High Rock Sunday

[Richard Hays]

Arrived with wife and kid in tow ( my fathers day present ) about 3pm. Nice having a driver for a change. Steve Kinsely was pretty high above launch along with a guy in a Falcon 3. Found out others( Dave Proctor, etc. ) had flown earlier but eventually got flushed after an hour or more of soaring; all had good flights. Glen Hardy was setup and ready to go. Tossed Glen off ( good launch ) and he soared for about 30 minutes in some pretty light stuff. I got up on the ramp, but by then everyone had gotten flushed and were landing. I waited for a cycle and launched. Got up and soared around for 30+minutes. Never got much higher than 400 over but I was sure happy that I wasn't getting drilled to the LZ. Had the ridge to myself for the duration. Me and a bunch of Ravens. LZ was full of round bales. Kinda felt like I was landing in a big pin ball machine. Only thing missing were the paddles.

Chatted with Emma. We're cleared for the High Rock Fly-In for mid October.

Rich Hays

[DanTuck]

I drove out to the Pulpit to meet Tom McGowan and most likely just watch everyone fly but of course, I brought my glider. But it was real cross so a few of us went to High Rock. I followed Steve Kinsley out there and he helped me do my paperwork and walked the field with me which happened to have a lot of hay bails all over the place but no worries, there were lanes that were plenty wide enough to land in safely. So then we headed back up to launch.

Like always, I set up my glider nice and easy, taking my time but not lollygagging. After I was set up and preflighted, I wire crewed for 3 pilots with Steve and Glen so that I could get a better idea of how exactly to launch there. It all made sense to me so after those 3 launched I went and got ready. As I walked up to launch, I was excited but confident and made the decision to head out and land if I didn't start gaining altitude immeadiately. After all, it wasn't that late and I could probably get another flight in. I set my glider down about one and a half steps away from the edge of the cliff and waited for a good cycle to come through. I had Steve and Glen on my wires, along with an audience of about 20 and we waited through real light stuff and then strong stuff but at least it was all straight in. Wow, I thought, I might not fly today because there's no way I'm doing my first cliff launch in anything but very nice conditions. But as fate would have it, I would fly today.

Things eased up a bit and a real nice cycle came through. I picked up, looked to Steve and said, Yeah? He said, Yeah! I said, Alright, CLEAR! And off I went. I had a nice clean launch and I turned left. Beep, Beep, beepbeepbeepbeepbeep! Yes!!!!! I was going up and up and up. By the time I turned and came back, I was a good 100' over launch. I worked good ridge lift and also the thermals that came through. I actually did consecutive 360's and kept going up! I also got to feel what it's like to get dumped out of a thermal. Before I knew it, I was 600' over launch and flying around with the biggest grin on my face. Lift was everywhere and I just kept climbing. Eventually I made it up to 1,200' over launch and then I started to sink. I was back down to just 500' over and then I went back up! Back up to 1,500' over launch! Yes!!!! I can't believe I'm actually flying my hang glider 1,500' over launch. At one point, I noticed a beautiful bald eagle less than 100 feet off of my left wing. When I looked over at him, he pulled his wings in and did a diving right turn under me and out of view. Absolutely amazing! I sank after that quite a bit again, down to about 500' over but wouldn't ya know it.....I went up again! This time I just kept going up and up and up. I maxed out at 2,630' over launch. I got to practice diving turns, diving 360's, big 360's, tight 360's, high speeds, stalls, you name it. I learned so much today.

After quite some time in the air I was starting to get pretty tired. So, at an altitude of 1,400' over launch, I decided to come down. I headed out and played around over the LZ, actually caught another thermal and gained 250', and then lost altitude for awhile until it was time to start my DBF. I had already picked my lane from the air based on the wind direction and width between bails. Yeehaw!!, nice fast downwind, nice diving base leg/turn onto final, right into the lane that I chose. I pulled in more, came down with good speed and set it down with a no-stepper to top it all off. Here's the facts:

Total airtime: 1 hr 53 mins
Max Altitude: 2,630' over launch
First time at High Rock
First Cliff Launch
First Soaring Flight
First time thermalling
First time looking down on hawks and vultures (and lots of them!!)
First time flying with a bald eagle

Man, today was awesome. Thank you Tom for being available and Steve for throwing me off. I owe you one. It truly was the flight I've been dreaming of.

[tdilisio]

Nice write up Dan. Congrats.

[RedBaron]

You're the man, Dan. Congrats on your great flight. Keep it up!

[silverwings]

Dan, that is great news and a wonderful write up about your experience! So Cool.

[KathyC]

Dan,

Absolutely fantastic!! Congratulations!

Kathy

[Paul Tjaden]

Hey Dan,

You don't know me, I left the mid-Atlantic several years ago for Florida, but I wanted to add my congrats to the others. Lauren and I learned to fly at Ridgely via aero tow so we were ready to ridge soar and both got a fair amount of time on our first mountain flights but nothing to compare with yours. Your list of first time achievements is truly remarkable. Way to go!!!

Paul Tjaden

[John Simon]

Wow,
nice job Dan and congrats. Keep UP the good work and have fun.

John