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4
Visiting new flying sites for the first time is always exciting, especially when you have high expectations of going XC. This is what Bill, Dave and I were looking forward to over Labor Day weekend. We left Friday afternoon for a camping trip on Mount Laguna with Sally and to meet up with Craig. Laguna is a 6000 foot mountainous area East of San Diego overlooking the Anza-Borego Desert. Launch is at 5400. Conditions were not very promising to start Sat morning but we went to launch and it was blowing in. Several other local pilots showed up and launching began a little after noon.The wind was gusting up to 20, so we chose lite cycles to leave the very steep cliff side. As Craig, Dave and Johnny (a local friend of Craig's) and I launched in turn, we were able to get several hundred feet overhead. Bill chose not to fly on this day. We then headed to the "Y" and generally all got up to 8000 or so for the long crossing to Granite Mtn. This mtn wasn't working very well so it took quite an effort to find something to get high for the crossing over the back to Banner. Johnny got within a couple of hundred feet of the designated LZ called the wash (2900 MSL), while I was about 900 feet above it. They both got lucky and caught a drifter that brought them above 7000. A little later Dave was not so lucky and landed in the wash.
I headed toward Banner and found a strong thermal that took me to 8100, providing an easy glide to the Vulcan Range, the next group of mountains to the North. Meanwhile Craig and Johnny were both finding good lift. On the Vulcan's, lift was little harder to come by and Johnny joined me in the search. Eventually we both worked some light stuff before getting into a good thermal over the VOR that took us to 8700. Johnnie used this to head across the long plain and towards Warner Spring airport. Meanwhile Craig arrived at the VOR so I decided to hang out and wait for Craig to join me. Unfortunately it was me who joined Craig down at the 6000 foot level! We both scrambled around the top of the mountain for several minutes, desperately searching for lift. Finally it turned back on and we enjoyed a leasurely climb.
At about the 7000 foot level, I noticed a large hawk circling about 1000 feet directly below. With each turn I was able to see the beautiful bird get closer. Near the 8000 foot level the bird finally reached me altitude and Craig, who was a couple hundred feet to the west, saw the hawk directly under my wingtip, as we both gently rose in the mellow thermal. Of course the view I had was quite choice! After topping out about 8500, we headed north towards the airstrip, which was about 10 miles from the VOR. It wasn't to much later that Craig came across the radio and said, "Uh Oh, I think we are going to need some help to reach the airstrip!". Since I had never flown this site and was relying on Craig, this is not what I wanted to hear!
A short while later, Craig entered some very light lift near the 6300 foot level, he worked around for several minutes and slowly rose. I had a hard time staying in this and worked it but was barely able to maintain the 6300 foot level. Finally I radioed that I was losing it and Craig said "I think you can make it from there." (Not very reassuring!) As I turned and started to make a run for it, the lift turned on and we both climbed above 9500 feet in a convergence. The airport was an easy glide, and since the terrain gets more remote beyond it, and there had been no radio contact with chase vehicle for a while, I decided to land there for a 26.5 mile flight in 2 and a half hours. Criag found some lift in the hills beyond the airport, but since he would have been going into a head wind and ended his flight, he came back and landed at the airstrip with me. Apparently this was a mediocre day but it was fun! Craig says it is common to break 12,000 feet and fly 50+ miles. Two weeks earlier, 2 pilots went 150 miles and landed just east of Barstow. This is definately a site worth returning to.
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28 The conditions had been looking good all week and we were hoping for them to continue on Sat. We had a full load, with Bill, Dave, Morgan, Ben, Pavlo, Steve, and I flying and Nancy driving. Three pilots from Visalia were setting up when we arrived. We unloaded and began setting up while the wind was very light from the south (0-3). It wasn't long before 10 more pilots from various places joined us, word had gotten around of a 134 mile flight the day before by a paraglider pilot! By noon the cycles started coming in a little stronger, and a little while later the first 3 pilots from launched and caught a thermal and got high. I suited up and was next to launch, at 12:45. I hooked into the house thermal and found it friendly and solid. It was going straight up and before long I was climbing through 10,000 feet (3000 above launch!). I drifted over to Reyes Peak and climbed above 11,500 before it started falling apart. By this time the other pilots had been streaming off the hill and beginning there own climb.
