chgpa.org

Glad to help both of you John--have a great time--wish I was there flying with you guys. : )

Marc

A friend of mine from Lookout is at Ridgely looking to be driver for someone(s) for the comp. His name is Adam Bain and he's also a great photographer. His # is 423 464 eight eight eight eight.

Marc Fink

Hey Bun--Lookout/Sequatchie isn't all that far from IL--maybe we'll be seeing you there?

Marc

Hmmmm...I would be interested to know what kind of force(s) it would take to actually produce such a failure (and at a variety of conditions/temperatures). I would personally have trouble gauging what is a damaging whack or ding otherwise.

Just looked more closely at your left LE comparison shot--it looks like there is some kind of reinforcement and abrasion pad around the tube--is that the area where your break occurred on the failure tube? I wonder if that area rides up against something rigid when folded--another way that a sharp f...

Boy that is scary--though I remember ages ago Mike Chevalier's carbon RLE snapped on his TRX after he landed once. I think that this is a highly unusual break given that the area it happened in is generally a low -load area when the wing is set up properly. I would suspect the only way a break like ...

"Craigs--list" that explains it. : ) Seriously--there are some serious trojan exploits making the rounds and they seem to exploit weaknesses in very common software--including Flash, Java and even Macafee virus scan. My PCs and mac were saturated with trojans that were ported in through th...

You guys should form a team and come to the Team Challenge in TN.

Marc

Very cool! BTW--do you know Jeff Reynolds? He summers up here in Maine doing sailplane rides.

marc

Wow--RIP Dave. An interesting guy (in the vein of Cheech and Chong) and the inventor of the thermal rider--which to this day I think there are some devotees out west that still use em.

Today was one of the most unstable days I've ever seen in coastal Maine--the thermals were ripping and I didn't clue in on it--it just doesn't hardly ever happen next to the ocean. I climbed to the top of Blue Hill and laid out my paraglider next to the cliff edge--expecting a flight much like yeste...

Heading north from Blue Sky/Manquin could be a factor--trying to remember, once flew near there and between the choppers in the air and the forested area below it didn't look especially inviting as I recall.

Yeah--I forgot to mention a spin happened after the glider pilot did his downwind leg in the event I witnessed--the pilot spun all the way to the ground (fortunately into trees) before the canopy had a chance to right itself. The perception is that the glider needs more break in the downwind turn to...

In general the brake transitions look sharp--meaning that it tends to start a pitch oscillation relative to the canopy above. He does quite a bit of deep braking to full release, which will aggravate the speed and degree of response of the canopy's pitch change. This is noticeable even before the la...

Funny--I'm the opposite--I could care less about the places I fly regularly being featured in the mag--(I already know about them--and who wants them to be bandito'd by them forryners with funny accents anyway ) and am much more interested in new and different sites.

Brazil (and Vietnam - others?) charge ONLY AMERICANS a high fee for visas - because that's what we do to everyone else on the planet to get into our country! You should see the lines of visa applicants outside any U.S. embassy - we make it really tough to get in, even as a tourist. - Hugh Hugh is s...

Yup! The TTT are one of the last hardcore bastions of HG in the east. Believe it or not--Rick Jacob himself is a panties flyer now--and a driving force in enabling paragliding in the valley by allowing his property to be used.

marc

After years of work with the SPP club out of Atlanta and landowner Rick Jacob (you old timer HG guys probably know him) we have developed a new paraglide launch along side the existing hang glider launch at Whitwell. This is a huge development as it brings foot-launch paragliding on easterly days to...

Thank you everyone--I'm feeling the love and have an uncontrollable urge to hold hands and sing Kumbayah!
: )
marc

I'm pretty sure his birthday is actually Dec 10. : ) Down here it's rained almost 10 inches in the past week--Lookout's lz is still half underwater tho it definitely makes landings more interesting and entertaining. In the 20's last night and again tonight--snowed up on the ridges. Even on the sunny...

Carol is the "go to" person you send your permit applications to when getting permission to fly in the Shenandoahs. The Shenandoahs actually represent one of the longest standing continuous--if not THE longest standing--successful hang gliding permitted operations in the entire US National...

Did the USHPA office have any of the info/documentation from previous efforts? The principal problem is that by law, or the way it's presently interpreted, is that no "air services/delivery" (or some such language--been a while since I read it) is by default prohibited in a national park e...

I worked for a couple of years on this with Jack Ekart (sp) when he was with USHGA--but the effort fell to pieces at some point when it ran up against the reality of the NPRM process and general board apathy. I was mostly interested in getting access to Acadia NP. Lisa Tate has also spent time in Wa...

This year the Lookout bi-annual Women's Fly-in and Halloween bash happen at the same time. Either one is a great time in itself--the two together at the same time promises to be the biggest "social fly event" in the history of hang gliding : ) If you're idea of a good time is catered parti...

Nice meeting you and thanks for getting Hugh's bag to him. Bizarre weather patterns this year--hopefully better next year.

marc