Dry Canyon Alamogordo, NM (USA)

[RobinHastings]

Nicely edited, Bill! We had some good flying last week; it was great being in the air with you. And now we'll pay the price, as we endure the winds of April this week - but the good times will come again.
-Robin

[Bill Cummings]

WEDNESDAY, APRIL 19, 2017:
We had a pretty good day at Dry Canyon today. Bill Cummings, Mike Ellsworth and I went to soar there, with Jesse Cone as our driver. Skies were clear and cloudless all day long Bill took off first at about 2:50 pm MDT, with me following around 3:05 and Mike about 15 minutes after me. Winds were northerly when we first got up to launch, then moved around to the west and finally the southwest. Strong in the gusts. Thermals were tight and strong, but didn't go up all that high today. Still, they were abundant. Bill and Mike reached about 9,000 feet MSL (2000 over launch), while I only got to about 7700 in the flight. We all landed in the Cox Field LZ, where the sprinklers were going, but no gliders were soaked and no aluminum was bent. Bill and Mike each flew for over an hour - I decided the air was rough, for my taste, and went out after about 20 minutes or so. All in all, not a bad day to be in the air, and Jesse enjoyed seeing it again as well. Let's see what the weekend brings!
-Robin

https://youtu.be/3WMdOZ69IT8

Bill April 19 2017 Note stealth stabilizer.JPG

Mike E. April 19 2017 Dry Canyon.JPG

Robin April 19 2017 Dry Canyon.JPG

Mike and I could not receive any GPS signals during our flights (around 2:50 pm to 4:00 pm MDT) on April 19, 2017. I advanced a theory that possibly the North Korean government was testing another rocket launch and that (the USA) shut down our GPS navigation network in case North Korea was trying to piggy back on our guidance network to direct their missiles.
As it seems to turn out we (USA) are beyond that tactical advantage of turning off the entire GPS network and are way past thinking so small. Check below the link and compare with both my and Mike's loss of GPS signals that I was not quite on the right path but headed in the correct direction:
https://www.faasafety.gov/files/notices/2017/Mar/WSMR_17-04_GPS_Flight_Advisory.pdf

[Rick Masters]

Your title cracked me up: Mike and Robin will wait to see if I do well or sink out.

"Has he sunk out yet?"
"Nope. He's still up there, 500 feet over launch."
"Darn! I guess we'll have to wait another ten minutes..."

[Bill Cummings]

Just got off the phone with Robin. Earlier I left a message with Mike E. that Friday looks good at Dry.
I'm going to be at Robin's at and hopefully before 09:30 to throw onto his truck. The plan is to be at the LZ at 11:00.

[RobinHastings]

FRIDAY, MAY 5, 2017:
Cinco de Mayo was a day to celebrate, indeed. Bill and I went to Dry Canyon today. The weather was beautiful, clear and balmy and breezy. Winds on the ground were south to southwest, about 8 or 10 mph. I drove for Bill, and he launched first, in his Sport 2 at about 1:15 MDT. He went right up, and after a bit of camera work, I headed down the mountain. Bill reached over 9000 ft MSL (launch is at 7000) and had an hour of excellent airtime. I was there in the Cox Field LZ when he made a perfect south approach and a textbook landing, a very nice flare onto his feet. Within an hour we had his glider packed up and on my truck, and were on our way again to the Dry Canyon launch. There I took off in my Wills Wing U2-160 at about 4:50 pm. Nice, smooth thermals, that took me up to 10,000 ft MSL. I drifted back northwards to Hwy 82, and decided to head cross country, at least as far as the nearby La Luz site. Alas, very few thermals were to be had on that jaunt, and I finally made a southwest approach into the huge LZ there. The landing wasn't bad, for me - I skidded in on the wheels and my butt, and felt pretty good about it all. About 40 minutes of good soaring today for me. I walked the glider across most of the field, and in an hour we were at Rockin' BZ Burgers, before making the long trek homewards. Tomorrow and Sunday are supposed to be blowouts, so I'm glad that Bill suggested this. Bravo Cinco de Mayo!
-Robin

