US Hawks Hang Gliding Association

Hi All-

Will there be a May 23rd, 2024 gathering at Dockweiler this year? Although I wasn't at the original May, '71 event I started in the fall of 1971 (isolated in KS) and would be interested in seeing some of the other early pioneers. I was going to come out in 2016, staying with Taras- but it didn't work out that time.

I've recently been digging through some old things, some not seen since they were first made. Nostalgia can be ever so sweet. However, so many of the old timers are no longer with us. I was pretty close to Bruce Carmichael and Paul MacCready- both now gone. There are some untold stories ( I think) about Bruce's role in helping arrange that first meet.

If I come, I would want to fly and if the weather is not cooperative probably wouldn't make the trip. I'm usually flying my Open Class Sailplane (pic attached) in NM at that time of year and the weather is usually good. It's great to have forecasting tools with enough 5-7 day resolution to allow for some planning. I wish we had those things back in the day, or even in the early times of the Zapata World Record Encampment. There I would spend about 7 hours every day from 2:00 am onward doing Wx work-ups from scratch to coach the pilots.

Very Best to All,

Gary Osoba
Wichita, KS
Moriarty, NM

Gary: You do not know Me, but I Chris Mckeon have Flown HG's since when I went down to New Zealand Back in "Our Winter" up here in the northern Hemisphere, it was summer down in New Zealand anyways I had My First Flights, flying a HG. I recall that I Flew a Moyes Mars at the Beach. Well, I flew a Moyes Mars. So, I started Flying just as You all must have started. Well Fast-Forward Twenty Years. I have enjoyed the Most incredible ride that I could imagine. I mean, I look back and I recall My past Flights. I just think Wow Chris; You are so darned Lucky. The way I see it I Fly just the Flat-out Best HG that I could imagine, A 168 Predator. Well A few Years ago, I had two Flights Flying a Grobe Sailplane. I found out that {Three Axis Control} Takes some getting used to. I felt like a Primate Pilot Yes using My feet to work the rudder was a different experience for sure. But other than my experiencing some Pio while we on Yow. The Flight went quite nicely. I am proud to say that I had a nice landing.

For all I know that Two Seat Grobe Sailplane that I Flew is an utter Dog. Well looking at the Picture of Your Sailplane. Your Plane looks like a Clean slick Machine. Who knows Maybe Gary You and I will find us Selves' working the same Thermal.

I hope that on Your Next Flight, You Get High and You Go Far. Good By Chris McKeon.

Hi Gary (and Chris),

I wasn't at the original Otto Meet either, but we have generally been honoring the spontaneous spirit of that first gathering since the 2015 meet.

This year (2024), May 23rd falls on a Thursday which means that Windsports will be operating. So they will be making the final decisions about what happens. I suspect they will be open to flying one way or another, so I would encourage you to come. There will surely be other pilots there.

We started holding these modern day Otto meets nearly a decade ago, and our club(s) often financed a day of free instruction for anyone who showed up. It was a lot of fun. Then USHPA began banning people for political reasons, so in 2017 we got the site opened for all pilots (USHPA or not) with the County waiver on Mondays and Tuesdays. Fortunately, several recent Otto Meets fell on those Mondays or Tuesdays, and anyone who signed the County waiver could fly. Here's the waiver:

https://ushawks.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=44&t=2865

I personally feel that hose Monday and Tuesday meets are the most consistent with the spirit of the original meet.

Hi Gary! What a clean bird!
Please watch the weather for the Otto Lilienthal meet week for us, please! TIA! Is there a Pliable Moose still flying?

Bruce Carmichael and Richard Miller and I hill hopped the jib-sailed wing on a hill near Bruce's home in San Clemente... and that Doug Carmichael took to the the first big Otto Birthday Party in 1971 ; that wing was featured large in the Los Angeles Times coverage of that great party. Bruce was ever influential in early doings.

It will be neat if WindSports "closed" for the May 23rd day; they could win business-wise in a big way if they so closed and let freedom ring at the Dockweiler site on that day. But the Monday and Tuesday play will still be in the eye of several pilots, as the concession is closed on those two days and thus open to freedom flight.

Gary: I have been looking at the Image of Your Sailplane. It caused Me to recall when I read what Someone wrote about the F-104 Locked Starfighter. In the Article i trad: "The F-104 looks as if it is going Mach Two while sitting on the Tarmac.

Well looking at the Image of Your Sailplane. It looks like it is Flying Cross Country.

JoeF wrote:Hi Gary! What a clean bird!
Please watch the weather for the Otto Lilienthal meet week for us, please! TIA! Is there a Pliable Moose still flying?

PliableMoose.png

Bruce Carmichael and Richard Miller and I hill hopped the jib-sailed wing on a hill near Bruce's home in San Clemente... and that Doug Carmichael took to the the first big Otto Birthday Party in 1971 ; that wing was featured large in the Los Angeles Times coverage of that great party. Bruce was ever influential in early doings.

It will be neat if WindSports "closed" for the May 23rd day; they could win business-wise in a big way if they so closed and let freedom ring at the Dockweiler site on that day. But the Monday and Tuesday play will still be in the eye of several pilots, as the concession is closed on those two days and thus open to freedom flight.

