Flying possibilities

[RobinHastings]

Yeah, it looks pretty good. Tuesdays are a little more chancy for me, since I have to teach in the evenings (and I usually don't have the homework graded until the last minute). Think it was too light, though? Well, this is autumn, and the winds should be turning southwest at last. More opportunities are coming!
-Robin

[Bill Cummings]

More airtime was logged today from the Magdalena Rim northwest of Las Cruces, NM (USA).

The forecast for areas way left of launch and for way out in front and a little to the right were different and perplexing.

I’m really fussy with the wind direction at the Rim. If it’s more west than southwest or more south than SSW I don’t care to launch.

Launch is in a saddle and the wind there can be deceiving. The wind can be anything from south to west-southwest and be straight in at launch.

Today it was straight in at launch (SW/normal) but up above the southwest facing rim up to 500’ above launch (or 6,000’ msl) the wind was SSW.
From 6,000’ and up to 10,100’ msl the direction was SW.

There was much turbulence up to 600’ but glassy air out of thermals above that.
My third thermal was a boomer and I took it to above ten grand and was out over Bell Mountain downwind from launch. Cross country (XC) I thought would be a necessity after trying to fly up wind and seeing no progress over the ground. However the GPS was telling me that I was making way over the ground at 6 to 7 mph. So I opted not to go XC which would have made a long drive for Robin had I turned downwind.
The sink out of thermals was 600’/min. - 700’/min., all the way from Bell Mountain back to the arroyo landing zone (LZ) (DAMN -- but in smooth air.

Robin radioed up the wind speed and directions and at one point wind in the LZ was zero.
Still where I was above him I was making pathetic headway.

I pulled on LOTS of speed to descend through the steep wind gradient. I flared a little early but parachuted to a no step landing for 50 minutes of airtime.
Robin and I are watching the weather and may get to go again tomorrow.
I bought Subway sandwiches at the “Loves” truck stop back at I - 10 Exit 132

Except for blowing out the zipper on my harness bag, tearing loose the elastic Velcro strap off of my GPS bracket, tearing the hooky part off of a glider Velcro tie, and stepping on my eye glasses and totaling them it was a pretty good day.
(I think.)

[RobinHastings]

It was great to see you in the sky again, Bill! Nice flying today. We'll see what the rest of the weekend brings!
-Robin

[Bill Cummings]

RGSA/Hawks,
After conferring with Robin he canceled our planned trip to Dry Canyon tomorrow. The forecast for tomorrow is for more of the same.
This same day ---oh and just now it thundered again --- is for more electrical storms hail and rain. (Good call huh?)

Today drivers on Interstate 25 between Albuquerque, NM and Las Cruces, NM had to pull over and stop to keep the hail from damaging their cars.

Mike E. told me there were four or five rain storms at his place in Ruidoso, NM before 9:00 am.
I think I counted five storms, some with hail, before 7 pm.

Oh Well. Today I was able to fix my totaled eye glasses. The frames were of Titanium and I couldn't believe how hard it was to bend them back into shape with needle nose pliers. Totally amazing to me was that the bows didn't snap off in the process. As a weldor I never worked with the stuff before.
Regular glasses would have snapped undergoing the same re-bending process. Titanium isn't good, it's unbelievably strong and malleable.

[Bob Kuczewski]

Sorry to hear about the weather ...

      ... good to hear about the titanium glasses!!!

[Bill Cummings]

RGSA/Hawks,
We had a total of 20 HG/PG/PPG pilots meet at the Cox Field Landing Zone
AKA known as Griggs Field Sports Complex (correct me if I’m wrong Robin) during Columbus Day weekend. (Sign in requested.)

Also in attendance were drivers, visitors, children, wives, girlfriends, boyfriends, dogs, ants, gerbils, mice, birds and European lizards.
(No registration/membership required.)

This weekend was a no fee get-together and thanks to the generous donations, stuffed in the plastic ice-cream pail, we were able to either reimburse or pay for the port-a-jon and Bar-B-Q supplies.
We didn’t run out of the different meats for the Bar-B-Q even with the cook threatening to throw the small excess away.
Although it’s quite possible that a better Bar-B-Q cook (than me) may have run short of meat.

