High Rock update : Fly-In impacts

[Richard Hays]

After attending Kimmy and Jims' 10th annniversary wedding celebration at Pen=Mar park yesteday, Leigh and I went down to see Emma and Randy who were unable to be up at the park for the vows. Emma is doing well and fiesty as ever, but concerned about the lack of flying going on at High Rock. As you know, this ultimately affects her family monetarily and well.....a concious effort should be made to fly there as much as possible. Please! Especially now with the longer days and weekday flying should be more feasible now. She also wanted to know what the status of the running launch was. I told her as much as I knew but was unsure if any efforts were afoot to contact the adjacent landowner to the launch. Creating a paraglider launch up there would resolve alot of LZ issues I think. That said......

Sometime after the first cutting of grass this year, Randy and Emma are going to be planting the field with soy bean. They will leave a landing strip for us and a way to walk the wings over to the pavillion area, but.....it should be noted that it may complicate landings slightly. This soy bean planting is in an attempt to rejuvenate the field without having to plow it up and do a total re-seed. Apparently the soy bean will losen up the soil and make it more productive for a hay crop the following year.

So...this is a temporary deal ( I hope ). Don't let this foil the flying up there. In fact; it will be somewhat nicer to land in than dodging huge round hay bales on final. BUT...........

This is probably going to put the kebosh on a High Rock Fly-In this fall. Soy is typically harvested around Halloween. We were planning on having the Fly-In on the 3rd week in September ( tenatively ) and a more formal affair than last year. Problem is.....there will be no space for numerous cars, gliders and tents that are the norm for a fly-in. Randy said he'd keep me posted and we'll discuss this and other situations and options at the next MHGA meeting on June 11th.

FYI: Grass in LZ is about 12-18" high right now. First cuttings are beginning to occur across the valley.

Anyway......thats the latest.

Richard Hays
MHGA
PS: Daniel; thanks for the book. Arrived just in time. It was delivered, along with a gift from me and leigh.

[Dan T]

Soybeans are nitrogen fixers. They are very good for the soil and are the reason corn farmers rotate their crops in and out of soybeans. That's all the farming I know.

Dan Tuck showed me his plans for a new High Rock platform. Simple and nice. He's putting a lot of effort into it and some money as well. Let's support him on it.

Dan

[Matthew]

HIGH ROCK HALLOWEEN FLY-IN!!!!!!!

Matthew

[davidtheamazing1]

I agree that HR should be flown as often as possible.

If the fly-in were earlier in the summer, would that make it more feasible to do with the soy crop? We could park vehicles out of the field (maybe along the road) and make a large effort to stay in "our strip" and keep tents and gliders out of the soy as much as possible.

[mcelrah]

What's the next step on the new launch ramp? - Hugh

[Richard Hays]

We cannot have a large presence and not potentially interfere with or damage the crop. The intention of the fly-in is to get as many people there as possilbe to raise money and site awareness. Without complete access to the field, it would be a major cluster-F*@#% trying to squeeze cars along the access road, etc. Therefore....I do not see how it would be possible to host the event until the crops are harvested which....with soy.....generally is pretty late in the fall. Like......November in many cases. We may have to shoot for spring of 2011 or postpone it until fall of 2011 regretably.

Richard Hays
MHGA

[dbodner]

I'm up for some cool-weather camping if Halloween is doable.

[markc]

Are we sure that a High Rock Fly-In for late-summer or early-fall wouldn't be possible?

Don't mean to sound like a pessimist... But it's not like turn-outs for flying events
have been all that huge in recent years. Heck, the number of campsites has been
maybe 10 (maybe!) for the last couple?

Sure, there'd be more who would fly for the day, but how likely is it that the total
pilots would be more than 25 or so?

Small vehicles could park along the access road. And there's room for more along
the disused road which continues on, after the jog to the left and the LZ.

I'd just hate to see the 35th anniversary pass by without some sort of party to
celebrate the occasion....

MarkC

[Richard Hays]

its probably going to boil down to seeing what we have available to us regarding space once the soy bean is planted. If the farmer takes the crop right to the edge of the tree line where we traditionally camp, park, tear down gliders, etc. then....I don't see how it would be possible.

2007, 2008 we had a pretty big turn out ( by design ). If we're not going for numbers, then sure...we could have a small get together. But I'm not sure that is the goal if we want to try and actually raise some money along with awareness of the site. But its one of these situations that we either plan for big or not. Can't do larger scale event last minute. It takes ALOT of prep and setup work.

[mcelrah]

Working on my best imitation of Cato the Elder ("Carthage must be destroyed!"): what's the next step on the new launch ramp? I'm willing to help. - Hugh

[pink_albatross]

Rich, do you think Emma Jane could find out - being local - who owns the land next to High Rock? The spot to the right as you're looking out over the valley? That would make a great PG launch and we might have enough time, assuming we get the owner's permission, to cut in a launch for a Halloween fly-in.

