Downwind Day:

After a couple of miscues due to weather, we finally got a chance to host our "Downwind Days" FlyIn. It featured the return of John "the bomb" and the introduction if the "Shag Wagon". It was well attended, even though the weather looked like it might not be soarable. We had a great time hosting this event and plan to have many more in the future. While our immediate plans are to keep these events informal (easier for us to manage), we are certainly not opposed to having them include some XC and soaring training similar to what Quest is hosting this week. More on that later.

The forecast Friday evening looked quite nice for Saturday. However, by 10 am cloudbase was at 1500' and the south winds were about 10-15 mph. Things didn't look too promising at that point. The turnout was great with a Dallas contingent of John and Kelly Russell, Hugh Ross, Pete Hammer, Kent Robinson, Martin Mitter, Greg Chastain, Kelly Scroggins and Pete Wood. Richard Bodine from Nacogdoches, Mick Peters and RR from the Dripping Springs-Wimberly area, Kenneth Cobb from Plantersville, Ramesh Sivaraman, his buddy Bob, Jack Yount from Houston, and April from Florida all came out for some flying fun. We also had Steve Mendoza from Austin, along with April's friends/coworkers Marie Reeves, and Sheri Soltes out for discovery tandems, and Joshua Marks was back for instruction after last weekend's discovery flight. Things went rather slowly during the late morning and early afternoon as the sky continued to look discouraging. Kent Robinson was the first to take a tow around 11:30 am to test fly Don Kreger's newly purchased Eagle. Cloudbase at that time was 1500-2000', and Kent reported some buoyant air, but definitely not "lift". Burnzie finished up the new retrieval trailer and with a bit of an artistic flare, matching it to our van with a white body and blue wheel covers, created the newly named "Shag Wagon" combo. It looked like one of those days we would be eating early. Finally though, the cloudcover burned off, and things began to turn on. With both D-flys in action things went quickly. A few pilots began staying up, then a couple started getting higher climbs, then there were actual gaggles drifting north of the airport!! It is truly remarkable that so many were able to get away from the airport and the one's who didn't could stay up for so long in such weak conditions. It really says a lot about how everyone's flying is improving. I'll let the following pilots tell how things went.

Kent Robinson wrote: I took a couple tows early on...after the clouds had cleared..all of a sudden it turned and everyone was up. I flew with Pete, Greg, and Martin up to Bremond in a new Eagle. It was loads of fun to be gliding with the Litespeeds in a glider that's half the $. It was slow going as we never got much above the 3,000 mark and the lift was anywhere from 50 fpm up to 300 fpm at best. I remember one thermal where Pete and I circled for 15-20 minutes at 1500' over a chicken farm..before we started going up. Loads of fun!

Just before things turned on, Kent worked with Jack Yount on platform towing. Jack was able to platform launch his Sport successfully, adding another form of launch to his flying experience.

The "charming" Mick Peters wrote: Well, Saturday sure was fun. Once the weather started to cooperate, I was second up, just behind Kent. It was a pleasure to get a tow from John the Bomb again - been a while. Actually the tow was a little uncomfortable, as I guess either John flies slightly slower than Steve typically, or maybe it's the Dfly - in any case I spent a lot of time rather low, which I easily remedied later by moving my keel tow point back an inch. I've said this before, but I'll say it again...in my relatively short career I've flown behind perhaps 14 tug pilots, and I'll take a tow from John OR Steve ahead of any of the rest of 'em, and I don't think this is just familiarity. Some of the "name" tug pilots seem more interested in getting the tow over quickly, but both John and Steve give what I would call "generous" tows. They're totally focussed on the safety of the pilot and on getting you to good air. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, well, that first flight indicated that there was lift around but it was quite light and broken. I managed to stay up about 20 minutes over the S end, but ended up landing (fortunately AFTER Kent, so I didn't feel too bad). I had a feeling the day would only improve, so waited a little while before launching again. By this time the more skilled among us were thermalling up to cloudbase right over the field and shortly set off on their XC odyssey. S, after another fine tow I worked the N end this time, up to about 2500'. I drifted north while circling and was right at the "go" decision, point to head downwind, when I lost the thermal and my resolve went with it! I spent a few hundred feet looking for it again and then headed upwind back to mother. This flight was about half an hour. I quickly got in line for another tow and again Steve found a thermal for me. This one I drifted with the length of the field on the west side, in parallel with another pilot who launched after me (not sure who it was). Anyway, I was gratified to see myself climb above them, but was still only at 1800' as I started to drift past the NW corner. I lost this one too, although I'd spent a good while in this thermal and felt pleased with how I'd stayed with it so long. So, for me it was three flights in all "out and returns" ;-) for about 80 minutes of airtime and lots of fun. On the last flight in particular I felt very comfortable and "dialed in" to the thermal I was in - very gratifying. So, I didn't mind not going XC! We then had a wonderful evening with fine folks and some wonderful food.
And as for Gaye! Well, what can I say!? Was she there? I don't remember.