Thanks to everyone that brought Pot Luck foods as well.

For the benefit of the pilots cursed with a competitive streak, I contacted via radio, phone, or in person the pilot’s particulars of each flight.
Since It was too much work to measure the distance to the bulls eye with a tape I paced off the distance.
I don’t really think pilots are shortening their distances this Columbus Day Weekend on average, even though the pace counts were shorter.
I think it had more to do with this weekend that the average pace was shorter since I was off the alcohol. This alone made it much easier while pacing to close in on the bull’s eye.
For hang glider pilots Bo Frazier was the closest with 6 paces.
Dave Coleman next with 7 paces. Dave DeMill was next with 12 paces.

For hang gliding, in the flour bomb drop (easy now, NSA) the closest to the bull’s eye was Ted Sullivan with 43 paces. Next was Bo Frazier with 56 paces. Third closest was our club president Robin Hastings with 95 paces. (Yes, this time he hit the field!) In paragliding, Pat H-C. once again took the honors with a drop of 11 paces, while Lee Boone dropped one in at 40 paces from the tarp. (How did those B-17 bombers DO it?) No third PG pilot even tried this extremely difficult feat of airmanship.

As far as the longest flight in a hang glider we don’t consider the 3.4 miles between the launch at 7,000’ msl to the landing zone (LZ) at 4,550’ to be cross country (XC). With that in mind to find out which pilots went XC we have to move over to the paraglider pilots.

Patrick Harvey-Collard did a twelve mile XC for the greatest distance flown. (PG)
Mark Gilliam from Ft. Worth TX went XC for the second greatest distance 4.9 Mi.
Max Montgomery from ABQ., NM went XC for 3.1 miles.

The longest flight time was accomplished by Patrick H-C., 2hr 27 min in his PG.
The second longest flight time was Bo Frazier in his new bowsprit HG at 2 hr 20 min.
The third longest flight time was by Dave Coleman, 1 hr 21 min in his Moyes HG.

Max Montgomery, in his PG, nailed the spot. Pat H-C. was 6 paces off, and Lee Boone in his PG was 18. Not bad, guys! In hang gliding Bo Frazier was the best spot lander at 6 paces, Dave Coleman was next at 7, and Mike Ellsworth got third at 15 paces. For hang gliders, that counts as spot-on…
Robin will be posting about the weekend flying also.

[RobinHastings]

Thanks, Bill! And here is my almost-objective account of the weekend festivities...
-Robin

THE COLUMBUS DAY GATHERING – 2015
We had a good weekend. Not perfect, of course. Two gliders wound up needing aluminum transplants, and on Monday the PG’s that went to La Luz launch went back to Cox Field without a foot leaving the ground. But it was a good four days anyway. We had 20 pilots come, with friends and significant others, and we had a great time. The weather was pleasant, the winds were more-or-less cooperative, and the people gathered were very nice indeed. It’s hard to go wrong with that.

The event began on Friday, October 9 at about 9:30 when I (Robin) arrived to an empty Cox Field LZ in Alamogordo. I set out chairs and tables I got from Bill Cummings, staked out a tarp in the center of the field, and then at 11:30 took Greg Fergus, Mark Gilliam and James Race of Texas up to Dry Canyon launch. The winds were light but all three (Mark in PG, the other two in HG) got some airtime. I drove back down, met with Mike Ellsworth, George Woodcock and Bill at the shade cabana in the LZ, and then drove back up, when Max Montgomery (of Albuquerque) and Mark wanted to try the evening air. Once again, airtime was had – good airtime, with Max saying he had his best flight ever that evening. And by then the LZ was already starting to fill with tents and vehicles, including Lee Boone’s RV. The happening was happening!

