Dockweiler RHG Diary

[Bob Kuczewski]

Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy

For some reason I always envisioned it as "Oggy Doggie". But I was probably watching those cartoons before learning to spell.

Thanks for that nice detour down memory lane.

[Frank Colver]

Trampoline material looks better than buckets because it's not in the way at just below the surface.

Yes, Dog augur flying through the air does not paint a pretty picture for those standing near.

FC

[JoeF]

November 20, 2017
Monday. Historic day at Dockweiler: \\
============================
1. Frank C., Joe F., Bob K, Emmanuel Morgan, Doug Morgan

2. After about a 40-year span of Doug and Joe not seeing each other, Doug Morgan brought his adult son to Dockweiler for a casual visit to commemorate his son's moving business from El Segundo to Playa del Rey. Special visit. Doug was photographer for Low & Slow along with George Uveges. Doug was the expert photographer who shot 4" x 5" slides several using tripod and large camera; he thus is the hang gliding photographer of perhaps the key photo of the early era: http://energykitesystems.net/Lift/hgh/images/PhotoFly.pdf A group photo today by Emmanuel Morgan will be sent to Frank and then to all of us in US Hawks. Meet current Doug: https://vimeo.com/10355827 Doug just recently retired from teaching at Chadwick School. He said he has kept "everything"; this would mean his deep files on Tom Valentine, Volmer Jensen, and more amount to a treasure for hang gliding history.

3. Forecasted breeze was way off. We had fun flights with experiments in zero to maybe 4 mph breeze, the 12 mph we saw on charts for the day. 13 or 14 flights by Bob Kuczewski, 12 flights by Joe Faust. All the flights were on Frank's Condor 330. Thank you, Frank!

4. What might be a first hang glider use of a senior-parking permit may have occurred today for the Bluff parking lot; Joe had purchased an annual permit; this was his first use that permit.

5. Several spectators were given a nudge to the local HG concessionaire. Our seasoned experience has us believe that the concession would thrive if the site was divided to a recreational section and a training section when training was open.

6. At pleasant dinner, photos by Frank were downloaded to Bob's laptop;; we may see some of such soon by Bob.

7. Question at dinner: Is Lloyd Licher still living? Lloyd Is in the photo of the PhotoFly. I find a Linked-In profile: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lloyd-licher-8688b780/ which does not settle the question. There is a June 2014 photo of Lloyd in his Facebook space.

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S bio: https://www.soaringmuseum.org/pdf/hof/pdf66_pdfbio.pdf Born: August 2, 1927. He would be about 90 years old now.

8. Agreement was struck for Joe to buy barely used WW Alpha 210 from Frank; Joe initiated sidebar to refrain from selling the wing, but to aim full steam to use the wing for advancing Dockweiler flying.

[Bob Kuczewski]

November 20, 2017
Monday. Historic day at Dockweiler

Super post Joe!!!

Here are a few frames from Frank's footage:

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[SamKellner]

To the Pioneers

[Rick Masters]

                
And sometimes, hopefully, without arrows, laying face down and spitting sand.    

[Frank Colver]

Thanks Sam!

This was the first time in a while that I didn't make at least one flight at Dockweiler. The west wind started at about 4 mph and went down from there as the afternoon progressed. Even back when I was forty, fast launch runs were not my strong suit. Definitely have not improved any in the following 42 years. However, I have made some low wind launches in recent flying at Dockweiler but wasn't in the mood for any yesterday. But that's the beauty of this sport, we can decide when to fly and when not to fly. Either way, it's a fun time to be out on a HG slope with others flying and seeing my Condor 330 in the air (a beautiful flying machine!).

The discovery that the original image of the "Photo Fly" photo has not been lost was one of the highlights of the day.

Hopefully, I will receive it soon and post it to the history section of this forum. I have attached my grainy copy from the cover of Low & Slow here, to illustrate how historic this photo is and looking forward to a higher res version in the near future. This was the scene just 7 months months after the first Otto meet in 1971 which "jump started" the modern sport of Hang gliding.

BTW - Im standing in the still uncovered wing half of my Skysail and Richard Miller is kneeling in front of me. I'm holding the scale model of the Skysail that I built prior to building the full size version. I still have that model.

My Alpha 210 will pass to JoeF to enjoy, now that I also have the Condor 225 for windier days. So the Alpha will continue to show at Dockweiler.

Frank C.

[Bob Kuczewski]

Joe and Frank, that's a great historic photo!!!

Frank, here's a blow up of the half-covered Skysail ...

Colver_Skysail_Half_Covered.jpeg (42.96 KiB) Viewed 7277 times

It would be great to see the higher resolution version when you get it. Also, please post yesterday's group photo that we took when you get it via email.

As far as flying or not, if I were going to pick a day to not fly ... yesterday would have been it.

[Frank Colver]

Here is the link to my Vimeo movie of the day's flying.

https://vimeo.com/243942402

Frank

[Bill Cummings]

I had a smile during the whole video