Free The Animal

Those who were around last January and took a look will recall Bitch Charm. And now I’ll introduce you to Bitch Charm II. That’s our 3-yr-old Rat Terrier, Nanuka (”Nuke”). The other dog is Spot, a sheep herding breed and a very nice dog. If you saw my flying video from the other day, he’s featured in my landing. He does this to all the pilots. At about 300-500 ft AGL (’above ground level’) he gets “missile lock,” as Page, the human Spot owns, describes it. It’s very interesting to watch. Rather than simply chasing underneath the glider in the air, he maintains an angle (that’s an “intercept vector”), always turning inside the glider on it’s DBF (’downwind, base, & final’) and always ends up right underneath at landing. Every pilot I’ve seen welcomes it just fine. Anyway, Nuke likes Spot just fine too. Down, and literally dirty. See for yourself.

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Here’s some video footage I mashed together in about 5 minutes in iMovie. So simple and easy. The nice gentleman giving me a hand with pre-launch checks and standby — just in case — is Page, a local who gave me an intro to the site prior to my first flight here 12 years ago, and who has been an annual flying buddy ever since. I’ve probably had 50 flights here, and never have I failed to be able to fly on any day I came to launch, and never have I failed to have an extended flight with altitude gains of hundreds — usually thousands — of feet over launch. This flight was 30 minutes, and was my first flight in two years. On the landing, the hand position was perfect, and the flair timing a tad early. Being early is OK, and far, far preferable to being late, where you don’t have sufficient energy (airspeed) to execute a full flair and you just mush for a good pound-in. My mistake was in not holding the flair, which is always rule #1, but goes counter to evolutionary “instinct.” It’s tough to do something your senses were not designed to…

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One of the things that’s been on my mind lately is getting back into hang-gliding in earnest. For the last few years it’s basically been a single outing during our annual family camping trip to Hat Creek Rim. That’s real easy flying, compared with the highly physical activity. It was getting increasingly difficult to do and enjoy, but I have twice the strength now. Here’s a few items that serve to wet the appetite. One guy with one Indy film under his belt is trying to do a full length film. The in-air footage is fantastic. Here’s the direct link to watch in Quicktime. He’s looking for help in promoting, so if you like it, he’d like a comment on the YouTube version which is a bit longer with less than stellar actors and dialog. Here’s a real artsy short someone put together. Nice. Speaking of Hat Creek, here’s how it looks basically from our view. Notice how low the sun is in the sky. We typicaly launch after 6:30 p.m., when the air is glass and going up everywhere. Second thing: notice on the landing, the severe wind gradient from about 25 ft to ground effect. Nasty. It’s almost…

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A nice video for promoting the sport of hang gliding. Al Roker flies tandem with Malcom Jones at the Wallaby Ranch in Orlando, FL. I flew tandem with Malcom a few times back a few years ago in order to get signed off on aerotow. We don’t do a lot of that out here in the west, but it’s sure a nice and easy way to get into the air. And Malcom’s claim of 30,000 tandem flights without incident is no exaggeration. If anything, it’s an understatement. They fly all year round at Wallaby, seven days a week, and he’s been doing upward of a dozen or more instructional flights a day for as long as I’ve been in the sport, which is about 10 years. If you’re interested, this is a great way to give it a try. There are a number of aerotow parks around the country now.

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Via Ted, who emailed me a bunch of interesting stuff relating to integrating my video toy and flying hang-gliders comes this short and funny clip worth tossing up here for your weekend enjoyment. When birds attack. …And Dust Devils. After the views out across the flats, the site is the top of Chelan Butte in Washington. I’ve flown there lots of times, and I’ve seen these dusties lots of times.

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