[Bob Kuczewski]

Welcome Duke,

May 23rd Otto Lilienthal birthday event @Dockweiler

Headed in the right direction, looks like.

Ditto!!!!

This will be the first in-person meeting for many of the US Hawks, and I hope it will mark a turning point for the sport of hang gliding. I look forward to seeing many old friends and making many new ones!!

[DukeB]

Appreciate the comments & material in this forum, especially the ones that reinforce my instincts. Thanks Wingspan33 for confirming my gut that foot launch is the right method to pursue for my beginning; and RickMasters for posting the confirming vids on parachuting. I've watched all the recent vids including each of the ones from Turkey. The one of the woman getting rag-dolled just standing on the launch, by a dust devil- has me wanting to stay far back from those launching in those mummifying sheets, especially the cliff at Mingus!

BillCimmings, thanks for pointing out the pilots only camping on Mingus. There is a pond and campground nearby too, but how cool that organization has their own spot in the Ponderosa Pines to circle the wagons!

Can't wait to jump on Southwest for the 50 minute flight to LAX and get to Dockweiler on the 23rd!

[Bill Cummings]

Appreciate the comments & material in this forum, especially the ones that reinforce my instincts. Thanks Wingspan33 for confirming my gut that foot launch is the right method to pursue for my beginning; and RickMasters for posting the confirming vids on parachuting. I've watched all the recent vids including each of the ones from Turkey. The one of the woman getting rag-dolled just standing on the launch, by a dust devil- has me wanting to stay far back from those launching in those mummifying sheets, especially the cliff at Mingus!

BillCimmings, thanks for pointing out the pilots only camping on Mingus. There is a pond and campground nearby too, but how cool that organization has their own spot in the Ponderosa Pines to circle the wagons!

Can't wait to jump on Southwest for the 50 minute flight to LAX and get to Dockweiler on the 23rd!

Wow! Dockweiler on the 23rd! That should be a great opportunity to get some safe beach airtime.

[VictoriaMcBride]

Hi, thanks Bob for the help posting by the way... Mainly I want to say what a successful and fun meet you organized. It was like time stood still seeing old friends and the gliders. The happy energy lifted throughout the day with the wind. Let's do this EVERYDAY!!!

[Bob Kuczewski]

Welcome to the US Hawks Victoria!!!!



It was great meeting you Saturday at the 2015 Otto Meet, and I hope you don't mind me posting a few photos in that topic. Here's my favorite to welcome you to the US Hawks:

IMG_1567.JPG (95.87 KiB) Viewed 6059 times

It was like time stood still seeing old friends and the gliders. The happy energy lifted throughout the day with the wind. Let's do this EVERYDAY!!!

That is the best quote I've heard before, during, or after the meet.   

[wingspan33]

Hi Victoria. Welcome to the US Hawks!

I was at Dockweiler also but never had the chance to introduce myself.

I'll make up for that now with a big HELLO! . . .

[Bob Kuczewski]

Can't wait to jump on Southwest for the 50 minute flight to LAX and get to Dockweiler on the 23rd!

I hope you weren't disappointed. It was great meeting you there, and I hope to hear more from you any time.

Welcome to the sport of hang gliding!!!!

P.S. I like that avatar!!!

DukeB_1410.jpg (1.47 KiB) Viewed 6017 times

[DukeB]

The flights gifted me during Otto Lilienthal's birthday celebration really got me jazzed.

Spoke with Joe Greblo about continuing and he was quite helpful, though my current weight of 245 makes dual tandem flights- not available. And the local Arizona flight schools have already shut-down for the summer, until October.

Spoken with a couple other instructors out of state and may yet get started-in this summer.

Thanks U.S.Hawks & Joe Greblo/WindSports for providing an opportunity for an initial flight experience!

Duke

[Bill Cummings]

Hey Duke,
I just love to watch a new HG pilot lift off. Or even watch them when they progress to their first high launch. I remember still after 37 years what that felt like.
ISN’T IT GREAT?

[JoeF]

Good meeting you, Duke, at the Otto Birthday Party on May 23, 2015 !
Duke, you have a kind of birth at Dockweiler. We have a Friends of Dockweiler Gliding (FDG) (one of the temp names during current name-choosing effort); firm resolve to be a club occurred at the US Hawks Otto Birthday Party of May 23, 2015. Loosely knit yet, if you wish, you may consider yourself as a founding member of the FDG. FDG has no affiliation with the Windsports concession at the Dockweiler Flight Training Park, but there is a large respect for the history of the site and also the heroic service Windsports has extended to keep flight training going at the historical site. Easy does it here, but feel welcome always to FDG; your flight birth at the site on that day signals a beginning qualification for FDG membership, if only honorary memorable membership! One of the common signals is that gratitude to Joe Greblo for his pointed gift to so many people.

Going on. Self-launch gliding---for many--- gains a neat dimension. Self-loading the potential energy into self and wing by climbing a small mound blesses health through physical exercise. As we move our physical mass up the small mound, there is time to appreciate our charging the potential energy battery. We spend that potential energy to power our gliding system which is a combine of our mass and wing; we are the glider system. Often one wells up in gratitude for the charging of the potential-energy battery and the spending of that energy into the gliding initiated by marrying our wing-run into mild winds. Meeting soil again is a return operation full of human adventures.

Invite yourself to obtain good health, firm fitness for running, endurance, full understanding of all parts of the flying system: body, body motions, wing, center of lift, trim, airspeed known at each moment in wind gradients, weather, wind, wind gradient, flare, momentum, saying no, saying yes, checks, wing assembly steps, packing, storage, ... and more Wonderful adventure. Membership winged humans!

You are now with an Otto membership.

No need to wait ... fitness and learning can continue to happen right today ... Grow flight readiness need not wait for instruction you anticipate.