Dry Canyon Alamogordo, NM (USA)

[RobinHastings]

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2017:
It was another balmy day at Dry Canyon. T-shirt weather at launch, with light southwest winds, clear skies, and temperatures 65 to 70 degrees. Bill Cummings drove for me, and I launched at 1:23 by his watch. I got up a bit over launch, about 500 feet, but the thermals on this high pressure day (you could see the inversion across the Basin) were bubbles, and didn't go up very high. There were lots of them, though. I worked some lift along the ridge, in the Bowl, by the Point at the end of the Bowl, and the old reliable one at the north end of the West Face. Good enough to soar in in smooth, pleasant air for about 40 minutes. I wish I'd followed Bill's coaching on the landing, but, alas, I did the Robin thing: came in slow, flared early, and dropped. No damage, but it could have been better. A real nice day, though. Here we are, a month before the solstice, and I wonder if winter is ever going to make it? It's hard to feel anything but holiday cheer in weather like this.
-Robin

[Frank Colver]

Today my wife (of 63 years) said that if we ever moved to another state, she would want it to be New Mexico. We used to have friends in Socorro.

I said: "Well if we ever did move to NM I want you to know I wouldn't be flying at a beach anymore, I would be flying some of their great sites that I read about on the Hawks' forum".

When I got back into HG, 3 years ago, I promised her that I would only fly at sand dune beach sites. My statement didn't seem to bother her any.

Frank C.

[Bill Cummings]

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 25, 2017:
It was another balmy day at Dry Canyon. T-shirt weather at launch, with light southwest winds, clear skies, and temperatures 65 to 70 degrees. Bill Cummings drove for me, and I launched at 1:23 by his watch. I got up a bit over launch, about 500 feet, but the thermals on this high pressure day (you could see the inversion across the Basin) were bubbles, and didn't go up very high. There were lots of them, though. I worked some lift along the ridge, in the Bowl, by the Point at the end of the Bowl, and the old reliable one at the north end of the West Face. Good enough to soar in in smooth, pleasant air for about 40 minutes. I wish I'd followed Bill's coaching on the landing, but, alas, I did the Robin thing: came in slow, flared early, and dropped. No damage, but it could have been better. A real nice day, though. Here we are, a month before the solstice, and I wonder if winter is ever going to make it? It's hard to feel anything but holiday cheer in weather like this.
-Robin

https://youtu.be/Km01N2VUn_8

[RobinHastings]

That was a real nice video, Bill. VERY instructive, especially the landing as seen from your hand held camera. I found myself telling that pilot, "Speed up! You're going too slow! And you're too high!" He never listens to me, you know? And he doesn't listen to Bill very well, either. I'll have a word with that guy about his landings, if I ever meet him again...
-Robin

[RobinHastings]

SATURDAY, JANUARY 13, 2018:
This was my first flight of the new year, and it was a very pleasant one. Steve Crye met me in the Cox Field LZ about 10:30 this morning. We waited for our driver, Finis Miller, and he made it an hour later. By noon we were at the Dry Canyon launch, and shortly after that SSA pilots Andy Balk and Brian Reindl made it up in Brian's 4WD van, with their hang gliders on top. A couple of airmen from Holloman AFB followed us up as well - lucky for Brian, as we then had a driver for his van. Finis and the airmen followed Steve to the PG launch, while the rest of us set up. Steve had a launch about the time we were doing our preflight inspections, and he did well, getting well above the ridge in the clear conditions. (Winds at launch were southwest, about 12 to 15 mph.) He was headed down the ridge to Cox Field before Andy was ready to launch in a Falcon 195, about 2:00 pm. He flew well, while Brian and I finished setting up our U2's and getting into our harnesses. We launched well, too, with Finis assisting everyone, and both of us soared. Thermals today were abundant, but bubbly - not true columns, it seemed, but bubbles you could ride for only a minute or two, before they disappeared. Still, we all got up several hundred feet, and had no trouble making the landing zone. After 20 minutes I came into the LZ with a good southwest approach, and (following Bill Cummings' mentorship) I had a perfect touchdown. So did Brian and Andy and Steve, of course, so don't read too much into that; I still approach the ground with a fine ballast of trepidation. I think that each of us stayed in the air about 20 to 30 minutes this day. The BZ Burger place welcomed us after we were packed up, and we headed out for home about 5:00 pm. Clear skies, balmy temperatures, and good company - it's not a bad way to spend a winter weekend.
-Robin

