Sunday Funday April 17th, 2016

[Bob Kuczewski]

It looks like it might be a pretty good day tomorrow in the later afternoon ...

  Forecast Made on Sat Apr 16 21:26:24 2016 UTC  

Time	6a	7a	8a	9a	10a	11a	12n	1p	2p	3p	4p	5p	6p	7p	8p
Direction	50	50	50	50	50	200	200	200	250	250	250	260	260	260	270
Speed	3.0	3.0	3.0	3.0	3.0	5.0	5.0	5.0	10.0	10.0	10.0	14.0	14.0	14.0	10.0

[Bob Kuczewski]

We had a nice day at Dockweiler yesterday with Joe Faust and several other friends of Dockweiler.

The forecast didn't hold up exactly as predicted, and there were lots of lulls. But there was also some good winds and we had lots of great flights. One glider was turtled by a student. That seems to be something that needs to be experienced first-hand to be really learned. Don't ask me how I know ...

The new Condor (new sail anyway) seems to fly very fast. We trimmed it as slowly as we could, but it still required some pushing out to fly anywhere near minimum sink. It also has a pair of creases running from the leading edge to the end of the nose batten pocket just in front of the king post. That might be part of the problem as well. It's hard to say what's going on with it.

I didn't get a lot of pictures, but my camera was strapped to the Condor all day taking video. Unfortunately, the battery died pretty early in the day. I'll go through the videos and post pictures later.

Thanks to Greg for all his help during the day.

[JoeF]

Grace, Cyndia, Greg, Wade, JoeF, BobK, several students, and many people stopping to talk ...

Four hang gliders were in service during the day. We changed a too-short keel batten with a longer keel batten on the FDGS's Windsports Condor.

The 3 mph :: This gave haul back experiences that gave muscles a good workout.

When wind reached 8 mph :: Wow! finally some kiting in the haul backs! Best wind for about 15 minutes: maybe 10 to 12 mph. Variable sucker wind mostly.

For a few flights: some minor ridge soaring occurred by BobK and JoeF, with Bob's full ridge traversed. JoeF's was a slight turn and very short leg of ridge lift and then out to the flats. Bob had about three more flights than Joe's 20 flights. Each flight had its interesting aspects ... no two flights were identical. Tuesday right now: thighs still sore with lactic acid. About a solid five hours of hang glider activity. Good talks. Cyndia has strong legs ... excellent flight and excellent hauling back!

Five of us feasted at El Segundo restaurant afterwards. We heard some interesting details of Greg's towing history. And found out that Erika owns a Condor. And she is coming back to town; it seems like Dockweiler will see her again.

Much thanks to US Hawks' BobK for ride home; home by 9:30 p.m. BobK made it back to San Diego much later. FULL day

[JoeF]

It started early:

at DuckWhiling