking green. We set up and I noticed a bent batten so I started to re-bend it. I noticed my buddy from high school was driving up to launch so I took my time setting up. He arrived and then the first glider got turtled, then another. The wind switched over the back. WTF!!!! Now I am feeling like I have wasted everyone�s time. My buddy from high school asked if we were comfortable enough to fly off the back. My first thought was um no. He said he would launch first so we can see his flight path. By the way, I think everyone needs a baggie to �test the air�. He took off and started to sink, and fast. I have never seen a bag fly this fast in my life. He was hauling major ass. It convinced us to pack it up.

Lessons learned:

1. Just because you have flown a site a few times, you still don�t know shit. Beware of your big mouth!

2. If you want to fly, eat a small breakfast.

3. Launch Midway Peak between 10 am and 2 pm.

4. Expect the unexpected.

Oh ya, Sorry we didn�t get to fly Vegas crew, but we are learning about the site safely.

Until next time

slimchance's blog

A lesson in Hang waiting...to long