Finally out of Houston!

I finally left Houston on the 17th of October. I had been within three hours of getting on the airplane to leave on the 9th, and they told us someone had contracted chicken pox. The guy had went to a doctor there next to the hotel on Friday, and done blood tests that confirmed the infection. He started showing the bumps and stuff on Monday after that, and called the company people. They sprang the news on us Tuesday morning. I couldn't remember if I had ever had chicken pox or been exposed to it enough to have an immunity built up, so I did what I thought was the 'honorable thing' and did a blood test the next day. I didn't get out of Houston for another eight days. When I get to feeling sorry for myself about having to hang around so long, I remember a guy from Kenya who had been there two weeks longer than I, and he ended up in quarantine until October 26. Hopefully none of the twenty or thirty people who ended up in quarantine came down with the chicken pox, which could cause them to have to stay even longer.

A Piano Player in New Zealand

I think I have all my projects done, and have about 15 minutes of "last minute packing" to do, and I will be ready to go to Houston to start orientation to go back to Iraq. When I was in Iraq before, I had started a blog, but immediately forgot the password, and never posted to it. I have decided to use it for the stories I will have when I am "off base", and use this blog for stories of "inside the wire". I have a link to it in the links section. The blog is www.nzpianoplayer.blogspot.com and the link I have listed is for A Piano Player in New Zealand. The title of this post is not to be confused with the link. I have a little story about what I will be doing with the blog, and another little blurb about someone else who claims "piano player in a brothel" as their occupation. According to blogger, he is the only other person who has a blog, claiming that occupation other than me. AS most of you know, I have been using that phrase in various places for quite some time, even before I went to Iraq. I added the NZ part when I went over there. Photos may be scarce for a while. Thanks for all your support.
Smooth Air, Long Flights, and Soft Landings,
GliderMike

Ben Lomand Peak September 18, 2007

This is "Oregon" Steve Siebel on his first trip to Ben Lomand Peak. The drive up was an hour and a half of dirt road. When we got there, Steve was wondering what he had gotten himself into. You can see the "Intimidator" in the center of the photo. I had warned him about it beforehand, and told him it really is not a problem, but due to its size it really looks intimidating. It is about three-fourths of a mile out there to it.

These two photos are of some mountain goats we shared the ridge with. They didn't seem to be bothered by us. I flew over them later, probably three hundred feet above them, and they didn't seem to pay any attention.
This is a shot after we all landed with the "Intimidator" and launch in the background. I had launched first, followed by Oregon Steve, then by Crazee Mike. I flew for an hour total, getting about thirteen hundred feet above launch. I could see Logan, Eden, Brighan City, and Ogden all at the same time. This was the best ridge lift I have ever flown, as I could get nearly a mile out in front of the top of the ridge, and thirteen hundred feet above the top, and still was in good smooth lift. It took me twenty minutes to get from the high point to the LZ I chose. I probably traveled three or four miles up and down the ridge sightseeing. The LZ I chose was a freshly plowed alfalfa field, which was not as good a choice as the freshly cut alfalfa field next to it would have been. When I landed, what little wind there was, was behind me, and I couldn't run the landing out fast tenough to keep from putting the nose of my glider in the dirt, and bent a down tube. When Mike landed next, he landed in the cut field, and did better, having a two mph headwind. Steve landed in the plowed field, but he also had about a two mph headwind, when he landed. I flew for an hour total as I mentioned earlier, Steve flew two hours, and Mike flew an hour and forty five minutes. It was a good day, in spite of my bent down tube.
This is a shot I took before sunset, after we had packed everything up.

Lots of Hang Gliders on the North Side

John, Shadd, Dave T. and I painted the new ramp at Pete's today. It really looks good. I will give the deck an additional coat of paint tomorrow afternoon to finish it off.

There is a group from Wisconsin visiting this week, and with the combination of them and a large number of locals showing up this evening, there were about 15 or 20 hang gliders in the air this evening. It was breezy enough that there were only 2 or 3 paragliders up for most of the time. Conditions looked slightly cross at launch, but when I launched, it was definitely a Viagra day.

I was visiting with Dangerous Dave this evening, and we decided to do a Mastercard commercial that goes something like this:

New top of the line, state of the art racing glider - $7,000.00

New Instruments/GPS navigation system - $2,000.00

New State of the art, top of the line, super aerodynamic racing harness - $1,500.00

Latest super high fashion, super aerodynamic hang gliding sunglasses - $300.00

Your buddy seeing the whites of your eyes on both sides of the said sunglasses when you are launching on the first platform tow you have done in 15 years - PRICELESS!!!

