Wow! it's great to see this forum lighting up - it was kinda dead for a long time. I took my bag on a business trip to Monterey CA last week. As soon as I arrived, I went straight from the airport (hey, the wind socks were showing STFI!) to this hang-glider dune soaring site. There were a couple of radio control pilots flying, so I asked them where people launched from. It was a little strong and the wing got sucked back into a gnarly wire fence when I tried to inflate it, so I ended up kiting and taking a few sleds down to the beach - only 25 feet below. Thursday, my last afternoon there, I went back and found a couple of HGs and a couple of PGs present. I had the same problem and the kind locals - both highly skilled - came and rescued me from the paraglider-eating fence. By this time the wing had a load of sand, so the guy flew it upside down and bounced it up and down to get the sand out. This is a really neat trick that one clearly needs to learn for the beach environment. I invited him to fly my wing and he proceeded to kite expertly straight up the steep face of the dune - maybe 40 feet. He explained that the board fence at the top of the dune marked a definite no-go area: the s**t pond for the local sewage treatment plant is on the other side of the fence. The guys suggested I might have better luck next time at Sand City, which is closer to Monterey and is an easier launch. So I kited for awhile in the wonderful laminar coastal wind and packed up for the airline flights the next day. I have a shredded sheath on one line and a brake handle snap to fix...
- Hugh
Marina del Rey CA
Moderator: CHGPA BOD