The glide across the badlands, to Lockwood Valley looked makeable from this altitude as long as no sink was encountered, so I started easing my way over the back. I hit some heavy sink and began scooting along for about a mile before I hit some non-sinking air. I had dropped to 10,000 feet and the long glide to Lockwood looked more intimidating from there. Eventually Morgan and I both gave up and headed back to the front of Pine Mtn. We began climbing again and were joined by Dave and Ben who missed our lift and found there own further in front. Morgan eventually took off to the East while I climbed to about 11,700 feet and headed over the back. I found some more lift after sinking again, eventually committing to the glide to Lockwood Valley from a comfortable position well above 11,000.
I dropped to 9000 as I was nearing the far edge of the badlands. There I entered some light lift that gained me several hundred feet. This position allowed me to check out the land and scope for possible landing areas in a very remote place. From there I headed out across Lockwood Valley toward Frazier Mtn on the other side. I was dropping steadily and was beginning to wonder if I was on my final glide as I reached 7700 feet. That's when I entered some solid lift that I began turning in. I steadily climbed through 10,000 feet again when Morgan called me on the radio and asked how my climb rate was. I told him a steady 300-500 feet per minute and he flew over from about a mile south. He entered the lift well below me but climbed rapidly to my altitude. Later he said he averaged over 1100 feet per minute for part of that climb!
I had been drifting toward Frazier Mountain with my bubble and was again above 11,000 feet and feeling comfortable with heading straight to the top of Frazier. As I approached I hit some heavy sink but kept going. Soon I hit a bit of turbulence and then the strongest lift of the day for me. At times my vario was pegged at 1500 feet per minute! The core of this bullet thermal was small and I fell out of it a couple of times, resulting in fairly violent effects. It was actually a little scary and I briefly considered going somewhere else but I was able to let it carry me up high enough so that it began spreading out a little and became more manageable. At one point in the vicinity of 12,000 feet I took a picture of Morgan, who was within 100 feet of me! The thermal took me to 12,500 before I continued to the East. A short distance away I hit some more lift that took me to 12,800 feet, my highest altitude of the flight, and season! This point was directly above the top of Frazier Mtn (which is about 8000 feet). Little did I know as I left on a glide across I-5 and out towards the Mojave Desert that I was on final glide. I headed towards Quail Lake, flying through smooth, stable air, with little wind. At one point I noticed the spot where my shadow would have been on the ground and saw the shadow of a medium sized plane flying head-on into it! I looked around but never saw the actual plane, though I'm pretty sure it was well below me.
As I approached the small reservoir know as Quail Lake, I could see the wind on the ground was about 15-20 from the NW. I began looking at the fields that might be my landing spot, when I saw a glider on the ground at the East side of the lake. I made it to there with about 500 feet to spare. I used this to glide over to the ridge south of the road and made a couple of passes on the small hill there. A Red-Tail Hawk jumped from a tree and a glided below me, but my flight was over and I went down and landed at 3:05 and 34 miles from launch. A very fun flight! Morgan saw that I hit no lift so he decided to head out to the Central Valley. He ended up landing down at the bottom of the Grapevine next to Denny's Restaurant. Ben flew over me as I was almost torn down and got up on the hills to the SE. He was in good lift and could have kept going, but lost radio contact about 10 miles beyond me, so he chose to go out and land by the road. Bill and Dave both landed near Frazier Mtn in Lockwood Valley, and Pavlo and Steve landed in Dry Canyon, prior to the badlands. I was on the ground for two hours before being picked up, but had a very nice, cold beer from the group of Visalia pilots who picked up the person that landed in the field prior to me. Next week - Mount Laguna!!
