SCPA & SBSA Discussion Board

Going Postal

Sunday, nice day for a hike? No Lets go flying!

Hmmmm its Sunday and there are only 3 people at the corner near Parma for the ride up to Skyport (some things make you go hmmmm)

Chip, The Doc and I and umm I forget his name a (nice French Man who works at UCSB) any hoo… We take the drive up….

Pass a few Hangliders rallying at their meeting point… hmm good sign.

Arrive at Launch, Some light cycles, but starts to build and then looks good to go….

I’m 3rd to leave…..

Left launch at sky port – headed out to the round house spine and got drilled on the way….

Oh boy this aint fun…Chip just left launched and had a great glide out………. hmmmmm can I make the power lines?........ yes, but my glide is so bad I don’t think ill make St Mary………….. oh what to do?

Oh wait what’s this little patch below me……. Could it be the potage stamp? I have never been to the Postage Stamp, but it sure is an easy glide to get to it.. Oh Ya I have this MADE………

Ohh boy it is kinda small……. Whats that on the radio? <Lee> “Hey Chris you probably know this but that little stamp has a pretty steep incline - just so you know” …. Thanks Lee I think to myself no time to talk – OK I better focus now….. Keep my air speed up, I have plenty of time to circle above and sight this landing in……..

2 360’s… and S turn and im on final in no time…….ohhh ya down wind and uphill approach ………. Here it comes……. FLARRRRRRRRE

SAHHHH WEEEEEEEEEEEET ! I have landed! Right in the middle of the postage stamp <Adrenaline>

At this time I would like to Robb and the Eagle crew for teaching me to land and have extra water, I would like to thank Lee for the short words of wisdom before I touched down………

But Most of I would like to thank all my fans watching and enjoying the great entertainment I was able to give… and helping them make up their mind to start breaking down their Hangliders because it obviously now blowing from the EAST.


Turns out it was a nice day for a hike after all.

Dude... Great write up. You should have heard the peanut gallery at the Elliminator... Many Ooooohs, and Aaaaaahs as we watched your entire flight. We all cheered and clapped when you pulled off the landing. We were stoked for you. Nice job. I'm sure you won't want to do this anytime again soon though...
Skippy

does this only happen to me?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fynp20zcmbU&NR=1

Ya almost got me. I seem to recall this post from days (years) gone by. BTW been to the stamp myself in "Barney" the purple PG, but it was not an April fool's joke, just a joke of the day. Hiked back up and had a stellar 2nd flight. Just the way the cookie crumbles.

The big give away was that Skippy replied to the post/was there. I think she's a bit busy right now. Well if not busy, preocupied with Kirra Josephine de Groot

Ya Chris..... 4/1/08
When Pigs Fly !
http://picasaweb.google.com/jeffparkeri ... 6253014754

OK, I went postal yesterday...

I can't remember the time of day that I launched, but I would guess is was around 12:30 or 1. Someone launched immediately before me, climbed to about 200' over launch and headed for the roundhouse spine. I launched in a nice cycle, climbed about 50' or 100' above launch and decided to head for the roundhouse. I started getting drilled once I got over the canyon. I got on bar for about 15 seconds, but let off when I started to hit some turbulence. I was getting closer to the power lines, and every second that passed, it seemed like I was going to clear them with less and less altitude. The sink didn't stop the entire time. I tried to adjust my heading a little to the east to get further away from the canyon, but that didn't help. I was flying with no speedbar, with hands up to fly as fast as I could. I ended up about 100-150 feet short of the power lines, with not much altitude above them, and decided it was time to head for the postage stamp. Before I got the chance to initiate a turn to the right, I felt the glider collapse above me. Instead of having the glider re-inflate and swing me into the power lines, I buried the right brake to change the heading of the glider to parallel with the powerlines. I wasn't trying to spin the glider, or turn the glider...I was just trying to stay the heck out of the path of the powerlines. Magic Mike was at launch, and later said that the initial incident was a 65% frontal collapse on the left side of the glider. Parma Chris said it looked like I spun the glider to the right. It all happened so fast and I wasnt looking at the glider, but it did FEEL like I spun it to the right without stalling the right side of the glider. I've heard this described this as Spin Appreciation. Once my heading was away from the power lines, The glider surged, I caught the surge, and started heading for the postage stamp. At that point, I didnt really care if I landed in any trees, I was just glad to be away from the powerlines. So, I was very relaxed heading into the postage stamp. I approached the LZ from the North with some S turns and crabbing, and was looking forward to a nice downhill landing into the south wind. The air was poppy and active. I didnt want to overshoot, so I did some tight s turns at the north end of the field, almost kicked a few tree branches on the way in, and ended up landing on the north end of the LZ. Checked in with the rest of the crew, packed up and hiked out with a couple beautiful girls. I never would have though the postage stamp would have been the place to meet chicks. In the future, I will happily land there and hike out instead of rolling the dice on St. Marys and possibly putting it in the trees.

Well Jeez bro Im so glad to hear you had some sympathetic shoulders to commiserate with. Nice landing!

Tyrone wrote:OK, I went postal yesterday...

Get that man a T-shirt.

Thanks for the nice write up Ty. That turned out to be an ever changing day at Skyport. You know what they say...

"SkyPort" its like a box of chocolates...... you never know what your going to get.

Glad to see you use your skills and nail the landing.

By the way, after we saw that we all decided to not launch. Except for Dean, but he doesn’t count