Just wanted to write a quick note congratulating Adam, Sunny and all our good friends at Highland for such a fun and succesful Fly In. The weather cooperated too with two days of warm sun and excellent soaring conditions.
Having had three flights and nearly four hours on the WW U2 and T2 on Thursday and then on Friday flying my ATOS on an XC with Ric N., I was pretty tired on Saturday and decided to drive for Lauren and some friends instead of flying. I really had fun picking everyone up and hearing about their flights but it was especially great listening on the radio to Lauren and PK as they worked their way north across the peninsula. Lauren had a nice flight of 35.4 miles landing just west of Middletown and PK made it across the C&D canal for 41 plus. PK won the distance competition and Lauren was second with their nice efforts.
I was REALLY happy for Lauren especially because she seems to have been in a slump lately and she was due for some positive feedback. Well, she got it Saturday beating most of the guys, several of which were flying higher performing gliders.
Sunday was another nice day of soaring with many pilots reporting flights of several hours. Unfortunately, some evil creature must have put a hex on the field for the day because around noon all kinds of bad ju ju started happening.
First, George Rousseau fell from a ladder while trying to repair a hanger door (cuts, bumps and bruises only but he's pretty beat up), then an oil cap got pulled through the prop of one of the tugs (minor, fixable damage), then Lauren had her unfortunate incident (more bumps and bruises and a hugely damaged ego) and then New York Ken blew an approach and had some minor injuries (big cut on his nose and maybe a broken nose, etc).
So, a bit of a bad way to end things but no serious injuries so not too bad.
Perhaps another big reminder to all of us that this fabulous sport of ours IS aviation and it can bite hard if taken casually. Both Lauren's and Ken's accidents were due to approaching too high and overflying the intended LZ. Make certain when choosing your landing spot that you have an adequate margin for error both before and after the spot so any misjudgements don't have to end in a wreck.
Oh Yeah, and use a ladder with a good, non slip base!!!!!
Paul
Highland Fly In
Moderator: CHGPA BOD
Highland Fly In
I'm so sorry to hear about the mishaps and injuries on Sunday. I guess I
had some slight presage as I was demoing the Sport 2: as the tug began
it's first turn at about 1000 agl I found myself rolling out of the turn,
and couldn't seem to fix it. Popped off tow, and used up the entire
landing field by misjudging the glide. Got some advice from Jim (pull in
before correcting, then climb back up to the tug) but when the same thing
began to happen again got too flustered to really deal with it, popped
off, tried to come in with a little lower approach and again used up the entire
field. In some ways I've let myself get spoiled by flying a droque-chute
of a glider for so long.
But Saturday was great, as Linda and I found ourselves in the same patch
of lift and pimped off each other quite happily before coming back to the
field and losing the lift. Then we got competitive in the spot landing
contest: I heard she had got 11.5 feet and decided I could beat that.
First attempt sucked, but on the second I came right in at 7 feet. Linda
heard about that and came in at 4 feet after I was away celebrating my
obvious victory with a beer. Tied with Ayesha - the judges said my
landing was prettier, but she was the prettier pilot, making it a dead
heat.
Brian Vant-Hull
301-646-1149
had some slight presage as I was demoing the Sport 2: as the tug began
it's first turn at about 1000 agl I found myself rolling out of the turn,
and couldn't seem to fix it. Popped off tow, and used up the entire
landing field by misjudging the glide. Got some advice from Jim (pull in
before correcting, then climb back up to the tug) but when the same thing
began to happen again got too flustered to really deal with it, popped
off, tried to come in with a little lower approach and again used up the entire
field. In some ways I've let myself get spoiled by flying a droque-chute
of a glider for so long.
But Saturday was great, as Linda and I found ourselves in the same patch
of lift and pimped off each other quite happily before coming back to the
field and losing the lift. Then we got competitive in the spot landing
contest: I heard she had got 11.5 feet and decided I could beat that.