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7-8 Bill, Sally and I headed up to Pine Mtn on Friday afternoon for a weekend of camping and flying. Dave arrived Sat morning to join us. About noon more than a dozen pilots from Santa Barbara and S. CA arrived and began setting up. The wind was from the South, or even SSE. Pilots started launching and soon there were thermal markers all around. I took off about 1:20 and got up right away. The thermals were not overly strong and fizzled by about 8000 feet. I hung out over launch for a while until Dave and Bill launched (the were the last ones!). Then I got below launch for the first time and had to struggle a little to get back up. I finally hooked a good one that carried me over the back at 8000 feet (a thousand over launch). The drift carried me to the NW, so I headed toward a small patch of cummulus on the south side of the River. They were deep in the mountains but I saw a glider up near them. Finally I hit the lift that took me to them at 8500. I used this to head toward Cuyama Peak in the distance. I stayed way in the mountains but knew there was a head wind down the canyon since Bill had landed near Ozena in the dry river bed. Just before I made it to Cuyama Peak I hit some sink and the head wind so I turned back toward the SE and chose a spot with easy retrieval in the river bed to land. It was 10.6 miles from launch.
Sunday was a very similar day except that we were the only pilots there. (Although one other scary person showed up with an old Comet2, but we don't think he flew). Bill launched first and got right up and went over the back at 8000. Then I launched and did the same thing. Dave followed a little while later. Bill headed to Dry Canyon and radioed that he hit a head wind and was coming back. I had just entered some nice lift, which turned out to be a long convergence zone. I followed it to the same spot as the day before, on the south side of the river bed. There it took me to 8500, and little farther I reached 9000. Bill had been following me but stayed over the river bed instead of coming into the mountains, so he ended up landing into a NW wind, north of the Halfway Station at about the time I reached 9000. Dave joined Bill. Once again I headed to Cuyama Peak and thought I would make it for sure. As I approached I hit a head wind and a lot of sink, so I headed out and decided to land in the same place as the day before, barely and hour after I launched. Sally had a treat after Dave launched when 3 California Condors came and buzzed launch for several minutes. They came within 20-30 feet of her and she took several photos. Thanks for camping and driving for us Sally!
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31 Dave, Bill, Pavlo, and I were looking forward to launching the South side of Pine Mtn, and even though the cycles were light up the North side, we drove the extra miles to get to the South launch hoping the days heating would bring in ggod conditions. Dave set up, while the rest of us just hung out for more than an hour. Bill hiked to the top and noticed strong cycles. Then I took a long leasurly hike among the large Pines and carpet of wildflowers near the highest point of Pine Mtn. The wind was obviously from the North, so I headed back to tell Dave we needed to go back to the North launch. We helped him tear down and as we arrived at the North side launch, we saw a couple of gliders already in the air. Dave set up again, but I had lost interest since XC was not going to happen and this launch is very tricky because of the slot in the brush. Dave launched and Pavlo set up. After awhile I changed my mind and decided to fly since conditions looked a little better. Dave got above 8000 feet, and a few small cummies would form and dissipate. I took off and flew around for awhile, then Pavlo got his first launch off Pine. Dave headed out to Dry Canyon, and after a thermal in front of launch, Pavlo reached 8000 and did the same. I followed Pavlo and we made it there easily. There was easy lift coming off the field in Dry Canyon so Pavlo and I circled and hung out in that for a while, waiting for the van to arrive. Then he landed. I landed a couple of minutes later in switchy, bouyant air. My ground effect carried my farther than I was planning and I was forced to flare a little early to avoid bushes and the road. I bonked in and very slightly bowed my left downtube! I haven't done that for years.
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24 A fun day at the beach! I flew N to Twin Peaks a couple of times and back to the South Bowl, then back to launch 4 times. Bill and Dave also flew.
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5 There was a solid offshore wind so we (Craig, Bill, Jeff, Pavlo, and myself) headed up to Plowshare with Sally as our driver (thanks Sally!). We were in no hurry because we weren't even sure the onshore wind would even come through. After seeing a few birds circling up Bill decided to go first. We all watched his whole flight, a slow progression down to the Oak trees. He never hit much, except some lift over the river bed that he was not able to work. A little later, Pavlo launched and did almost the same thing, even hitting the lift over the river bed just before turning into the field to land. It looked a little stronger but he was not able to work it back up. Then Craig took off, but he turned right in the hopes of finding something. After dropping well below launch, he turned and headed to Oak trees with the others. He also entered the last chance bit of lift, but it apparently had turned on because he began climbing nicely! I launched, with the intention of flying straight there, but entered lift not far from launch. Jeff followed me. Craig climbed high above the mountain and headed toward Timber Peak. I reached 5000 and went to Miranda, eventually reaching 7200 there. Craig reached 7600 at Timber and cruised down range, eventually making it to the airport at New Cuyama. I got stuck at Timber, never breaking 7000 feet. I didn't feel comfortable being this low on this day so decided to head out and see what the valley offered. I dropped to 4000 feet behind Spanish Ranch and thinking I was going to need some lift to make it out to the highway east of the gap, I entered a thermal that was drifting my way! It gave me 1300 more feet and an easy glide to the highway. From there it was a long slow descent to a landing just short of Chalk Mtn, 10.5 miles and 1 hour 20 minutes. As I was tearing down, and the van pulled up, Jeff flew overhead. He landed about a half mile farther along the road.