Flying the North Side

I flew the North Side this evening on my Paraglider, and Linda took a bunch of photos. I'm still experimenting on how to upload photos. The first group of photos are in reverse order with the later ones at the top and the earlier ones below the later ones. There are two groups of photos, and each group is in reverse order. Captions for photos are below the pertinent photo(s). It was a good evening on the North Side for me.


Linda was able to get 3 shots of Dude and I close to each other. I talked to Dude afterwards, and I think he was a little tense on a couple of the passes we made. He was able to stay up almost as long as I did, and he also was able to top land. At one point, he was within 50 feet of having enough altitude to bench up. I lacked about 100 feet ever getting enough altitude to feel comfortable enough to move back to bench up. There were quite a few people who did bench up, but they launched about twenty minutes before I did, and the lift was starting to fall off a little by the time I launched. There were also quite a few people who sank out and landed in the water treatment plant LZ.
The "house thermal" in front of the HG launch was really cooking this evening most of the time.
Here is a photo showing my excellent form pulling my wing up getting ready to launch.

The below photos are in reverse order, with last being at the top and the earliest of this group being at the bottom. Yes, I really was that low, and yes, I really did get back up above the ridge, and top land.
The order is reversed on this group of photos. My smile is so much ear to ear here, you can't see much curve on it. This was after I top landed. There were a bunch of people who sank out.
I never did quite get high enough to feel comfortable to move back to bench up, but it was close.
There were times traffic was a little thick.
I was actually getting back up here.
I really did get this low. Linda said my wing never got below the ridge, but I knew there were a couple of times I really got low. When I would hit some good lift, I'd check traffic, and if it was where I could make a couple of turns to pick up a little altitude, I did. It was a good evening for me on the North side.

Ben Loman Peak September 1

Mike Gretta and I flew Ben Loman Peak (or Willard Peak, not sure which it is) north of Ogden this afternoon. This is a shot looking down the south facing launch. I call the large rock point that is slightly to the left of center "The Intimidator." Standing on launch, it looks a lot closer than the 1/2 mile away it is.


Above is Mike Gretta ready to launch, and after launching. You can get a better idea from the "after launch" shot of why I call the point out front "The Intimidator" The three below photos are me before launching, and 2 more after I am out, but still between launch and "The Intimidator". These really give a perspective of how far out the big rock point is from launch.

These 3 photos are in the order they were taken from left to right, and down. On the lower shot, I am still between launch and "The Intimidator." It REALLY is a long way out to the big rock point.

The LZ I chose was an elongated bowl between two sets of powerlines. The bowl was about a quarter mile wide from east to west, and about a half mile long from north to south. I didn't take any photos of the LZ. (I need an emoticon here, and haven't figured out how to put them in yet!) The bowl was about twenty feet higher on the north end than the lowest point, and about fifty feet higher on the south end than the lowest point. The lowest point, where Mike and I actually landed was at about the two-thirds distance point from the north end, with the last third of the LZ to the south of us. This was my "first" time to pick an LZ from the air that I knew wasn't flat, and only my second time to pick an LZ from the air, which I had not checked out on foot before the flight. I chose the LZ for relatively easy access for retrieve, and because I was sure I could end up heading uphill at the moment of touchdown. There were also some leafy trees over the very north end that I could fly over to check wind direction by looking at the leaf movements, and still be high enough to land to the north or across the LZ if the surface wind was not still out of the south. My skydiving background helped with this, and my ballooning background helped with a "guestimation" of wind speed. I was pleased with my LZ choice. You pilots who have lots of XC time may not remember what it was like on your first few flights when you had not actually picked out your LZ before launching. This LZ was not visible from launch, as "The Intimidator" and the ridge it was in kept us from seeing this LZ from launch. Next I have some photos I took after we landed, but none of the actual LZ itself. This gives a whole new meaning to "going in the bushes!" The LZ was behind "Willard Bay Nursery"

This photo shows my harness, helmet and "packing tool" in the shade behind one of the shade bushes in the area. I have a close friend who gives me a hard time about my not caring for lots and lots of trees. He likes lots of trees for the shade available from them, and I tell him you don't need so many trees to be able to find shade. This shot is for him. I'm not sure if you can recognize the packing tool is a bottle of NewCastle.

