Flying possibilities

[SamKellner]

Good Job BillC

[Bob Kuczewski]

Ditto from me. Super Bill!!!












This is exactly what needs to be done to save the sport of hang gliding.     

[RobinHastings]

THE GUADALUPE RIM, Presidents Day Weekend, 2016:
Carrying on a fine flying tradition, about two dozen pilots, both PG and HG, met February 12 through 14, at the remote Guadalupe Rim site northwest of Carlsbad, New Mexico. We had a great time there. Skies were clear all weekend. Early on Saturday a lot of PG pilots (Jim Stelzer, Bill Lemon, Greg Clark and others) flew in warm, light but soarable conditions. So did a new HG pilot, Stephen Marcum of Midland, Texas; he launched his Falcon 195 and very successfully flew to the LZ in the valley out in front. I and my daughter got down there to pick him up. When we got back to the launch (the turnaround time for the 54-mile retrieval is about 2 hours) I set up my own hang glider, along with folks like Mike Ellsworth, John Nagyvary, Chris Chaney and Bill Lemon (Bill's biwingual). We launched into some pretty strong winds, but that was the last of the tense moments - air was smooth and lifty, as soon as we got off the mountainside. (My thanks to Mike Reedy, who was my expert nose-wire man and very patiently helped me launch.) Landing winds were a little squirrely, but I, at least, had a perfect touchdown on top, thanks to coaching by Bill Cummings. All the other pilots flying HG eventually landed there, too. Then the real visiting began, as we had a large fire and plenty of exotic things to eat and drink for dinner. Bill Lemon put on a feast of wild game meats (elk, grouse, dove, etc.) which was eagerly ingested by one and all. The stars that night were lovely, and I set up a telescope to let people see them up close - also Jupiter, and our own bright moon. Lectures on what they were looking at were thrown in free of charge. I don't think anyone had a complaint about how the weekend went, despite east winds (the site faces west) on Sunday morning. Most of us packed up and left by noon, but that doesn't detract from the pleasure of seeing new faces and hearing new tales, throughout the weekend. The drive is long, but the company was great... Let's try it again next year!
-Robin

[JoeF]

Thanks, Robin, for great report ... memorable recreational hang gliding experiences!

[Bill Cummings]

Sup?
Mike Reedy and I car pooled by way of Anthony Gap, HWY 54, El Paso, Dell City, Landing Zone, and then 27 miles to launch. What a turn around chore that is huh? Anyway Mike and I discovered that a lot of the dirt road from Dell City has black top. (To the East of Dell City.)
From Mike R,'s house its 200 miles to launch and I live 6 miles farther.
The once brutal 9.3 miles of Rim Road AKA National Livestock Road heading north from Queen Road, (HWY 137) is still dirt but much work has been done to the road for around 15 miles. This is the first time out there that I didn't hear of a flat tire story and I'm not talking about a can of beer.
The southern route from Las Cruces may be about forty miles shorter than going by way of Alamogordo and through Artesia, NM.
The northern route will only yield 9.3 miles of dirt road.
Going home we left Queen Road at mile post #6 and turned toward the landing zone (LZ) on dirt road Eddy Co. # 415. At that intersection the sign says 55 miles to Dell City. (Also El Paso = 155 miles.)

Counting the Rim Road (dirt 9.3 miles) and except for the short paved Queen Rd., section between Rim Rd. and the LZ road (Eddy Co. # 415) the total distance from the the campground near launch to the pavement of New Mexico Rd., 506, northeast of Queen is 47 miles. I'm guessing that comes out close to a total of 40 miles of dirt road by taking the southern route through El Paso, TX.

Air miles from launch to my house is 112 miles @ 272 degrees but by road it's 206 miles.
Pilots arrived on Thursday and flew but the wind Friday, I'm told, wasn't coming in to the Rim.

I've got an idea. If you're in the LZ with a vehicle and can't raise anyone at launch on the radio, aim the headlights in the direction of launch and flash the lights. (Cell phones won't make it.)
Sunday once again proved the weather forecast to be wrong and it was good soaring from around three until dark. I took off at 4:06 and Mike E. at 4:18pm.

King Posted gliders were good for 1,100' over the Rim and Mike's topless was up over 2,000' above.
We each took around 50 minutes and as the wind went to 30 at the PG launch we landed in much weightless turbulence before sunset. I bellied it in on the wheels and mike took out a left fiberglass tip. Of the HG landings I watched only Robin's was perfect the day before.
I was too busy for much picture taking and only took a some at the PG launch and the GoPro of my HG flight.

2-13-16 Guadalupe Rim.PNG (160.78 KiB) Viewed 3480 times

2-13-16 11.06am Guads.PNG (163.92 KiB) Viewed 3480 times

(Jan if you are missing a red camp chair I picked it up and have it.)
I was proud of all the pilots that took nothing but pictures and left nothing but tracks in the camping area.
No litter was found when Mike R. and I pulled out third from last Monday at 10:00am.
I thought someone littered by leaving a pile of diamonds behind but it turned out to be cooler ice cubes.