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3 Our first trip to Pine had Bill, Morgan, Craig, Dave, Steve and I looking forward to excitement! Pavlo agreed to drive and observe as this was his first trip to Pine and it is important to see the layout of the land for someone with such a small amount of XC experience. As we reached the ridgetop road we were greeted by a North wind, which in the past would have caused us to miss flying; however, the Santa Barbara HG club had carved out a new north launch 2 weeks ago! We found it easily, it had a large parking and setup area and nice steep drop with thick brush cleared about 100 feet down the slope. The cycles were nice, and within 30 minutes a couple of loads of pilots arrived from Santa Barbara and elsewhere.
Everyone began setting up (about 15-20 gliders), turning the flat dusty hill top into a bustling, colorful, center of butterflies and anticipation. One by one pilots took off and turned to the right (East) finding a thermal and climbed above launch level (~5800 MSL). I launched at 1:40 into what I thought was a mellow breeze, only to find out it was probably rotor from the brush below. I kept the nose down to gain airspeed after my feet left the ground, but was dropping! The instant before I hit the trees I pushed out and luckily had just enough airspeed for the glider to respond and lift a few feet. Just then I hit an up cycle which picked me up and safely away from the mountainside. It was scary! Then I flew to the right of launch and found a thermal that was slowly drifting up a spine on the mountain. There were two gliders a couple of hundred feet above me circling also. One flew away and the other was circling very near the top of the Mountain. I found a better core and climbed well above him.
Then I continued to the East and the upper reaches of the 7000 foot mountain. I was able to cruise along above the ridge, circling in lift when I came across it, reaching Reyes Peak before I dropped below the top and turned back down a spine. I headed back to the West, hopping from spine to spine, looking for the nice thermal that was going to bring me back above the mountain. In the meantime, one by one, gliders headed out toward the valley as they got lower. I had decided to make Ozena my goal if I failed to find another thermal. It is an intersection about 3 miles to the NW of launch. Eventually I had gone past launch and several hundred feet below it and it looked like I was headed down to Ozena. Then as I was dropping below the 5000 foot level I blundered into a nice strong core! I cranked up a steep bank angle and began climbing nicely, drifting up the steep spine I was on, towards the ridge top and Dave, who happened to be above the ridge just east of me.
This thermal took me well above the mountain again so I headed back to the East. I passed above launch and entered another thermal that was being used by a couple of pilots, and eventually made it all the way back to the location of the South facing launch, a few miles east of the North facing launch and 1200 feet higher in elevation. By this time I saw only 2 other pilots still flying on the mountain and one pilot who was halfway to the landing area, but VERY low! The last three of us worked a nice thermal which took me to 7800 feet. Then one by one we headed out to the valley with a very comfortable altitude. The first maintained a very good glide and kept going in a straight line. I noticed the pilot who was low, circling only a couple hundred feet above a spine, in a very bleak place, but going up. I was probably 2000 feet above him and entered the thermal he was in and began circling. I gained more than a thousand feet, back to 8000, and had an easy glide to Dry Canyon, and the start of the badlands. Bill had landed there a bit earlier. I got there at about 5500, 1500 feet above the ground, and hit a good thermal coming off the field. It took me back to 8400! but the drift was towards the SE rather than E, making it extremely risky at an attempt to reach Lockwood Valley. I talked with Bill and a few others on the radio, and was like a yo-yo on a very long, string. I would drop to 6000 and then climb back to 7500, then drop back to 5600 and climb above 7000 again. Finally it was clear I wasn't going to get across the badlands, and the van had everyone and was on its way to Bill, so I flew towards the NW until I got low and then landed in the field, with Bill giving me wind signals by throwing dirt into the air. I really enjoyed this flight!
