Dry Canyon Alamogordo, NM (USA)

[Bill Cummings]

Looking forward to the Columbus Day fly-in!

Me too Pat -- it cooled down to 107.2º by 17:30 MDST from 109º earlier (on two different thermometers.)

[RobinHastings]

SATURDAY, JULY 30, 2016:
This was my first flight in a month, and Taro's first in two months. Bill Cummings and I met him in the Cox Field LZ at 9:30 this morning, and went right up to the Dry Canyon launch. Taro flew in the Airwaves Formula 144, and I flew in the Wills Wing U2-160. Winds were pretty light. Conditions were clear with cirrus, to the west, and building cumulus, getting darker, off to the east above the Sacramentos. Bill hurt his shoulder last night, and so volunteered to drive instead of fly. I launched first, right at noon. I had an immediate equipment malfunction: my radio pulled out of the pocket on my chest, and dangled from its safety cord while I simultaneously tried to work some lift and stuff it back in somewhere. I finally succeeded in both endeavors, and had a reasonably good, hour-long flight. Thermals were small, light, and sometimes rough, but I was able to reach 8000 ft MSL a couple of times (1000 ft over launch). I watched from The Bowl while Taro sat on launch; he was waiting for the wind to pick up. (I launched in 10-12 mph, a good thermal cycle. That's the wind we had, today.) He finally took off at 12;25, and flew very well, using thermals when he could find them, cruising along the ridge, and working some good lift between Scenic Drive and Cox Field. All of this without a vario! He finally set up a good south approach into the LZ and had a pretty fair landing, considering the conditions there (light, switchy winds, high heat and humidity - the latter making for very low-density air). I encountered similar conditions when I landed a few minutes later at 1:00 pm MDT. I flared well (Taro had it on video) but kept moving forward, and brought the glider down on wheels and knees on the grassy field. No problems. Taro and I were packing up our gliders as Bill arrived, and we all visited over sodas at Rockin' BZ Burgers nearby. Taro took off for El Paso at 2:30, then Bill and I drove to Ruidoso to get some plywood at Mike Ellsworth's house. (The ramp at the Little Floridas needs repair.) Home in Las Cruces at 8:00 pm, glad to have had another good flying day.
-Robin

[Bill Cummings]

SATURDAY, JULY 30, 2016:
This was my first flight in a month, and Taro's first in two months. Bill Cummings and I met him in the Cox Field LZ at 9:30 this morning, and went right up to the Dry Canyon launch. Taro flew in the Airwaves Formula 144, and I flew in the Wills Wing U2-160. Winds were pretty light. Conditions were clear with cirrus, to the west, and building cumulus, getting darker, off to the east above the Sacramentos. Bill hurt his shoulder last night, and so volunteered to drive instead of fly. I launched first, right at noon. I had an immediate equipment malfunction: my radio pulled out of the pocket on my chest, and dangled from its safety cord while I simultaneously tried to work some lift and stuff it back in somewhere. I finally succeeded in both endeavors, and had a reasonably good, hour-long flight. Thermals were small, light, and sometimes rough, but I was able to reach 8000 ft MSL a couple of times (1000 ft over launch). I watched from The Bowl while Taro sat on launch; he was waiting for the wind to pick up. (I launched in 10-12 mph, a good thermal cycle. That's the wind we had, today.) He finally took off at 12;25, and flew very well, using thermals when he could find them, cruising along the ridge, and working some good lift between Scenic Drive and Cox Field. All of this without a vario! He finally set up a good south approach into the LZ and had a pretty fair landing, considering the conditions there (light, switchy winds, high heat and humidity - the latter making for very low-density air). I encountered similar conditions when I landed a few minutes later at 1:00 pm MDT. I flared well (Taro had it on video) but kept moving forward, and brought the glider down on wheels and knees on the grassy field. No problems. Taro and I were packing up our gliders as Bill arrived, and we all visited over sodas at Rockin' BZ Burgers nearby. Taro took off for El Paso at 2:30, then Bill and I drove to Ruidoso to get some plywood at Mike Ellsworth's house. (The ramp at the Little Floridas needs repair.) Home in Las Cruces at 8:00 pm, glad to have had another good flying day.
-Robin

Below are the successful pilots down safely before the rain.
(Click on photo to expand it.)

Taro-L- Robin- R 30min. -60min. 7-30-20-16 Dry Canyon..JPG (75.34 KiB) Viewed 7476 times

I'll try today to edit the GoPro video from the camera that with some stealth I attached to the tail of Robins glider trying to pirate his flying technique.

[Bill Cummings]

