Will be moving to NM soon!

[Wyatt]

Hi everyone. My name is Wyatt Lines, and I'll be moving to NM in October. I'm a P4, have been flying for 6 years in AZ. I'll be working in Lordsburg, might live in Lordsburg for like 8 or 9 months but will eventually end up in Silver. I've been scoping out potential sites around Lordsburg, found one on BLM land called Leitendorf Hills that looks like it has potential. It's in Pyramid mountains and looks like it's just a 400 foot elevation gain hike from the (probably 4WD) road, and has 700 feet of prominence.

Matt Hayes told me Dry Canyon is pretty much the go-to spot, and I can see why. Over 2000 feet of prominence and looks like you've got a good deal of top-landing options if you don't make it the 40 + miles OTB. I might not make it all the way out there most of the time though, as I've noticed that Little Florida mountains are just an hour and a half away and have 1000 feet of prominence, and a road to the top! I noticed that the site record is from there to Cruces. It looks like it's launchable on the east side, a reasonable hike from the W launch. Has anyone tried that? An XC route to the W could prove very worthwhile with the right winds. And if the E side is utilized, you'd have over 270 degrees of launchable wind direction.

As for Silver City proper, the only potentially soarable hill that I've seen that is not in National Forest is Bear Mountain. A local friend tells me it's privately owned and the landowner is very vocal about his no trespassing policy. Has anyone in the paragliding/hang gliding community made contact with him and asked him if he would be open to flying on his hill?

[Bill Cummings]

Wyatt,
Ed Huerta from Silver City had an interest in HG years back but I think he sold his equipment.
I’ll bet with his years living in the area he knows lots of possible sites.
Roads to hills and mountains.
______________________
At Exit 62 on I-10 you can get behind the south side Interstate fence behind the store and drainage pit (or whatever that is back of the store.)
You can go through some BLM gates and drive back west on the south side of the interstate game fence.
There are towers on Victorio Peak and a road to the top. (The road from I-10 up to the hill is locked at the interstate gate.)

Also North of Exit 62 are some hills favor going around the hills to the east side and go around the southern hills and to the north you will find a hill with a tower and a road up. There is a gate but the giant lady to the west of the gate allowed us to go up and fly if the cows weren’t near by to get scared. The hill is part BLM and private. If your in Las Cruces sometime you can get BLM maps. There is an office here. The Victorio Mts. Would work best with a NNE but we seldom get that in that area.
The north side of I-10, tower hill, is good to the west for PG.
Be careful on the Little Florida’s Mts. (launching rotor to the west when it looks actually great up top) Only in the saddle of the Mt. is it non rotor for launching . You would need big tarps to lay you paraglider out on.
PG may work to the west way to the north of the mts.
East I don’t know about launching that way. Contact Hadley Robinson at El Paso Paragliding and ask if he has had time to check that out.

[Bob Kuczewski]

HI Wyatt,

I've had two experiences with New Mexico. In the mid 80's I lived there one summer working at White Sands. The people I met were super. More recently through hang gliding I've met many of the RGSA folks and I have to say the same thing again - super.

Enjoy your time there, and fly safe!!

Bob Kuczewski

[RobinHastings]

Hello, Wyatt! We'll be glad to welcome you to the area. We have a good site for PG's northwest of Las Cruces, too (Magdalena Rim). Come on over and visit anytime when you get into Lordsburg. We'll be ready to fly when you are!
-Robin Hastings
RGSA President
575-541-5744

[Wyatt]

Thanks, everyone, for all your help. I have finally moved to Lordsburg and have gotten everything situated enough to warrant going out and flying. I just checked out Little Florida mountains yesterday, as it seemed like a great candidate for winter ridge soaring. I'll make sure to check out all those other sites too!

There appears to be a beautiful launch to the west, plenty wide enough for paragliding! Maybe 15 minutes of rock clearing and it will be perfect! No need to clear vegetation.

I checked out the east side and it looks like there is a launch to the northeast at the top of the hill with a very limited wind direction window. There is an easy hike down (about 200 feet vertical) to the cliff face that also faces north east, and has a much broader window for wind direction. Should be launchable with due east, but absolutely not with any South component to an easterly wind.

There is a possible launch to the south, though the usable South portion of the ridge is only about one eighth of a mile. And the launch will require some clearing of vegetation and is very narrow. Must bring A-game for launching!

As for the road, I never had to use my 4WD drive in my Tahoe, but it was a little challenging. 4WD is definitely recommended. It took about 45 min to get up the hill from Rock Hound State Park. I got cell signal all over the mountain, and even got 4G on most of it.

