End of the Year Road Trip

Brett & I took a little road trip to Eloy, Arizona for a few days of jumping. The 13 hour drive reminds me to always consider the alternate & fly commercial. We arrived late on Friday the day after Christmas. The original plan of camping went out the window when the temperature was sneaking up on freezing. Due to last minute cancellationg the Skyrider Inn had vacancy. We hooked up with EGO & split a room instead. The next day welcomed us with cold weather but it was still much warmer than the Bay Area we had just left behind.I made three jumps the first day, two out of the Sky Van & one out of the DC3. I hadn't jumped that DC3 since the mid-90's. Brett was excited to jump it for the first time. We free flew out of it & got great video. I ended up making a total of ten jumps over the course of the four days we spent there. Late Saturday I organized a Beech 18 load & setup the jump for the Sunday at 1:00pm. The Byron Army took up the ten slots. It was exciting to fill up the old classic airplane with ten friends, nine of whom had never jumped a Beech 18.

That inspired me to setup a Porter load. There were nine slots available and again I filled them with the Byron Army. As before, eight of my buddies had never jumped a Pilatus Porter. I asked EGO to organize a eight way chunk to pull off on exit & he came through. The plan was to launch an eight way chunk with four in the base & four hanging onto between each person in the base. Once stable Erik, Chavi & I were to sit & hang for a hybrid formation. We pulled the chunk out of the airplane but it funneled shortly after exit, flipping twice before it split apart. EGO climbed out in front of the strut & managed to get great video of the jump, exit & all. My favorite part is that he got the entire exit with the aircraft in the background. The nine way became a seven way with Erik & I hanging. It's great to know that if you want to jump exotic aircraft they are sitting in the hangers in Eloy ready for you.Many of the Byron jumpers jumped, for the first time, the DC3, Beech 18, Pilatus Porter, Sky Van & a hot air balloon. It was a boogie to remember!

A Pilot Pays Me a Visit

I found this little guy trapped in the backroom yesterday morning. He was flapping his wings as fast as he could attempting to fly through the window. They are such trusting little creatures.
I put my finger next to him, he jumped up on it held on for a bit & took off towards the window again. The second time I held held him for a couple of pictures then I let him sit on my finger & walked him outside where he immediately took off.
He's been coming around all summer but I hadn't seen him much this winter. Earlier in the summer, Brian the next door neighbor, had friends over. One of them actually got him to sit on this finger.
The little guy didn't seem nervous at all. He just sat on my finger patienlty & allowed me to set him free. It's a good thing because Casey, the cat, was licking her chops!

Dodging rain with the hawks!

I had already dodged one rain cloud, the second one was coming directly West from the Pacific Ocean. It was grey with rain pouring out of it, sunlight filtering through.

The first rain cloud I noticed was forming over the Golden Gate Bridge. It seemed to appear from nowhere then suddenly there it was pouring rain, a distinctive line of water coming our way. Flying over the Pacifica cliffs I kept an eye on it. The hang glider pilots all headed back to Ft. Funston & the paraglider pilots headed back towards the dumps. I stayed close to the launch site watching Nova doing acro. I could see him stall the wing then spread out the risers as he went into a heli. He'd lose altitude, scratch near the cliff, regain altitude & start over. I watched him do this 4 times & then decided to go back & check out the rain. The cloud was now over Ft. Funston & was heading my way. Then out of nowhere it was sucked into the Sunset district in San Francisco & was no longer a threat.

Flying along the ridge I noticed an area of strong lift. I flew back & forth along it gaining quite a bit of altitude. It was at this point that I noticed Mike's tandem hangglider cruising along at roughly the same height. I shadowed him attempting to gain his attention but there's no way he would know it's me. I kept my distance shadowing him along the West Lake cliffs.

About a half hour later a cloud started forming out to Sea. It starting blowing directly towards us. I decided it was time to land. Flying out to sea I lost plenty of altitude, turned around, came back & landed in the center of the road at Lemmings. I packed up the wing, carried it to Tomcat, bs'd with the guys a bit & it started raining, not 10 minutes after landing. Another great hour and a half flight at Pacifica.
After landing I watched a hawk that was sitting on the fence. Earlier I flew near one that was soaring just off the cliffs near the church. The sight of these birds less than a few yards away with their wings spread soaring in the wind is truly amazing!