SATURDAY, JULY 30, 2016:
This was my first flight in a month, and Taro's first in two months. Bill Cummings and I met him in the Cox Field LZ at 9:30 this morning, and went right up to the Dry Canyon launch. Taro flew in the Airwaves Formula 144, and I flew in the Wills Wing U2-160. Winds were pretty light. Conditions were clear with cirrus, to the west, and building cumulus, getting darker, off to the east above the Sacramentos. Bill hurt his shoulder last night, and so volunteered to drive instead of fly. I launched first, right at noon. I had an immediate equipment malfunction: my radio pulled out of the pocket on my chest, and dangled from its safety cord while I simultaneously tried to work some lift and stuff it back in somewhere. I finally succeeded in both endeavors, and had a reasonably good, hour-long flight. Thermals were small, light, and sometimes rough, but I was able to reach 8000 ft MSL a couple of times (1000 ft over launch). I watched from The Bowl while Taro sat on launch; he was waiting for the wind to pick up. (I launched in 10-12 mph, a good thermal cycle. That's the wind we had, today.) He finally took off at 12;25, and flew very well, using thermals when he could find them, cruising along the ridge, and working some good lift between Scenic Drive and Cox Field. All of this without a vario! He finally set up a good south approach into the LZ and had a pretty fair landing, considering the conditions there (light, switchy winds, high heat and humidity - the latter making for very low-density air). I encountered similar conditions when I landed a few minutes later at 1:00 pm MDT. I flared well (Taro had it on video) but kept moving forward, and brought the glider down on wheels and knees on the grassy field. No problems. Taro and I were packing up our gliders as Bill arrived, and we all visited over sodas at Rockin' BZ Burgers nearby. Taro took off for El Paso at 2:30, then Bill and I drove to Ruidoso to get some plywood at Mike Ellsworth's house. (The ramp at the Little Floridas needs repair.) Home in Las Cruces at 8:00 pm, glad to have had another good flying day.
-Robin

Below are the successful pilots down safely before the rain.
(Click on photo to expand it.)

Taro-L- Robin- R 30min. -60min. 7-30-20-16 Dry Canyon..JPG

I'll try today to edit the GoPro video from the camera that with some stealth I attached to the tail of Robins glider trying to pirate his flying technique.

https://youtu.be/ZTOSxzz8sJc

[RobinHastings]

SATURDAY, AUGUST 26th:
Well, it was an eventful day. Yes, it is monsoon season here in Southern New Mexico. But that doesn't mean that the wind is ALWAYS from the east, or that it's a thunderstorm ALL the time. There are pauses. Breaks, so to speak. Taro Nihonyagi and I decided to take advantage of the break today. We met in the Cox Field LZ at 9:35 this morning. Winds, as forecast, were light southwest, and though clouds were building over the Sacramentos, nothing seemed to threaten. Two hours later Taro launched at Dry Canyon in his Formula 144. He had a beautiful launch, caught the house thermal a few points down the ridge, and pretty much had an excellent, 30-minute flight. I watched him soar for 5 or 10 minutes, along with several just-arrived spectators; he was getting about 200 ft over launch height in light but abundant thermals. I drove down the road in my truck about 11:45. Back at Cox Field, I found that he had everything going well until the last two seconds, when (he thinks) approaching too slow resulted in a broken downtube. It's OK, I assured him - I've broken a few myself. And Airwaves downtubes are not impossible to come by. We got the glider into the bag, assessed the conditions and the forecast, and decided to head back up the mountain, where I set up my U2-160. We then watched carefully as a distant thunderhead, dumping virga, dissipated into harmless senescence. Feeling reassured, I launched with Taro's help at 3:05 pm, MDT. Conditions were great. Story-book clouds puffed up all around the horizon, some in the distance getting a little dark, but over Alamogordo and Dry Canyon it was clear skies and lots of lift. The lift didn't go real high - 8500 ft MSL (1500 over launch) was the highest I could get, but I had no trouble staying up as long as I felt like flying. I worked one over Plateau Espresso for 1000 feet, then found the Jesus Saves thermal just north near the church, and gained from 6000 to 8500 in that one. I finally called Taro, in the LZ with the truck, and headed over for a landing. Thanks to his coaching on the (very light) winds, I made a good west approach, and landed very well, about 30 feet from where he stood watching. He returned the favor of putting glider into bag, and we shook hands and parted just about 5:00 pm. Off to the west I could see darkness increasing beneath denser and denser clouds, but really it was a lovely day - warm but not hot, sunny but cloudy, breezy on launch but calm in the landing zone. I drove home through lightning and a deluge, a few hours later, but it didn't dampen my spirits at all - we can surely use the rain. How can you beat it? We got to fly!
-Robin

[RobinHastings]

Sorry, that's Saturday, August 27th, not the 26th. In the Land of Enchantment, you lose track of the days...
-Robin

[RobinHastings]

Taro at Dry Canyon.JPG (77.5 KiB) Viewed 7427 times

Here's a shot of the conditions at Dry Canyon - 6 or 7 hours before they turned into thunderstorms.

[RobinHastings]

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22, 2016:
The forecast looked a little light for hang gliding today at Dry Canyon. Not that that ever stops me - but I had other obligations to fulfill, so it was a no-fly zone for me. However, Dry Canyon had some PG visitors today. Ty Bonnel from Ruidoso, Patrick Harvey-Collard, Greg Clark and Max Montgomery of Albuquerque, all came out to fly. Patrick gave me a call when they arrived, and I told him to call Steve Crye of El Paso, to get in his first Dry Canyon flight, and Steve came right up for it. According to Patrick, the flying was "epic", a couple of hours in the air for everyone and everyone making the Cox Field LZ. It was a lovely, clear October day, with temperatures in the mid-70's. You can't ask for much better than this on a weekend!
-Robin

[RobinHastings]

I think it still looks good for hang gliding on Monday. Bill, Mike and I might go in the afternoon, probably meeting in the Cox Field LZ about 1:00. Who's up for flying on a weekday?
-Robin
575-541-5744

[RobinHastings]

Forecasts for Alamogordo on Monday are for clear skies and southwest winds, about 6-7 mph on the ground. I'm willing to fly if there's company.
-Robin