Flying possibilities

[RobinHastings]

Thanks for the video, Bill! It's superb, in my biased opinion.

Today I went with Bill, Andy and Isabel to the Anapra site near Sunland Park, NM. Winds were coming in great, so we set up - and, when that was done, so were the winds. For half an hour we watched them huff and puff, 30 seconds or a minute at a time, then finally we called it and put our gliders away again. We stopped for sandwiches at Subway, heading home, and vowed to do better tomorrow at Dry Canyon. That's life in world of wind sports...
-Robin

[Bill Cummings]

Re: Flying possibilities Fri. the thirteenth, 2015
RGSA/Hawks,
Isabel, Andy, Robin and I headed for Anapra, NM (USA) which is up against the US/Mexico border fence.
One can fly over the fence into Mexico's airspace but I for one dislike the word, repercussions.
On the way south we stopped and did site see camels, bison, lamas, goats, rabbits, and birds that were subject to some form of forced crossbreeding.
Nothing I would care to hold, pet or try eating.
Anyway we made it to the East Facing ridge near Anapra and with some trepidation set up on the narrow area which is just forty feet between the rim and a fence. The wind was 25 mph so we hurried to set up with hope that our hang gliders would not blow away.
Just as we were doing our Buddy Check Pre-flight the wind died to 10 miles per hour.
Talk about your bad luck on Friday the thirteenth.
It wasn't all bad luck. My buddy check of Robin's set up glider ran across a safety ring that had been snagged and straightened out enough to cause concern that a top downtube pin could eventually fall out.
This find had me feeling pretty smug until Robin found a sprog that I forgot to deploy and zip up on my Sport 2.
Yeaaaa for the clubs Buddy Check Procedure.
While the three of us guys were waiting on the wind to come back again our driver Isabel slipped into to some strange state of unconsciousness in the box of the Toyota pickup.

Andy and Robin kicking rocks..PNG (659.12 KiB) Viewed 3202 times

EDIT:
(Now wait just a minute here. I now think that isn't Robin with his head on Andy's shoulder. That could be Isabel.)
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________
At one point the wind was so light a launch and sled ride would probably have had us short of the good LZ and in the brush or field of goat heads.
We threw in the towel, knocked down the gliders, ate at Subway on the way home, and made plans for flying tomorrow.

El Paso- wunderground Fri 13-15.PNG (34.49 KiB) Viewed 3202 times

Deming while east 25 deminishing to 5mph..PNG (4.9 KiB) Viewed 3202 times

El Paso IA while Anapra was at first blown out east..PNG (9.81 KiB) Viewed 3202 times

While it was blowing from the north at El Paso Airport east of Anapra it was blowing east at Anapra

[Bill Cummings]

I looked at both wunderground and Launch Code and the direction is SW to S 6-9 mph which will be about 5 mph more at launch.
So far Robin, Bill, Andy, Isabel, and Mike had said earlier he should be good for the weekend. I left a message but forgot to follow up later this evening before it got too late.

[Bill Cummings]

I looked at both wunderground and Launch Code and the direction is SW to S 6-9 mph which will be about 5 mph more at launch.
So far Robin, Bill, Andy, Isabel, and Mike had said earlier he should be good for the weekend. I left a message but forgot to follow up later this evening before it got too late.

Well this morning the updated forecast is looking even better. Sunday looks like rain and Monday looks like totally blown out.
I'm waiting for a call from Robin so that I can call Mike with final plans.

[Bill Cummings]

RGSA/Hawks,
Isabel, Andy, Robin, and I piled into Robin's Toyota and left Las Cruces, NM (USA) to meet up with Mike E., in the LZ in Alamogordo, NM.

The stronger winds forecast for Saturday didn't happen. With Isabel driving the truck down for us all four of us flew.
High clouds moving in ahead of the rain for tomorrow blocked thermal production today.

Mike went first at 1:44. I launched at 1:46, one minute ahead of the time allotted for starting my GoPro camera that was mounted on my keel.
I heard Robin radio, "Nice launch Andy," at 1:52.
Mike and I sunk to the LZ with each of us being teased with a small weak thermal that provided much false hope.
Mike landed at 1:58 and I landed at 1:59. So 14 minutes for Mike and 13 minutes for me. An average sled ride.
Andy and Robin each had longer flights but somewhere during this day my mind wondered and I lost interest in the length of every flight.
Robin may post with more statistics. I did take a few still pictures with my Cannon camera that I'll post below.
We got home at sunset almost and Terry (my better 1/2,) had a hot meal for us.
Isabel and Andy are to be heading west this evening for relatives about two hours away.

Isabell-Andy-Lunch B4 Launch.PNG (1.27 MiB) Viewed 3189 times

Mike-Robin Setting up 11-14-15 at Dry..PNG (1.22 MiB) Viewed 3189 times

Bill and Mike in Dry LZ 11-14-15.PNG (1.16 MiB) Viewed 3189 times

Robin on final at Dry 11-14-15.PNG (923.45 KiB) Viewed 3189 times

Robin on final at Dry about to land..PNG (898.6 KiB) Viewed 3189 times

Robin with full air brakes on 11-14-15 Dry Canyon LZ.PNG (687.6 KiB) Viewed 3189 times

[JoeF]

Hi Robin,
If comfortable, would you please consider posting a robust description regarding the shown full-air-brake operation (before, during, and reflections). Thanks.
Was there video of the landing?
JoeF

[SamKellner]

Good job Bill

Good job Robin

Good job Mike

That looks like a super flying site.

15min sledder !!

I want some of that.

[RobinHastings]

Hello, Sam and Joe and everyone. I had a decent flight at Dry Canyon on Saturday. I was hoping we'd all sky out and go 60 miles to Carrizozo, since I thought the conditions were going to be prefrontal. They turned out to be no-frontal, with very little action in the thermal sense; I had 30 minutes of airtime, working a number of small, bubbly thermals, and Andy's inaugural flight there was much the same, for 25 minutes. Everyone landed well, though, and the launches all looked good. I'm glad Bill took the pictures of my landing approach. I think I am way too high to be deproned, in the first one, and my speed is too low (nose is too high) in the second one. Nice flare, though, probably because I had my hands high enough to do it well. Andy (a Kitty Hawk Kites instructor) had some good advice for me: hands lower down (Bill says, keep one on the base tube) until I'm close to landing, then work them up to shoulder height before the flare. Sounds good to me. My launches are generally excellent, but my landings are the stuff of legend (and not in a good way). Hey, come on out and fly with us, you guys!
-Robin

[Bill Cummings]

Here Jon D. analyzes his landing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l1Stm0Az3Lc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_YLJzdE43I

[Bill Cummings]

Here is a Jim Rooney Youtube video where to show his students that he is at trim speed he takes his hands off of the downtubes for one second and then pushes up and out for a good landing. It is his Trim + one second, landing technique.
First you have to bring much speed down to where you round out the decent and bleed off speed with toes almost dragging for a long way.
Maintain the toes distance from the ground and let the control frame pull your hands forward as the glider seeks its trim speed.
When the control frame nolonger pulls your hands forward -----THAT IS TRIM SPEED---one second after achieving trim speed it is time to push up and forward.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YjHqdmUAAFo