1st mountain Launch at Woodstock 5/4/08

[tdilisio]

After crawling into bed Saturday night 5/3/2008, resigned to spending another blown out weekend doing domestic chores, I received a call from John Middleton asking if I wanted to go take my first mountain flight on Sunday. I was hesitant to say "Hell yes" because up to that point, I had not flown my Sport 2 other than on a training hill. (Yes... the sport 2 is my first glider and yes... Steve Wendt and John Middleton did NOT recommend a Sport 2 as my first glider)... anyway... I agreed to meet John in the landing area around noon.

I was a little early and decided to walk the field. I never had to land on a slope before... I wondered how in the heck that was going to work. John and Dan Tuckwiller arrived and we walked the field going over the DBF landing setups, and where I should be at such and such point. OK... cool... now I felt mostly comfortable with the landing field setup... although, it sure didn't look that big compared to landing at BlueSky. We loaded the gliders onto John's vehicle and headed to the top. After setting up, preflight, waiting an eternity for conditions to get better, and the PG's to launch, I carried my glider to launch. I hooked in, performed a hang check, and then stuff started falling apart. My gloves weren't gripping the downtubes, so I took them off. My sunglasses lens popped out, retrieved and re-installed... then I stood there looking at the trees, the huge valley in front of that really steep rock filled crevice I was supposed to fly out of and listening to John talk me thru what the wind was doing.

Nervous? Me? Yep. The wind was pretty light, straight in at about 5-7MPH... So here goes... CLEAR!!! I ran about 5 or so steps and the glider wanted to take off. Cool... I didn't have to worry about those big rocks lower on the slope. Launch was good. Straight out and turn right after launch, at John's instruction. I experienced a little lift and stayed between the fingers of the mountain to the left and right of launch. I guess I made about 3-4 passes and a couple 360's, and then headed out to land when I was about half way down the mountain.

I think I circled the landing field once, and then started the DBF. It felt different flying a DBF on hilly terrain.... didn't feel like I was losing much altitude until I was on final and that hill was looking at me. I could have easily flown over the field and hit the trees, but training at BlueSky kicked in so I pulled in and got dirty. At about 15-20 ft I went for the uprights and ballooned slightly. Damn... remember what Steve said... wait and one hand at a time. Next time. It leveled out, came down and I was out of lift by the time I flared, so I had to run it out a little.

The second flight went about the same as the first, except the landing was better. All in all... a fantastic day.

I would like to express many thanks to instructors Steve Wendt (BlueSky) and John Middleton (SilverWingsHangGliding) for teaching me the basics to the point where I can start learning... and doing. Also, I would like to thank all the pilots that provided advice, tips and guidance along the way. Thanks Dan Tuck. for capturing the moment/day on video, Great Job (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tdeHm2x9PUM). Last but not least is Mark (C?) The webdev guy. Way back... about 10 months or so ago, when I signed up for this forum he recommended I do multiple training methods, Mountain and scooter. I think was the best advice I received that I would give a newcomer to hang gliding.

[KathyC]

Yeah!! Way to go!!

[hang_pilot]

Congratulations, Tony, on your first of what I hope will be many fun and safe flights at Woodstock! How cool that you live so close to launch. I predict that Woodstock is going to become a special place for you. Send me an e-mail at dbrox@gwu.edu and I'll send you contact info on local observers as well as some pointers the club has prepared for new H2 pilots on working with observers.

Congrats also to John and Steve for fledging another new pilot.

~Daniel

P.S. Please remember to sign your posts.

[Lauren Tjaden]

great write up! Great job on the first mountain flights!
Lauren