US Hawks Hang Gliding Association

Please share your crazy xc landing spots.

The early cross country out landings presented some unusual and challenging landing spots. I do believe I have learned to be more conservative in picking my out landing spots as I have matured and learned from my past mistakes. One reminder is “It is a lot easier to fly than walk, especially packing over a hundred pounds of gear.” Some ordinary flights have been memorable by a pleasant landing spot with great scenery and easy recovery.

One of the craziest landing places was a flight from Yarnell, AZ. The wind was blowing hard and gusty from the South. My hands were going to sleep because I was gripping the basetube with all my life, and I needed too. I was tossed in the washing machine and was being driven down wind into Peoples Valley. I sought refuge on a ridge north of Peoples Valley but was soon blown over the back finding myself in the down wash of the ridge.

Peoples Valley Landing Spot N34 20’13.31” W112 46’15.51”

The terrain was rough, rocky, covered with junipers and chaparral. The only open spot was an area around a barn and the corral. I set up a downwind (actual crosswind) and a base for the approach. Just as was turning back toward the north side of the barn I entered lift, just what I did not want. I was too low to work the rising gusty air. I sucked the bar in with some alternating slipping turns and made a run at eave level with the barn executing a turn rounding the front of the barn and now heading toward the corral fence. Still six feet in the air and not enough energy to clear the corral fence, I decided it was time to stop before crossing into the corral and pushed the downtubes into the flair in mid air. I stopped and then dropped to the ground before the fence. I was on the ground with an intact glider and no injuries. No one would ever find me here and I had a crew driving for me.

First Owens Valley Landing N36 35’58.25” W118 12’08.38”

My first landing in the Owens Valley my a*s was handed to me. This was a humbling experience. I barely made ten miles and landed by the Whitney Portal road in the middle of the heat of the day in undulating terrain. Needless to say the landing produced two completely broken down tubes and cracked the glass on my beloved Colver Vario.

The lessons were clear don’t land in the middle of the heat of the day on the alluvial fan. If there is a scrap of lift work it and flow downwind working out to 395 and flat ground. I never broke a another down tube again landing in the Owens, except for the blow launch on Horseshoe. I guess you could say I also have the distinction for top landing Horseshoe (crashing?).

I guess you could say I also have the distinction for top landing Horseshoe (crashing?).

It qualifies as a landing if you walk away from it.

I have a photo of it, somewhere, taken from the air...

On your alluvial fan landing, you wrote:

No one would ever find me here and I had a crew driving for me.

      Do you remember the Israeli intelligence officer who came to Horseshoe in the summer of 1984 or 1985? He was advanced-rated and told me he could thermal. I invited him to fly to Nevada with some other guys I was teaching XC. We all launched off Walt's and were circling up Wanoga Peak in good lift and there's Haggai floundering around below takeoff in his Sensor 510. I waited and waited. Finally, I left to catch the other guys. Never saw him again in the air.
      The next day I learned he had struggled to make it to Independence and fell short just a couple of miles south of town. He could easily have landed by the highway but chose to come down on the upslope side of an embankment built to divert water by the LADWP - invisible from the highway. I always recommended to people to land where you could be seen. Anyway, he came down on this rough bulldozered patch littered with rocks. When he touched down, his flare was no good and he hit with his leg locked forward. The force snapped his knee and I guess he kicked himself in the chest. Broke his ankle, too, I think. Wrecked his radio. So it was a really hot day and he dragged himself about a mile to the road, onto the shoulder. It took him all afternoon and I guess he was almost dead. He was lucky somebody stopped. They flew him to Reno and were going to amputate his leg or foot because it was black. He didn't let them. Went back to Israel.
      I went out there and packed up his Sensor. I thought it looked fine. Flew it off Horseshoe to see if there was anything wrong with it. What a thermal machine! Had a bad turn, tho. Nothing obvious on set up, but a bad turn that made it easy to thermal in one direction. I think I was thermalling with my pinkie. Crossed to the Whites and sunk out at Chalfant. Chose a nice sandy field to crash in. Totally vicious turn on flare. Even though I was ready for it and threw my weight all the way to the left, it pounded in on the right leading edge. No big deal. No damage. Lottsa sand in the OV. Use it.

I remember. I was that week.

He should have stayed with the glider and the cool water.

I landed in this driveway just in front of the house in Skull Valley. N34 30’02.03” W112 41’03.00”

This was another early cross country from Yarnell, AZ. We would fly Yarnell when Mingus was blown over the back which meant Yarnell was blowing out of the south-southwest and was usually roudy.

Of all the wide open places to land in Skull Valley I made in retrospect a poor choice picking a small field. At the time of the landing the trees between the field and the driveway were not there. I over shot the small field, zoom climbed up a small embankment ending up touching down in front of the garage. A nice landing. The owner opened the front door and found a Hang Glider just outside his front door. He was nice enough with the unexpected visitor dropping in on him.

But considering the options, this was a poor choice of a landing spot. This was a learning lesson to consider the undershoot or overshoot when landing out. If there is wide open space, use it. The retrieval to the road was short though.

Back in a day when I lived to fly I thought nothing of this "LZ". Now, I think WTF was I thinking. The landing went off without a problem and retrieval was there with a cold drink in no time. I still remember the looks on the faces of those using the rest area when I walked up the onramp to I-5 to break down my glider . Those were the daze...

I'll add one of my foot launch hot air balloon (Hangstat) landings. I was drawing fumes from my propane tanks and the only spot without power lines was a small coral with a big black bull in it. After I landed, and the bull was deciding what to do, the owner stuck his head out of his back door, looked at the situation and disappeared back inside, not to be seen again. The big bull finally wandered into the connected barn after making some threatening moves. Meantime, I was trying to convince my chase crew (my two sons) to climb into the coral and help get me the hell out of there.

Oh, my balloon was solid red!

Frank Colver

This is a good one.

I Flew Into The Cuckoo's Nest !

Somebody needs to organize a fly in.

34.1381° N, 117.2145° W

magentabluesky wrote:This is a good one.

I Flew Into The Cuckoo's Nest !

Somebody needs to organize a fly in.

34.1381° N, 117.2145° W

Jonathan did a great job weaving suspense into that video. I had to watch the whole thing.