[RobinHastings]

Saturday, Jan. 27, 2018:
We had a nice weekend at Dry Canyon. Friday at 1:00 pm MST I met up with Chris Chaney, Mike Ford and Steve Markham from Texas. I was their driver (and 4WD provider) and we went up to Dry Canyon launch. Mike Ford was first off in his U2 160. He had a cocoon harness but couldn't get into the boot, so he spent his flight struggling with it - wisely, well out away from the mountain - and finally landed short, a bit east of Scenic Drive. Next off was Chris, in his U2 145, and he did well, soaring up about 1000 feet. The winds were fairly strong this day, and Steve Markham decided to wait until mellower conditions on Sunday. I spent the night in Ruidoso, then returned to the LZ Saturday at noon. I radioed launch and found that Max Montgomery, Patrick Harvey-Collard, and Steve Crye were at launch with PG's. All of them flew, and had exemplary, 4-hour flights in light winds and balmy, mellow conditions. In addition to yesterday's pilots Tony Conger from Lubbock arrived, with his wife Kendra. I took Kendra and the four HG pilots to the launch and all of them flew in clear, buoyant conditions. Perfect launches, and all made the LZ this time. When the gliders were packed up we all joined the PG pilots at Can't Stop Smoking barbecue on 10th Street. A good day for everyone!
-Robin

[SamKellner]

Hi Robin,

Thanks for hosting the Texans.

[RobinHastings]

Good news about the Dry Canyon site: The Lincoln National Forest folks have graded the road! I took P3 pilot Steve Van Eerden up to the launch on March 7th, and he had a fine, two-hour flight. The road up to launch was as good as I've seen it - very professionally done, within a week or so after I mentioned it to them that it could use some upkeep. These are the kind of folks that taxpayers should be grateful for! (I, for instance, do not have a road grader - or any knowledge on how to use it.) One more item about the Dry Canyon site: Please let the City of Alamogordo know (as much in advance as you can) if you plan to fly there. They own the Cox Field LZ, and would like to know that it's being used. The phone number to call is 575-439-4265; talk to Regina Michaud, or leave a message. Have some good flights!
-Robin
March 13, 2018

[RobinHastings]

MARCH 16, 2018: I took advantage of a letup in our howling winds this Friday. Yesterday was bad, Sunday will be worse, and Saturday will be somewhere in between. All southwest, of course, but the winds will be 20+ mph and maybe up to 40. Today, however, was very nice. In the Cox Field LZ the winds were west, about 5 mph when I landed; up at launch they were 15 mph with gusts of 20 or so. My driver was Jim Mott, and he helped me to an excellent launch at 12:35 pm MDT. I shot up immediately, worked the lift around the launch, and then headed on down the ridge. Thermals were abundant, but a little squirrely - some had no backsides to them, going from lift to sink within the same circle. But I arrived over the LZ with at least 1000 feet, set up a good west approach, and made a pretty good landing in my Airwaves Formula. Duration was 25 minutes, but I could have readily stayed up longer (I had to get back to Las Cruces to do some coaching). Jim and I got hamburgers at the Rockin' BZ and headed in separate ways, but I would certainly call this a pretty good day.
-Robin

[RobinHastings]

Saturday, May 5, 2018:
Visiting Hang 5 pilot David Whitehall was our guest today at Dry Canyon. He's travelling through to Austin, but wanted to fly Dry if he could. He launched his 225 Falcon at 2:15 pm MDT and had a pretty good, half-hour flight in high pressure, turbulent conditions. The wind switched 180 degrees as he was landing, but he got the Falcon down safely. Our driver today was Maury Pitkovsky of Alamogordo, who was hoping to get some good videos of the activity with his drones. He took some footage of David's flight, and of Steve Crye, too, flying his PG. I would have launched, with Maury on the nose wires, but Steve had a major collapse and a reserve deployment, and so I packed up the glider and drove us back down. We then spent a few hours first locating Steve (he had gone XC and crashed on a hillside just north of La Luz) and then helping him get out of there, along with his gear. Injury extent is unknown, but he walked out on his own. David and I got back to Las Cruces about 8:45 in the evening, and had dinner with my family at the local IHOP down the street. A pretty tiring day, but I'm real glad that David got to try the site. Maybe he'll do even better when he comes back through our area in another couple of weeks.
-Robin