Interviewing HG pilots for USHPA HR story

[keshob]

HG Pilots! Am putting together a story about High Rock for the USHPA magazine. All the pieces are falling into place nicely, but what we're missing is a tall tale or two about flying HR BEFORE/AFTER the renovation was done. This would be along the lines of: "See how ridiculous/crazy/lame/dangerous/difficult flying HR was before the renovation, isn't it awesome it is now renovated."

Any HG pilot who has a good story about flying HR, send me a private message or put your contacts in this thread and we'll set up a brief phone interview. This could be your 15 minutes of fame.

bishop, P2

[Danny Brotto]

Bishop

Which "renovation"?

I think a story about HR would be great but other than a very brief stint post the last wooden ramp being burnt down (early/mid 90's?), flying HR has never been "ridiculous/crazy/lame/dangerous/difficult ". During that very brief period some of us launched off the raw rock pillars. Collectively we decided to suspend operations pending the construction of the cube. Those few weeks were an aberration in an otherwise solid "noncrazy" history.

Danny Brotto

[markc]

Prior to the new stairs being poured, simply getting up to the launch platform had gotten very difficult. The steps were so eroded that
you had to walk up parallel to them (to be at a high spot), and then make a jig laterally, with the person on the noise wires practically
lifting the glider onto that first huge step. Maybe someone has an amusing story about that process, or perhaps it even prevented
someone from flying?

Prior to the reconstruction of the road to the LZ, the road had washed-out to the point that it wasn't passable without 4WD. Maybe
someone has a story about getting stuck halfway down, or caught some rocks on the undercarriage, or....

MarkC

[carweill]

Danny,
John Bishop, who is a paraglider pilot, has graciously offer to write an article for the USHPA Mag.
This is in reference to the renovations that CHGPA/MHGA accomplished last year.
The Foundation for Free Flight (USHPA) has granted 50% of the expenses and asked us to write an article.
The renovation was for both the ramp stairs and the road to the LZ.

I'm sure you have a few anecdotes you can share

Carlos

[Danny Brotto]

Carlos

Thanks for the clarification and the back story to this. And thanks to Bishop for taking the time to write the article.

The labor and financial contributions of the local group sure made for much needed access improvements to the launch and LZ. The lobby efforts to engage the Free Flight Foundation certainly helped relive the financial strain on the clubs.

In the time I've been flying HR, that was the 3rd major road repair project. The 3 previous ramps were wooden and needed periodic replacement. The concrete cube (I mean "landscaped rocks") was envisioned to need no maintenance... but I guess nature and time never take a break.

Danny Brotto

[rasmussenv]

I certainly don't have any epic story to tell, but I did fly High Rock after the road washed out and just after the cube was repaired. I was among the first to fly after it was completed. If I have my dates right, it was on Tuesday, Jun 14th with Steve Kinsley, Joe Schad and Glen - who got to see several pilots gape with wonder at the new launch, him having completed the week before, I think. Gary Devan was there as well. Yes, it was challenging to get onto the rock to launch before, but that didn't prevent me or others from managing. More striking, I remember being amazed to see 'the grand staircase' that had been built. Much nicer and more substantial than I had anticipated.

As to the road, when I started flying in 2007 my only vehicle was an older Mercedes sedan. I quickly realized I needed to upgrade to a more capable vehicle to support HG and other sports, as well as to handle the occasional snow storm, and now my only vehicle is an all-wheel drive Toyota 4Runner. I'd heard the road to the LZ at High Rock was in bad shape, but figured my 4Runner could handle it. I'd landed there before and had easily driven down onto the LZ. I couldn't imagine that just a few months later it could be THAT bad. On my flight before it was repaired I went down to scout the LZ and quickly realized that even in the 4Runner I could get no closer than 50 yards or so from the field - there were irregular RAVINES rather than a road bed! And, realistically, since the road is narrow and edged by trees, one could only drive that close (50 yards away) to load up and leave - there was no means to pre-position multiple vehicles anywhere near the LZ. It was challenging simply walking from the field through that 'road bed' obstacle course with a HG on one's shoulder to get to a vehicle stopped temporarily to load up. Of course, anyone who is willing to get to the Woodstock launch would be able to handle that trek at the High Rock LZ, but, realistically, a fly-in would have been impossible.

[davidtheamazing1]

I found this video illustrating a bit of the difficulty of climbing the old ramp.
http://youtu.be/P3hYg6w2tyQ
This video is from an almost no-wind time period. Soarable conditions would have made this much more annoying/risky.

[kcarra]

The eroded steps were particularly difficult for the shorter pilots. I pulled my hamstring badly while getting up the steps once. It took about 6 months to heal. I had to resort to having a taller pilot (usually Matthew) carry my glider up the stairs and then I would hook in on top.

[RichH]

I have some great photos of one of the first versions of the ramp with Skip Messersmith launching one of the first double surface gliders a Sirocco off of High Rock ..I believe it was 1976 maybe 1977 ..I watched Skip thermal up in his swing seat straped to his waist and a bread box vario on his down tube and land past the school ( a former over the back landing area now restricted) If I recall the first ramp was some 4x4 boards laid across the pillars or rocks piled up..I remember seeing a film of Les King and Woody Jones running down the planks and disappearing before the camera picked them out again heading out in the valley to land..I'm sure that film probably no longer is around..I have a great composite shot of launching an old Sensor 510 off of one of the earlier wooden ramps around 1981..I'd be happy to share..Rich

[Dan T]

Rich, sounds fantastic. I'm sure we'd all love to see them. I assume that they are photo paper prints and not digitized. Do we have someone in the club who can digitize them and post them so we can see them?

Dan

[Danny Brotto]

Steps? We don't need no stinking steps!

Pix upper right hand side. Heigel... looks like a Scirocco to me.

http://www.marylandhanggliding.org/images/highrock2.gif

More stuff here:
http://www.marylandhanggliding.org/HTML ... photos.htm

Danny Brotto

[RichH]

Some are paper prints and a few are slides taken from 76- 77 time period..I think the shot of the sirocco and Skip Messersmith is awesome ..considering the type of flying they were doing in swing seat harnesses.with no-parachutes..back in that time period very few if any pilots flew with parachutes..I'll forward them on to Danny Brotto. and yes that is a Sirocco Danny ..very cool stuff..I think that had to be 76 or so because the next summer I remember coming out and they had put up a more secure structure/ramp..You can see in the cracker barrel photo what I was talking about earlier that the first structure was just 4x4s..Rich