Saturday, March 21, 2009- Stid Hill, South Bristol NY
The organizers at the Bristol Ski Resort asked us to set up a glider for their Spring Carnival for this weekend, and, being that I am the Public Relations rep for the RAF, I tried to muster up some enthusiasm for the exposure it could create. A beautiful forecast, warm and sunny, and light winds- great for flying there, not so good for skiing. But they have a pretty good snow base left and only a few trails looked closed. I had more than an hour to check it out from 3K above, in baby ass smooth lift. But the flight was of course after the obligatory "manning of the booth" and at 1:30 I was relieved of my duties by Karl and Katrin, and Ron actually had carried in and SET UP my glider at launch. Wow.... Mukrim, Doug and Mark all had sledders just as I grabbed the PGers and went up with Ron. Ryan reportedly was climbing out over the parking lot as we rounded the back side of the hill. We hiked in from Piscotti's, seeing as I had nothing to carry- it was easy! I checked over my glider and launched after Mukrim climbed out. Ryan was nowhere to be found but I did see him high overhead during the hike. I scratched a bit, not finding whatever Mukrim was in, and decided to leave the ratty ridge. I found nothing but sink all the way to the parking lot and began to set up a landing. But as I extended my glide towards the skiers on their slope, I got beepings!!! I cranked and banked a while and when I looked at my borrowed (shitty!) vario, I was still 300' below launch. So after that nice low save I wound up at 3200' over and got really really cold! Mukrim and I just cruised wherever we wanted and flew over the slopes a while. It was weird being over there, usually I go over the back or north. I began to look at the LZ situation and to my surprise saw the wind shifting from the south now. Ron and Rick and a few others were scooter-dragging down there so I asked Rick what it was looking like. Light, mostly westerly.... OK, I can do that. I searched a while for some sinking air- tough to find! and tried to leave all my options open as I set up a landing. Then it starts coming from the north and I took my final in that direction. Staring right at the sock I see it flip around and now I'm in a tail wind. Damn. Eating up the distance to the break down area, a weak flare... and a pound into the ground. I caught my kneecap on the base tube as I did my "tuck and roll". Ouch. But I got off easy considering....
Here's Lon's video link of my crappy downwind landing. Right at the beginning. The windsock is obscured by the glider in the foreground. The rest of the video is pretty funny too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCJEY_BMN64
Karl, Katrin, Doug, Mukrim and Ryan all had great PG flights in the late afternoon. Spring has sprung!!!
Marty took care of the PR stuff there the next day- thanks Marty. And special thanks to Ron for hauling my stuff in and setting it up- I owe you big!
The organizers at the Bristol Ski Resort asked us to set up a glider for their Spring Carnival for this weekend, and, being that I am the Public Relations rep for the RAF, I tried to muster up some enthusiasm for the exposure it could create. A beautiful forecast, warm and sunny, and light winds- great for flying there, not so good for skiing. But they have a pretty good snow base left and only a few trails looked closed. I had more than an hour to check it out from 3K above, in baby ass smooth lift. But the flight was of course after the obligatory "manning of the booth" and at 1:30 I was relieved of my duties by Karl and Katrin, and Ron actually had carried in and SET UP my glider at launch. Wow.... Mukrim, Doug and Mark all had sledders just as I grabbed the PGers and went up with Ron. Ryan reportedly was climbing out over the parking lot as we rounded the back side of the hill. We hiked in from Piscotti's, seeing as I had nothing to carry- it was easy! I checked over my glider and launched after Mukrim climbed out. Ryan was nowhere to be found but I did see him high overhead during the hike. I scratched a bit, not finding whatever Mukrim was in, and decided to leave the ratty ridge. I found nothing but sink all the way to the parking lot and began to set up a landing. But as I extended my glide towards the skiers on their slope, I got beepings!!! I cranked and banked a while and when I looked at my borrowed (shitty!) vario, I was still 300' below launch. So after that nice low save I wound up at 3200' over and got really really cold! Mukrim and I just cruised wherever we wanted and flew over the slopes a while. It was weird being over there, usually I go over the back or north. I began to look at the LZ situation and to my surprise saw the wind shifting from the south now. Ron and Rick and a few others were scooter-dragging down there so I asked Rick what it was looking like. Light, mostly westerly.... OK, I can do that. I searched a while for some sinking air- tough to find! and tried to leave all my options open as I set up a landing. Then it starts coming from the north and I took my final in that direction. Staring right at the sock I see it flip around and now I'm in a tail wind. Damn. Eating up the distance to the break down area, a weak flare... and a pound into the ground. I caught my kneecap on the base tube as I did my "tuck and roll". Ouch. But I got off easy considering....
Here's Lon's video link of my crappy downwind landing. Right at the beginning. The windsock is obscured by the glider in the foreground. The rest of the video is pretty funny too.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCJEY_BMN64
Karl, Katrin, Doug, Mukrim and Ryan all had great PG flights in the late afternoon. Spring has sprung!!!
Marty took care of the PR stuff there the next day- thanks Marty. And special thanks to Ron for hauling my stuff in and setting it up- I owe you big!
posted by Linda Salamone at
Tuesday, March 24, 2009
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