As you can tell, I'm still learning how to place my photos in the blog, so some are not as nicely placed as OB1 or Jamie Shelden do theirs, but at least I do have some photos. It was a good day. This flying site, could be a H2 site, except for "The Intimidator", the power lines on both sides of the LZ, and the fact you can't see the LZ from Launch. The day we flew it, I don't think it was a "Big Air" day, but the site definitely has the potential to be a good XC site, and a good "Local Big Air" site, with lots of available altitude. The drive up is longer (and definitely requires 4X4 with good ground clearnance) than the drive up Francis Peak (which is driveable with almost any two wheel drive), but there are not the altitude restrictions here that Francis has. Mike and I have discussed the day, and both came to the conclusion it was a good exploratory day, learning some of the areas to be able to get good lift, and some of the areas to avoid, unless you are wanting some sink. I'm not sure exactly how much vertical launch is above the LZ, as I didn't check altitude before starting up the hill, and didn't zero my memo altitudes before launching. I think it was around 4500 feet vertical from launch to the LZ. Also, Linda Watkins (my wife for those of you who don't know her) took the photos shown on this post.

Looking for Work Again!

I bailed from the dump trucking job, and yesterday was my last day. Trying to figure out what I can find in the way of gainful employment that doesn't have much to do with trucking. Preferably looking for something that has to do with aviation of some sort. I hope to never set foot in a truck in the states again.

Friends

Photos of a gaggle of gliders waiting for conditions to improve to launch at Bauer.

Sunday afternoon July 29, Shadd, John Russell, Crazee Mike, Sam Cox, Liz Holt, Berg, myself, and David, a friend of Shadds who drove for us, went to Commodore to fly. Most of us set up, and felt the wind at our backs for an hour or so. We had a discussion, and decided to move to Bauer for the evening glass off. We all set up, and watched Crazee Mike do a nice sledder in the Swift. Mike got the longest flight of the day. After Mike packed his glider up, we stood around some more, waiting for it to get better, and I decided it was soarable. I launched, and went nearly to the train tracks at about 20 ft above the ridge. When I turned to head back, I got below the ridge, and never got back up. I kept trying to milk it for all I could, and ended up with not enough altitude to make any of the more desirable lower LZ's, landing in the sagebrush about halfway between the mowed "landing strip" and the clear area to the east where Shadd landed a few minutes later. Shadd launched next, and got a slightly shorter flight than I did, but he did make it to a desirable LZ. Liz launched next, and conditions were even worse for her. She got one little pop that extended her glide enough to make it into her regular LZ. Berg arrived shortly to pick her up. David had arrived to pick Shadd up shortly after he had landed. I had left all my bags, velcro ties, etc at the top, so I wasn't able to start bagging my stuff until David arrived (graciously with my bags). Shad and he had things to do, so they asked if I would be able to ride back up with Liz and Berg, who were around a berm from us.

I said "Sure, no problem" without checking to make sure they were still there. My mistake # 1.

After getting my stuff bagged, and gathered together, I went to ask Liz and Berg to swing back by and pick my stuff and me up. They were gone. I went back to my stuff, watching for any sign of activity at the top. Forgetting I am with a group of friends who have the same attitudes as I do and you make sure everyone is accounted for with their rides, I get ready to start hiking for the top. I like to blame thoughts like this on my high percentage of gray hair in addition to the lack of Newcastle I had with me at the time. My mistake # 2.


I get the only Newcastle I had brought on the expedition (My mistake # 3), which I had placed in Shadd's cooler earlier in the day, and finished it about the time I was at the halfway point.
Looking at the empty bottle, I try to decide to continue to be a tree hugger and pack it out, set it down, or see how far I can toss it. The tree hugger won, so I carried the bottle with me. When I finally top the ridge, I see the Hajjimobile at the other end of the ridge starting down the hill to come and get me. It is at least a half mile away from me. I had started waving my empty Newcastle bottle when I topped the ridge, hoping it would catch a glint of sunlight (I was still in the sun at this point) so whoever was driving the Hajjimobile would see me before they started down the hill. When I get within 300 yards of the 3 people next to the cars, I realize through a process of elimination, it is Liz who is driving down. When Berg, John, and Sam see me, they all start laughing, with Berg laughing so hard he is rolling on the ground. Having had one Newcastle during my hike up the hill, I can see SOME humor in the situation. I would have been able to see a lot more humor, had I had two Newcastles. I also know that Liz (one of the most congenial people I know), not having had a Newcastle, (even though she does bring some very fine brew) will probably see no humor at all in the situation when she arrives at my stuff and I am not there. By the time I get to the guys, they have settled down, Berg is no longer rolling on the ground from laughing so hard, and John is not bending over from laughing so hard. We discuss whether Liz will be able to load my stuff or not, with mention made of her comments earlier in the day that she can load her own glider by herself. I then remind the guys that my glider weighs nearly twice what her glider weighs, so we decide John should call her. Liz did QUITE an ADMIRABLE job, and IN SPITE OF NOT HAVING a Newcastle or three, she is able to laugh about it all. I felt bad about her packing everything up for me, but not bad enough to go back down there to help her!

