4 snotty P2s launching off the hill!
August 26, 2006
This weekend was a BAPA fly-in at Dunlap in the Sierra foothills, right next to Kings Canyon national park. Since my nephew Tejas was born 10 days ago, and since the Hindu festival of Ganesh Chaturti was on Sunday, my wife was of the opinion that I should only go for one day, Saturday. Sunday was to be a cradle ceremony for Tejas. But...but...my brother-in-law didn't attend Chinmay's cradle ceremony I protested, weakly, not really meaning to use that excuse. "He did, he was very late". Yeah, just in time for dinner I muttered. Just kidding; Preveen is a cool guy although he spells his name with an 'e' where the 'a' should be. Besides, my wife was willing to cancel attending a Sahir Ludhianvi tribute by assorted friends she had been looking forward to on Saturday so that I could at least go then. Such is the spirit of compromise in marriage kiddies!
So I get up at 3:45am, and leave home at 4:30am to get there by 9am, after a breakfast stop. Mihir and Ron are driving separately and we meet up at Denny's off Olive ave in Fresno, and caravan for an hour after that to be at the Dunlap school parking lot at 9:10. Nobody there. We decide to drive up to launch and scope out the happenings, and another half-an-hour later, at launch, nobody there except a couple of hangies from Colorado on a road trip. Go to the campground nearby, where 4 dingy dogs proceed to slobber all over me. Finally, on our way back down to the school, we see Andy and Greg driving up. Decide to head back to launch and get the LZ intro from up there.
"See that school football field? That's where you need to land", says Greg. A football sized field with trees all around, a baseball dugout, and a road in front makes for a tight and challenging LZ; a "P3" landing. The flight is across a valley that runs north-south; the launch faces west, and across the valley is a lower range of west-facing hills. The launch is at about 4300 ft, and the LZ is at 2300ft or so; a full 2000 feet below launch. It's about a 4 or 5 to 1 glide from launch.
This is a P3 site that we P2's can fly only if observed by a P3 or higher. Greg is our observer, and the day is already quite hot. So we hustle to get setup, and Ron launches first. He launches well, and has a sled ride down, as we are all supposed to on our first flight. No funny business we are told. I go next, and blow about 6-7 launches. Problem is there's a large tree on the side and the wind is a bit cross. Whenever it comes through the tree, there's a massive rotor that screws up the wing. I always seem to mistime the pull up and the glider goes squirley on me each time. Finally, on the last attempt I have something of a launch, but right afterwards am picked up by about 50 feet. Great lift all around I think, but unfortunately, I am supposed to have a sled ride down.
I don't do anything but continue to hit lift everywhere. I am above launch by 100-200 feet most of the glide across the valley. At one point the temptation to exploit a thermal proves too much and I start circling in a mellow 400ft/s one. I have it nicely cored when I hear Greg shouting on the radio to "pull big ears and get down right away". Hmm, I haven't pulled big ears in over 2 years! I look up at the glider, and re-learn what I need to do. I grab the risers that go to the tips and twist them down, causing the tips to fold-in neatly. Soon, I start to sink and work my way over to the LZ. Needless to say, coming in to land there by crossing over barns, the odd house here and there, and a road right in front is a bit intimidating. "Don't land by that red barn; some nasty dogs there", keeps playing in my head from the site intro too. I make the usual mistake of overestimating my glide in the final 100 feet and linger too long east of the road. A pickup truck passes by and for a moment I doubt whether I will even make the field now. I glide over the fencing around the baseball dugout with barely a feet or two to spare, and land in the dugout, my glider draping itself over the chain-link fence that I nearly ate. Wow!
Ron and I head back to launch, and find Mihir in a foul mood. Greg didn't allow him or Uwe (another P2 who joined the party) to launch, mainly because of the way I was picked up right after launch which made it appear that conditions were way too strong. Mihir tried arguing with him, and said he had 15 hours of flight time already. Greg told him that he would let him fly if he had 50. It seems unlikely whether we will even have an evening flight since the advanced 7-8 pilots there now are all discussing GPS waypoints and talking about going 30 miles cross country. I am wondering whether I should stay or just head back. Part of me wants to go so that Jo can make it to that concert after-all.
While packing the stuff into the Z3, I slam the passenger-side door from an angle because I am parked next to a large bush. My finger gets caught in the door, and I shout in pain. The finger starts bleeding profusely, and I feel faint for a few minutes. Luckily Ron has a band-aid. That does it for me: blown cross wind launches, injurious cross angle door closings, not an auspicious day, this. I hang out with the guys while they rent a cabin in the camp site next to launch, and play a round of pool and ping pong before calling it a day. I arrive home around 7:30pm, and tell my wife that she's free to go to the concert. But she's invited the others over, and has decided she can't go after all.
So let's see:
Driving: 9 hours
Hanging around: 6 hours
Launching: 20 minutes
Flight time: 15 minutes
I AM AN ANIMAL!
Was it worth it? A guarded "yes" since any new site is worth it. Besides, this is my first mountain trip without Wally, and sooner or later, I have to start doing these things. Only Dunlap is a bit far for a day trip. Next time I will have to come for the weekend when a nephew or niece hasn't been born recently, if at all!
