HYNER!!

[brianvh]

Lord but I need it. Looking good too.

[Spark]

Wooohoooo - Memorial day weekend at Hyner is a gas! I wish I could be there for the good flying and even better company ... and the campfire shenanigans.

Please say hello to the Hyner-ites for me?

p.s. Shawn Ray is currently in Montana ... he'd normally try to be at Hyner, but instead he'll be down here in Colorado later this weekend.

[silverwings]

So can anyone report on how Hyner was???

[DanTuck]

I'll start by saying that this weekend was a lot of fun and the Hyner club is a great group of people...even if I didn't get to fly. I drove out to WS on Friday but it was dead on launch so I just watched Bruce fly his rigid for a little while. At least I hadn't even taken my glider off of its rack yet so there was no breaking down. Olivia and I headed up to Hyner on Saturday and since I knew a little about flying at Hyner, we timed it so that I could possibly get in an evening flight when things had calmed down a bit. We got up to launch at about 6:00pm. What a beautiful site. The pictures really don't do it justice. But, launch was howling and deserted except for a couple hikers gearing up for an evening walk. Turns out everyone had gone to Kennedy for the day and got lots and lots of airtime. I'm told there were 24 gliders in the air at one point. So we got some dinner and stayed at the Sportsman for the night. Got up to launch on Sunday around 11:00 or so and saw Kathy and met a few other pilots. By chance, Olivia was walking by a pilot who was in a conversation about taking a solo flight on his tandem glider "unless this young lady would like to join me." I was actually really hoping to get her a tandem flight with Shawn but hadn't seen him yet. So we met John Bilsky and Olivia got her first tandem flight after having 5 lessons with John M last summer. Hooray! I went to go check out the LZ and to pick up Olivia who had an awesome flight. I'm so happy that she got to fly and keep her interest in the sport keen. There is no doubt that she will continue her training when she isn't tied up with school. So I walked the LZ, which was actually very calm, got our tent set up and then headed back up to launch. It was blowing in very nice and I found Shawn (thanks John) who told me to go ahead and get set up. So I did but by the time I was set up (not that long) the wind had swung around to the South and was 90 degress cross on the ramp, let alone the grassy launch. Dammit, I missed the window. A few pilots launched in the very short lulls between cycles but they sledded and only a few pilots earlier were able to get above launch. I hung out hoping for some magic but no such luck. Eventually it was blowing OTB so I bagged it and we went and had a nice dinner before heading back to the LZ and our tent. We had a great time that night around the campfires and met even more great people. Thanks to Kathy for hanging out with us and also to Brian Vant-Hull for showing us the ropes and his bare ass. Naked fire jumping and low voltage spoons will remain in my memory forever. What a blast! We got up early and were at launch by 8:00 but it was already OTB and only going to get worse so we decided to head home. It was about as much fun as I could have had watching everyone fly from terra firma. Now I have to fly there. There's no way I can let Olivia have a site under her belt that I don't have under mine. I'm thinking July 4th.

[KathyC]

Wow oh wow what a blast at Hyner this weekend. I showed up Saturday morning just in time to set up for a sled ride. I had a nice flight in, but could have skipped the slipping turn into final and made a coordinated turn instead. By afternoon, things were looking favorable for Kennedy. I had not been to the site before so I headed out with a bunch of folks to check it out. I wasn't planning on flying because the LZ had some pretty tall grass and I haven't been that consistent with my landings. But, I was told that there were some other friendly fields I could land in instead. There were a ton of pilots staying up and everyone who flew soared (23 pilots I think). I had a great time going up and down the ridge and every where I turned was lift. I especially enjoyed landing in this other field because it was so open which gave me an opportunity to practice figure 8 turns into final. What a gorgeous place. I managed to get another sled in the following morning. Several pilots flew during the day, but conditions turned too cross later in the day. It was really a very nice turn out..great folks, good food and plenty of helpful advice. And as Dan mentioned, the evening was full of fun, spoons and buns! Kathy

[brianvh]

Kathy -
how could you neglect to mention eating road kill?! Made up for the lack of a cloud dive.

[KathyC]

Umm....yeah... I did forget that. The only thing that made that better was the guacamole

[brianvh]

Roadkill with guacamole....mmmm...my tummy rumbles just thinking about it.

[dbodner]

Sounds like there's a story here. Not that I'm sure I've got the stomach for it.