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26 As we (Dave, Jeff, John and myself) met at the bottom of the Mtn. on the road to launch the wind was already light from the NW. This indicated that the wind may be over the back already, meaning we couldn't launch. We decided to drive up and try anyway. When we arrived at launch the wind was coming in! We began furiously setting up because we knew it was only a matter of minutes before the wind switched directions. John launched first at about 10:45 and climbed out immediately. I launched about 5 minutes later and also climbed nicely, gaining 2000 feet. Jeff and then Dave launched about 10 minutes later. Jeff missed the lift and landed on the South side of the river, while Dave worked hard and eventually got to 5500 (1500 feet above launch). He landed at 'the Gate'.
John and I headed down range, finding thermals at regular intervals, but only getting to about 6800 to 7000 feet. As we topped out and went in search of the next thermal, we tended to drop back to about 6000 feet fairly, close to the ridge top. After progressing 4 or 5 miles, John turned back, deciding the conditions were not quite good enough for him to keep going (he wanted to be higher). Because the thermals were consistantly available, I continued down the ridge. As I approached Cottonwood Canyon, a place with a good bail out landing zone, I dropped to about 5900 feet and was on the verge of having to turn and head out. Then I hit a good thermal that took me to 7500, my highest altitude of the day. The view was excellent, I could see the High Sierra across the haze covered Central Valley to the NE, the foggy Pacific ocean and coast was visible to the S and W, with the Cuyama Valley stretched out below. I plodded along the ridge top from spine to spine, always mindful of were the next bailout LZ was, because I was not extremely high above the ridge top and if a thermal were not in the next place I expected, I would be forced into a quick decision.
The sink between thermals was not very bad after I got high at Cottonwood Canyon, but I still gnerally stayed between 6000 and 7000 feet. At the last spine before McPherson Peak (the last peak of the range) I reached 7100 feet and flew directly over the towers on McPherson. I was in sink and immediately turned to fly out the canyon, which had a nice bailout LZ at the edge of the foothills. The sink was quite strong and I radioed a few times that I would be landing in that field, which Bill had used the week before. I unzipped my harness and was getting ready to determine my final landing approach when I hit a thermal coming up the last small hill in front of the field! This took me from 4100 feet (a few hundred feet above the ground, at this point) to 5800 feet. Of course I was happy about this! I decided to head out towards the highway, which was still a few miles away. As I left the thermal I encountered steady 500 feet per minute down air which meant I was going to have to find more lift to make it all the way out. Eventually I did find another thermal, which gave me a few hundred feet to work with. I picked out a flat area about a half mile from the highway to land, when I hit some 0 sink air about 300 feet above the ground. This allowed me to float all the way to the highway and turn towards New Cuyama. I landed about 1:20 PM, about 1 mile short of town and 19.2 miles, in a straight line, from launch. It was a very rewarding flight!
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19 I launched first, about 11:30. This proved to be too early, as I found very little lift and landed in the field below the Oak trees, about a quarter mile from the highway. It was HOT and still when I landed, and as I flared hard, the back of my keel hit the ground and put a small, non-structural bend on the back part of the keel. After tearing down, I hiked my harness to the highway and as I slipped it off my back, it hooked on my shoulder and twisted my awkwardly, popping my knee out of place. Luckily it only took me about 15 minutes to pop it back in place, and I was able to hop in the little motorcycle and drive back up to get the truck. The launch window was small, and the Jeff (the last one off the hill) landed right were I did. Bill made it to Alisio Rd, near the campground. Jimmy landed at New Cuyama, Dave at Spanish Ranch, and Pavlo made his first XC flight of 3 miles, landing at 'the Gate'.
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5 Bill, Jeff, Dave, and I arrived at launch expecting the wind to switch over the back at any minute, so we set up quickly. The cycles came up the front even stronger after we were ready, so we waited until they died back down. Then we all launched but missed the convergence. I found a thermal to the right of launch, I had seen Jeff sink steadily to the left, and took it to about 6500 feet. I was the only one to get above launch and, aside from a small thermal I had near the ground, it was the only thermal of the day. I landed at 'the Gate', where we had left the motorcycle. Bill landed a short time after me, while Dave landed about a mile west of us and Jeff landed at the Oak trees.
