152 Days on the Ground

After 152 days of no hang gliding, I finally got some airtime last Friday. After class Lee and I battled poor Utah drivers to make it to the Point in time to fly. My harness has stress fractures in the back plate, but Jeff was generous enough to let me fly his Spectrum and Harness. Thanks man!! It didn't take long to brush off the rust and fly around no hands - NOT! Okay actually my flying was really rusty and it took me 2 attempts to bench up, but I got it eventually.

Jeff took some great pics including this one and posted a blog entry about it Here.

Drinking From the Fire Hose

After 6 years, I've decided to make some changes at work. Those changes are good, but they do require a huge amount of training. My first week of training has been hectic to say the least and I have 3 more to go, plus 2 more weeks on top of that. The amount of information I have to learn in that time is huge. It's like trying to drink from a fire hose! If you get behind the curve, it's not good. I thought this would be an appropriate clip for how I feel...



Being away from home is hard. I really miss Jo, Molly, and the cats. I do look forward to catching up with Jeff and brushing off my rusty hang gliding skills in my little spare time. I have to get up in 6 hours so that's enough blogging for now.

Wishing I was in the Air

My 2007 Hang Gliding season has yet to start. I've been grounded by a few mechanical issues with my harness, but I've been staying sane by living vicariously through other pilots. Last week a few Colorado pilots had 4+ hour days at Villa Grove and only choose to stop flying because they were cold. Lee, in Santa Barbara, has reported an epic flying season all winter long getting a ton of airtime in both his paraglider and hang glider. And the Jeff's have been enjoying the sunny Florida weather all week at the Flytec meet at Quest. Jeff has some awesome blog entries about his trip down there and the first couple days of flying which you can check out here. What does it feel like to be grounded with hang gliders all around you ask. This picture from Quest last year is a good impression.

Alas, there is hope for me yet. I leave for Utah on Sunday for 3 weeks of work training, but I do plan on unwinding from work on more than one occasion at the Point of the Mountain. I can't wait! Here's Jeff flying the point with the paraglider's last fall.

Saturation and Burnt Forest

After studying all day I rewarded myself with a mountainous drive in the M Coupe. I had my camera along and was hoping to find a hawk or two, but found only burnt forest. The flat mid-day light was poor so I wasn't too disappointed. I did manage to find a good backdrop for the Coupe and was able to salvage this shot with a little saturation adjustment.

Tumble

Looping my hang glider is something I've wanted to do for a long time. I've been told by both previous owners that to loop my Fusion 150 I just need to get as vertical as possible, hold it for 7 seconds, and simply ease the bar out into the loop. It's critical to make sure to maintain positive bar pressure through the loop. But then I think about how one of those owners balled up a brand new comp glider and see videos like this one Lee sent me and I'm content to stick to wing overs.



It looks like the pilot went negative on the top side of the loop and fell into the keel causing it to rip through the upper surface of the glider. It's hard to be certain though with grainy YouTube video.

Sidewalk Shadows

Guess Where

I'm rooting through my old pictures on this rainy day. Guess where this is...

If you have no clue about the exact location, just tell me the state.

Beauty and the Beasts

I woke up to an un-natural number of Corvette's cruising around my neighborhood this morning. I decided to jump in the M Coupe and see where they were all going. Turns out it was a local Corvette Club rally with over 50 cars participating, a few even came down from Wyoming. The organizer's were fascinated my the M Coupe and one guy even asked me how much it cost me to convert it to a hard top!