I on road trip

A post of epic proportion...

It has been too long since my feet have left the ground. Almost three months to be more specific. I'm in sunny, southern California, and although I have to still wear a hoodie and jacket when the sun is low, it's heaven to be out of the snow for a few days.

See... a few months without flying isn't good for my complexion.

I arrived Thursday evening after a leisurely drive from SLC, and slept in the Marshall LZ. In the morning, I got food supplies, and cold medication, since a cold that had been threatening for days, was getting insidious. I came back to the LZ, made breakfast and coffee, and did some yoga as pilots arrived shooting me puzzled glances.

Rob McKenzie's two shuttles up the hill were full, but the WW crew was due out for test flying. Dustin showed up before the rest of the gang, and we talked defecation and got caught up. He was leaving to Brazil the next day, but had come to fly since I was around. The WW crew showed up and we were up the hill.

Mike Meier taking a moment before a test flight.

I decided to fly the T2, and put a camera on Dustin's glider. I felt out of sorts, and little went smoothly. There's an efficient flow to setting up that comes with regular flying, a regimented order that usually is most keen at the end of a comp. I had none. I still have details to sort out on the Vulto S I have, so I'd fly the cocoon harness. I used Dustin's carbon basetube as, he needed to use my aluminum one so that I could attach the camera.

Steve Pearson, and Mike Meier off on a test flight.

I launched a minute after Dustin, and hooked into a 400fpm thermal. After a couple of turns, it was quickly coming back. The carbon basetube is very comfortable, and the glider was trimmed way out which felt good too. Shapiro mentioned that he felt his new glider could be thermalled with the bar way out without stalling. I tried to see if the same was true for my new glider, but the thermal petered out before I could assess.

Dustin's harness is looking great. Super sleek without hardly a wrinkle.

I went down the ridge and caught up with Dustin as we took some circles together. He snapped a couple of shots, and we glided back to work up to Crestline. We worked separate ridgelines, and met up over the snowy forest on top. After a few more circles and photos together, I left Dustin to continue shooting over the trees, while I headed out to some encroaching clouds.

I cropped these two from the batch of wing mounted shots. Dustin has really got a nice setup in terms of drag. Everything looks exceedingly clean.

The cloudline, (seabreeze?), wasn't working, and I was ok with a long glide past the LZ. The area was becoming shaded, and despite my warm coat and thick gloves, I was getting chilly. I cruised down to a nice landing.

The WW guys brought a batch of falcons down, each landing no more than a few feet from the spot, and Dustin was last, blazing across the upper LZ ten feet off the ground, before rising up, turning 270, and alighting, remembering to keep the camera out of the dirt. :)

Steve Pearson eyeing the spot on a test flight.

Picture perfect flare form.

Another landing right near the spot, and another quality glider ready to go for WW.

Dustin spinning. Notice the twist of the left wing.

We waited for the guys to make one more test flying round before joining them on the last trip up the hill. It was going to be a sled run, and I decided to fly down the Sport 2 in front of Dustin, so I could take ground bound photos of him landing. I flew straight out, sneaking up on Sebastian, a PG pilot I'd met, and we exchanged a few words in formation. Something like, "Heyyy dude." "Oh, sweet man!" "Pretty smooth." "Yea!" I dove steeply away from Sebastian and looked up at the top of my first wingover to see him doing a SAT above. Bless his heart, I thought. We both wanged down, landing seconds apart. (Hi fives sporting wide grins followed.)

Compilation of two loops worth of photos.

Dustin was next, doing a couple of spins, and a couple of loops in front of what sun there was, before again strafing the LZ. He didn't have as much energy to work with this time, but still floated around the rest of his pattern using more VG, and stuck the landing.

Dustin straifing the LZ. He was self conscious about flexing his feet in the harness, creating a dip. I say it's ok to get a little nervous going 60 downwind a few feet off the ground. :)

Your new USHPA exective director, Paul Montville, left talking with Steve Pearson.

A slew of WW gliders after a day of test flying.

Eventually, I met Dustin at the WW factory, as he was packing up for Brazil. I took a bunch of photos of the custom travel pads he'd made as Shapiro will be exceedingly jealous. He's also fabricated a tough travel bag that fits like a Magnum on a black man.

Dustin packing.

Travel pads.

Travel leading edge holster.

He's taking five gliders down with him this time. Can you imagine toting five hang gliders through international airports by yourself? He's staying for six weeks, and flying comps. in addition to seeing his supposed girlfriend. :)

How many bags will you be checking sir?

Mitch was working late, and we chatted while he ate dinner. I left the guys tinkering at the factory around 10pm and headed back to the Marshall LZ. My cold was bad during the day and hit full force the later it got. I loaded up on medication and rolled in the back of the truck to crash.

Flights: 2. Airtime:1:00.