Dockweiler RHG Diary

[JoeF]

May 23, 2018, Wednesday, birthday of Otto Lilienthal
tomorrow:
Open free rec. HG is disallowed on this day ---May 23rd, Otto Lilienthal's Birthday, if u$hPa-based insurance-oppressed business opens and uses its usual or so 10% of the public site for profit leaving 90% of the public land asset unusued; such for fear that someome might mistake a rec. HG person and wing for the concessionaire wings and sue the wrong party. Tyranny of fear lives, not Otto Lilienthal this year's BD at Dockweiler. Work is yet to be done. The food concessionaire there does not prevent people bringing a sandwich to the beach to eat (fly) for fear that a suit will be against the food concessionaire if someone brought a poisoned sandwich in their picnic basket. 2018 !

California and County of Los Angeles and City of Los Angeles have a way to go to be recreationally wise for recreational hang gliding.
Boycott the concession? Reason with the County? Two-site solution? Obliterate the repressive intrusion of a monopolistic insurance RRRG? Close the concession? County demanding that RHG be not boosted aside by fact that a concession operates (concessions elsewhere in the system do not preclude parallel eating, skating ,cycling, swimming, surfing, kiteboarding, sailing, running, walking, skipping, kite flying, balloon holding, umbrella using).

My core aches about the situation permitted to exist by the County; the mandate for public recreation is deeply unfulfilled yet. WS could be proactive for open rec. HG, but it is holding onto its position relentlessly. WS could change and be a true friend to rec. HG. For starters: WS could announce "closed on Otto Lilienthal's BD in order to allow open rec. HG on such an august rec. HG day. WS benefits from open RecHG. WS, consider expanding the benefit stream and work towards opening Rec.HG 365/yr.

[JoeF]

Happy Birthday, Otto Lilienthal
Thanks for being you!

[Bob Kuczewski]

Happy Birthday Otto.

Thanks for all you've given us.

Thanks to you as well Joe.

[Frank Colver]

Yes, happy birthday Otto Lilienthal

I celebrated your B-Day by spending a couple of hours at High Energy Sports while Jacob (master of the sewing machines) put the finishing touches on my experimental swing-seat harness. I hope to test it at next Sunday's meet, in your honor and the honor of the birth of modern sport hang gliding. In those days many flew in swing seats, heads up, enjoying the scenery, making birds jealous because they couldn't fly that way.

Frank C.

Circa 1974

Remember when we flew like this?

At Little Norco cropped.jpg (291.54 KiB) Viewed 6493 times

[JoeF]

"RHG" recreational hang gliding
===========================
Tuesday, June 12, 2018
== Great time today by four USHawks at Dockweiler: Frank Colver, Joe Faust, Bob Kuczewski, Michael Grisham
Today: 70th wedding anniversary of Michael's parents!
All of us had some flights with the newly updated Colver swing seat hung from Franks's Condor 330. Good results!
First time the new open RHG: we had three gliders operating and being flown. Michael had his first Alpha 210 flights.
It was good to have Michael's presence all day.
Long day: Bob arrived early and we left lot for a closed Beach Mex restaurant (mystery), but ate at some other on Pacific Coast Highway in El Segundo.

[Frank Colver]

Thanks for the RGH Diary report, Joe. it was a very fun and instructive day (see Colver Swing Seat topic in "General").

Hmm.....could there be a renaissance of "seat of the pants" flying at Dockweiler? We may yet get converts.

First time I packed up my Condor by myself. Because we had three gliders set up, we couldn't all pitch in and pack up one glider. Therefore, it was almost dark when we left.

Frank

[Frank Colver]

Here's a link to my video of the swing seat flying Tuesday.

https://vimeo.com/275026416

One can see the progress in launch technique as the day progresses.

Frank

[Bob Kuczewski]

It was an almost perfect day.

I got there after noon, and the wind was straight in with baby whitecaps.

I set up my Falcon 3 195, and started with some straight out flights. With a strong run, I was getting some good altitude. So I started soaring. It was easy to make the first pass (south to north), but the Falcon flies a bit faster than the Condor, so I would reliably sink out either at the north end or on the way back south. I flew about 30 flights like that, and I had about 3 or 4 where I could make the south turn before sinking out. Either Condor would have soared all day.

There must have been at least 20 spectators who asked about flying themselves. Every time I referred them to Windsports. "Any day ... Wednesday through Sunday ... you'll love it."

It was my first full day flying without either of my good friends (Joe and Frank). I certainly missed both ... but had a fun day anyway. There was always somebody stopping by to ask questions, and I enjoyed sharing my experiences.

[Frank Colver]

Fantastic Bob!

I spent 5 hours at the DMV Monday and another 3 1/2 hr today added on to the 4 1/2 hr last Friday

The worst day at Dockweiler beats the best day at the DMV. So, 13 DMV hours total for 3 consectuve business days.

Frank

[Bob Kuczewski]

Frank's Monday:

I spent 5 hours at the DMV Monday ...

Bob's Monday:

Dockweiler_2018_07_02s.gif (2.26 MiB) Viewed 6244 times

I think I had the better day.