Flying Wallaby

Getting there

I estimated different options on how to get to Wallaby Ranch from Massachusetts. For two of us (Natalia and I) it was slightly cheaper to drive than fly in, rent a glider, car, etc. Plus, it would allow us to stop on the way there, explore different places and take a few photos.

We loaded my truck, and got on the road early morning

Ready to roll

On the way down, we planned a two days trip, stopping in Savannah, Georgia.

Savannah is a beautiful town and we spent a few hours there taking pictures and playing tourists. I love photography, but my main goal was to fly. I would have loved to stay another day in Savannah, but vacation days were limited. As day progressed, I was getting restless, and wanted to get on the road. We needed to get to Wallaby Ranch before dark.

Savannah's Police Station

Downtown Savannah

Downtown Savannah

---

Welcome to Wallaby

Wallaby

 

We arrived to Wallaby at dusk. We hoped to rent one of the cabins, and skip camping in a tent, but everything was taken because of WW demo days. We only could get a cabin for the first night and we took that option to avoid setting up a tent in the dark.

When morning arrived, we got coffee and breakfast (food was excellent, by the way), I filled out all necessary papers so I could fly there and ... Winds were blowing 25-30 miles on the surface. No flying. 

Winds were supposed to die down around 3-4PM, and the next day a storm was predicted in the evening - high winds, rain, thunderstorms. It looked like not much flying was in the cards for me.

Good Morning Wallaby!

Xmass Tree

Our camp... Next to a Tom's ALiner camper.

---

Forecast held for the day and by 4:30PM a line of pilots to be towed up formed at one side of the ranch.

In line for a tow

 I was really impressed how efficient operation at Wallaby was. Three tugs were constantly towing people up. Staff on the ground was assisting with carts retrieval, and getting pilots back in the tow line after they landed. 

I had 3 flights with the first one being a sledder, seconds being an extended sledder, and on the third one I played with a weak thermal for 20 minutes. I couldn't have been happier. I eventually lost that thermal, and couldn't find a replacement, but still, if you followed my posts from 2013, it was a huge progress for me. 

I logged about 1.5 hours that day, and got my confidence back for a demo flight the next morning. The only thing that slightly worried me was landings. Flare on Falcon was still a mystery to me, and on two of my landings I ended up on my knees. Not a big deal, but not a confidence inspiring result either.

...

The day ended with great food and live music. A good company made it all even better. A few people I knew traveled for the event as well - Tom Lanning, Peter Judge, and Matt Carr.

Dinner bell

Live music is on

 

Peter Judge

Amy and Tom Lanning

Matt Carr

 

---

Sport 2

The next morning, I grabbed my helmet and harness and went looking for Steve Pearson, Wills Wing designer who was in charge of the event. There were a couple of people in front of me who wanted to try Sport 2 as well. It was an early morning and overcast, so the flights were short, and I didn't have to wait too long before it was my turn. Steve adjusted a hang loop for me, gave me a few pointers on use of VG, and off I went.

As soon as the glider lifted out of the cart, my worries all disappeared. This glider was so easy to tow, it was practically flying on its own. When I released, I played with the glider at different VG settings. In calm morning air, the glider was  super easy to control. It was turning by just thinking about it.

Then came time to land. I forgot to mention that Ryan Voight was running a landings clinic. He setup a camera, and told everyone who wanted to participate - simply land next to it. You'd be observed, filmed, and critiqued later on. 

To land there, I felt I had to setup my approach much lower over the trees than I was comfortable with, so I knew I was going long, but better safe than sorry. Anyway, on my first landing, I left quarter of VG on, made a few S-turns to lose altitude, and went on a long final. I was surprised how easy the glider responded to my inputs, and how much easier it was for me to feel the glider in ground effect. I was still a tad late with my flare, but overall it felt much easier to land than Falcon.  I was all smiles and giggles - I wanted this glider. No, I NEEDED this glider. NOW!

