"Tri-Wingual Plus - A Four-fun Day at Torrey Pines" (July, 2008)Attachment:
200807BK_Page_1.jpg [ 105.4 KiB | Viewed 12403 times ]
I started jumping out of airplanes in 1976, and I started flying them as a pilot about year later. I made my first hang gliding flights in 1978, and I started flying paragliders in 1989 or 1990. I added RC flying to the mix much later (mid 2000's).
In the spring of 2007 I was taking some sailplane lessons and volunteering to help the sailplane club with their annual flying at Torrey Pines. I was mostly a gate guard to keep cars from crossing the runway when a flight was about to launch via the club's ground winch. After a day or two of volunteering, the coordinator asked me if I'd like to take a flight, and I jumped at the chance. I didn't have any much towing experience, so I flew with an instructor who did most of the flying during the short tow up. But he let me fly the rest of the flight ... including the downwind uphill landing. It was a piece of cake.
Prior to that flight, I had regularly made hang gliding and paragliding flights in the same day at Torrey, and I had also added some RC flying to the mix. But to fly all 4 glider types in one day was something I never expected to be able to do.
At that time, I don't think I even owned a hang glider. I had gone from H-nothing to H4 on all borrowed or rented gliders (thanks to Joe Greblo, Rob McKenzie, John Heiney, and many others). But I did have both a paraglider and an RC glider with me in my mini-van. So I called John to ask if he could bring a glider to Torrey so I could try to fly all 4 in one day. John headed to Torrey with his Dream 205 (one of my favorites) on his rack.
While waiting for John, I got my paragliding flight out of the way. I can't remember if I flew one or multiple PG flights, but it was a good way to pass the time while waiting for John to show up with a hang glider. When John arrived, we set up the Dream, and I had a nice uneventful flight. After landing, all that was left was the RC flight, and it was a nice coincidence that Parviz (my RC mentor) was there for a picture.
John also took some pictures, and between his pictures and my own, there was enough for a USHPA article. I'm not exactly sure when John wrote it, but it appeared in the August 2007 USHPA magazine. I asked USHPA for permission to include it in our Torrey Hawks Pilot Profiles and they said it was up to the author. John was very kind to grant his permission, and I included it in our newsletter in July of 2008. I've attached a PDF of scanned version of the article below. I hope you enjoy reading it even a fraction as much as I enjoyed flying it.