Linda Salamone's Blog

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Fadi Mohamed took this video of my launch at Hammondsport (BATH, NEW YORK) on Labor Day Weekend... What a gorgeous day. I wound up flying for over 3 hours. Fadi graciously sent it to me yesterday...

Monday, October 20, 2008

Saturday and Sunday, October 18 and 19 2008
yo, GW- INDIAN CLIFFS IN ELMIRA, NEW YORK!!! (although the hawk and Mukrim sliding in on his butt are at BATH, NEW YORK)
These pictures are a little jumbled from the past few weekends, but I wanted to include some of them before they got forgotton in the mess of photos I have. This is actually from Saturday... Matt - BEFORE he got blown over the back....


This one is also from Saturday. The leaves are at their peak color right now. Amazing to have such sweet flying at this time of year. Ron K is getting ready to launch- he had an early obligation so he wasn't going to dawdle.
Saturday also marks the first day of bow hunting season: here is my dog trying to blend with the leaves. She is a little too "deer colored" to be let loose. Stupid me forgot that "man has entered the forest" and I should have just left her (and my nagging son) home.

So Saturday was just too damn windy for me. I was hesitant from the moment I heard the first blast go through launch, and I waited through the afternoon for almost everyone else to go before I finally dared to meet "the wall" of lift just in front of the cliff. Once in the air, it wasn't totally death defying, but I couldn't zip up, due to a knot in my "up" pull, on the inside of the harness. I was able to reach inside to get it partway up, but it was cold (3degC), and WINDY, and I was just not enjoying the air very much. I kept messing with that zipper, both hands struggling instead of controlling the glider, kicking at it (all before I realized why it wouldnt budge), and I was just not happy! Rick and I were on the radio together and I did take one really gnarly climb to 900 meters over, but once he asked me what I had for a temperature reading, I decided it was better for me to be on the ground. Textured. Yeah, good word for it. Oh and I saw 28kph and thought I was looking at mph on the windspeed. I tried to get to Harris LZ while I was still high, knowing the narrow valley would be pure hell, but I couldn't penetrate out into the valley in front of that ridge, so I headed for the main LZ. And pure hell it was... My vario made the rotor noise all the way to the ground and even though my feet touched the ground lightly, the approach was harrowing! As I packed up (my car magically appeared as if driven by my son...) I watched as 7 or 8 gliders boated around the ridge. Rick had a personal best of 3 hours and change. As someone drove me away, I couldn't help think that I was just a big weenie. All the way home I was dissecting my rationale and continued to do so that night. There were flights of several hours in duration, and I only bit off 40 minutes worth.... But the fun factor was low and even though there are times when I would have no problem with that kind of air- Saturday wasn't one of them.

Peg, the landowner, generously allowed us to invade her property again the next day. WAY better forecast, by my estimate. This is from Sunday- the Canadian contingent- part of it- here with Jim K and Dan W.
Indian Cliffs- the most beautiful site in the Southern Tier. Never have I seen so many gliders on launch, setting up in the crisp Autumn air. Bill V, Don, Steve B, Bob G, Dan W, Dan S, Ryan W, Matt C, Doug S, Oded K, Kark L, Katrin P, Ed J, George, Jim K... who am I forgetting?? Oh and ME! Holy crap... what a great day!
I was one of the first hangies to launch- two PGs going up in front and Dan S had done okay. I got up really quickly after a less than fun launch in somewhat dead air, and got right up above the ridge. I had a couple of close passes with Doug- one time I think if I had reached down I could have dragged my hand across his canopy. But pretty soon I was on my own way above the rest of them ESPECIALLY RYAN, who, try as he might, just couldn't seem to find his way into the stratosphere with me.... but I digress...
I watched Bellerby launch and climb up, video camera in hand pointed at me (I'm going to try to get that footage from him to post here- it's not often that I am above him) and it seemed as though I could fly wherever I wanted with impunity. I went to where Dan W and Dan S were by Harris, flew with them awhile. Bellerby joined us and I played chicken with them all and tried some of my dirty thermalling tricks in the super smooth lift. Sailplanes pimped off of us from below and it really seemed like the air was magic. I was getting cold hands after an hour, but I was really liking the view and the company. Dan left to go land and just after, I got my best climb of the day, a solid 4m/s to the scuzz layer. Then I was REALLY cold and my hands were numb. I tried to find sink and had a tough time- the whole valley was going up. Mark called on the radio and said it was DEAD on launch and people were potato-ing. I cored some sinking air and got to about launch level and scoped out the LZ. Just then, Ed launches and comes right out over to me. He and I are at about the same altitude, but we have differing objectives. I tried to avoid him, and the lifting air, while he tried to avoid me, and landing now. Somehow, all he found was sink, and I saw we would be in conflict for landing, so I moved into the rising air and waited out his landing. After he was on the ground, I found it nearly impossible to come down, so I zipped back up and climbed out again. So strange to have completely different experiences in the same air. That got me thinking about Saturday, and then I followed a mental thread about how attitude and perspective is so important. It seems like half the pilots got up on Sunday, and half the pilots sledded. Perspective...


