Yes, I know it's long. I had a computer problem, so my new video editing software doesn't work.
Sorry. Also, somehow the sound got turned off on the camera. Which means that you can't hear the air noise. No idea how that happened.
Saturday, 8/31/13 at
Indian Valley.
Nice place to fly.
I've left some of the preflight in this one - I launch just short of 2 minutes into the video.
Harold is helping me setup, and Bob (I think) of
Sonoma Wings is helping as well. Generally, it's nice folks that go hang gliding. The launch is just over 6,
000' and the LZs (landing zones) are around
3000'.
1:50 The wind mostly straightens out and I launch.
Often it takes much longer for the wind to get right.
4:15 You can sort of see a ridge that's to the left of the launch. Over the other side of that ridge was the best lift that I found. It was spotty though because it wasn't far from that that I lost
500' pretty quickly.
4:50 You can see the launch, small bare patch on the mountain, below me.
5:20 You can see the landing zones, light patches, about 4000' below me.
The highest I got was
7200'
It was a rough day. Not just my observation - everyone else said the same thing.
The video doesn't do justice to how rough it was.
Two guys, one Saturday and one Sunday, came down because of air sickness.
When you see me moving the bar (base tube) back and forth, I'm trying to stay on course and level.
5:00 and
5:25 you can see me try to zip up my harness.
I get it part way up, which makes it easier to kind of lay down.
And, I presume, makes me a bit more aerodynamic. But I didn't get the zipper much higher than my knees.
13:20 You can see 2 gliders below me.
14:21 You can see my shadow below me. (There are lots of places you can see my shadow.)
14:30 You can see the launch again. There are some more gliders being set up in a bare spot to the right of the launch, in a wind break. The walk to the launch was kind of exciting - as was the walk
100' or so down to the steeper part that was safer to launch.
16:00 There's a pretty good view of the launch area. There's a curve in the road, and the launch is the light strip going left. A bit lower, there's a bare spot with a couple gliders being set up, that has a pretty good batch of trees providing shelter from the wind. As you walk out of that little space, the wind picks up pretty dramatically.
18:55 There's another glider, that's probably just launched, below me, working the ridge. Harold calls
the lift off that ridge the "house thermal" even though it's ridge lift, not a thermal. Seems that every site has one. (
House thermal - that so far, has always been ridge lift.)
20:45 You can start to see the beginning of my demise. I saw someone get lift off to the right of the launch. "
Hey, I want some of that."
And I start to head that way. :(
Playing with the other camera, that wasn't working, although I didn't know it at the time probably didn't help.
21:55 "
HEY, I'm way behind the ridge! How'd I get here? This could be a problem
."
22:00 You can see the ridge in front of me rising, compared to the background. Not good. Not good at all. How did I get here?
22:10
Try to get near a road, and pick bushes or low trees to aim at
.
22:15
Kick my feet out of the boot. Handy that it wasn't all the way zipped up.
22:25 I can see where I'm going.
22:32 In a low tree, hanging, with my feet 2-3 feet above the ground.
First, called on my radio to say I was down, and fine.
Hung around for 4-5 minutes.
Eventually, after trying unsuccessfully to climb to create some slack to loosen my carabiner, got my hook knife, and cut my hang loops.
Fell down, bruised my ego even more. Several folks came around and got my glider out of the 3 trees, folded it up and carried it to Harold's truck, which he'd driven down the road. SIGH! Ignominious end to what should have been a great weekend.
Last but not least, thanks to everyone who got my glider out of the tree, packed it up, and carried it uphill and put it on Harold's truck. And thanks to Harold for driving down the jeep road to fetch me. ;)
- published: 02 Sep 2013
- views: 1684