As we all know hang gliding is a very time consuming and all-around logistically inconvenient activity. I've taken it to the next level by living in NYC, keeping my flying gear in DC, and selling my car. At this point, blaming the lack of airtime on sketchy weather, would be like blaming an inability to dance on tight underwear.
This past summer has been good to me in many ways. I had a couple of great days at High Rock and Ridgely, and although, like all of you, I didn't fly as much as I would have wanted, I got to do lots and lots of other things that reboot my soul. But, as all good things tend to do, the summer ended, and I got blind-sided by the real world responsibilities too numerous and un-fun to mention.
As soon as I realized what was happening, I started aligning my stars for this past weekend. I cleared my schedule. I called up every NY pilot I knew to get them to come fly the Pulpit, thus making it harder for me to back out (in the end only Charlie came out and flew the hell out of Pulpit on Sunday, another 4 pilots bailed the night prior once the activities moved to Woodstock -- a 300+ mile drive). I arranged to borrow a van for the weekend. I brought out the best non-flying retrieve crew any hang glider pilot may wish for: Brett, currently a professional GPS user; and Floris, a doctor. AND, I held my fingers crossed for weather.
It all payed off. Saturday, after a very pleasant flight, I landed out at the north end of the Woodstock ridge. The cool farmer came out and we pleasantly chatted most of the time while I waited for Floris and Brett to scoop me up. (Bacil, thanks for leading the retrieve party.)
Saturday night, I got a chance to catch up with lots of flying buddies from the days when my appearances at the local sites were more regular. Then, I won the grand prize in raffle, watched impressive fireworks, and managed not to freeze when the overnight temperature dipped into the 30's.
Sunday, I avoided the commotion of the High Rock migration (btw, how'd that turn out?) and flew right there at Pulpit. Again a very nice flight even though it lasted just 20 min.
Perhaps I didn't have the distances, altitudes and airtimes of others, but I could not have asked for more. A solid weekend of flying and great company does it for me any time.
Alek
P.S. Those of you interested a perspective of a person with little prior knowledge of free flight, sudden and complete immersion into this curious little community we have, check out Brett's post at http://www.amtrekker.com/pictures/53
Weekend Update (unnecessarily long)
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