I didn't fly it yesterday due to ESE winds, but would have had absolutely no qualms launching W or NE with reasonable wind speed and direction. It looks like it could be top land able too.

I'm available this weekend to fly there, or wherever looks good! My numbe is 520-289-7512.

[RobinHastings]

Hi, Wyatt! I'm glad you got over to the Little Floridas. They can be treacherous, though, in how the winds behave - a pilot in a hang glider, long ago, launched at a turbulent point in those mountains and was killed. (He never went looking for us RGSA folks to guide him.) Be very careful there! Bill Cummings (who is our local expert in the Little Floridas), Mike Ellsworth and I were up at Gray Hill this weekend, west of Socorro, and it turns out to be a pretty good site. Come out to Las Cruces when you have time, and we can show you our local PG and HG sites out here and in El Paso. Be safe!
-Robin

[Wyatt]

Robin, thanks again for the info. Was there an incident report that I could take a look at? I'm always interested in improving safety from real-life accounts.

I'm hesitant, however, to abandon my intent to fly Little Floridas because one person died there. If nobody flew where one guy had either poor judgment or bad fortune, we would never fly anywhere. The site has a ton of promise, and I don't think it is inherently any more dangerous than any other high desert site. It has a mile-long fairly uniform cliff face, which will without doubt provide sustaining lift in the weakest of winds. It might not be a good mid-day Spring site, but in late October I'll lay a dime to a dollar that it will yield spectacular evening flights! It would be a shame if nobody is flying there because of this one incident. Being from Arizona, I have flown a few high desert sites (Craters, Mustang Moutnains, Box Canyon), and can attest to the violence that can happen there. But this late in the season, as long as we choose our day and our launch site wisely it should not be an issue.

The winds are looking outstanding for Little Floridas this weekend. Both Saturday and Sunday, it's blowing almost straight-in, almost all day. Will somebody please join me? I usually have my gf to drive me up but not this weekend, she's out of town.

As for flying up north, unfortunately it's not practical. It's much closer for me to go to Tucson or even Phoenix sites than to drive up by Socorro.

[Bill Cummings]

Wyatt,
I talked to Hadley R. our local PG instructor and he thinks for the first time launching from the saddle area near the HG launch ramp should be done at 8 to 10 mph. I could bring a 12 by 24 foot tarp for sharp rocks and brush in the area.

Looking at launch code I see this:

Sat-Sun 31 & 01, 2015.JPG (41.4 KiB) Viewed 7670 times

My thinking is that 5 mph in the LZ (forecasted) is 15 to 20 in the saddle for Sat.
Sunday is a lower wind forecast and looks not so blown out for PG.

However way to the north end of the Little Floridas the rock face down in front stops. Also launching without a tarp is possible.

I never wanted to go there due to having to carry a HG that far. No problem with a PG it’s slightly down hill.

So I’m thinking if it’s above 8 to 10 mph in the saddle then drive as far as possible to where the road leaves the front, park, walk down to the north and launch to the west where the hill is rounded with no vertical rock face lower in front.

It is possible that any rotor that would affect a HG close to the hill would be under the PG when kited. But again this would not be a concern at the north end of the L. Floridas.
I’m good for either day or both.
SO---???

[Wyatt]

Yessssssssss! Thanks, Bill, for stepping up!

I'm seeing just 5-6 mph most of both Saturday and Sunday (Weather Underground). I think it should be alright for PG.

The saddle area would not be my launch of choice for tomorrow. It faces SW and if the forecast turns out to be right and there is some north component to the wind, we'd probably be catching some rotor at that launch. And it's a really tight launch for a PG. No reason for me to take that risk, when there's tons of easier launch to be found! The towers that are just one tower south of the northernmost ones have a perfect launch site for PG. I think that's the one you're talking about. A good launch spot is probably only 100 feet from the road. There are a few bushes at the edge of the cliff, but if you found the right spot it would be suitable for HG too. If you'd rather not hike that (of course, I'd help you carry your HG to launch), we could either park your truck at the saddle and I'll hike to the northern launch or if you don't mind I could just drive your truck to the northern launch. I'm assuming we're taking yours to the top and leaving mine at the bottom, as my truck doesn't have a HG rack.

So... you wanna meet at the entrance to Rock Hound Park tomorrow?

[Bill Cummings]

We can park your car at the LZ and take my X-terra up. How about meet at the LZ entry at the Rock Hound paved road?
What time?