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Marshall, 9/16, & 9/17

From: Brendan
Activity_Date: 9/16/00
Remote Name: 4.33.113.55

Comments

Here is a letter I wrote to Kristi after our trip to Marshall last September. ----

Hi Kristi,

Had a lot of fun this weekend, sorry you couldn't make it. It would have been nice to have you along.

Tom picked me up around 11:00 a.m. at my place. We got a little stuck in traffic, and his van doesn't have A/C, so we cooked on the freeway for a while trying to get out there.

I hadn't been to Marshall before, so I didn't know what to expect. It was really nice to be at such an organized and developed site. Grass spot landing targets, and a grassy area to break down the equipment made a huge difference. Also the shade structure and abundant cold drinks were critical in the 112 degree heat.

We got there around 2:00 p.m. and after signing in, we quickly got a ride to launch in a van, older than Tom's, with no windows and no seats. It was crammed and hot, but there were some fun personalities on board so everyone was horsing around instead of complaining about being uncomforable. That's one of the things I love about paragliding, the people that do it are, for the most part, a pretty fun-havin' bunch.

At launch we encountered winds gusting around 17-20 mph so most of us decided to sit and chat, and watch the occasional pilot get tossed around attempting to launch. Tom went up, without incident, crusied around a while, top-landed, asked how we were doing, went back up, toured the whole area, landed again, softly and on the spot in hard winds. After the applause a reporter ran over to him, shook his hand and asked for a bunch of information. I was off to the side, laughing at Tom's sheepish grin, while the reporter embarrassed him with flattery.

Finally, around 5:00 p.m. the winds calmed and everyone jumped into their harnesses. When I launched there were 22 gliders in the sky. Within 30 minutes there were over 50. All in a gaggle right over launch. Quite intimidating for me. Every turn took me directly into someone's path, and I felt I had very little ability to control running into people above or below me. Before long I was out in front of the gaggle, and out of the thermal zone. One turn back into the gaggle sent me scurrying back out of it again and heading over to a far ridge in hopes of some lift without the crowd.

I got to the ridge low. Tom saw me over there and radioed to me to turn into the ridge so I wouldn't lose the lift by getting too far away from it. Unfortunately, from Tom's vantage point he couldn't see that I was already quite close to the ridge, and on the lee side. Rather than use my own judgment, I turned into the ridge and promptly landed in the bushes.

The landing was no big deal, but oh how I hated crashing around in the bushes with my paraglider while 50+ pilots soared above me. Critical of myself and very frustrated, I kept referring to myself as "Gomer" as I hiked my gear down to a lower launch spot. Tom flew down and landed next to me to assist. At a time when I was ready to drop a match on my glider and be done with it, it was really nice to have Tom there offering encouragement and getting me back in the saddle.

I re-launced and took a short sled ride to the LZ where the BBQ was in full swing. Can't do much pouting when you have a cold beer in your hand and everyone is excited and sharing stories of their flights, so my mood quickly improved and I had a great time socializing with everyone and watching the hot-doggers spiral in for their landings.

After the BBQ we watched some paragliding videos in the dark. It was still at least 80 degrees so everyone was comfortable on the grass in their shorts and hawaiian shirts. Tiki torches lit the perimeter. One of the videos was shot in Bali. It was fun to share the collective consciousness of 100 people all silently wishing they were flying in Bali.

After the videos we threw down some tarps and slept under the stars. I was surprised that there weren't more people camping at the LZ. Mostly it was Santa Barbara pilots. We had all seen a sign that said the sprinklers came on at 7:00 a.m., but after discussion we agreed that surely they would be turned off in respect to the people that were invited to sleep on the grass.

Promply at 7:00 a.m. Tom and I were sprinting across the LZ, trying to rescue our gear from a soaking by the sprinklers. In the heat of the desert, things just don't stay wet very long, so really it wasn't that big of a deal. Tom, in fact, decided to strip down to his undies and stand in the sprinkler for a morning shower. I'm not sure I was the only one laughing that time.

At 7:30 a.m. several of us piled into Tom's van for a morning flight from Crestline. Tom had hung his wet underwear from his rearview mirror and we all had a good time giving him shit about that. It still makes me laugh when I think of his face as he smiled and checked to see if they were dry, but didn't otherwise respond to the wisecracks.

I lauched at 8:00 a.m., giggling with the excitement of starting the day with an early morning, smooth air sledder. Except for a couple turns at the first ridge, there was no lift, but a beautiful view and a 25 minute flight, off the brakes the whole way.

We all enjoyed the flight so much that we darted right back up as soon as we landed. On the second launch I did a little gardening on my way out, but this time when it was Brendan versus bushes, Brendan won, and I enjoyed another sled ride and feather-soft landing on the grass.

After the second flight we opted for a quick breakfast in town and then right back up for more. This time I launched at Marshall, in moderate winds at 11:15 a.m. with Bill Bailey going off just before me. Bill and I were the first ones in the sky, so we cranked thermals over the launch and zig-zagged between each other. Before long another gaggle had formed around us, but I was much more comfortable maintaining my position within the gaggle than I was the previous day trying to establish a position.

The winds consistently increased so whenever I needed to adjust my position I headed upwind. There was a lot of thermal activity. Really you didn't even have to look for lift, you just flew around and found yourself higher all the time. The air was getting progressively more rowdy as the day wore on, however. I appreciated the time I had spent building bump tollerance at Topa as I got knocked around going in and out of thermals with some very sharp edges.

At one point I decided I had had about enough, so I started to work my way down to the LZ. While on my final approach, I caught a nice thermal and decided to work it. Cranking hard to the left I noticed a tandem hang glider come over and join me. We flew eye to eye spiralling about 20 feet apart for 1000 feet of elevation gain. I hooted and hollered, not sure if I was breaking etiquet, but having too much fun to care.

That thermal took me all the way back up to the main ridge, but after getting buffeted around a little more, I decided to bail out and land before the serious afternoon winds set in.

As I was folding up my wing on the grass I heard the report of an accident. A beginner pilot had gone down in a rocky canyon. Tom and a young doctor were the first on the scene, as they were both able to land close to where he had gone down. They found him wedged between two rocks with both his legs and possibly his back broken.

Thankful to be on the ground, I sat in the shade at the LZ and listened to the radio reports of the accident. Two helicopters arrived and paramedics were dropped down to him. Within an hour and half of his crash, he was in the hosipital which isn't too bad considering where he landed.

I went up to the launch with a couple guys to bring down the victim's car. Tom returned while I was gone, and he and the others piled into his van for one last sledder to end the day.

We all met at the LZ around 6:00 p.m. to get ready to head for home. Tom got some more hoots from the crowd when he stood in his underwear and had Zvi hose him off. "Hey, naked man!" yelled one of the Columbian pilots in his heavy accent.

Tom, Dan, and I rode home together. We had a good time talking about the weekend, sharing stories and discussing events. I certainly love the flying, but the whole experience would be diminished so much without the comraderie that goes along with it. Can you imagine driving somewhere by yourself, flying alone, not having anyone say, "hey, nice flight" when you land, not having a friendly smile and a handshake from people that shared your experience, nobody that cares to hear your stories? Uhg. No, the flying is only part of the reward, the friends and the laughs are easily just as important to me.

Which is also why I wish you were there. Next time you must be, okay!?

I'll talk to you soon.

Brendan

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