One of the guys from the ground crew commented that I wasn't towing right behind the plane, and I should go for another run, and fix it. I didn't really feel like my first tow was that bad but hey, I was up for another flight in that great glider. There were no other pilots wanting to test fly Sport2 so I immediately went for another flight. It felt even better the second time around. Now I needed to get $5K. ASAP :-)

Landing demo Sport 2 (photo courtesy of Ryan Voight)

I spent afternoon listening to Ryan and Paul Voight discussing different aspects of landing a glider. Ryan presented a lot of video evidence for every point he was making. It was educational. Then he reviewed videos he took earlier in the morning. He gave me a few suggestions on how to improve my landings, also how to change final approach for better spot landing. That part was important to me as I eventually was going for H3 rating that has a spot landing test.

Ryan Voight

---

Non-flying fun

That was it for my flying in Florida. The rest of the day was all overcast, a perfect weather for  sledders, and not the one to play with thermals. I didn't feel like taking another short tow in a Falcon, so we hiked around Wallaby Ranch property instead:

Wallaby Ranch trails

 

The next day, as forecasted, huge storm rolled in. The wind was so strong, it took down the big tent outside that was set for the Wills Wing sponsored party. And a lightning struck ground maybe 300 yards from cafeteria where everyone was weathering  the storm. A bit later, Mitch Shipley found a few pieces of sand baked by lightning

Baked sand

 

Before the storm, we packed our tent and checked into a hotel a few miles away. We also spent time driving around, trying exotic food, and just playing tourists. Once I wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere, I was enjoying taking photos.

Alligator's tail. Tastes like chicken.

Osprey at Boyd Hill Nature Park, St Pete, Florida

And of course - an alligator (Boyd Hill Nature Park)

St Pete at night

 

Back Home

On the way back, New England met us with another storm. This one was much colder with white stuff falling out of the sky

Welcome to New England

 

---

Here is a video review of our Wallaby Ranch trip:

All photos from this trip can be found here -> Wallaby Ranch WW Demo Days 2014

Toss that chute!

In March, Nick Caci invited everyone to his spacious hangar to practice throwing a reserve parachute. Parachute needs to be repacked regularly as time to full inflation increases the longer chute stays folded. And every seconds counts if your are falling out of the sky. Time to deploy reserve parachute also depends how fast you can throw it. So it was a perfect time to practice tossing a reserve.

Nick had an old glider hanging from the ceiling where a test subject would get hooked-in, and a few friendly pilots would start shaking and spinning the glider, simulating a catastrophic aircraft failure. That's when you'd pull the reserve's handle, and throw it as far as you could. Simple and doesn't take long, but essential to practice it once in a while. For some pilots, it revealed a failure of equipment, too. For example, Carlos couldn't pull his reserve out at all. Velcro was completely stuck shut. It's a good thing we had that practice - better to find out that something is off while you are safely on the ground.

Here is a video with various pilots practicing the toss.

Everyone had a great time. Big thanks to Nick for hosting this and Marilyn for repacking our reserves. I am so ready to fly!

Marilyn shows how it's done

To start flying season early this year, I am going to drive to Florida at the end of March for Wills Wing demo days. I'll do some aerotowing, and finally, try that Sport 2. This should be fun... if weather doesn't prove me wrong...

More photos from this event -> Chute Toss Party

November Blues

On Friday, I got a text from Rhett - "Forecast looks decent...hard to believe...tomorrow...". Perfect, I was definitely going. It's been almost a month since my last aerotow, and 3 weeks since my last flight at Wellfleet. Due to weather not cooperating on weekends, and life getting in the way, I didn't go flying all that time. I was a bit worrying if I got rusty.

I got to Tanner-Hiller around 10am, and was ready to launch by 11am. My first flight put my worries to rest. I still remembered how to tow and fly. Good! But I still could not find thermals or stay in them... Well, maybe next year.

First flight. Tom Lanning assisting with my launch.