Your charming British humor will get you nowhere Mick! After reading about your first tow on Sat., I was wondering if the pilot might have had anything to do with it? Just a thought :-)

Martin Mitter wrote: The Downwind FlyIn at Hearne turned out great. I was so discouraged by the conditions earlier that morning that I even thought about not flying at all and going home to windsurf instead. I was glad I decided to stay and fly. It was one of the most pleasant flights I had this year. Here are some specifics of my flight - I was one of the last pilots launching and tried to catch up with a group of pilots consisting of Greg, Pete, Kent and Richard. I released from the tow near a thermal in which these guys were flying but I could not quite get to them. For a while it looked like I was going to sink out till I finally found a thermal in the northeast corner of the airport. I was soon joined by Kent, while the other pilots already went on course. The thermal was weak but fairly smooth and I got to about 1500' when I started to drift past the airport. Normally I would not even think about going XC in a situation like that, but since it was "an official XC day" I decided to go for it. The thermal eventually took me to about 2700' when I decided it was not worth the effort any more and decided to chase the other guys circling above Calvert. I managed to get to their thermal and climb up to their level. Greg left the thermal first and Pete, Kent and I followed, while Richard landed near Calvert, ending his first XC flight. Our group split for a while near the power plant. Greg found a thermal above a chicken farm west of Hwy 6 and was soon joined by Kent and Pete while I decided to fly over the power plant towards Bremond. Greg managed to get high and disappeared from our sight. Pete and Kent worked the chicken farm thermal, not gaining much, and I struggled for about 10-15 minutes at about 1400' , not gaining anything, till Kent finally came over and showed me where the better part of the thermal was. The most amazing thing about Kent was that he was flying Don Kreger's new Eagle and did not have any difficulty to keep up with Pete and I. I stuck with the thermal till it stopped working around 2700'. Pete and Kent had left earlier, did not find lift and landed near Bremond. I knew I was not going much further, because it was already getting late (5:30) but I just had to fly further than Kent on his Eagle. I flew just a few miles further, found some weak lift but could not get up any more. The biggest surprise came when I was on my landing approach and realized that my shorts got stuck in the harness zipper. Although I managed to land safely, I could not get out of the harness. I had to undo the Velcro of my zipper and finally pulled myself out leaving the shorts with my built in underwear stuck in the zipper. Not wanting to get arrested for indecent exposure I wrapped my speed sleeves around the waist looking a bit like Mel Gibson in Braveheart. I managed to free the shorts after tearing a hole in the fabric. That was quite upsetting, since those shorts were brand new. At least I did not end up with stitches like Gerolf Heinrichs. This may be more specific than you asked, but I thought it was funny. The retrieval wagon showed up shortly thanks to Kelly Russell and then I was on the way back to the airport with the rest of the gang, drinking beer and sharing the impressions of the flight.

This is what I learned from the flight:

1. You never know what the conditions are like if you are standing on the ground and not flying. Always attempt to go XC unless you can not do it for personal reasons (trying to get home early etc.).

2. Flying XC with other pilots is so much easier! Instead of flying alone and carelessly looking for lift I was just flying toward thermals marked by other pilots. It also helped to climb better in thermals, since I could measure my climb against other gliders and locate better areas of lift.