~strong winds, cold days~

There were pilots in the air as I came around the corner on Hwy 1. The winds looked good at about 11 mph from the West. By the time I got to the launch site the winds had picked up but still seemed manageable. I had a few unsuccessful attempts at kiting before my launch. The wing came over my head, but the winds had picked up enough that it was tough to move forward. The first 3 tries went this way. Finally on the fourth attempt I rode it out & let the wing go back a bit then forward a bit, back & forth until I started flying. The trick was to let up on the brakes.

The flight was spectacular! It was a crystal clear day. I could see the Farallon Islands to the West with container ships sailing past them, the Golden Gate Bridge to the North & SFO to the East. Every now & then a jet passed overhead. I snapped a few pictures of my wing, which reminds me that I still need to repair the broken line.

The Rush2 is a great wing. The speed bar came in handy. Normally I place my heels in the lower strap. I've never had the need to use the upper bar. On this flight the winds up high picked up. I was able to get fairly high. Steve, flying his yellow & red hangglider was very high. I started to see how high I could get but decided to use the speed bar & get down. The winds were really strong the higher I went. It got to the point were I barely had any penetration forward. I wasn't being blown back but without speedbar I wasn't moving forward either. At this point I was out in front of the cliff right above the beach. I dropped a couple hundred feet & the winds were much better.

Up high there was a point where I wasn't moving forward or backwards. It was kinda like reclining in your living room chair watching the entire coastline; the Farallon Islands to the left, the Pacific Coast stretched out between my legs, San Francisco with it's mighty Golden Gate Bridge spread out to the right all while soaring alongside hawks hunting dinner.

About 45 minutes into the flight I started noticing most of the pilots land. White caps on the water as well as the strong winds up high must be the reason all the other pilots were now on the ground. I started planning my approach for landing but the winds down low didn't seem bad. Second guessing myself I turned around, went back to the cliffs, got lift and flew around for a while before warning bells started going off. Something didn't seem right! Why were all the other pilots on the ground? I decided to go back & land, the flight lasting 1 hour, 3 minutes. Upon landing I asked a few of the pilots why everyone was on the ground. Was it the winds? The whitecaps? I got my answer from Dave. It's cold!

Although there was still a good hour of light left the winds had picked up enough that I decided to pack up my gear & take more pictures. Over all it was a fun day sitting in the harness taking in the Farallons, the city, flying alongside hawks & just enjoying the moment.

The coast turns on!

This morning I didn't even bother to check the weather. Upon waking up I mozied around for a while, had coffee & at around noon I checked my email. Finally I got around to checking the conditions at Pacifica. WNW @ 11mph! WOW! Westerly winds at 11, perfect flying conditions. I text JJ, Arnel, Don & Zack. Don was 5 minutes out, Arnel was on his way, JJ was showing up after work, I was on my way & Zack was out for the day.

There were lots of pilots at the Dumps today. At one time I counted 18 wings in the air & 7 on the ground. The winds were low on my first flight. I took off, climbed a bit then started sinking. I watched Hussein in front of me barely getting lift & thought I'd be able to hang in there but Hussein climbed & I sunk. It was a long walk back to Walkers Launch via the beach. I thought about packing the wing to make it easier to carry but in the end just carried it back.

The second flight went much better.

Both launches today went extremely well. I built a wall, lifted it, checked it & took off nicely. The winds were perfect on the second launch. The flight lasted 2 hours and 10 minutes. I spent time taking in the views & shooting pictures. There were so many wings up there today. It was awesome to see wings above you, below you & all around you. It was cold, after about an hour my hands were feeling it. I met Mike from Sac. Yesterday I spent ime researching power paragliding. I found a school in Sacramento & I spent time going over their website as well as checking out a bunch of pictures they had posted online. Today I recoginzed one of the instructors, Mike. I met him & spent some time talking about learning power paragliding. He's the instructor. Seems like the motor would be perfect for those days when the winds are not great on the coast. Overall it was a great day today!

We even had a visit from Santa. He flew in on his paraglider blasting his radio & wishing everyone a Merry Christmas!

Streamlined 08

Streamlined 08 from Team Silver on Vimeo.