My second tow later in the day was really bumpy. It made me happy that I handled it well. It was like riding a bike... just had to remember not to get complacent. Complacency kills in this sport.

In the afternoon, more pilots started to pull in. It's amazing how good this day was. Warm, sunny - summer like. Probably last weekend like this before cold weather rolled in.

My landings were adequate. I still struggled with a flare and proper hand placement, but there was some breeze coming in LZ and I didn't have to flare hard to land well.

A perfect day of flying in November. Great way to close my 2013 flying season. This season was a mixed bag, but I didn't hurt myself, my glider still flies,  I learned a lot, met a lot of new people, and I had a lot of fun. I hope the next year will be even better.

Come fly with Hang Glide New England!

A Walk On The Beach

Among all goals that I set for myself in 2013 was to do dune/beach flying. It is similar to ridge soaring that I've already experienced, but different in several ways. First, airflow from the ocean is laminar, and second, if wind is not strong - all flying is done pretty close to the ground. I felt confident that I could do it, but anxious, too, as I've never done that kind of flying before.

....

Wellfleet (Cape Cod) was finally open for flying, and forecast was perfect for Sunday, October 13th.

When I got there, my anxiety eased a bit as there were plenty of people, and some of them I even knew. I was sure I'd get plenty of help and advice.

I set my glider up, got ready, and Phil, Carlos and Mike Abdullah helped me to get the glider to the launch. They coached me through the sequence and off I went. I had that naive thought in my mind that if wind is there, there is no way for me to sink out. But, as I learned, there were still different cycles, and wind's strength varied. 

I picked a not very good cycle, and I didn't turn aggressively to position myself in the lift band. I was sinking out... My brain, however, refused to accept it for some weird reason. 

Here is a video from my first attempt, and as you can see I didn't even get my feet out until 3 feet off the ground. Wheels hit the sand, and I went right through the control frame, but fortunately didn't bend anything, and didn't hurt myself.

I needed a reset. I carried my glider back to the bottom of walkway leading to the top of dune. Mike helped me to carry the glider up so no need to breakdown and setup again. 

I gave it another go. This time, I waited for a stronger cycle, turned sooner - and up I went! Exciting!

It took me some time to relax and stop being  stressed about the ground being so close. Gradually, I was getting the hang of positioning glider in the lift band, and working my way around other hang gliders, and paragliders. 

I started really enjoying the experience. People walking on the beach would look up and I would wave. Lovely.

After a few passes in front of the launch, I got tired of all paraglider traffic. It was a bit too stressful to pay attention to so many elements at the same time.  I decided to see how far I can fly along the shore.

Flying north wasn't an option for me that day. Each time I would get to a gap, I wouldn't have enough altitude to cross it. I went south. A few miles and 40 minutes later I saw a lighthouse and much wider gap that I didn't know if any glider could cross. I turned around and made it all the way back to the launch. Then repeated all that again. Two hours later, I started to get hungry, and decided to land while I was still doing great. For the first time in my flying, I landed because I wanted to, and not because I had to. Excellent!

Great day of coastal flying. Cannot wait to go back.

Big thanks to Michael Abdullah, Phil, Carlos and a few others whose names I don't know, who helped me that day. You guys are awesome!

---

Video of my successful launch (courtesy of Natalia K)

Landed. Wellfleet, Cape Cod

Fly Like an Eagle

I had my first mountain launch/flight earlier in the month. Kari Castle took us there but the flight was a sledder, and I still had no real ridge soaring flights. I wanted some guidance before I could fly there on my own. Needless to say, I was really excited when there was a chatter on a local email list about going to West Rutland. I  emailed Tom Lanning asking him to be my observer. He agreed.

Tom lives 15 minutes from my place. We met at his house around 8am. Jeff Curtis and Krassi Kaltchev also joined so we all could share a ride. I volunteered to drive.