[RobinHastings]

SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 21:
Bill and I plan to do some mentoring of pilots tomorrow afternoon at the Anapra site, near Sunland Park, NM. We should be there by 3:00 pm. Anyone interested can carpool down with us. Bill and I will meet up with everyone at the McDonalds restaurant on University Avenue, just west of I-25, at 2:00 pm. Since we're sort of racing the clock (sunset is about 6:00 pm) we will not be waiting long! We look forward to seeing any of you interested pilots, and maybe getting some good takeoffs and landings in at a good sandy training site with potentially 100 to 200 feet of altitude. Hasta manana!
-Robin
575-541-5744

[RobinHastings]

SATURDAY, FEB. 27:
Bill and I met up with Mike Reedy about 9:00 am in Las Cruces today, and drove up to Dry Canyon launch together. Winds were 10-15 mph out of the southwest at launch, and temperature was about 70 degrees F. Bill took off at 1:00 pm in his WW Sport 2, and I followed 15 minutes later in my WW U2. Mike was our nose man, but we were cheered on and assisted by Steve Foster, a firefighter from Cloudcroft, his wife Pam (school librarian) and daughter Ava. They were pretty jazzed to see us soar, and watched us until we both set down in the LZ at 2:20 pm MST. Nice people. Mike was pretty pleased, too; it's been years since he's flown Dry Canyon, but he still enjoys the scene and the folks who do it. The thermals were punchy, small and strong, but there was no white-knuckle activity today (clear skies, high pressure). Bill made it up 1400 feet over launch (8400' MSL) and I got my highest at 7700. My landing, with all of Bill's instructions in mind, came off well; I dove into the LZ with lots of speed, let the glider bleed it off, and finally flared hard and landed perfectly. (Well, other credits go to Mike's wind information, and the 10 mph southwest breeze I came down into.) Bill had an unlucky wind shift on final approach, and wound up with a non-serious whack as he put it down. We had one of our new potential pilots, Nathan Bowers, there to watch the landings, and he and Mike R. were very helpful as we deconstructed gliders and packed them up. Mike, Bill and I made it back to my house by 5:00, delighted to have another beautiful flying day in the sunny southwest. As much of the country might note today, it could be worse...

We'll hope to do some mentoring of new potential pilots tomorrow. Life is good!
-Robin

[Bill Cummings]

SATURDAY, FEB. 27:
Bill and I met up with Mike Reedy about 9:00 am in Las Cruces today, and drove up to Dry Canyon launch together. Winds were 10-15 mph out of the southwest at launch, and temperature was about 70 degrees F. Bill took off at 1:00 pm in his WW Sport 2, and I followed 15 minutes later in my WW U2. Mike was our nose man, but we were cheered on and assisted by Steve Foster, a firefighter from Cloudcroft, his wife Pam (school librarian) and daughter Ava. They were pretty jazzed to see us soar, and watched us until we both set down in the LZ at 2:20 pm MST. Nice people. Mike was pretty pleased, too; it's been years since he's flown Dry Canyon, but he still enjoys the scene and the folks who do it. The thermals were punchy, small and strong, but there was no white-knuckle activity today (clear skies, high pressure). Bill made it up 1400 feet over launch (8400' MSL) and I got my highest at 7700. My landing, with all of Bill's instructions in mind, came off well; I dove into the LZ with lots of speed, let the glider bleed it off, and finally flared hard and landed perfectly. (Well, other credits go to Mike's wind information, and the 10 mph southwest breeze I came down into.) Bill had an unlucky wind shift on final approach, and wound up with a non-serious whack as he put it down. We had one of our new potential pilots, Nathan Bowers, there to watch the landings, and he and Mike R. were very helpful as we deconstructed gliders and packed them up. Mike, Bill and I made it back to my house by 5:00, delighted to have another beautiful flying day in the sunny southwest. As much of the country might note today, it could be worse...

We'll hope to do some mentoring of new potential pilots tomorrow. Life is good!
-Robin

2-27-16 Dry LZ.PNG (908.85 KiB) Viewed 3449 times

https://youtu.be/vympDaWD0kk

[Bill Cummings]

It looks too west on today’s forecast for Mag. Rim.
Mesquite Dam faces SSW (bowl) and the gravel pit faces West.
Weather Underground and Launch Code for the area have been indicating
SW to WSW which is just in between the two launch sites at the Mesquite Exit.

Now if one were to operate on the principle that the forecast will be wrong like it was the last time we were at the site one could honor the people making the forecast by assuming that they may only be a little bit incorrect instead of totally out to lunch by going to Mesquite. That way if it’s only wrong to the south by a few degrees we can use the Dam site. (Not Damn). Or if it’s only wrong to the west by a few degrees we can use the gravel pit site.

We then would earn good Karma points for not totally disrespecting the Meteorologists.

[RobinHastings]

Saturday, March 5:
This turned out to be a very fine late-winter day. Temperatures were low 70's, winds were mild and southwest, skies were a bit cloudy but not at all a threat. I went out to Mag Rim with Angel, a possible new pilot, and his girlfriend Rebecca. With Angel pushing and me pulling, we had the glider cart with my U2 on it up at launch in 5 minutes. Bill joined us up there shortly after I unzipped the glider bag, helped to set up, and then was my wire man at the nose for launch. I took off at 1:15 into smooth, lifting air, and quickly shot up to 50 feet over. I worked some lift around the launch area, got up to 200' over launch, and then headed southeast along the ridge. I found another good thermal near the highest point of the ridge, then lost it, after getting up to 5800 ft MSL. I couldn't find another thermal in time, so I finally set up a good, southwest approach into the Arroyo LZ. I passed 10 feet over the flag, and landed perfectly. I only had about 8 or 10 minutes in the air, but it sure was fun. I think that Angel and Rebecca were impressed. We all had lunch together at the Subway, and reached home by 3:30, in plenty of time for Angel to make it to the fitness class he teaches. All in all, another beautiful day in the Desert Southwest.
-Robin