[SamKellner]

Hawks,

Please clue me in. What is up with The Ridgelift Guys. What is it they don't like about DP.

From reading the ozforum, BobK gets the blame for this too. ?????

[Bob Kuczewski]

I only know what I read in that topic as well.

But whoever the Ridgelift Guys are, they're 100% justified in fearing retaliation by U$HPA after seeing what U$HPA did to me. Dennis Pagen didn't lift a finger to stop it.

[Rodger]

Dennis Pagen is an a**. When we were both staff writers for Hang Gliding magazine (remember that publication?) he ambushed me with a letter to the editor over some presumed mistake in one of my articles. In professional media writers NEVER undermine other writers - it makes the entire publication lose credibility. He should have contacted me personally and given me the opportunity to clarify. BTW, his interpretation was incorrect - but he just couldn't stand not being THE authority in the magazine.

[SamKellner]

Hawks,

It sounds to me like some of the comp pilots don't like some of the rules/BS that is imposed by FAI ?. .

However, ridgelift boys ? That don't sound like Fla. or Tx, or Az.

[Bob Kuczewski]

It sounds to me like some of the comp pilots don't like some of the rules/BS that is imposed by FAI ?. .

However, ridgelift boys ? That don't sound like Fla. or Tx, or Az.

I don't quite know what to make of it. But I do know that Dennis never helped the Torrey Hawks in our struggles at Torrey Pines, and he's gone along with the Rich Hass / Mark Forbes abuses. I've purchased a few of his books in the past and I had a great deal of respect for him. But people who won't stand up against the "in crowd" don't hold my respect for long. It's a sad ending to his long and distinguished service to the sport.

[Bill Cummings]

I've read most of Dennis's books about hang gliding but one day I found myself cursing him all the way to cloud base.
Having just returned from a Washington State flying vacation I decided to try something I had learned while riding thermals over, both, wheat and plowed fields.
As a dust devil disappeared into a wheat field I noticed that the thermal wind gust print (thermal foot print) made the wheat look brighter or lighter shaded.

As it left the wheat field and crossed a plowed field the dust again started to mark the thermal.

I thought to myself, Hey, while moving through the wheat that looks just like the gust print over the surface of the lake only there it's darker over the water and not lighter shaded like while moving through the wheat field.

When I returned home to boat towing I tried getting over the dark gust prints as they moved across the lake and found them to be thermals!!!!!!!! (Damn it!)
Dennis, through his books, in this regard proved to be my biggest anchor to thermal flying as a water tow pilot.
The Northern Sky Glider's Club, HG pilots, based in Minneapolis, Minnesota (USA) referred to the wind prints on the Mississippi River as, "Slams." (They were thermals.)
Yes pilots Thermals over water! (I'm still ticked off.)

Maybe 500 feet over trees you can still see the leaves moving but thousands of feet over water you can see the thermal foot print.

[Frank Colver]

When I was at the Oregon 40th HG anniversary meet at Cape Kiwanda Dave Raybourne told me that the cliff soaring pilots back in the day had a theory that thermals wouldn't form inland over the dark, dense, forest, so they stayed on the cliff to soar. Even though they knew that sailplanes had been using thermals inland they thought it had something to do with them being farther from the coast, or something like that. They also didn't know there could be thermals over the ocean.

When I started producing my varios those guys started launching in the cliff slope lift and then doing long cross country flights by finding thermals over the coastal forests, now that they had a very sensitive (much more sensitive than the sailplane varios in use then) way to know when they were gaining altitude. He told me that one guy flew completely across the city of Portland, using the Colver vario, way back then. However, I don't remember if that guy launched at the coast or some inland site. Portland is quite a distance from the coast.

Man! I can't imagine depending on thermals to cross a dense city like Portland. I wonder how many potential roof top landing areas he looked at? As I recall, the parks are all full of big trees.

Frank

[SamKellner]

More from the "Guys" who want DP out.

http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php ... c&start=50