geezer attack in Florida

[Lauren Tjaden]

"So, are you all right?" The 60ish man riding in the golf cart tilted his head with concern.
"Yup", I reported. "Fine. I was trying to fly a course, but ran out of lift here."
He ran his tongue around his lips. "I could do mouth to mouth. It might make you feel better". Well. Bo said I should have toyed with him, but the old horn-dog might well have chosen to leap over the barb wire and given me a taste of his decrepit tongue. There is a time for toying and a time for being petrified.
"No," I insisted, "I am fine." When he suggested that I should reconsider just to be safe, flirting was out of the question. I mean, maybe if he had been cute! So the rest of this is just about how I ended up in the field and with the horn-dog.
It is about flying. Boring. Well, not to me.
I didn't fly yesterday because the wind was east from about 10 which is always a rough direction. The gust factor was big, too, and I just don't have that many hours on my beautiful Litespeed. Kev called and said I should fly but conditions looked kinda scary when I arrived at Quest. He and Jim P. had good flights but lift was light and the turbulence was a factor. When both Bo and Bob tell you NO, YOU SHOULD NOT FLY, you gotta listen.
But this morning, conditions looked more south and lighter to me. Much better, because the runway is more unobstructed that way. Kev and Jim stayed in bed until late, and Paul is crippled from our beach day, so I was the only pilot. The tow was ROWDY! I should have held on at altitude but pinned off at 2000 something when Angel decided to bear hard right. I need to remember when to fight.
Then I was in rat-shit lift. Worse than that. Losing slowly. Luckily, in spite of my mistakes, I found some lift on the long way home. I climbed to almost 4 K and finally made it out of the start circle (on the course I programmed in, Jim Prahl's). I aimed to the east, into the wind, so that I would drift towards my first turn point to the south (2 miles). I wondered if I would deck it early but found a dribble of lift on the way there. I heard the happy song of my 5030 reporting I had made it and then headed 4 miles to my next way point to the north. The drift was better this way and I arrived high at the north way point. Woo hoo, I love that you-have-arrived- song!
When I bolted to the east, I found a good line of lift. I couldn't find anything strong enough to turn in, but I actually gained altitude for awhile. I was so happy; I was going to complete my course!
My good line of lift evaporated, but I aimed for a cloud over the third way point. Woo hoo, I made it! Unfortunately, the cloud above was a lying SOB.
I began to realize the Quest field was far out of reach. One decent field loomed below, and at 1000 feet, I decided to treat it like the Quest field. I just was not going to leave unless it was decent. I also realized that the feild had a few barb wires fences dividing it. Oh oh.
My approach was fine. I am drilled in enough on being smooth that it worked even when I was concentrating on not over flying the fence and getting down before the next one. However, my landing sucked. I rolled in on my stomach (bless those horrific, expensive, worthless, little wheels), but narrowly missed some cow shit, so things could have smelled worse.
Make no mistake, I do not take my flaws lightly. I am setting up the Sport in the morning and practicing. I always landed her well, but I need a more exuberant flare on my beautiful Litespeed to do as well on her. I know if my landings are not perfect my margin for error is diminished. SO ALL OF YOU, please send me your good thoughts and mind-images of ME landing like Adam Elchin, or Mike Barber, or Bob from Quest. I promise you, I will have it like that in the next 30 days.
But I am happy. I have had my Litespeed one month. I was totally scared of her but damn, we are making progress! I actually flew her XC today. And it was fine. By next May all of the pieces of my new harness and glider and GPS will have meshed. I have 100 hours this year so far. I hope I have another 100 before its end.
Anyhow, I am sure having fun. Kev says I need to pack up and go with him to Tennessee on Friday; I am not sure. I need to tune up my foot launch if I go. He also says we will fly tandem in the Ecstasy in the next day or two which should be great fun. Paul got her back in tune today so he can fly. He is still pretty crippled from our beach day but he really needs to fly again. You know, the Ecstasy is an old rigid with landing gear so Paul can fly without being able to walk.
I am surrounded by wonderful friends and I have Paul, too. Lucky me.
Come visit.
Lauren

[drice21037]

Great story! Unfortunately for some reason, even though your name
clearly at the top and the bottom of this post, I had it in my mind it
was Paul being hit on by the old man. I'm sorry happened to you but I'm
very happy it didn't happen to Paul!

Dave

-----Original Message-----
From: Lauren Tjaden [mailto:Giddyupandglide@yahoo.com]
Sent: Monday, September 26, 2005 7:47 PM
To: hg_forum@chgpa.org
Subject: geezer attack in Florida



He ran his tongue around his lips. "I could do mouth to mouth. It might
make you feel better".