After all gliders were securely tied to a rack on my truck we set on a three hours drive to Vermont. Over those three hours I got tons of information on ridge soaring and on specifics of that site. Long drive seemed much shorted in a good company.

The road up the mountain is rather rough, a 4x4 truck is definitely a good thing to have for this site. It took about 15-20 minutes to get from the gate to the top. West Rutland is a west facing ridge with the ramp facing south west. To soar there, one usually needs to wait until 2-3pm in the afternoon for the slope to warm up, and for colder air mass in the valley to start pushing air up the ridge. 

Since I needed to be observed I had to launch before Tom. Around 3pm wind was coming in nicely straight in, maybe not as strong as other pilots wanted, but it was about to get perfect any moment. I needed to launch first to make it less stressful for myself, even if that meant to have another sledder. 

Tom and Jeff helped me out to the launch, and shortly after I was running down the ramp. I didn't get immediately up as I probably turned a bit late (tree landing was still fresh in my mind). I was barely maintaining altitude, but after turning back toward the launch, I felt a flow of air instantly bringing me up another 50 feet, 100 feet, 150. I was going up! That was a great feeling right there! Exhilarating even! As soon as I  climbed above launch, I saw a line forming, and gliders started to float away one after another. In 20 minutes, there were plenty of gliders in the air, and I started to feel a bit uneasy. It takes time to get used to other people flying with you. And it was definitely pushing me out of my comfort zone. That is a good thing... That's how we learn, and advance our skills.

After flying for another 15 minutes, I gained 1700 feet. And in another 10 minutes after that, I lost 2000 feet. It was almost like airflow switched instantly off. Everyone was scratching the ridge looking for something to push them up. I wasn't going to do that. Not with my experience, and not with the amount of gliders at my altitude. After I got below launch, I made another pass, and I was still losing altitude. I turned and headed for the main LZ.

Getting High!

Traffic

I arrived to LZ with plenty of altitude. I guess, I could have tried longer at the ridge, but better safe than sorry. My landing was going fine until I had to flare over tall(er) grass. I have never done that before, and even though I knew what I had to do, it didn't work right. Fortunately, I didn't bend anything this time.

In the main LZ

...

 My longest flight to date - just under one hour, and I went from 1800' to 3500'. Super cool! :-)

Launches and Landings with Kari Castle

Launch and landings clinic was on  4th of July weekend. 4 days of practice and professional instruction - perfect. When I signed up, I missed that this clinic also included mountains flying. It was a good thing as we would go to West Rutland and that would be the first time for me flying in real mountains, but in the light of my recent mishaps, all I wanted was to concentrate on landings. Also, since Kari flies hang gliders and paragliders (and mostly paragliders now), clinic was bi-wingal. I wasn't quite sure how well that would work out...

Day 1

The first day, after all introductions, the whole group of about 15 people gathered at 250' launch. Kari put a cameraman in the LZ to film our landings, while she was filming our launches.

We started around 10 AM in no wind conditions. A really good run was required to launch properly. My first run immediately revealed plenty of things to work on. I got very good feedback on how to make my launches more consistent, and keep angle of attack under control. I got only 3 launches before a lunch break - it was just too many people, and a lot of waiting. Kari immediately commented on how fast I was flying. "Relax and slow down, you might enjoy it more", she told me later. But I preferred not to, not yet, my tree landing was just a week earlier.

Here is a short video of my second launch off 250 where Kari comments "you are flying like a freaking fighter pilot". I didn't care. The way I figured, fly fast - more control, less things to worry about... for now at least.

Later in the day we started the same routine but from 450' launch. With the launches, the goal was to run all the way to the bottom of the ramp, controlling nose position. I was pretty confident on launches before the clinic, but I was told that I still pop the nose up.  Part of the reason was I would always have a jackrabbit start, popping nose slightly in the process, and not running all the way to the bottom of the ramp. Gotta work on that.

Here is my launch off 450. Kari was commenting on my launch so I could review the recording later. Very helpful.