Saturday morning dawned pretty calm. Paragliders went up early to Dry Canyon launch, but it was a while before anyone tried the air. When I went up to launch with a load of 4 hang gliders and a PG, it was still awfully light. Ted Sullivan of Austin launched his Freedom 190 about 12:30, but he soon sank down, down towards Cox Field. I went off next at 1:40, and soon got up to 8000 ft MSL, and then 9000. Lots of thermals, though kind of rough and intermittent; I looked down on Dave Coleman and Bo Frazier, when they launched, and then up at them when they thermalled on by. Bo was flying something unique – a bowsprit hang glider from Bautek in Germany, highly maneuverable and landable (well, he didn’t pole vault, at least) and with no crossbar. They both flew for well over an hour. The winds got even lighter after they launched, though, and some of the remaining pilots got extended sled rides, but everyone got something out of the day. We had a pre-barbecue barbecue that evening, with Bill on Grill and, for appetizers, Mike’s chile-bacon cheese poppers. Nobody looked hungry (or thirsty) as the visiting that evening went on and on. Chris Grotbeck put on a concert with his guitar and even took requests. Getting to bed before midnight? Well, some of us did…

On Sunday the conditions favored the PG’s a lot more, and the direction changed from light southwest to light northwest. Our visitors went to La Luz for their airtime fix. Some sledded out, but others, like Patrick Harvey-Collard, had great flights; he landed his PG 12 miles from launch, down south of Alamogordo. Others reached Cox Field from the La Luz NW launch, a distance of about 3 miles. I had to make an emergency run up to Santa Fe, but when I got back in time for the Big Barbecue, everyone was gathering. Velma Woodcock had supplied a big pot of her famous pasole, which my friend Jim Mott immediately sought the recipe for. Bill’s wife Terry had supplied chocolate cake, apple crisp and berry cobbler; there were hot dogs, burgers and bratwursts as quick as Bill could grill them up. Matt Hayes and Jan Zschenderlein put on a show for the crowd in PPG’s. It was a classic Dry Canyon event, just like the Good Ol’ Days when we gathered at the other end of the field. The tales, news and gossip went on until midnight, at least; the stars were clear and brilliant as I finally got some sleep in my truck.

Monday was a day for cleanup. It looked like a great day for La Luz, at first, with moderate winds out of the north/northwest. But when Matt, Jan, Max and Mark went to the northwest launch, with PG's, the winds were from the northeast. Which was odd, because by then they were out of the southwest at Cox Field. Except when they were from the southeast, or the west, or even east, going about 10 to 15 mph each time – pretty strong and certainly shifty for ground winds in our area. Nobody else was tempted to drive up to launch. We had some fine morning visits, talking with Tyson & Oceana from Albuquerque, Ted & Laura from Austin, and anyone else who didn't flee. Flying or not, it’s the people I love in this sport. We got everything packed up and ready to roll by noon, and said our farewells to one and all. I think we all owe a lot of thanks to Bill and Mike, George & Velma, Lee and Matt and Jan and all of our visitors. Not to mention Alamogordo and the Lincoln National Forest. Alas, it’s hard to say goodbye to all the new-found friends from this weekend. Not to be too sad, though – keep the Guadalupes in mind for Presidents Day, and the Memorial Day Fly-In after that. See you all then!

[Bill Cummings]

RGSA/Hawks,
We are planning a weekend camp out this coming weekend at a new BLM training hill called Gray Mountain which is west of the city of Magdalena on I-25 and south of Hwy # 60.
So far it looks like three HG's and one maybe two PG's.

[RobinHastings]

The long range forecast looks suitable for the expedition to Gray Hill. (It is south of US Hwy 60, west of Magdalena, NM which is west of Socorro, NM.) Gray Hill is marked by a large radio tower. I checked it out on Google Maps. It seems to have a good dirt road to it, and the glide to a good, flat LZ to the northwest is about 5:1. The temperatures for that weekend are forecast to be seasonal, probably 70's during the day and 50's at night. Winds should be fairly moderate, mostly west and southwest. I'm looking forward to the expedition, though I may not be able to start out on it until Friday evening (teaching obligations). Bill, put up some streamers or flags at the turnoff points, OK? See you all up there!
-Robin

[judomax625]

I'll be leaving Friday morning and will try to get there around midday...
Max Montgomery 505 8one4 9eight79