Linda Salamone's Blog

Friday, January 13, 2006

January is turning into a decent flying month! Whodathunkit?
Yesterday, Jan 12th, Dansville was calling out to me! 50+ degrees and straight SW wind at around 10-15mph.... sweeeeeeeeeeeeet! So of course I can't cajole anyone else into it although on the way there Andy Cu decides to blow off all of his responsibilites and head out. Mark says he'll be there later at the very least to give me a ride back up, Bob Roth has other obligations but he might try to go...
When I get to the top, it is blowing STRAIGHT in, 10+ mph and very very steady, nothing gusty or scary, no lulls to make me think it will be a sledder. I called Bob and told him to DROP whatever he was doing! I set up FAST and launch easily. The Sting is so much quicker to put together- by 15 minutes I think. I climb out slowly but I can tell it will be tricky- the lift is small and disorganized. I had to do a lot of swishing around, not really full turns or 360s, to stay in it. I saw Mark and Andy pull up on top a few minutes into my flight. I watch them set up while at times I am sure I will sink out. I topped out just over 500' but most of the flight was 2-300' over and very busy. I was thinking Mark better hurry and launch or I won't get a chance to herd him around in that slow PG of his. Still no sign of Bob. Mark joins me and I tried to screw with him but I didn't trust my control in such punchy tiny lift. One second it's there, the next second-gone! But it was fun air anyways and when Mark went way west and started to climb past the spa, while Andy and I were pretty low out front of launch, I chased him. I got a little on that west face and I watched Mark go land by the football field. I landed after 47 minutes in my big ass field short of the airport. Bob was on top when Mark got a beer and a ride up from a couple at the football field so he helped him launch. Andy was in the soybean field after an extended sledder, so I hoofed down Main Street towards him watching Bob take the late day wonderwind while the full moon rose behind the ridge and the sun set in front. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

I am officially winning the air-time contest this year. :)

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Congrat's to Bob (HG-Bob) on his first high flight foot launch! We met at Bristol yesterday for a total crap shoot flight. No wind sock at launch (oh yeah and no wind talker either but that's a different topic) but Bob reported birds over the old launch so we headed up. The Suuby made it up the muddy road all the way to the top with just a few scrapes of the rack on the way clearance issues) and we took our harnesses in. When we say two more hawks playing in light lift just over launch we got our gliders and hoofed them in. By the time we got back and set up of course it was dead and probably very southerly..... So I threw Bob off. He did an awesome light/no wind launch, hesitated a little getting his feet in the bag of his slick Moyes XC harness, then flew out and set up a perfect approach and landed to the south right where we break down by the Bristol entrance. Picture perfect all the way!
I launched and sledded and I was on the ground in under 4 minutes- a fairly decent landing but - oh yeah- it's been so long since I landed my Sting..... hard to find the HUGE flare window when it's staring you right in the face!!! So the Sting with its shiny new leading edge is back in the air again! I got back home with 15 minutes to spare before the January RAF meeting. Mark had food under control and lots of people bought the fundraiser T-shirts... I think we got some business accomplished... I don't remember... it feels like spring and time to FLY!!
Mark and I are headed to Florida for the Feb 4th and 5th weekend. Looks like Bob and Doug Allen and a few others will join us. I am outta here on the 2nd through the 6th.

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

this big space sucks...

New Year's Day 2006
Mark and I got up to Bristol with Ron Letzin giving us a retreive and a hand with carrying in. Light winds and no precipitation in the forecast- at least we'd get a sledder. Mark had the PG and after a muddy walk in he was set up before I had my battens laid out. Meesha was psyched to be out on a mountain again and snarled a bunch at Ron's no-legged dog.
Mark had a scary attempted launch- thank God that PGs can abort if need be. Abort he did. Then he tried again and had a great launch and got up like 50 feet over. I went back to setting up but as I was doing so the wind really picked up at times. I watched him bobble up and down rapidly, yell that it was bumpy (duh!) and then make a beeline out to the valley, where he lost altitude at a pretty rapid rate. He landed right by the road in a SE wind. I thought maybe Ron and Bob Roth were going to give me a hand with a launch but they never showed up- just my faithful dog to help bark me off the knob. I wish I had done a hang check- getting into my harness was slow and weird and I almost wasn't able to do it. Wet muddy big boots and a too-closed zipper really put a damper on my efforts. So I was struggling with that and having a hard time keeping the glider flying in the ratty ridge lift. By the time I got my feet in I was too far south and pretty much out of it. So I made one pass and headed out to land- and found the same drilling that Mark got. I never had a chance to buzz the ski mountain where my kids were snow boarding but I did make a way low pass over the parking lot! Landing towards the south has never been easy for me and I cleared the trees low and had the ropes across the center of the grass parking lot to deal with. By the time I touched down I was flying too slow to flare and had a nice belly- in across the muddy grass..... It had been sleeting and raining pretty much the whole time to one degree or another.
Let's hope the rest of the year has more rewarding flights and a better ratio of drive/hike: flighttime! Thanks Ron for helping out and braving my snarling dog to get my bags from her at launch!


 
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