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16 The wind was strong when we arrived at launch and we had to wait a couple of hours to launch. I finally went a little after 2 PM. There were plenty of thermals but when we tried heading east over the mountain top, we encountered heavy sink. After a long time I finally headed out to the valley. Dave, Pavlo and Jeff were on the ground, and I was headed to the LZ at the 'Gate', when I noticed Bill and Morgan a couple of thousand feet up, climbing in a thermal a little SW of my location. Since I needed to head west to reach the LZ I tried to sneak in to the thermal they had, hoping it reached as low as I was. I got lucky! I eventually got up to Bill, while Morgan had already headed to the East. Bill and I then meandered down the valley looking for late afternoon lift to keep us going. We found some to the east of Spanish Ranch, which allowed us to easily reach the highway past the gap. At this point Bill circled in a thermal and drifted South, away from the road. I thought he was drifting to far for the amount of altitude he was gaining so opted to keep flying along the highway and look for another thermal. A quarter mile later I found what I was looking for! I gained a reasonable amount of altitude with negligable drift. In the meantime, Bill was flying back towards me, losing all that he had gained. He was several hundred feet below me looking for something when he ended up having to land. I continued a few miles farther, landing by Chalk Mtn. Morgan made it just past Wasioja Rd. All in all a very enjoyable day. I was able to start feeling more in tune with my new glider, and catching thremals out in the middle of the valley was great fun!
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27 The day was promising to blow hard and Sally and I were headed to launch for a tandem flight. We went up with Bill, Ben and Charlie. After setting up Ben helped us to launch and we had a very nice easy exit from the planet. The air was not as strong as I hoped, but it was rather smooth so we flew around at or below launch for a while. Then we headed south to the point and hung out a little longer, before heading out to land on the beach. We rolled in very gently after about 20 minutes of airtime. Right after launching Sally said "It is like a movie!" Later we had a kiss in the air, 500 feet above Hiway 1.
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7 Dave was in the air and Bill was setting up as I went caught a ride to launch with Morgan, Ben and Charlie. Morgan was going to let me fly his Predator, but when we arrived at the top, the wind was howling! We didn't really want to setup in these conditions so we drove down to the lower bluff, which I had landed on my last flight. The wind was noticeably lighter here so Morgan, Ben and I set up and joined Dave, while Bill and Charlie chose not to fly. It was actually quite nice in the air and I went to twin peaks and almost back to the dam. I flew with a couple of Red Tail Hawks in the vicinity.
Later I went back to the back bowl and reached 1300 feet, before heading out to land. It was a very enjoyable flight on a very high performance glider. I can't wait to get my own Predator in the middle of April!
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21
A cold front passed through the area the night before, which meant strong, post-frontal conditions would provide strong conditions at the coast. The day before I had set up and attempted to fly at Cuesta Grade, but an important webbing strap on my wing broke before I launched, disabling my old HPII. I decided to take my tandem glider to fly at Cayucos, even though I would be very light on the large wing. Bill, Ben and Trevor were setting up when I arrived. The wind was very north and very strong, making the setup area extremely gusty. At one point a gust picked up Bill's glider and tossed it 50 feet away. The glider sustained minor damage and Bill tore down.I worked my way to launch in the strong, north wind, and launched with my foot on the basetube to insure keeping the nose of the glider down. Once up and away from the hill, the air was fairly smooth and quite manageable. I enjoyed an hour and a half of airtime, reaching 1300 feet! Not bad for one person on a single surface tandem glider! Since my car was on top with Nikki in it I really wanted to top land, but the wind was too strong and gusty. I chose to land on the ledge below launch. I set myself up by getting lower out away from the hill, but encountered gusty, strong conditions. When I finally was low enough, I cautiously inched my way over towards the bluff. I felt I was in good position so I went for it. The bluff only had about 30 feet of area to land on before it dropped off again. Even though I was within a foot of the ground I realized I was not going to be able to stop before clearing the cliff. I made a quick decision to stuff the basetube into the ground, which of course caused my to suddenly nose into the ground. Luckily I was wearing a helmet!
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