First attempt sucked, but on the second I came right in at 7 feet. Linda
heard about that and came in at 4 feet after I was away celebrating my
obvious victory with a beer. Tied with Ayesha - the judges said my
landing was prettier, but she was the prettier pilot, making it a dead
heat.
Brian Vant-Hull
301-646-1149
Fly-In
The Fly-In was great fun on Saturday. Big thanks to the crew at Highland.
I set a new personal record. After not having broken a weak link in several years, I broke 4 on Saturday.
Broke the first one at 50' on my first flight. The tug hit a big bump, climbed and dived, the line went slack and the link snapped when it pulled taut. No surprises there. Except I somehow lost the long line for my bridle.
Adam lent me part of the bridle from the rental harness. Next flight I made it all the way and found some light thermals that kept topping out at 1800. Got 20+ minutes off tow.
As things seemed to be turning on. Went for another one. Broke the weak link at 100' this time. The tow was a little rowdy, but not that bad. Don't know what caused the break.
Back in line again-- made it all the way up and then pimped off of Danny Brotto for a while till he decided to land. Got up to 3200 and considered going XC. But it was so damend hot on the ground I didn't think it would be worth the effort if I sank out 10 miles away and then had to sit in a field baking for several hours. Got 45 minutes.
Still, it was jsut too damned hot on the ground. I went for another one. This time the link broke at 900'. Damn. Worked a small bubble up a couple of hundred feet and found a few more tiny bubbles. But I couldn't stay up.
After I landed I saw that a bunch of gliders were specking out. Mostly I saw Craig specking out and we all agreed that if Craig could speck out then anyone could speck out :) So I took the U2 for a test drive. Broke the weak link at 1000'. And it was a fairly mellow tow. Found a bubble that got me up to 1300'-- lost it and headed for another relight. But I found another bubble over the runway at 700'. That got me to 1600'. Then I found another one that took me to 2000 and another one that topped out at 4900. Got an hour and ten minutes. The U2 has a much better glide than my Ulptrsport. So I wasn't worred about getting back when I was miles away from the airport. Spent a lot of time circling with someone in a red and black glider and then thermalled with the ugly yellow sailplane. Man that thing is ugly!
I'm not sure why I broke so many weak links. The first one was pretty obvious. All I can guess is that I'm either rusty on tow (I've only aerotowed one other time this year) or that the borrowed bridle had something to do with it. The line on the borrowed bridle is very thin and the loop for attaching the weak link is tiny. I usally wrap the weak link three times. I could only get in two on the borrowed bridle. Any input on this subject would be helpful.
Afterwards, Karen, Daniel Broxterman and I went on a 17 mile bike ride.
Fun day.
Matthew
I set a new personal record. After not having broken a weak link in several years, I broke 4 on Saturday.
Broke the first one at 50' on my first flight. The tug hit a big bump, climbed and dived, the line went slack and the link snapped when it pulled taut. No surprises there. Except I somehow lost the long line for my bridle.
Adam lent me part of the bridle from the rental harness. Next flight I made it all the way and found some light thermals that kept topping out at 1800. Got 20+ minutes off tow.
As things seemed to be turning on. Went for another one. Broke the weak link at 100' this time. The tow was a little rowdy, but not that bad. Don't know what caused the break.
Back in line again-- made it all the way up and then pimped off of Danny Brotto for a while till he decided to land. Got up to 3200 and considered going XC. But it was so damend hot on the ground I didn't think it would be worth the effort if I sank out 10 miles away and then had to sit in a field baking for several hours. Got 45 minutes.
Still, it was jsut too damned hot on the ground. I went for another one. This time the link broke at 900'. Damn. Worked a small bubble up a couple of hundred feet and found a few more tiny bubbles. But I couldn't stay up.
