The Hill

[jimrooney]

I'm a PG student with Extreme Air. Extreme Air has vans that take regular trips up to launch. They also break for lunch. So today, after lunch, I found out that there wasn't an afternoon trip up... they would only be going to the training hill today. I was of course welcome to come along.

Now, I did consider driving up to the top and worrying about getting my car later. Plenty of people head up the mountain during the day so it's not a huge risk. I'd already had a wicked soaring flight before lunch and I figured some time at the hill wouldn't be a bad time. It's a good bit more social too... so what the heck.

And it was a good time.

But the real fun came at the end. We're close enough to the ocean to get the seabreeze... every day. It shuts down a lot of PG activity, especially the training. Hangies soar the hell out of it daily. So I figured I'd be heading up the mountain next. Lisa had a better idea.

She gave me the go-ahead (and some instruction) to soar the hill. OH HELL YEAH! I've done some dune soaring in a hang glider... I knew what that meant. It's some of my favorite flying. Oh yeah baybe, it kicked ass! Some others came out and joined me. They have two soarable hills and you can jump between them. Much Fun. Hrm, and you say this happens every day? HAHAHAHAHAHA. I could get to like this place.

If you haven't guessed already, Queenstown is very PG freindly. I can't wait to fly over town (and land in it). They have a gondola in town that takes you to launch. The LZ is either of the schoolyard's rugby fields below.

Cheers,
Jim

[Spark]

They have two soarable hills and you can jump between them. Much Fun. ....

Cheers,
Jim

Cool stuff. Thanks for the report.

Before we lost the S-faciing hill near my home, they were doing some earth moving and placed a big pile of dirt (maybe 20' long by 8' high) right in the area where we use tolaunch. I learned that I could actually soar that little pile of dirt. And kite on it, and even land on it.

It is amazing how much fun you can have with 'little' challenges like soaring t-hills. It takes me back to how I felt during my first flights in the 18' standard rogallo. I like to fly fast or high in an all-mylar topless ship, but I also really like to float and boat - low and slow.

It is all good airtime.

'Spark