[Bill Cummings]

FRIDAY, MAY 5, 2017:
Cinco de Mayo was a day to celebrate, indeed. Bill and I went to Dry Canyon today. The weather was beautiful, clear and balmy and breezy. Winds on the ground were south to southwest, about 8 or 10 mph. I drove for Bill, and he launched first, in his Sport 2 at about 1:15 MDT. He went right up, and after a bit of camera work, I headed down the mountain. Bill reached over 9000 ft MSL (launch is at 7000) and had an hour of excellent airtime. I was there in the Cox Field LZ when he made a perfect south approach and a textbook landing, a very nice flare onto his feet. Within an hour we had his glider packed up and on my truck, and were on our way again to the Dry Canyon launch. There I took off in my Wills Wing U2-160 at about 4:50 pm. Nice, smooth thermals, that took me up to 10,000 ft MSL. I drifted back northwards to Hwy 82, and decided to head cross country, at least as far as the nearby La Luz site. Alas, very few thermals were to be had on that jaunt, and I finally made a southwest approach into the huge LZ there. The landing wasn't bad, for me - I skidded in on the wheels and my butt, and felt pretty good about it all. About 40 minutes of good soaring today for me. I walked the glider across most of the field, and in an hour we were at Rockin' BZ Burgers, before making the long trek homewards. Tomorrow and Sunday are supposed to be blowouts, so I'm glad that Bill suggested this. Bravo Cinco de Mayo!
-Robin

https://youtu.be/g242jVCoSWU

Chasing.JPG (23.86 KiB) Viewed 5777 times

[RobinHastings]

Friday, May 12 was another good day at Dry Canyon. I was driver for Bill Cummings and Mike Ellsworth. They launched in the early afternoon and after a while they caught the big ones and got up to 11,000 ft MSL. (I thought that Bill was heading for a sled ride at first - but never count that guy out.) I chased as they went cross country. Bill made it past Tularosa about 10 miles, and Mike even farther, a total flight of 41 miles to a point about 10 miles past Three Rivers. 90 minutes for Bill, 3 hours for Mike. Great flying, fine launches, excellent landings - you can't ask for a whole lot more.
-Robin

[Bill Cummings]

Friday, May 12 was another good day at Dry Canyon. I was driver for Bill Cummings and Mike Ellsworth. They launched in the early afternoon and after a while they caught the big ones and got up to 11,000 ft MSL. (I thought that Bill was heading for a sled ride at first - but never count that guy out.) I chased as they went cross country. Bill made it past Tularosa about 10 miles, and Mike even farther, a total flight of 41 miles to a point about 10 miles past Three Rivers. 90 minutes for Bill, 3 hours for Mike. Great flying, fine launches, excellent landings - you can't ask for a whole lot more.
-Robin

I can ask for Movie Maker to stop eating my day and a half of editing the flight.
Lost all my work.
So it took near 15 minutes just to up load one minute of my launch. I'll have to piece meal the video.
I hope to never set myself up for loosing another day and a half of work to Movie Maker and YouTube.
Below is one minute of the 90 I had. I'll try and piece out some high lights.
https://youtu.be/VFm_3WeH204

https://youtu.be/sRRXSRVqq2E

https://youtu.be/sRRfVjMDo74

LZ north of Tularosa, NM (USA).JPG (46.25 KiB) Viewed 5735 times

[Bill Cummings]

Here is another segment of our cross country flight on May 12, 2017.
Robin chased us after assisting us at launch. This flight also was a test of capturing the
radio transmissions and vairo on the audio of the GoPro camera.
https://youtu.be/oIP593IyHio

[RobinHastings]

Very well done, Bill. With the radio transmissions it gives a pretty good sense of what an XC flight is like, with various decisions made depending on the options at the time. Too bad Mike's radio wasn't working as well! (On the other hand, his glider worked very well indeed.)

Weather looks good for the Fly-In, weekend after this one. Alamogordo, May 26 to 29 - it's the place to be.
-Robin