Woodstock, Monday, 12/26

[deveil]

the judges want me to mention the strong showing by someone calling himself "theflyingdude".
Anybody know who that is? no? probably ballot stuffing by some pranksters or something.

[RichH]

Fine Gary u keep it real..while the accidents pile up..

[deveil]

non sequitur

[RichH]

Im sorry I ever entered the conversation.

[deveil]

yeah, sorry if i ruined your day. by extension then, it sort of ruined mine. the world would have kept revolving without my two cents and if one has to explain a joke, then by definition it wasn’t amusing.

[Joe Schad]

I was the guy behind Carlos on launch. I agree with Bacil and Tom.

We had several heavy rains last year that have washed alot of dirt and small stone down the hill. It would be nice to have a clean running areal to launch both hang gliders and paragliders but it will never eliminate blown launches from slot launch areas in my view.
Joe

[Ward Odenwald]

Tom’s comment: “I think the Woodstock launch is fine and the slot is in excellent shape.” Given its history of injuries, broken gliders and close calls (many discussed in detail in this forum) I believe that there is much that can be done to make it a safer launch. All of us can look back on a recent launch at any site and realize that - I could have done better. I’m not in favor of keeping this site as the one that “thins out the weak ones”. Our community is about helping all and not about the survival of the fittest. My 2 cents - Ward

[mcgowantk]

Ward - "thinning out the weak ones" is not my goal. We are a small community and it is painful for me to see my friends get injured. My point was that observations have suggested that was the primary reason for poor launches over the years has been poor launch technique. Therefore, my recommendation was that pilots should work on launch skills. Over the years we (with a special kudos to Joe Shad) have cleared out all the trees and shrubs from inside the slot. I think it is in as good as shape as I have ever seen it. Others have opened the top of the slot to make it easier to launch paragliders, which also benefits hang gliders. Adding some stone to the top to help the running surface would be an improvement but the real issue, in my view, why we have more blown launches at Woodstock than other sites is that the shallow slope of the launch exposes poor technique.

Tom McGowan

[carweill]

I am annoyed for being distracted when I knew I had to be 100% on task.
This was a very bad launch all the way from the start.
I am grateful for walking away after hitting a rock like a sac of potatoes. A few inches higher or lower and the outcome may have been different.
My poor glider took the brunt of the impact. I prefer to get a health care bill from Steve than from a hospital.

I may disappoint some but I still plan to have 100 flights next year. Of course not without going to the training hill first.

If the outcome of all this conversation makes flights safer then is worth it.

Carlos