Here is a picture from two weeks ago, at Hammondsport. Can you find the hawk?

And here is Mukrim, that same day, landing in the gravel with his ASS!
And Bellerby... F'ing Bellerby.... 8 plus hours in two flights this past weekend.... (but he still won't tell me how high he got on Sunday...) At least I am sure I have the female HG honors pretty well clinched.
Sunday: Airtime 40 min, alt2 800m over launch
Saturday: Airtime 1:25, alt2 1050 over launch

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Wednesday, October 15th - Bristol Mountain (really, Stid Hill)
SOUTH BRISTOL, NEW YORK 35 miles south of ROCHESTER, NEW YORK

A beautiful Autumn day. Too beautiful to remain at work after missing Monday's epic conditions at Hammondsport (where Ryan interrupted his 4 hour flight to call me from a grand over to let me know what I was missing). But this time I brought my camera!
This is what it looked like as I waited for the 10 minute construction traffic signal-


We loaded up my little Baja and Karl, Mark, Moritz and I headed up top. Karl brought both a PG and HG, the rest of us were HG. After the huge carry-in, me with my bum knee, we set up and thankfully started seeing some cycles. But Mark launched and sledded, Karl launched and sledded (PG), Moritz launched and sledded... hmmmm... kind of wishing I didn't blow off work today... I waited for Alex to arrive for his first Bristol launch (but not his first high flight), hoping for something to change... And change it did. A huge bank of stratus clouds was moving in, killing any chance for a soaring flight and I bagged the idea of launching to help get Alex's glider in. Right when I got unready to fly- it starts cycling in again! So I get my layers back on, get into my harness... and it dies... Oh one of those days! A guy named Sven, a former RAFer, rode into launch and kept us company while we watched crows and vultures get up across the valley. Nothing blowing into launch well enough for me to join them, especially with my knee protesting any real running. Finally I dove off and headed along the ridge- to find nothing to get up in. I scratched closer than I usually do (no turn now in my glider), but didnt get up. I set up a landing and had some fun dodging those posts along the driveway on final... Why do I always set up so much shorter than I need to??? Oh well, Mark captured the moment on film and I actually had a nice landing after pushing out a bit to avoid them. They are actually just a bit more than a glider's width apart. Better still when some wuffo parks in the road to watch!




We all headed quickly up top to see Alex off. Karl was determined to beat my current "Flight Of The Day" status, as his Saturn was all set up... He milked that sledder for all it was worth but my 8 minute 20 second flight held the honors. Alex was ready next and he executed a perfect launch. He headed across the valley and continued with a perfect approach and landing right in the "cool pilot" landing area by the access road.
It wasn't a total waste of a work day (but close to it), and it was great to enjoy the riot of colors this particularily beautiful Autumn is producing. We should be getting some more nice flying weather this weekend, so hopefully it won't be the last of our unique kind of leaf peeping.
Flights: 1
Airtime: 8 minutes
Alt2: zero....


Monday, October 13, 2008

Sunday, October 12, 2008
I'm kicking myself for not having taken many pictures the last two weekends. Yesterday I flew at Italy Valley- which, by the way, is CLOSED for the season(?) and we were fortunate to hear this straight from the landowner AFTER a really awesome flight. Greg from Canada was questioning online whether Italy was open before his trip down; I read his post after I got home last night on the SOUNYPG list. The closure is stated in the RAF website, unfortunately, it's not really where I get my current flying news. The landowner was specific about when the site closed (Sept. 30th) but a little fuzzy on when it would re-open.
That being said- what a nice day! I arrived as Mukrim was sledding out- and gave him a ride up top- NOT that he couldn't have hiked up himself, mind you.... When we got to launch (he carried in for me) Ryan was in the slot. It was coming in so nicely now and I couldn't get my glider together fast enough. Ryan, Mukrim, and Greg launched, and me soon after. The three PGs and I played all over the sky, with hawks, light wind, nice thermals to around 500 meters over, no worries about sinking out... until it got a little cross from the SW and then it got trickier. I was having so much fun with the jellyfish- Ryan is a pretty FAST jellyfish, however- and Doug S joined in the fun- I saw to it that everyone was safely on the ground before I set up for a decent top landing. It was when everyone (but me) went back for another flight that we met up with the landowner. Only Mukrim and Ryan and Greg had gone off, so Doug and I headed down bottom to let them know. Mukrim was still in the air when I left, so it was really pretty soarable all day.
Wish I had pictures!
Airtime: 1:20
Alt2: 538 meters

Friday, October 03, 2008

Estrogen Fest 2008
part three- Sunday


Beautiful forecast, cu's, big lift, sun, warm temps... perfect! Except that we had to leave some time this afternoon so earlier would be more convenient, but not necessarily better for soaring.