3. Learn to thermal in both directions. When I was forced to thermal left, which is not my preferred direction, I was easily out climbed by Pete and Kent, which was not the case when turning right. I never realized how big a difference in performance it makes.

4. Even an intermediate glider can keep up with a high performance glider on a slow day when going downwind. I am not trying to downplay Kent's flying skills. Kent is one of the best pilots I know and he would have left me in the dust had he flown his Talon. But this should be an encouragement to aspiring XC pilots to hook up with the more experienced guys on their first XC attempt. If you make arrangements with a seasoned XC guy and follow him around then going XC is easy.

I think that organizing this event was a great idea. As far as I can tell, everything went really smoothly. I was one of the last pilots ready to fly and was at the end of the line, but with the 2 tugs going I was in the air in no time. I hope AAS will do such a FlyIn more often to encourage people to fly XC.

We do plan more events like this in the future. But more importantly, where exactly was the zipper tear on your new shorts? :-) The Shag Wagon was a success and many thanks go out to Kelly Russell who volunteered to go out and "shag" those pilots who were able to get away from the airport. Richard Bodine achieved his first XC flight, heading out with the gang and landing near Calvert. John Russell had a nice flight and was kind enough to help out on the launch line afterwards. Kelly Russell was with the group that headed out, just north of the airport, when she decided she didn't have enough altitude to make it worth it (again, I'm selfishly glad she came back because she gathered up the XC crew quite easily, making for a timely retrieval). Kenneth Cobb took several tows and had flights similar to Mick Peters. Ramesh had a couple of enjoyable flights, soaring for about 20 minutes on his first flight. John the bomb and RR took turns flying the Falcon 195, just for grins. Hugh Ross had a flight via platform tow...thanks to John Russell. Jack Yount finished up his solos for his AT sign-off and April enjoyed another sunset flight. Kelly Scroggins observed all the activities while helping out on the launch line. I believe he said that aero towing was "cheating"..."where's the skill?" he asked, since foot and platform launch require searching for lift after launching. He was amazed at how a pilot can be dropped off in the same lift that other pilots were already working successfully.

The event ended with dinner under the covered hangers. The buffet included grilled, marinated salmon with garlic, red onions and feta cheese, grilled, marinated chicken breasts and thighs, coleslaw, potato salad, beans, dinner rolls and delicious sugar cookies baked by Kelly Russell. It was so good it was worth going into detail about.

More Tandems and New Students with Gregg Ludwig

Gregg Ludwig pulls off 8 tandems in 3 hours! We had several discovery flights scheduled for the afternoon as well as some instructional flights. Gregg introduced Steve Mendoza, Marie Reeves, and Sheri Soltes to the wonderful world of hang gliding. They each thoroughly enjoyed their flights! Pete Wood, from Weatherford, came out for some reorientation tandems since he hadn't flown in over a year and will be back out for a few more. That's the safest way to get back into the air after a long hiatus. Joshua Marks began his instruction with Gregg and after some basic ground school was able to complete 3 tandems. Gregg is great to work with, very laid back, but clear with communication and focused on instruction. We are excited about continuing to work with Gregg.

Speaking of which, we are excited about working with several new tandem pilots and future tug pilots. There are several new possibilities that may spell good news for Texas flying. As most of you know, Gregg wants to set up a boat-tow operation on Lake Conroe that would include instructional tandems. Pete Hammer, also a tandem instructor, is working with a trike owner who has an interest in aero towing hang gliders. Kent Robinson is doing more tandems and may soon be flying trikes. We are working with a bunch of new trike pilots that are just about to obtain their BFI's. Kenneth Cobb wants to become a trike tug pilot. When you combine these new possibilities with the efforts of Chris Zimmerman and Michael Williams, the end result is that Texas pilots may soon have many options for aero tow flight and instruction. YEEHAWW!! Maybe we can plan a "Downwind Day Flyin" that could include 50 pilots. We're not planning any comps for next year so who knows --- stay tuned for some ideas!!