[mcelrah]

You continue to be an inspiration. Keep these posts coming! - Hugh

On 26 Sep 2005, at 19:47, Lauren Tjaden wrote:

>
> "So, are you all right?" The 60ish man riding in the golf cart
> tilted his head with concern.
> "Yup", I reported. "Fine. I was trying to fly a course, but ran out
> of lift here."
> He ran his tongue around his lips. "I could do mouth to mouth. It
> might make you feel better". Well. Bo said I should have toyed with
> him, but the old horn-dog might well have chosen to leap over the
> barb wire and given me a taste of his decrepit tongue. There is a
> time for toying and a time for being petrified.
> "No," I insisted, "I am fine." When he suggested that I should
> reconsider just to be safe, flirting was out of the question. I
> mean, maybe if he had been cute! So the rest of this is just about
> how I ended up in the field and with the horn-dog.
> It is about flying. Boring. Well, not to me.
> I didn't fly yesterday because the wind was east from about 10
> which is always a rough direction. The gust factor was big, too,
> and I just don't have that many hours on my beautiful Litespeed.
> Kev called and said I should fly but conditions looked kinda scary
> when I arrived at Quest. He and Jim P. had good flights but lift
> was light and the turbulence was a factor. When both Bo and Bob
> tell you NO, YOU SHOULD NOT FLY, you gotta listen.
> But this morning, conditions looked more south and lighter to me.
> Much better, because the runway is more unobstructed that way. Kev
> and Jim stayed in bed until late, and Paul is crippled from our
> beach day, so I was the only pilot. The tow was ROWDY! I should
> have held on at altitude but pinned off at 2000 something when
> Angel decided to bear hard right. I need to remember when to fight.
> Then I was in rat-shit lift. Worse than that. Losing slowly.
> Luckily, in spite of my mistakes, I found some lift on the long way
> home. I climbed to almost 4 K and finally made it out of the start
> circle (on the course I programmed in, Jim Prahl's). I aimed to the
> east, into the wind, so that I would drift towards my first turn
> point to the south (2 miles). I wondered if I would deck it early
> but found a dribble of lift on the way there. I heard the happy
> song of my 5030 reporting I had made it and then headed 4 miles to
> my next way point to the north. The drift was better this way and I
> arrived high at the north way point. Woo hoo, I love that you-have-
> arrived- song!
> When I bolted to the east, I found a good line of lift. I couldn't
> find anything strong enough to turn in, but I actually gained
> altitude for awhile. I was so happy; I was going to complete my
> course!
> My good line of lift evaporated, but I aimed for a cloud over the
> third way point. Woo hoo, I made it! Unfortunately, the cloud above
> was a lying SOB.
> I began to realize the Quest field was far out of reach. One decent
> field loomed below, and at 1000 feet, I decided to treat it like
> the Quest field. I just was not going to leave unless it was
> decent. I also realized that the feild had a few barb wires fences
> dividing it. Oh oh.
> My approach was fine. I am drilled in enough on being smooth that
> it worked even when I was concentrating on not over flying the
> fence and getting down before the next one. However, my landing
> sucked. I rolled in on my stomach (bless those horrific, expensive,
> worthless, little wheels), but narrowly missed some cow shit, so
> things could have smelled worse.
> Make no mistake, I do not take my flaws lightly. I am setting up
> the Sport in the morning and practicing. I always landed her well,
> but I need a more exuberant flare on my beautiful Litespeed to do
> as well on her. I know if my landings are not perfect my margin for
> error is diminished. SO ALL OF YOU, please send me your good
> thoughts and mind-images of ME landing like Adam Elchin, or Mike
> Barber, or Bob from Quest. I promise you, I will have it like that
> in the next 30 days.
> But I am happy. I have had my Litespeed one month. I was totally
> scared of her but damn, we are making progress! I actually flew her
> XC today. And it was fine. By next May all of the pieces of my new
> harness and glider and GPS will have meshed. I have 100 hours this
> year so far. I hope I have another 100 before its end.
> Anyhow, I am sure having fun. Kev says I need to pack up and go
> with him to Tennessee on Friday; I am not sure. I need to tune up
> my foot launch if I go. He also says we will fly tandem in the
> Ecstasy in the next day or two which should be great fun. Paul got
> her back in tune today so he can fly. He is still pretty crippled
> from our beach day but he really needs to fly again. You know, the
> Ecstasy is an old rigid with landing gear so Paul can fly without
> being able to walk.
> I am surrounded by wonderful friends and I have Paul, too. Lucky me.
> Come visit.
> Lauren
>

[Gene]

Yeah, I think Paul would've given the decrepit tongue a go Great read Lauren. Miss flying with you, I need to get some time and do a Quest run. Gene