When she got to the top, she asked why I didn't call anyone. I said I had left the phone in the Hajjimobile, at which time she mentioned she had tried to call me when she arrived at my stuff, and my harness started ringing. OOPS!!! I think I owe Liz quite a few Newcastles!!!

Even with everyone who flew getting only sledders, Liz making the decision she REALLY likes the light weight of her new Falcon 3 (she knew this already, but loading my Northwing T2 reinforced it), and me hiking up the hill, we all decided we had a good time, and it was definitely better than a good day at work.

I have some of the best friends in the world in the hang gliding community.

In Search of the "V"

This evening (Thursday), after I got off work, I went to try to find Launch at the "V" above Bountiful. Someone had told me to take Skyline Drive and it would put me at the "V". They told me I would run into Skyline Drive if I went east from the 400 North exit at Bountiful off I 15. Thirty miles later, I am coming down the road that runs up Farmington Canyon. More than half the drive was in the dark, as I didn't get done with work til nearly 8pm, instead of the 5:30 I had hoped for. At one point, I was nearly as high as launch for Francis Peak, and another time I could see Ogden to the west and Morgan to the east. This would be a nice scenic drive to do sometime when flying is not an option, but it wasn't what I had in mind for this evening. I saw a guy on a bicycle riding up the road, and he had probably done 10 miles up the hill when I saw him. If I had turned around and went back down the way I went up, I was going to ask him if he was training for the "Leadville 100". If you haven't heard of it, the Leadville 100 is a 100 mile mountain bike race that starts and ends in Leadville, Colorado, elevation 10,000 ft or thereabouts. It never gets below 8,000 ft, and I think it goes through 12,000 several times. Maybe even 13,000 ft. If you haven't walked around at 12,000 ft in a while, let me remind you there isn't much oxygen there. If I ever find launch for the "V" I am going to take photos, and maybe get someone else to take photos of me launching from there.

Things are looking UP!

I got to fly this morning for the 3rd day in a row. A record for me in the last two years! And I just realized the 3 days were at 3 different sites! Paul Voight from New York graciously gave me a shirt from a "fly-in" they had in 2004 at Ellenville, NY, and it came yesterday. The shirt is Pink with Blue screening on it, and matches my glider! I wore it today, and it was great. I got to the South side late, and John and Guy Lindbergh were still flying, and it was starting to get a little rowdy. I started setting up my glider and the wind was strong enough I couldn't get the sail tensioned. I started to pack up, and decided to wait a few minutes before putting the bags back on the glider. The breeze eased up, I moved the glider 20 feet farther back from the edge of the hill, and turned it sideways. I re-started the set up process, and within ten minutes I was ready to get my harness out, hook in and fly. I launched, and flew for about twenty minutes. For the first few minutes of the flight, there was a red tailed hawk in the air with me. It seemed like he was spotting the thermals for me. A few minutes later, there was the same hawk, and I think a Kestrel. A few minutes later, there were two red-tailed hawks in the air with me. I have been able to fly a few times when one of the "Locals" was the only other one in the air with me, but this was the first time I had ever flown with two of them. It was really special to have been in the air with three different locals, with both combinations of two of them in the air with me. As I was starting to drive away, I got a phone call about a job possibility, that will be acceptable pay, and also have the possibility of starting to work tomorrow. If it works, the next several months, I will be working six days a week, but the extra money will help things out.

All in all, a GOOD day!!!

Did the interview for the job, and I think it will work well for me. I'll be driving a dump truck, and will be starting on the evening shift, working from 4:30 pm til 2 am, which actually works good for me. I have difficulty getting up four cracks before dawn if I'm going to go do something important, like flying, and sure enough don't to want to get up that early to do something like work! The owners of the company, Tom and his wife Joanna seem like good people, and I think I will enjoy them. Joanna is interested in trikes, so we might be able to get someone interested in aerotowing us!!! Things continue to look up!!!