On the drive back, I keep thinking of the nursery rhyme we sing to Chinmay sometimes:
Here is a paragliding version:
This weekend was a BAPA fly-in at Dunlap in the Sierra foothills, right next to Kings Canyon national park. Since my nephew Tejas was born 10 days ago, and since the Hindu festival of Ganesh Chaturti was on Sunday, my wife was of the opinion that I should only go for one day, Saturday. Sunday was to be a cradle ceremony for Tejas. But...but...my brother-in-law didn't attend Chinmay's cradle ceremony I protested, weakly, not really meaning to use that excuse. "He did, he was very late". Yeah, just in time for dinner I muttered. Just kidding; Preveen is a cool guy although he spells his name with an 'e' where the 'a' should be. Besides, my wife was willing to cancel attending a Sahir Ludhianvi tribute by assorted friends she had been looking forward to on Saturday so that I could at least go then. Such is the spirit of compromise in marriage kiddies!
So I get up at 3:45am, and leave home at 4:30am to get there by 9am, after a breakfast stop. Mihir and Ron are driving separately and we meet up at Denny's off Olive ave in Fresno, and caravan for an hour after that to be at the Dunlap school parking lot at 9:10. Nobody there. We decide to drive up to launch and scope out the happenings, and another half-an-hour later, at launch, nobody there except a couple of hangies from Colorado on a road trip. Go to the campground nearby, where 4 dingy dogs proceed to slobber all over me. Finally, on our way back down to the school, we see Andy and Greg driving up. Decide to head back to launch and get the LZ intro from up there.
"See that school football field? That's where you need to land", says Greg. A football sized field with trees all around, a baseball dugout, and a road in front makes for a tight and challenging LZ; a "P3" landing. The flight is across a valley that runs north-south; the launch faces west, and across the valley is a lower range of west-facing hills. The launch is at about 4300 ft, and the LZ is at 2300ft or so; a full 2000 feet below launch. It's about a 4 or 5 to 1 glide from launch.
This is a P3 site that we P2's can fly only if observed by a P3 or higher. Greg is our observer, and the day is already quite hot. So we hustle to get setup, and Ron launches first. He launches well, and has a sled ride down, as we are all supposed to on our first flight. No funny business we are told. I go next, and blow about 6-7 launches. Problem is there's a large tree on the side and the wind is a bit cross. Whenever it comes through the tree, there's a massive rotor that screws up the wing. I always seem to mistime the pull up and the glider goes squirley on me each time. Finally, on the last attempt I have something of a launch, but right afterwards am picked up by about 50 feet. Great lift all around I think, but unfortunately, I am supposed to have a sled ride down.
I don't do anything but continue to hit lift everywhere. I am above launch by 100-200 feet most of the glide across the valley. At one point the temptation to exploit a thermal proves too much and I start circling in a mellow 400ft/s one. I have it nicely cored when I hear Greg shouting on the radio to "pull big ears and get down right away". Hmm, I haven't pulled big ears in over 2 years! I look up at the glider, and re-learn what I need to do. I grab the risers that go to the tips and twist them down, causing the tips to fold-in neatly. Soon, I start to sink and work my way over to the LZ. Needless to say, coming in to land there by crossing over barns, the odd house here and there, and a road right in front is a bit intimidating. "Don't land by that red barn; some nasty dogs there", keeps playing in my head from the site intro too. I make the usual mistake of overestimating my glide in the final 100 feet and linger too long east of the road. A pickup truck passes by and for a moment I doubt whether I will even make the field now. I glide over the fencing around the baseball dugout with barely a feet or two to spare, and land in the dugout, my glider draping itself over the chain-link fence that I nearly ate. Wow!
Ron and I head back to launch, and find Mihir in a foul mood. Greg didn't allow him or Uwe (another P2 who joined the party) to launch, mainly because of the way I was picked up right after launch which made it appear that conditions were way too strong. Mihir tried arguing with him, and said he had 15 hours of flight time already. Greg told him that he would let him fly if he had 50. It seems unlikely whether we will even have an evening flight since the advanced 7-8 pilots there now are all discussing GPS waypoints and talking about going 30 miles cross country. I am wondering whether I should stay or just head back. Part of me wants to go so that Jo can make it to that concert after-all.
While packing the stuff into the Z3, I slam the passenger-side door from an angle because I am parked next to a large bush. My finger gets caught in the door, and I shout in pain. The finger starts bleeding profusely, and I feel faint for a few minutes. Luckily Ron has a band-aid. That does it for me: blown cross wind launches, injurious cross angle door closings, not an auspicious day, this. I hang out with the guys while they rent a cabin in the camp site next to launch, and play a round of pool and ping pong before calling it a day. I arrive home around 7:30pm, and tell my wife that she's free to go to the concert. But she's invited the others over, and has decided she can't go after all.
So let's see:
Driving: 9 hours
Hanging around: 6 hours
Launching: 20 minutes
Flight time: 15 minutes
I AM AN ANIMAL!
Was it worth it? A guarded "yes" since any new site is worth it. Besides, this is my first mountain trip without Wally, and sooner or later, I have to start doing these things. Only Dunlap is a bit far for a day trip. Next time I will have to come for the weekend when a nephew or niece hasn't been born recently, if at all!
On the drive back, I keep thinking of the nursery rhyme we sing to Chinmay sometimes:
10 little monkeys, jumping on the bed
1 fell down and bumped his head
Mamma call the doctor and the doctor say
No more monkeys jumping on the bed!
9 little monkeys....
Here is a paragliding version:
4 snotty P2s launchin' off this hill
1 blew his launch and broke his wrist
Launch Nazi call the P2s and he say
No more P2s launchin' off this hill!
posted by PM at 12:31 PM
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