After I landed I saw that a bunch of gliders were specking out. Mostly I saw Craig specking out and we all agreed that if Craig could speck out then anyone could speck out :) So I took the U2 for a test drive. Broke the weak link at 1000'. And it was a fairly mellow tow. Found a bubble that got me up to 1300'-- lost it and headed for another relight. But I found another bubble over the runway at 700'. That got me to 1600'. Then I found another one that took me to 2000 and another one that topped out at 4900. Got an hour and ten minutes. The U2 has a much better glide than my Ulptrsport. So I wasn't worred about getting back when I was miles away from the airport. Spent a lot of time circling with someone in a red and black glider and then thermalled with the ugly yellow sailplane. Man that thing is ugly!
I'm not sure why I broke so many weak links. The first one was pretty obvious. All I can guess is that I'm either rusty on tow (I've only aerotowed one other time this year) or that the borrowed bridle had something to do with it. The line on the borrowed bridle is very thin and the loop for attaching the weak link is tiny. I usally wrap the weak link three times. I could only get in two on the borrowed bridle. Any input on this subject would be helpful.
Afterwards, Karen, Daniel Broxterman and I went on a 17 mile bike ride.
Fun day.
Matthew
Highland Fly In
Next time wear the blond wig and make-up. - Hugh
On 27 Jun 2005, at 11:01, Vant-Hull - Brian wrote:
>
>
> I'm so sorry to hear about the mishaps and injuries on Sunday. I
> guess I
> had some slight presage as I was demoing the Sport 2: as the tug began
> it's first turn at about 1000 agl I found myself rolling out of the
> turn,
> and couldn't seem to fix it. Popped off tow, and used up the entire
> landing field by misjudging the glide. Got some advice from Jim (pull
> in
> before correcting, then climb back up to the tug) but when the same
> thing
> began to happen again got too flustered to really deal with it, popped
> off, tried to come in with a little lower approach and again used up
> the entire
> field. In some ways I've let myself get spoiled by flying a
> droque-chute
> of a glider for so long.
>
> But Saturday was great, as Linda and I found ourselves in the same
> patch
> of lift and pimped off each other quite happily before coming back to
> the
> field and losing the lift. Then we got competitive in the spot landing
> contest: I heard she had got 11.5 feet and decided I could beat that.
> First attempt sucked, but on the second I came right in at 7 feet.
> Linda
> heard about that and came in at 4 feet after I was away celebrating my
> obvious victory with a beer. Tied with Ayesha - the judges said my
> landing was prettier, but she was the prettier pilot, making it a dead
> heat.
>
> Brian Vant-Hull
> 301-646-1149
>
>
>
On 27 Jun 2005, at 11:01, Vant-Hull - Brian wrote:
>
>
> I'm so sorry to hear about the mishaps and injuries on Sunday. I
> guess I
> had some slight presage as I was demoing the Sport 2: as the tug began
> it's first turn at about 1000 agl I found myself rolling out of the
> turn,
> and couldn't seem to fix it. Popped off tow, and used up the entire
> landing field by misjudging the glide. Got some advice from Jim (pull
> in
> before correcting, then climb back up to the tug) but when the same
> thing
> began to happen again got too flustered to really deal with it, popped
> off, tried to come in with a little lower approach and again used up
> the entire
> field. In some ways I've let myself get spoiled by flying a
> droque-chute
> of a glider for so long.
>
> But Saturday was great, as Linda and I found ourselves in the same
> patch
> of lift and pimped off each other quite happily before coming back to
> the
> field and losing the lift. Then we got competitive in the spot landing
> contest: I heard she had got 11.5 feet and decided I could beat that.
> First attempt sucked, but on the second I came right in at 7 feet.
> Linda
> heard about that and came in at 4 feet after I was away celebrating my
> obvious victory with a beer. Tied with Ayesha - the judges said my
> landing was prettier, but she was the prettier pilot, making it a dead
> heat.
>
> Brian Vant-Hull
> 301-646-1149
>
>
>