Yesterday was undoubtably the best day I've ever seen at Daniels in all the years I've been in the sport. What a treat to see two generations of pilots painting the sky with colorful wings like an advertisement for a high definition big screen color tv.
A special congratulations to Jesse who showed the HG crowd that soaring could be done. You rocked Jesse, great flight!
This day was the USHPA magazine material for sure. Anybody want to take a shot at writing an article for them? They are pleading for articles about sites from the USA. Don't be shy it's your chance for your own 15 minutes of fame. All you have to do is put together a great set of pictures. Just like the swimsuit edition of Sports Illustrated, nobody really cares that much about the words anyway.
It was a record setting day! I counted 15 gliders in the air - next time we need to go for 20! It was awesome to see so many people sharing the sky! Although several people commented that Laszlo was trying to knock them out of the sky. I think all the yelling he was doing scared the animals on the ground and stirred up the thermals and turned the air magic.
Launch was busy from 1-6pm and people did a pretty good job of getting hooked in before moving into launch position. It'd be nice if we could make a little more room to layout two wings at a time - maybe by putting more carpet down on the side, but it might still be too narrow. I hope the hang gliders didn't feel too crowded out. Is there anything we could have done better?
Peter van Oevelen, Jesse, and David Bodner also showed up early and helped with cleanup. I wonder how much Roundup it would take to keep it all from growing back? The chainsaw helped a lot, but wore me out. Thankfully the conditions were brain dead soarable at the end of the day because I didn't have much strength left in my hands. My favorite type of workout!
From a a biwingwal perspective to help the HGs, it would have been nice if the the PGers had spread out more along the ridge instead of all being bunched up around launch. I spent a good deal of my flight way to the West on the ridge, mostly higher than everyone else, looking back at the cluster of gliders and wondering why no one else was using the entire ridge. And then later in the flight, the lift was better out in valley and only a few of us took advantage of this. Spread out and make room when the lift is abundant.
Wow, what a day! I have never flown with that many gliders before in such a relatively small area. All in all I think everyone did a pretty good job. I am not aware right now of any "close calls"???. I think Matthew is right on about spreading out the best you can....for both the PGs and HGs....I was pretty guilty of staying with the bunch. I felt pretty congested at times and probably would have stayed up even longer had I waited for it to go magic, and escaped to open sky out in the valley. Daniels is a relatively "small" site so I think its pretty impressive that were able to accommodate so many wings. Nice job to everyone!!
Here is a vimeo link to some of my flying video of the day. What you can't see in the video is at least another 10+ gliders just above!!!
What a wonderful day at Daniels! I feel blessed to be able to fly with so many great pilots, PG and HG. It was a bit crowded. I think most of us newer pilots tried to stay close to the lift we knew of instead of searching farther away from launch, at least in the beginning.
Here's the video. I know 7 minutes is long, but I tried to make it interesting.
I think all the yelling he was doing scared the animals on the ground and stirred up the thermals and turned the air magic.