A 2 hour endurance!
September 2, 2006
Today was my third flight at the Dump (Mussel Rock state beach, Pacifica CA), but a first in many ways. Before I had my first ever hour-long soaring flight here back in May, I had been skunked 10-15 times here last year and the previous. Each time I would drive and find the conditions to be not right (too strong, too weak, foggy,...). On a few occassions, the conditions had been right but I had trouble launching properly. After that flight in May, I had a second hour long flight in July, but even then I was one of the last guys to launch after waiting around for conditions to become favorable for more than an hour.
Today was different. Drove to the place, hiked to Walkers launch, found conditions to be perfect and after catching my breath for a few minutes, proceeded to layout. Since I still get nervous with a large audience around, today there wasn't anyone yet. When I was all setup, two others of similar skill showed up, and they stood around setting up themselves and encouraging me on. After a few failed kiting attempts, I finally got the thing nice and squared above my head, turned around, and like the pros, stood for a few seconds looking around before finally thrusting my chest forward into a torpedo and taking off. First smooth, non-hurried launch here! I did one pass to the left of Walkers but found nothing, so headed off to the Westlake cliffs as usual, and lots of lift there!
I used the speed bar properly this time. Last time, I thought I used it, but later found that it had remained attached to the harness (*blush*) all the time! This time I unattached it, and found that I needed it badly during some portions where the wind was pretty strong and I would have had trouble penetrating. However, using it frequently meant the equivalent of doing leg-presses at the gym, and my thighs started trembling after an hour whenever I used the speed bar. They stayed sore for days afterward! At one point, I was the only one in the air, and that was largely because it had backed off a bit, and I guessed people were having trouble getting up. But it picked up again, and I had lots of company. At one point, when I was about 100 feet above the cliffs and houses (but well out in front), a coast guard helicopter flew by over the ocean, about 200 feet in front, at a lower altitude!
I flew almost all the way to Funston, going past the horse corral. I did this after several passes by the cliffs where they drop off and had a good idea where I could find the lift exactly. So even though I would sink to about 150-200 feet from the beach, I would turn around, and be higher than the cliff by the time I had to jump the large gap.
Around halfway into my flight, there was apparently an accident below, when a pilot bumped into the cliff on a landing approach (he is fine though). Interesting how I didn't see it at all.
Anyway, after about 2 hours, my legs were shot, by hands were numb, I was famished, and the fog was starting to drop a little lower, making me pretty cold. I picked a spot to land in, and landed perfectly. It's the best landing I have had in months. So to stack up the firsts:
Today was my third flight at the Dump (Mussel Rock state beach, Pacifica CA), but a first in many ways. Before I had my first ever hour-long soaring flight here back in May, I had been skunked 10-15 times here last year and the previous. Each time I would drive and find the conditions to be not right (too strong, too weak, foggy,...). On a few occassions, the conditions had been right but I had trouble launching properly. After that flight in May, I had a second hour long flight in July, but even then I was one of the last guys to launch after waiting around for conditions to become favorable for more than an hour.
Today was different. Drove to the place, hiked to Walkers launch, found conditions to be perfect and after catching my breath for a few minutes, proceeded to layout. Since I still get nervous with a large audience around, today there wasn't anyone yet. When I was all setup, two others of similar skill showed up, and they stood around setting up themselves and encouraging me on. After a few failed kiting attempts, I finally got the thing nice and squared above my head, turned around, and like the pros, stood for a few seconds looking around before finally thrusting my chest forward into a torpedo and taking off. First smooth, non-hurried launch here! I did one pass to the left of Walkers but found nothing, so headed off to the Westlake cliffs as usual, and lots of lift there!
I used the speed bar properly this time. Last time, I thought I used it, but later found that it had remained attached to the harness (*blush*) all the time! This time I unattached it, and found that I needed it badly during some portions where the wind was pretty strong and I would have had trouble penetrating. However, using it frequently meant the equivalent of doing leg-presses at the gym, and my thighs started trembling after an hour whenever I used the speed bar. They stayed sore for days afterward! At one point, I was the only one in the air, and that was largely because it had backed off a bit, and I guessed people were having trouble getting up. But it picked up again, and I had lots of company. At one point, when I was about 100 feet above the cliffs and houses (but well out in front), a coast guard helicopter flew by over the ocean, about 200 feet in front, at a lower altitude!
I flew almost all the way to Funston, going past the horse corral. I did this after several passes by the cliffs where they drop off and had a good idea where I could find the lift exactly. So even though I would sink to about 150-200 feet from the beach, I would turn around, and be higher than the cliff by the time I had to jump the large gap.
Around halfway into my flight, there was apparently an accident below, when a pilot bumped into the cliff on a landing approach (he is fine though). Interesting how I didn't see it at all.
Anyway, after about 2 hours, my legs were shot, by hands were numb, I was famished, and the fog was starting to drop a little lower, making me pretty cold. I picked a spot to land in, and landed perfectly. It's the best landing I have had in months. So to stack up the firsts:
- First two hour flight (previous best: 1 hour)
- First time where I drove, launched, flew, landed, drove back with no waiting around in between
- Almost flew to Funston
- Proper use of speed bar consistently
- Great launch and landing at the coast
posted by PM at 2:19 PM
2 Comments:
What color and wing type do you fly, Praveen? I remember meeting you but don't recall what you were flying. I was flying a green/white Serak that day & I usually take a bunch of pictures. You may be in them, if so, I'll send them to you.
September 7th was a great day on the coast.
Hi Jose,
I fly a blue-white Arcus: http://pmurthy-paragliding.blogspot.com/2007_05_01_archive.html (scroll down to see a pic)
That would be great if you have a shot of me! Please send it to me if you do. Thanks for stopping by my blog.
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