[Frank Colver]

Yes, that shear is exactly what I got caught in and I am very lucky to survive and without any injury except for getting beat up by frequent slamming into my control bar. I had a lot of bruises on my arms. As I said, if I had been in a PG I would not have survived. It was this realization that made my decision to not stay in the two day PG school I had enrolled in, in 2012.

One unpleasant thing was all the sand in my mouth after I got down on my knees and kissed the beach. Terra-not-so-firma (it was soft sand) never felt so good.

BTW - I'm glad that Bob Wills had stressed tested my SST. It took this abuse with flying colors!

My first soaring flight was also there but at a different time and on the 300' training dune. I eventually reached 1000' AGL on that flight which lasted as long as i wanted it to. Only I and one other guy caught the brief "elevator" to reach altitude where we could sustain and actually "hover" in place. At one point I yelled down to all of the other pilots, who were grounded on the beach: "Hey, how do I get down" to which I got a 100% showing of middle fingers.

Thanks for the photo, it brings back memories of many good flights at the site but also remembering it could be a killer on some days. I knew a guy who was paralyzed there, after he got in the shear and slammed into the beach.
Frank Colver

[Rick Masters]

I was out there one day, back in '78 pr '79, with my old '61 International Harvester Scout 4WD, driving down the beach on a day very much like the one in that last photo, when I came across a pilot, standing beside his little car, who'd been surprised by one of those approaching high tide waves that surge well ahead of all the previous ones. His car was hopelessly mired to the axles with high tide coming in. I think I remember them taking everything out of it when I came across them.
    No question they were going to lose the car in a few minutes. It turned out to be Rick Montanaro, the aerobatics pilot, out training a few squabs. I didn't know him. I backed hurriedly up to his bumper and hooked a chain to it and pulled him to dry sand. Risky work. I might have come close to losing my Scout, as well. Don't remember.
    Anyway, he was grateful. Asked me if I needed anything. Yeah, I needed half a sail for the desert racer I'd been welding up. He gave me the old sail he had made for a tiny aerobatic glider he had flown at Makapuu in 1974.

Here he is flying it at 5:30.


Carlos Miralles (in the photo below) was taking Aeronautical Engineering at Cal Poly. I was taking mechanical Engineering. He and Bill Dodson, another aero student from the Owens, were teaching me to fly a Seagull III I'd picked up in Mammoth. We'd go down to the dunes every chance we got. Carlos, a great sailmaker, helped me modify Rick Montanaro's sail for the desert sail car. We took it out to Guadelupe dunes once or twice when we flew. It didn't do too well on the soft beach sand but it performed very well at Mirage Dry Lake, getting up to 70+ mph in a crosswind tack of a 30 mph breeze.



The vehicle is a Plymouth Valiant that I called the "Owens Valley Ant." I'd found it on the margin of the highway with a burned-up rear end back in '73, maybe. I was driving an ore truck on the Owens Lake to Boron run when I picked up the driver walking dejectedly along the shoulder. He said I could have "the damned thing." No, he didn't get my lecture about checking your fluid levels occasionally. He'd learned it the hard way.
    So I picked up another rear end at a junkyard for peanuts, tossed it in the ore truck when no one was looking, swapped them out beside the highway (while hoping the highway patrol wouldn't ask me what the hell I was doing), hitchhiked back and drove it home. I sent $10 to the bank that held the note and told them to come get it or send me the title. They sent me the pink. Then I took out the hacksaw and put a tongue & groove pine bed in it. For Guadelupe Dunes, I set it up with the biggest tires that would fit. It worked great. Only 2WD but we never got stuck. Had great torque from that slant six. I put an Offenhauser manifold with a 4-barrel carb on it.
    I can't tell if that's my Seagul III on the roof or Carlos's Spectra Zodiac. Probably the Zodiac. Both conical-types, see the curved nose. I bought the Zodiac from him and took it to the Owens. I sold the Seagull III to a kid with a superbike. He took it up Questa Ridge and jumped off for his first flight. Stupid. Wrecked it, I think, but survived. Somebody said he almost hit the train.



We used to fly alongside the train and wave at people in the passenger cars. Carlos will remember my "shortcut" on a Honda Trail 70 through the tunnel and back to the ridge top. Not wise. Yeah. I was crazy.

[Frank Colver]

One of the many stories from that beach was about the guy who parked his motorhome and went to bed. He woke up in the night from the bobbing of the vehicle as the tide was taking it out to sea.

One of the sad events was when a local guy, who would shuttle pilots back up the dunes in his modified Volkswagen Thing, for a price, was killed when the vehicle rolled over on him. I had ridden in that vehicle many times. It sure beat walking up the sand hills with a glider.

I once got my Datsun stuck driving back from the flying dunes. Some 4 wheelers told me that they would be back in the morning to tow me. Fortunately, I was well above the high tide line. Unfortunately, the only thing I had to occupy my time and "keep me warm" was a bottle of peppermint schnapps. The hangover the next morning was so bad that when the 4 wheelers showed up, as promised, the next morning I just started the miserable 4 hour drive home instead of flying that day. I have never gone anywhere near a bottle of PS since then.

FC

[Bob Kuczewski]

Unfortunately, the only thing I had to occupy my time and "keep me warm" was a bottle of peppermint schnapps.

Ahhh, peppermint schnapps. Fond memories when mixed with hot chocolate ... and the girlfriend I probably should have married.

Rick, great story and photos related to Carlos Miralles. The Makapu video and the hang gliding wing modified to power the sail car are both super!!

[Bill Cummings]

One of the many stories from that beach was about the guy who parked his motorhome and went to bed. He woke up in the night from the bobbing of the vehicle as the tide was taking it out to sea.

One of the sad events was when a local guy, who would shuttle pilots back up the dunes in his modified Volkswagen Thing, for a price, was killed when the vehicle rolled over on him. I had ridden in that vehicle many times. It sure beat walking up the sand hills with a glider.

I once got my Datsun stuck driving back from the flying dunes. Some 4 wheelers told me that they would be back in the morning to tow me. Fortunately, I was well above the high tide line. Unfortunately, the only thing I had to occupy my time and "keep me warm" was a bottle of peppermint schnapps. The hangover the next morning was so bad that when the 4 wheelers showed up, as promised, the next morning I just started the miserable 4 hour drive home instead of flying that day. I have never gone anywhere near a bottle of PS since then.

FC

Frank,
For me it was "Old Log Cabin Whisky." Years after I couldn't add brake fluid to my car without throwing up from the fumes.