Hello Joe!

When I think back over 50+ years, I remember very fondly all your efforts spent chronicling those exciting times. Although we knew each other from a distance, and spoke periodically by phone, I don't think we ever met in person. This despite the fact that I was in So. Cal. often in the early days- recreationally flying, some comps, promoting our products, etc. And you often made the effort to keep abreast of what we were doing- half a continent away- when your backyard territory was teaming with developments. I would especially hope to finally meet you at a Dockweiler gathering. Early this morning I read through the multi-page thread from several years back that Bob K. linked and its quite a record of happenings. The video from that early meet was especially enjoyable. There appear to be some legal and/or organizational issues that impact this and other things. I really don't know the history or wish to get into a recap of those things- not because I do or don't agree with one side or another. I just don't enjoy online debates.

Again, what a pleasure to hear from you. Let's see what develops. You organizers might consider sliding the annual date around a few days give or take if that makes sense- rather than strict adherence to only a single day. After all, the way we count time and calendars in particular have been somewhat elastic at times during history. So if there's a best day of the week for this- for example, a Friday- maybe set the date as the 23rd of May if the calendar date falls on a Friday, or the first Friday following May 23rd if it doesn't.

"'Not everything that can be counted counts and not everything that counts can be counted" - Albert Einstein

Very Best,

Gary Osoba

Hi Y-all. good new year to ypu.
Some reminiscent.
I began my love of all-flying-things as a kid and when I got back to Torrance Beach from an all expense paid, 389 day) vacation in Vietnam (thanx to lbj), it was Jan. of 1970, and my friends who pretty much all had been drafted, built these "sky surfer" machines that flew really well, and the many sand hill launches were fun to watch. South Bay was the place to be as a pilot or a sailor or engineer, so these machines got really good really fast, and the whole beach northward to Dockweiler was pristine.


Not only did the Hang Gliders get better, the surfboards too,
all up and down "The Coast".



As luck would have it, we all went to Parkway school just across from the parking lot, and had run down that hill a million times, but now Hefflinger and Cronk and others were doing it with these "state of the craft art", glider kites, which like our boards, just took off, it was all about fun, and traveling the coast, with "foils".



In 1971 I ran away or escaped from home, and stumbled into Telluride, and I had not thought I'd see a Hang Glider, walked into the plumbing shop for a job and saw one on the pipe rack and luckily got a job there.
Right place at the right time to see the whole progression of HG from my elementary school and "crawlspace perspective". Watched and help launch these "excepto" state of the art craft, fly in the most beautiful and unforgiving San Juans, And in just 7 or so years they were doing 6 loops with smoke over town park.




You guys are lucky to keep the spirit of the beach and the ocean 52 years, Bravo. we should be so lucky but our site got taken over by a bunch of "Non-Skiers" quite some time ago (thanks snowboarders and paragliders and ski area that didn't ban together and control them from the start and you have to pass a test before you are allowed on the steep mountain).

Great writing guys, thankx US Hawks,
Here is a blast from you guys past that fits the bill, by Rick Masters.
We're in his hands.

Well, it is looking as if I very well might end up being this Year at the Otto Meet. My present idea regarding how I will get Myself down to Dockweiler Beach, will be to take a Greyhound Bus Ride for I believe the amount of Money for My Bus ticket is $72.00 Dollars. When a Pilot friend of Mine was talking to My Sister Kathleen on Her Cell Phone. Well, when He heard that MY first Flight would most likely be made at the Coast where I would be ridge-soaring. He made a Condescending - XXXXXX comment: Saying how ridge soaring was not really Flying!

I just want to say to everyone that when I am standing upon the Sand dune. When I just standing there holding say Franks big old Condor Single surface Glider. I mean to do that I will feel as if I just hit the Baseball then I ran to first Base and I was safe in the World Series. If I will then Launch that Great Big Single Surface Glider. Just getting into the Air will I bet feel like I hit a Grand Slam Home Run!

Well, I at at3 it again. That I share My thoughts. Another Post where talk about My Whmsical thoughts, 6though, My Thoughts: My Thoughts and aspirations that are Born out of My Traumatic Injury damaged Brain.

My injury has become the Cattails for things to be sad by others. I mean I have heard, or I have been told in the case of a Certain Kaiser Doctor. I was amazed that the Doctor who said to My Father and My Sister, while I was unconscious. He said: That I would never be much more Mentally than a Potato. He also said that I would never walk again. Regarding the reason that I was lying there in a Coma. This all-Seeing, all-knowing Doctor Who had Flunked the Course that He took back in college. Well, when came to He being able to prophesize as to if: I would ever Fly again or not? Well, when it came to Prophesizing as to whether He would be successful in causing NY recovery to an ending where I would be able to get out of My Hospital Bed and walk out of that Hospital. Regarding When, and if I would recover Mentally or not. Kathleen was told this; It is hard to tell, but time will tell.

Like that old saying says: You can't make this Up. All in all, I believe that Years into the Future I will look back to My Crash, and the ensuing resurrection of My Health. I will look back with a mellowing sense of being stunned.

It would be nice to take a warm up flight but readying my scale model prototypes in time could be too much too soon. Got a lot of time to prepare which is cool.