Yeah, that pretty much sums it up. Notice the border fence and the view into Mexico in the bottom picture. It was windy and cold, but good company made up for that! Better luck will surely follow us in our next outing - and after all, I had the "flight of the day" at Dry Canyon just one week earlier. No regrets on my part...
-Robin
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Rio Grande Soaring Association Forum
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Flying possibilitiesRe: Flying possibilities
Re: Flying possibilities
I'll be busy with family relatives until this coming weekend so I may be unable to sneak on line until Saturday.
I do have another (Robin H.) flight video to edit and link with some camera stills to post about the Teeter Totter, Transport, Trainer progress. I talked with Jan Z about getting together with his winch for some towing but he is also tied up with other thing for a little while. We will follow up after Thanksgiving Weekend. So ----Don't wing load too much everyone. It will make it harder to escape the bottom dwellers. 
Re: Flying possibilities
Yesterday I had an extended sled run at Dry Canyon, with a perfect landing. (No witnesses, right? Good.) Mike and Bill shrewdly kept their gliders on the truck, in the light wind, overcast conditions, and our driver, Jamison Mott, was not required to demonstrate his solo skills with a 4WD. Jan Zschenderlein had two PG flights that day. Today (Tuesday) Nancy and I went to the mountains to get some photos of autumn colors. On the way back, in Alamogordo, I phoned Jan Z. to see if we could drop by for a visit (and a look at his winch). I did reach him - with a lot of wind noise to be heard. He said to meet him in the Cox Field LZ in half an hour, and by the time we got there Nancy spotted him high above the West Face in his green paraglider. His landing, 20 minutes later, was exemplary as always. He'll be taking off on vacation in a couple of days, but meanwhile it was great to see him skying out in lovely, clear, 70-degree weather. Fine thermals and steady southwest winds today, naturally - where were they when I needed them, eh? Ah, the injustice... Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! I'm really grateful that I have good friends to fly with.
-Robin
Re: Flying possibilities
Looking at the weather for this weekend the conditions look good for both Magdalena Rim on Sunday, and Dry Canyon on both Saturday and Sunday. Does anyone want to try those sites? (I don't know how the Dry Canyon road is, though; I was up in Santa Fe for Thanksgiving, during all this rain.)
-Robin 575-541-5744
Re: Flying possibilities
RGSA/Hawks,
I hate to be a party whatever -- but Dry looks like the best bet --- but wind chill in the low 40's cloudbase could be too low too long into the day. I think I'll stay home and edit Robin's last flight and work on the Teeter Totter Transport Trainer. If it were in my power I'd cancel tomorrow for lack of interest. 
Re: Flying possibilities on 11-23-15 video
RGSA/Hawks,
I've been tied up with life stuff getting in the way of hang gliding. That is why this latest video that I'm putting up is ---well ---Late! With our driver Jameson Mott, we pilots, Mike Ellsworth, Robin Hastings, and myself (Bill Cummings) arrived at the Lincoln National Forest northeast of Alamogordo, NM. November 23, 2015. The forecast was for stronger so Mike and I left our gliders in their bags and on the truck rack. Robin (our tour director) set up his Wills Wing U2 and took a sledder to the landing zone, (LZ). https://youtu.be/qL4t6lSOn6k Next I'll try to catch up, everyone interested, on the progress of the "ForTy's (Teeter Totter Transport Trainer.)
Re: Flying possibilities with the 4T project.
Here we are again with the Teeter Totter Transport Trainer project. (4T project)
One use is to transport an assembled glider to the top of the hill for the next flight. A second use is to transport an assembled glider to the downwind end of the tow road for the next static tow launch (ST). A third use is platform launching (PL) a hang glider (without a towline) for landing practice. Later on we could use the 4T for PL towing with a winch/reel. The current modifications have included opening up the base tube yokes to prevent binding or hangups while platform launching. Also note the newly installed hand hold for each side of the launching yoke (4T).
The first thing I noticed when loading a glider's base tube into the yokes of the 4T's was when the tail of the glider was still on the ground the fared base tube was at a steep angle and would not allow the base tube safety pins to be installed. That required deeper slots which worked and still allowed big training wheels when desired. The hand hold on each side is made with small cord run through some yard irrigation tubing.
On the next post I'll put up some pictures of the nose release. This project is being thrown together with stuff on hand between four different pilots which explains the "Home Made Look."
Re: Flying possibilities with the 4T project.
This post will cover the hang glider's nose release for our 4T project.
Robin Hastings came up with the idea to use my old aero-tow keel release as a nose release. This will work well for Platform Launching (PL) and make a quick release at the nose of the glider once we have returned the glider to the top of a hill or the downwind end of a tow road for static towing (ST). However while trying to make the 4T project accommodate multiple applications I thought the safest course would be to design it for platform tow launching. Next it could be used as a transport system for other applications such as Foot Launch (FL) or Static Tow (ST) . This would reduce confusion for others pilots using the 4T when it came time to move onto platform launching (PL). Put another way - if the 4T is PL ready then pilots using the 4T for transporting gliders have nothing different to learn about the workings of the platform launch up to a certain point. Below is a picture of the hang glider nose release and its backup COLD NOSE SAFETY. (It's not pretty yet just tied on to work.) When the NOSE IS HOT the COLD NOSE SAFETY is not attached and is stowed out of the way. When the NOSE IS COLD it is not able to be released for launching or by accidentally tripping the release mechanism. It isn't my intention to go deep into PL launching procedures at this time since for now the 4T will be used for transporting gliders.
Re: Flying possibilities for Dry 11-29-15
Looking good for Dry at Alamogordo, NM (USA) 11-29-15
The ramp faces SW.  EDIT: 21:48 Mike is good for meeting in the LZ @ 10:00 am tomorrow.
Re: Flying possibilities
Sunday, Nov. 29: Mike, Bill and I met in the Dry Canyon LZ (Cox Field) this morning about 10:00. By 11:00 we were at Dry Canyon launch. A vast whiteness greeted us, as we gazed out on cloudtops stretching across the Tularosa Basin. Bill got some pictures which he might be good enough to share with us sometime. Bill and Mike set up their Sport2 and T2C gliders anyway, and were rewarded with clearing skies around 1:30. (Prior to that, we got to see what the air really looks like, as strong winds and rotors shot the clouds up the ridge face and then plunged them to the ground over the back.) Bill launched about 1:45 and Mike about 2:05, both into strong south/southwest winds. They both shot up, and at that point I drove down. By the time I reached Cox Field both gliders were there, just at the start of being disassembled. Good landings for both of them, into strong southwest winds; Bill had about an hour and reached 10,000 ft MSL, Mike was a bit lower and had half an hour. We got some dinner together when the packing up was done, dining at Smiley's Cafe (Chinese buffet) in the White Sands Mall. Under clear, almost cloudless skies (note the contrast!) we went in separate directions homeward just as the sun was setting. Two hits, two runs, no errors - a good day for flying in RGSA country. Maybe we'll try again later in the week.
-Robin
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