Caitlin and Katrin headed to the training hill, I went up to the launch to watch a bit and stock up on some essentials. It was very cross and crowded (since not many were launching) so I went to the training hill to see how the girls were doing. Caitlin was looking a little battered, the Sting was pretty muddy, and there was absolutely NO WIND at all blowing into either hill. I can't think of anything more difficult than launching in zero wind on a very shallow low slope, but Caitlin tried long and hard enough to earn the tenacity award for the day. We headed to the LZ and I waited around for some mid-day soaring.





Claire Vassort

It was getting past 1pm when I figured that I just better get my flight in. No one was soaring off the mountain (still cross) and only a few tandems were going. A solo tow went up (Claire's friend) and the clouds looked fat and inviting, but he didn't stick. When I talked to Claire she said he was just tuning a friend's glider and that there was indeed lift. I got ready to tow and tried to lower the tail of the cart I was on. After struggling with all three pins and not being able to get the thing to budge, I asked someone on the line if there were carts already set up for a smaller control frame. She said look for one with a white cradle and when I found the only one with a white cradle, it already had an unattended glider resting upon it. It's pretty uncool to move someone's glider so I just found a totally different cart and tried to make do. But I was still concerned about being pinned into the cart again. Before I got into my harness, I noticed the previously unattended glider on what I now considered "my one true cart" was presently attended. I decided to use my womanly wiles to get what I wanted and sidled on up to the guy who was struggling into his harness. And I said sweetly, "Hey, you know, I'm really coveting something of yours..." (lower head and look up and apply batting lashes). I figure he'll probably not only give up his cart but all his money too AND help me get my glider into place.

Instead, he says, "Listen, this is a pretty big pain in the ass and I'm sweating all over the place. I'll be done with it in a minute after I tow up so just get in line (bitch)." Well he didn't say the "bitch" part out loud but it came across pretty clearly... Hmmmm, a-hole..... I turned away and took one look back- I wanted him to remember the chick he wouldn't give the cart to who later kicked his ass in the air... Then I noticed something- he was struggling more than the average bear to get hooked in... Aha! He has only one leg! Oh shit! Okay, well now I feel a little stupid. The "one leg" card definitely trumps the "girl" card in pretty much ANY game. I loaded myself into my cart and figured if I got a little stuck in it, well I sort of deserve it for being such an ass.

So my tow was uneventful- bummer because it meant there was no bumps -meaning no lift. Too early... When the tug pilot began to tow me over toward the ridge, where an earlier tow was searching desperately, I spotted some birds up under a fat cu and pinned off before we got too far away. Oops, mistake.... I got nothing and the birds left. I followed them from below and got some zero, then a beep or two.. great. I had pinned off tow at 650 meters and now I am at 600. Couple of beeps and I am climbing a little - well really just not sinking - I start to search for anything going up- scan the ridge- oh that guy is hosed- scan the clouds- turning turning- where's that one legged guy? - turning- probably he is already on the ground- turning, searching WAIT! WHAT WAS THAT??? I see way above these huge clouds, a glider scooting across the small space between them. Just like I saw yesterday! WTF? A trike? Am I seeing things? Well surely I must just SUCK and there is some awesome lift out there- SOMEWHERE! My 0.2m/s lift was actually improving now but I was afraid to leave it. I kept looking for that glider and continued to climb slowly, actually a little better now and pretty soon I was almost to the big fat cloud. Just as I got to within 500' of it's bottom, I found out where and who that other glider was. It came suddenly into view above and next to me, surprising me all to hell, I peeled off away from what was now cloud-suck and this stealthy rogue glider....

When I turned back to get a better look, I saw that it indeed was the same glider on the coveted cart, a blue and white T2. Now how the F%$@ did he get so damn high earlier? Did he get sucked into the cloud and pop out the top? Was there some booming lift somewhere that he rode up NEXT to and above the clouds? Well whatever, now I was going to have to kick his ass like I intended to earlier and sort this "above the clouds" thing out later. We chased each other all over the sky and Caitlin was on the radio wondering where we all went a few times. When he headed way across the valley, I chased him down and finally got above him briefly when we wrapped a thermal together really nice. The air was getting fun and after a while I headed over to the launch intending to end my flight to start the 14 hour drive home. I counted 16 gliders on launch and none launching. The blue T2 came over and lost a bunch of altitude with wingovers and I could hear him hollering over the launch. It was so bouyant now, no threat of sinking out, and yet, no one was launching. A Combat finally ran off and scratched the ridge. I stayed way out to show him how wide the lift was but he was pinned to the mountain for some reason. Sweet lift all around the launch; wind sock straight out, and still, no gliders launching. Oh well, I had to get going so I did some wangs ( I don't know how to do real wingovers) and found some sinking air (hard to find!), and set up to land. And I did! On my feet! Just like Mike said- come in higher, get my hands higher and arc upwards. Sweet! But damn, no one with a video camera...