Day 1. Sunset

---

Day 2

For the second day of clinic, it was decided to go to West Rutland. Somehow, the group that was going there grew twice in size. Quite a few people that weren't in this clinic decided to join West Rutland trip. We got a late start trying to figure out all the logistics and by the time we got to West Rutland, walked LZs and setup - it was around 4PM. The horizon didn't look good at all and we were wondering if a wiser option would be to breakdown and do it some other day, but we stayed and played wait-and-see.

An hour in our wait that was the view from  launch

Day Two. Rutland is not very friendly today.

 And then it started to rain... However, it looked like all this ugliness would blow by in an hour or so. We kept waiting. By 6:30pm sky cleared enough for everyone to start gearing up and getting ready to launch. It was an overcast, no wind and no ridge lift, but flying down seemed like a better deal than driving. Obviously, we had a few people who would take the vehicles down. Mostly non-pilots, but Kari, after watching everyone to launch, drove down, as well. I don't think she was too happy about it.

On my launch, I had a good run but probably kept angle of attack too low as the glider was getting ahead of me slightly. I tripped, recovered, the ramp ended and I floated away. Not the most graceful launch, I guess.

My flight was ok. I decided that in the conditions as they were, there was no reason for me to try anything but fly straight to LZ. I arrived there with at least 800' AGL to spare. I had to make a few circles to lose altitude. Then I didn't place myself correctly for a nice final and to correct that I had to do a rather low figure-8. It's a good thing that Falcon is such a forgiving glider, I had no problem to get wings level and land. Flared too late and landed on my belly with a thump. No landing style points for me.

When everyone was done packing, it started raining again.... Last cars finally arrived when it was already getting dark, we loaded hang gliders and paragliders up and drove back to Morningside.

....

Here is a video from my first mountain launch:

And a couple of photos from that day:

Day Two. West Rutland (photo by Vitaly Pogrebnoy)

Day Two. Leaving West Rutland.

Overall, a long day but yet again a day where I got to try new things and meet new people. Life is good.

---

Day 3

After all the excitement of mountain flying, we returned back to practicing launches and landings. Again, 250' in the morning and 450' in the evening. I was working on a new technique that Kari suggested, to keep hangstrap tight on launch to minimize nose popping up. I really liked this one, it gave me a better feedback from the glider on launch. It might not work as well with more advanced, heavier gliders, but it worked great on Falcon.

In the evening, Kari was soaring in her paraglider. I haven't even attempted to do that. I left this for another day. Launches and landings were more important to me this time. You see what a little tree landing can do to a man?

I had only 6 launches that day due to increased traffic of hang gliders and paragliders. Conditions were perfect and everyone wanted a piece of that.

---

Day 4

We followed format of the previous day, but this time Kari was in the LZ, filming our landings and recording her feedback. I only had time for 3 flights.

Here is a video with a couple of landings. The first one from day 1, it was pretty good with a good flare. The second, flare started to fall apart as I tried to concentrate on another element. My conscious brain cannot process 2 things at the same time :-)

Kari wrapped up the clinic with a video review session in the afternoon. We all had a chance to critique each other and see what we needed to work on. This was a very useful exercise as well.

Day 4. Review.

---

Conclusion

My overall impression of the clinic was very good. It was one of the most useful instruction/lessons I got since I started solo flying. I learned a lot and had fun. Kari was very helpful and approachable. She gave everyone personalized feedback and list of things to improve upon. And tips how to improve certain things.  My goal for the clinic was mostly to improve my landings. I didn't think I was needed much for launches, but my launches probably benefited most. Mountain launch was also a great, comfort zone expanding, experience.

The only thing I wish was different, I wish it was a hang gliding only clinic. It would have kept things more focused, I think... Anyway, I highly recommend this clinic. Money well spent.

.....

More photos from this weekend can be found here: Launches and Landings with Kari Castle. Morningside July 2013.