Remembering Ward Odenwald

[RichH]

A Tribute to Ward

It’s been several days now since the accident and I’ve had a bit of time to reflect on Ward as a pilot but more importantly as a good friend and a brother in flight.

I first met Ward in 1978 we both had new gliders, I just acquired an Eipper Flexi 3 and Ward just purchased a new Seagull 10 meter. We were setting them up for the first time at the SE training hill outside of Thurmont Md. We hit it off right away, and started talking about flying High Rock Md, in those days our main cliff launch mountain site. Ward was one of the first hang gliding pilots to go cross country routinely from High Rock. I can remember many days sitting in the landing field and hearing radio reports about how far down wind Ward was from launch. It wasn’t long before we both had purchased Seedwing Sensor 510’s from Bob Trampenau and I would soon be joining Ward on many cross country adventures.

I can recall several but the one that sticks out in my mind is the flight we made together climbing and circling together in the same thermal to cloud base high above High Rock. We attained an altitude of over 7000ft before preceding downwind. Moments later Ward came over the radio to share with me we were now directly over Camp David ( in those days Camp David was restricted only to 5000 ft ceiling..today you can’t fly over it at all) I’ll never forget him pointing out the helicopter launch pad at Camp David and the two Presidential copters that were taking off bringing then President Regan back to Washington and the White House. We ended up flying close to 50 miles together that day landing past Sykesville Md.

I also remember the magical day we climbed above 10,000ft on our eastward track back towards Baltimore from High Rock. It was an incredible day, one that happens only a few times in your flying career. I still have the photo that Ward took at cloudbase that day the valley laid out below in a checker board pattern and the next cloud we were flying toward clearly in view.

When Ward made the decision to leave hang gliding in the late 80s I was at a loss but understood the need for him to put other parts of his life first. What amazed me was what he did a few days later, showing up at my house with his new Sensor 510 C on top of his car telling me he wanted me to have it as a gift. I loved that glider, and when I flew it, I felt it was in recognition of him.

There are not too many people in my life that I respected or admired more than Ward. I enjoyed many flights with him soaring many miles together in the same thermals. One of my main reasons to start flying again was to try and recreate some of those experiences again but unfortunately, it was not in the cards.

If I could leave you with a few insights on Ward for those that didn’t know him well. Ward was extremely intelligent, a renowned scientist at the NIH and a very careful and insightful pilot but also a very accomplished pilot with many thousands of hours in an hang glider and several decades of flying experience. We talked many hours about our families, he was extremely proud of his family and rightly so. Nearly every time we flew together Ward would update me on is wife Arlene and his son and daughter, since our families we so similar both of us having kids nearly at the same age going through the same chapters in life at nearly the same time. We would spend many hours dissecting the weather, cross country routes, gliders and their performance etc...

He was also very competitive, in the 80s when we flew together it would inevitably turn into an impromptu competition of who could out fly the other. When I left the sport I still would continue to drive retrieval for Ward on his cross country flights. I would find him usually far from his launch point with that Ward smile on his face relishing the day and the result of an XC flights conclusion.

I never thought I would be expressing this publicly, but I will miss him more than I can say. His sudden departure has cut me deeply and will be with me for years to come.

Rich Hiegel #26209

[markc]

Hi Rich,

I hope you don't mind that I retitled your post as "Remembering Ward Odenwald" : My thought is that this topic could be the place to collect other thoughts/recollections/pics about Ward, just like your own.

And wow, I just have to say.... You guys were rockin' it in the 70s/80s. Holy cr@p!

[RichH]

Don't mind at all Marc..

[markc]

I went back to find Ward's first post within our forum, when he was returning to the sport after a long hiatus:

After 24 years of watching the cloud streets and raising my children, I'm finally transitioning back into this remarkable sport. When I left, my Ball vario was just fine (its all we had) now the new instruments look like they require advanced double degrees in physics and computer science. I'm surprised that they don't offer in-flight movies. I'd like to hear from those of you that fly with a vario linked to a GPS tracker. How has it helped your flying at local sites? Has it added miles to your XC flights? The companies that sell them claim that theirs will get you back into that lost thermal. Is this true? I'd appreciate any feedback.

See:

https://chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=3799

This took place back in March of 2009. Ward obviously re-embraced flying, and enjoyed it for 13 years afterwards. I don't know of many pilots who have transitioned like that so successfully.

[markc]

And just six months later, Ward was pursuing aerotowing at Highland Aerosports (not even an option when he had left the sport), and he was already posting pics of his experiences:

While the Sky-gods and XC-maniacs were out dodging hawks last Sunday, the Wantabes were busy honing and/or “scraping the rust off” their flying skills at Ridgely. Here’s some photos taken by Ran Baron of one of my pattern flights using John Middleton’s Falcon (thanks again John).

For more info and the pics, see: https://chgpa.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=4077

Ward always wanted to share the magic of his flights : He rigged up cameras to shoot stills from both wings, and shared them in these forums so that others could enjoy what he was enjoying.

But notice that he was flying a Falcon back in 2009. Very conservative and thoughtful. Very mindful of the risks. Making sure that he was doing due-diligence when stepping back into flying.

And those pics just kept coming over the years. I always looked forward to them. If I can find a way to query for all those pics in one go, I'll let you know.

[krryerson]

Rich and Mark,
Thanks for sharing… .
Knut