Failed Fall Hang Gliding Epic (Beer Thermals)

Here is a post from my last flight to-date on September 14th which was supposed to have been the first day of the fall hang gliding trip Jeff, Adam, and I had been planning for quite sometime. A massive cold front brought an early taste of winter to the Rockies that week killing any possibility of flying. Our back up plan is to head to Quest in Florida for photography and aerotowing opportunities in early November.

Beer Thermals

After a night of indecision between Adam, Jeff, and I we still have no good plan on where to meet this weekend. Dinosaur is out, Grand Mesa is out, and the weather in Paradox and Moab doesn't look good. Getting air time, much less a 100 mile cross country flight, is not looking good in the mountains due to snow. I woke up frustrated this morning and headed to Look Out Mountain in Golden. When I checked the weather the winds were blowing down the face (not good), but I had a feeling things would turn around once the valley started heating up.

Molly Dog Checking out the Wind Sock

Hiking up in w/ Coors Brewery in Background

I got to the LZ (landing zone) at 10am, piled 5 baggers (paraglider pilots) who were waiting for a ride in the back of the truck and we headed to up launch. On the way up Molly was loving the attention from the baggers and the wind was starting to turn around. By mid-morning I had my glider set up and good thermal cycles were coming through. I launched shortly after 11am in what felt like a good cycle, but turned out to be broken lift. I struggled for about 20 minutes to stay up. I worked a water tank that was spawning light thermals under Buffalo Bill's grave for a while, but eventually got to low and went on glide for the LZ. After a couple steep wing-overs for some mountain bikers below I landed perfectly on my spot in the middle of the LZ. It's a tight squeeze to fit my high performance glider in the small sloping field that's surrounded by trees, power lines, ditches and highway 93, but my landings have been great so far.

Climbing in the First Thermal of the Day

Golden in the Background

(the LZ is between the road and my glider)

It was 1pm, my glider was broken down and on the truck, but I wasn't satisfied, so I picked up another bagger and we headed back up to launch. There was significant thunderstorm development over the Continental Divide and it was moving fast towards Golden. I rushed to set up and managed to launch in a strong thermal by 2pm. I went straight up at first, but the lift was disorganized. It didn't take long to get low. Just as I was setting up my approach to land I smelled beer, that could only mean on thing. Look Out Mountain is downwind of the Coors Brewery and the beer smell was carried downwind by a thermal drifting past the brewery. I followed my nose, found the core of the lift and took it to 8000 feet. At that altitude I could see the storms were enormous and moving fast. It was time to get out of the sky before the gust front came through. I went into a vertical dive towards Look Out Mountain road, buzzed some cyclists and had another great landing.

Cyclists (about to get buzzed)

View of Launch from the LZ