While I was breaking down a few minutes later, I see the T2 on the ground. Tip Rogers hops on over to me and we just start ranting and raving about the flight. When I related what I had seen early in my flight- his glider stinking high above the clouds, and my reaction to it while I was scratching- he just starts laughing. Apparently he paid extra for an 8000' tow and was just hoping that some idiot would see him that high and think he got there by climbing. He got his wish.....
Tip Rogers

After Katrin and Caitlin gathered all of our stuff while I packed up, we hit the road. As we drove away, so many gliders littered the sky. The girls wanted to see Henson's and we only got lost twice on our way there thanks to Mikey's directions. When we arrived at Henson's launch there was almost no place to park. As soon as we got out of the car I hear some guy talking excitedly about this chick pilot who actually thought he climbed to 8000'... so I join Tip in his bragging to his cronies and mention that I did actually see a lot of the top of his sail after he had to FIND lift to stay up. Then I was crowing about winning the Team Challenge a few years back and F'ing Bellerby's magazine write up describing my "hawk-like intuition" on a long-ago Whitwell flight when an argument ensued about who was better friends with the memorable Canadian. Tip proudly displayed his new-to-him Sensor that had been garaged for the last million years and in pristine condition. It brought back so many memories to be atop this site. My literary dog, Meesha, came from Henson's. I first met Kevin Carter and Steve Revo and Bo Hagewood up here. I did some of my very first XC flights in the Sequatchie Valley. And here we were, air wafting straight in, sun setting, on the first day of Team Challenge 2008. We couldn't stay long but I did hear there were over 80 gliders there, 55 pilots signed up for Team Challenge- all that there when so many pilots were still at Lookout Mountain in the air when we left . HANG GLIDING IN THE USA IS NOT DEAD!!!!!

We drove all night, switching drivers, getting lost, guzzling coffee. I made it to work by noon, Caitlin made it to her 2pm class. All good. Not as good as Mark on Ritalin and Red Bulls and me sleeping, but still - we made it in one piece.

What a great weekend. So many women pilots in one place. I got to meet a lot of the girls who supported my Team to Italy by buying T-shirts and fundraising. Carmen and Judy and Christine and Liz and Linda and Judy H and Claire and holy crap, there were a lot of girl pilots. I got to see some old friends and hang with Mikey and Dennis and Terry- my idols - a bit.

I hope we get this all together again a couple of years from now. Not to be missed!
Flights: 1
Airtime: 1:40
Alt2: 1350 meters




Thursday, October 02, 2008


Well I hope these links come out okay.


Saturday's forecast was looking really sweet and I was all set up down in the LZ, ready for a tow. Mike Barber gave me some very awesome landing tips, after seeing a hearty whack the day before. Well the forecast wasn't panning out: "sunny and delightful" was more like "overcast and threatening" and after checking that it wasn't really a huge storm cell over Chattanooga in the distance, I decided to try a tow. My LS3S is so sweet on tow. It was uneventful besides getting pinned a second or two longer in the cart than I liked, but that was my own fault for not insisting on a cart with a lower bracket in back, or trying to lower the one I had even more. I didn't find much lift after I pinned off but I did happen to see a sky-high glider ( a trike?- must have been) scooting above and between a break in the clouds. There were gliders on the ridge so when I lost some altitude, I went and joined in the very light lift. And of course it was getting lighter and everyone began to sink out, me along with them. I set up a decent landing but it was crowded. One pilot landing 180 degrees different direction than the next, and I had to clear both of them, but- I did hammer in a lot more softly than normal.... Claire tried out my glider after that, and made landing it look pretty simple.


Oodles of knowledge:


Fun party Saturday night- great band, pretty good food (not very vegetarian-friendly however), great people, and lots of beer. Katrin and Caitlin loosened up and started dancing after threatening to turn in for the night earlier. They honored all the women with great gifts and the party went on past my bed-time. We headed up top and sacked right out since Caitlin wanted a run at the training hill early.
More later but here are some pics:
Caitlin Johnson
Training hill #1:
Training hill #2:
I'll wrap this up when I get more time. I still get to do Sunday with it's epic flying...







 
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