Paul's a tow pilot; and other Quest flying

[Lauren Tjaden]

Lovely, crisp weather; Florida's version of fall, which means it was comfortable, 80 degrees. Kinda cold.
Joe's wife and I practiced our Spanish and English on each other. Lots of gesturing with our hands and flipping through the dictionary.
Joe and me and Peter Kane from VA flew. Launched about 2 pm; initially we felt thrilled to hang onto 50 fpm climbs. Cloudbase was only 2500, and very cold, even with two Underarmor shirts and a tank top.
Conditions improved from scratchy to easy. Flew anywhere I wanted.
One of my goals today was to fly 50 mph. I had to crawl up with my knees in front of the basetube but got it done. Uh oh. Burned off a lot of altitude with my fun flying, but was loathe to let that dog Peter outfly me. Joe got caught in a weaker cycle and landed.
Unzipped. Prepared to land. Sniffed out a climb, and damn, it grew into a steady beepbeepbeep on my vario. The beautiful sight of the top of Peter's wing eventually rewarded me. Heeheehee.
Cloudbase rose to 3500. It was freezing.
I shivered. Stiffened. That bastard Peter still wouldn't give it up. I landed after almost two hours, on purpose. The bastard still in the air.
Good approach. Deliberately changed my position on landing to more upright. The speed got too slow with my little experiment. Beaked into no wind. Glider and me fine. Pissed off to end a nice flight like that.
Dave Prentiss flew in to Quest in his paraglider, proned out in his too-cool, self-designed harness. This top ranked pilot is giving a manuevers clinic nearby. I also saw Alex, here for the clinic, who flew with me to Wallaby for the first time (for both of us) in 2005.
Paul practiced in Bobby's Dragonfly tow plane for much of the day. Rhett decided he wanted an exciting flight and volunteered to be Paul's first tow. (This is what you call "dope on a rope.")
Paul flew perfectly though, and Rhett said he was bored. Very nice!!! I'll try to attach some pictures, one of them flying together, another that simply proves they both lived to see dinner.
Tomorrow looks like a repeat.
Lauren

[Paul Tjaden]

Like Lauren said, Yesterday I cudunt Spail Toe pilat and now I am won. It was actually kind of anti-climactic after all of my nervousness. Several good tow pilots had told me that it really wasn't that difficult and they were right. I still had to take a deep breath to calm my nerves before pushing the throttle forward but after I did, the rest fell into place pretty easily. After Rhett Radford (one of the two best tow pilots in the world) towed up behind me, he told me that like most flying, towing is pretty laid back but it is occasionally punctuated by absolute terror when the s..t hits the fan. Hopefully I'll have lots of boring tows before I have to face that. Anyway, this has been a great way to pass the time while waiting for my shoulder to heal from surgery. I'll probably be able to fly a HG in another month or so.

Paul

[billyvaughn]

Congrats Paul!
Nothing a dragonfly likes better than having a big "tail" way out back...My first tow was a non event as well. I remember thinking "oh, THIS is what they made this airplane for!"
Cheers,
Billy Vaughn

[Danny Brotto]

Congrats Paul... you and the Mrs. certainly are living the life!

How did the paraglider pilot launch? Ground-based tow or some sort of aero?

Danny Brotto

[Paul Tjaden]

Dave Prentiss has a pay out wench in his van and they have been using a long straight but quiet road a few miles to the east of Quest to tow up. Of course, they also have a boat lined up to use for their "maneuvers course".
It really was cool to see Dave cruise into the field proned out like he was flying a HG. He says he gets 11 to 1 with this configuration and up to 40 mph. He also said that the wing he was flying was a tricky bitch that is always ready to kill you if you don't stay on top of it. The manufacturer is only letting about 8 people world wide fly them.

[Tad Eareckson]

I've always been rather HG-centric but the pay out wench, van, quiet road concept has me intrigued. Is there some link at which I could get further information?

[Ashley Groves]

I think you mean winch, not wench. Or do I have to reread that a little more carefully???

[mcelrah]

I have a payout wench at home, but don't tell her I called her that. Congratulations, Paul! You are always several steps ahead of me. I want to be like you when I grow up. - Hugh

[jimrooney]

Congrats Paul
Yup, towing's easy... it's landing that monster that's the trick. Careful though, they might not let you fly your hang glider anymore!

Jim

[Paul Tjaden]

Sorry Ashley, Alas....you were right, it was a spelling issue and a lapse in intelligence rather than having anything to do with a "wench".

Paul

P.S. Sorry Tad. I know very little about winch (or wench) towing. You'll have to google it on your own.

[Ashley Groves]

Congratulations on your achievement!