-- ellis

[Richard Hays]

I already asked her about that. She has no idea and actually was asking me to find out. The owners' name is listed on the plat/plot plan I think. I had forwarded that to ( matthew?? ) previously when we were looking into this before.

Rich Hays
PS: guys; you're missing the point about the fly-in. I don't think they harvest soy until "after" Halloween. More like closer to thanksgiving. At least thats how I remember it around where I live. We won't know pooh until late summer whether or not a fly-in will even be possible this fall. Stay tuned. I want to and am willing to host one but only if its feasable to do so.

[Matthew]

I have the plat. There is no info on the owner on the plat. I've had several realtors look into finding out who owns the land adjacent to High Rock-- they came up empty.

Matthew

[Richard Hays]

Does anybody have Bill Umstead's number? ( wink ). LOL. Could commando chainsaw ops. could be an option?
( kidding )(kinda). LOL. I bet if one tree was felled, we'd find out real quick who owns it. Probably not the best diplomatic approach.

( name withheld to avoid the black helicopters...)

[dbodner]

PS: guys; you're missing the point about the fly-in. I don't think they harvest soy until "after" Halloween. More like closer to thanksgiving.

So, who's up for a turkey roast?

[Dan T]

I am not sure I quite understand the issue. If I've followed the thread correctly Emma Jane's plan is to cut a strip wide enough to safely land the HGs and provide an exit to the access road. Then the question is about having enough space to camp. Isn't there a campsite just a few miles away just south of the P40 airspace? It could be real nice with restrooms and showers and everything. Does anyone know?

There'd probably be plenty of room to party and perhaps set up camp in the landing strip for those who couldn't retire to a more comfortable location, wouldn't there?

Seems like the biggest question is, will the landing strip be wide enough to safely get the gliders down? There are a lot of fields that we never use a mile or so upwind. Most of us could easily reach those if we left while high. Alternately maybe we could get permission to land in the field just to the south. I think it's Monk's field, and Matthew might have landed there once. If we could do that maybe Emma wouldn't have to cut down a 50 foot by 500 foot strip of soybeans to accommodate us.

Dan

[Matthew]

I have never landed in Mong's field. Jeesh! I'm being accused all of kinds of things today.

Matthew

[markc]

There are places within the woods on the north side of the LZ that could easily
be made campable by clearing some brush and downed branches (bring a tarp!).
And I suspect that vehicles could be accomodated with a little creativity.... So it
really comes down to how big the LZ strip would be, and whether there would be
enough unsown space around the pavilion to accomodate a party & glider breakdowns.

I completely agree with Richard that go/no-go decisions have to be made well
in advance; last-minute just isn't feasible for planning an event.

Perhaps if we can demonstrate a certain level of interest in the Fly-In (hence donations!)
in advance, then that might be enough to ensure a cleared area around the pavilion?

MarkC

[obryandavid]

I have the plat. There is no info on the owner on the plat. I've had several realtors look into finding out who owns the land adjacent to High Rock-- they came up empty.

Matthew

Matthew,

The tax assessor's office should know. Did the realtors check with them? I'd be happy to make some calls if you can send me a scan of the plat.

Regards,

Dave O

[Ashley Groves]

"Emma wouldn't have to cut down a 50 foot by 500 foot strip of soybeans to accommodate us..."
Isn't the H4 spot a 50 foot radius?!? Spot landing contest: Ouside of the H4 circle = $20 fee to Emma (standard crop landing rate).
If only I had a flacon...

[Richard Hays]

"Flacons" ?

( I know...I'm being a spelling nerd....LOL ).

[mcelrah]

Hey, now everyone can be a "Flaconero"! Spent an hour yesterday afternoon buying and cutting spacers of 1" 1/4 PVC pipe for the big Finsterwalder tires on my new (to me) Falcon 3 Tandem. Paul Voight (aerotow) clinic next week at Kitty Hawk. Training hill work at Lookout, maybe a high flight if I can find a volunteer/victim. Then will be looking for rated pilots to fall off the Rock with me. Need experienced wirecrew, too. Sure would be nice to have that new ramp... - Hugh

[Richard Hays]

Lets test the airframe on it by hooking me in with you. LMAO

Rich Hays

[mcelrah]

How much do you weigh anyway? The rated hook-in goes to 500 but they only recommend 450. 'Twould be a delicate dance to foot land it, but who better than you? I suppose a wheel landing would be OK outside the dip... - Hugh

[brianvh]

Hugh - will you be foot launch tandemable (HR almost doesn't count)? Hyner's perfect: Shawn used to like me as his tandem trainee partner, but dumped me for someone else. Said he needed variety but I heard through the grapevine the real reason was this guy has a nice mass. We tried to work things out until he discovered most girls tend to have a really nice mass. I'm devastated.

Now I'm looking for someone to pick me up on the rebound. Sweep me off my feet.