Daniels PM 2/21

[XCanytime]

The timing looks pretty good for PM soaring at Daniels. Any interest? Bacil

[RedBaron]

Count me in

[markc]

Janni, Carlos, Glen, and myself are headed to Daniel's...
ETA about 12:30

--mark

[XCanytime]

Very nice day at Daniels. All of the hang glider pilots got their tanks filled with lotsa airtime. Got there around 1:15P to find Laszlo and Noah ready to launch. Pete Schumann and Glen Hardy were set up on the road. Janni, Mark, and Carlos were on their way from the LZ. As the rest of us set up on the road, conditions started to improve. Stronger cycles and more of them. Temps at launch were quite comfortable, around 50 degrees. Pete led the hang glider charge around 2:45P and got up pretty easily. Janni followed and did the same. I launched third and made a pass by launch before getting up to the right of launch. Saw Janni specked out near Skyline Drive behind launch. He got 4100' over in a big fat thermal, pulled VG, and XCed upwind to a huge flat field. I got to 1700' over (3400' MSL) max. I tried to drive upwind to Janni's field, but got down to 2200' MSL just upwind of the south field. As I was cold, I decided to land by the creek to the right of the south spine. Flew over a bull by the cow feeder. Steered clear of the cows as I carried the glider completely around the herd. Janni showed up from his out landing, getting a ride from a friendly local. Glen landed on the spine. Carlos landed in the west field. As the sun was setting, Mark C. landed in the west field, and Pete the airhog Schumann was just leaving the ridge to come out to land. Pics to follow.

Bacil

[XCanytime]

Pete getting ready to go.

Mark setting up on the road.

Carlos launching.

Pete thermalling up.

View of Daniels Mountain, looking north.

[markc]

Yeah, a quite decent day! Things had quieted down a bit by the time I got off
the mountain, only managed 1500' over a couple times. Saw Janni speck'd out
over the valley, but couldn't do the same. Still, first time in the air in over
4 months, so I'm not complaining.

Pete finally won the last-to-land contest, though I did have fun teasing him
a few times, heading out and getting down to a few hundred over, then
zooming back to the ridge. Pete! Geez! You *were* first off, ya know?
Some guys are such airhogs!

Thanks for posting the pics Bacil!! And hey, what type of camera mount are
you using? Meant to ask you that earlier....

Cheers,

MarkC

PS: PG'ers flying today were Charlie, Jim K, Noah, and Lazslo.

[XCanytime]

Mark,
I'm using the UltraClamp Camera Mount available from Mojos Flight Gear. I believe that Porter's Camera Store manufactures this mount. It allows a small digital camera to easily be mounted to your basetube. What Mojos Flight Gear provides you is just the clamp. With it is documentation that has the part number for the remaining part of the mount that you order from Porter's Camera Store. Shawn Ray has one of these mounts, I believe.

Bacil

[RedBaron]

Finally, my first flight on the Litespeed in over 4 months. I only flew for 40 minutes or so, left the ridge early and high because I didn't want to lose the opportunity to fly over the mountain in the valley and land out in something more suitable for my landing skills. Nothing but sinking venturi in the valley that made for quite a head wind. Going 50 mph or so at full VG took care of it. Landed in a big field and got a ride back as soon as I was broken down. I believe this is the first time I didn't fly Daniels in nasty SW stuff.

[Pete Schumann]

OMG, 40+ degrees and sunny! As I was the first off, didn't want to sink out so I waited. Things were too light when I frist got on launch. Sure enough I unhooked and it started picking up. I got back on launch picked a great cycle and went right up.

After battling for last man up with MarK C. ( He's pretty sneaky too he tried to make it look like he was going out to land a few times) I landed after him for almost 3 and a half hours.

I hiked up to get my car under the awesome stars 24 min to Z top and last man off the mt.

Thanks to all for hang checks and launch help. Bacil great pic's.

Pete

[carweill]

First time at Daniels

Amazing I’ve been flying in the area for many years and this was the first time I made it to Daniels. The road to launch is tricky, but the launch itself quite nice. The LZs have their challenges, but thanks to Mark for showing the approaches I felt pretty comfortable.
Flying was great mostly a thermal day. Didn’t explore too much and I wanted to land with plenty of sunlight. Thanks to Mark for helping me launch and willing to self- launch, he was rewarded with an excellent flight, and Janni too for being the instigator.

Carlos

[lbunner]

Awesome posts guys. Can't wait to get down there myself one of these days.

[CraginS]

Bacil said

Flew over a bull cow by the feeder.

Bacil,
That's like saying you saw a boy girl! (Not to be confused with a girlie-man.)
Wow, you are a city boy!