Flying possibilities

[Bill Cummings]

found this with a Bing search:
King Mountain Co-Nationals 2009

Posted: Monday, August 3, 2009

Skydog Blog – editorial and opinion

With a secret veil surrounding the first half of the United States Nationals at King Mountain, the competition was held between July 20th and July 26th. Unless you were there, it was a mystery who won this competition until more than a week after the competition had ended. Results of the competition were withheld for some unknown reason and individual tasks results are still not available on the official website.
______________________________________________________________________________________________________________
I was thinking it was during the fourth of July but I was wrong.
No. My last competition was the 95 nationals in Chelan. Middle of the pack at finish.

[Bob Kuczewski]

Coincidentally?

On November 26th (less than a month ago, but before we started any discussion of King Mountain) John Heiney just happened to send me two photos from the 2009 King Mountain meet:

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[Bill Cummings]

Mike Ellsworth (RGSA) has a red Toyota pickup with a red topper. I'm not sure if I see it or not.

[Bob Kuczewski]

Mike Ellsworth (RGSA) has a red Toyota pickup with a red topper. I'm not sure if I see it or not.

I've zoomed in on all the red trucks (from the top photo original) here:

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Do you see it?

[Bill Cummings]

That upper right picture with the silvery or dark hg bag looks failure is that a Toyota or a ford? Mike has a Toyota.

[Bill Cummings]

I found this in my email from Robin. He had forgotten his password and asked me to post his forecast. I think he has it straight now.
Forecast for Dec. 13-15, 2013:
This does not look like an unflyable weekend, but it isn't optimal. The
very welcome moisture we're receiving today (Thursday) should move out by
Friday sometime. I predict clear skies for Saturday and Sunday, and
temperatures from Friday on through the weekend should be normal for us,
with highs in the 50's and lows at night just below freezing. Winds,
however, will be strong, out of the north and northwest, for Friday and
Saturday. La Luz should be flyable, but none of our other foot-launched
sites. It might be a time to explore towing possibilities. On Sunday the
winds will be lighter, and more variable. East, northeast, southwest - it
could be anything, almost. They may take a set in the late afternoon, but
it looks unpredictable to me from here. Monday may see some southwest
winds, but that's a little far out for some of the models I check. My
recommendation, then, is to head for the La Luz launch on Saturday if you
have to get some airtime, and otherwise, wait and see what the coming week
will bring.
-Robin

[RobinHastings]

Thanks, Bill. As usual, my predictions have proven to be - ahem - accurate, plus or minus 100%. Today (Sunday) looks like a beautiful day, but I don't think the winds are southwest yet, or maybe at all. Alas. And meanwhile, I don't see Mike Ellsworth's truck in any of the pictures from King Mountain; his is a darker red Toyota (not bright red, like that Ford) and the rack on his truck is much like a professional contractor's. Great pictures, though, and a wonderful reminder that free flight does at times take place. (Just maybe not today.)
-Robin

[Bill Cummings]

RGSA,
Robin called about a half hour ago. He and Nancy were walking the dry Rio Grande River. He told me he was looking at a mile of straight tow area, north and south, that is about a hundred yards wide that judging by the tracks would work with a four wheel drive vehicle.

I have saw a sign down river from where they were walking that had some postings put up by the Feds that might merit another look.
While the drought is with us it’s so crazy that it just might work.
I’ll look into it because the last thing I want to hear is, “How’s it going sir? --Can I see some I.D?”

[Bill Cummings]

RGSA and Hawks,
I returned yesterday from visiting Terry Cummings in Santa Fe, NM (USA).
No not the basketball player ---I’m talking about my wife.

Robin Hastings left a message on my lightning toasted home answering machine. It no longer lets me know what time and what date the call came in. I also can’t activate it with a remote call anymore. One other call from Verizon was so soft and fuzzy I couldn’t make out the return phone number and the call from Bob K. was cut off at 30 seconds. (I apologize for it hanging up on you Bob.)

In keeping with my Scotch/Irish blood line I now have to ask everyone to please speak up and also say the date and time you called and leave a short message.
(30 seconds from start beep to finishing beep.) Please do not run words together, and try to keep any fuzziness out of your voice.

Hopefully I will have this remedied within the next couple of
years.

Flying news for 1-7-2014 Tuesday.

I’ll try to remember how to attach two photos of Robin H. One setting up and the other picture of him flying today at Magdalena Rim. West North West of Las Cruces. (In the cell phone dead zone area).

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Rob. Mag Rim 2.jpg (66.77 KiB) Viewed 6094 times

[RobinHastings]

Yesterday (Wednesday, Jan. 7) was a lovely day. It started out cold - only about 40 degrees fahrenheit - but warmed up to the 50's by launch time at 1:00 pm MST. (I have heard scurrilous rumors that not ALL of the USA is having weather this nice...) Bill Cummings and I met up with former HG pilot Gary Browning at the Corralitos Exit from I-10 around 9:30, drove up to Magdalena Rim, and had me all set to commit aviation by noon. Winds, though, were light, and I waited an hour until they seemed more consistent. We were getting abundant thermals, and I launched very nicely into one, coming right out of the southwest. I gained just a little, though, and since the LZ is a fairly long glide away, I went around the curve of the SW-facing hill in search of bigger lift. I gained a few feet in one thermal but really couldn't do much more than maintain as I circled with the drift. I reached my chosen LZ with plenty of altitude, easily cleared the power lines by the road, and finally brought in my Airwaves Formula 144 to a pretty good touchdown. It was only a 7 or 8 minute flight, but I'd call it more than a sled ride, with the thermals abundant but weak. As far as I know, it's the first 2014 HG flight in RGSA country, so I'm going to take what modest pride I can in it. Bill and Gary picked me up and helped me pack the glider, then we had a fine time visiting and telling flying tales at the Golden Corral restaurant in Las Cruces. Pretty soon I'll be teaching again - but until then, hey, don't we DESERVE nice days like this? (Yes, we do.)
-Robin