Monday, March 26, 2007
Lookout day 2
My son and I are here at Lookout Mountain Georgia for hanggliding and the trip is off to a pretty good start. We arrived Saturday afternoon and the windsock was showing a straight in wind! after all the paperwork was done, I set up the glider and had my first launch off the new curved concrete ramp. I like it! I didn't find any lift between the launch and landing field but the flight did help reaquaint me with the handling of the falcon and gave me a feel for what I can get away with while heading out to the LZ. I didn't have a ride waiting for me at the bottom so as soon as I was finished breaking down, I began asking people if they were going back up. Doris who manages the parties here was watching me and offered to give me a ride before I even got to her. She could tell by the way I was behaving that I needed a ride. One reason that I wanted to get back to the car (besides the fact that my son was still up there) is that my sister, Marina was flying to Atlanta and then on to Chattanooga and I was to meet her at the airport. I wanted to call our contact to see if everything was going as planned. Well, it turns out that the first flight she was trying to catch was too full and she couldn't get to Atlanta on time to catch the Chattanooga flight! Well, thank goodness she had a friend in Atlanta who was willing to loan a car to her. She was able to catch some sleep in Atlanta then drive to Lookout Sunday morning. That was the way Saturday ended for David and Me. We were in the LZ camping and ready for Sis to arrive.
Sunday morning arrived very early. As soon as the sun began to illuminate the sky, David and I headed for the training hill. We decided to skip breakfast and head straight for the hill. There were already some people there setting up so we just blended in. It was a pretty good turnout. The first instructor I talked to, Lauren, was the instructor for the big hill and told us that we could fly but we should have gotten some paperwork done in the visitor center the day before. They have sheets of paper which they document the student progress and it would have been helpful to have the documentation from the previous year there. David had 6 good flights and landed on his feet every time. He didn't get signed off for mountain flying though because his nose attitude was too high when launching. He improved every flight but the nose angle never looked quite normal as he was running down the hill. His nose angle was different that that of the other students who had good flights. I really respect Lauren's evaluation of David's launch technique. I would have let him fly from a mountain even though there was this little flaw in his nose angle. Lauren said that he should correct this before flying from the mountain. She was absolutely correct. Having the nose angle high on the training hill may not be a big deal but it is on the mountain.
After the training hill, We met Marina back at the flight park. The directions that were given here by the web page Lookout Mountain Flight Park sent her over the top of the mountain and past the other tourist attractions here. I should have paid more attentions to the directions that I asked her to look for. I would have had her go a different way. It is really good to have marina here with us. We ate at the local mexican restaurant early then I had a one hour flight to 7400 feet in the afternoon. Soon after I landed, it was time for David to have his final tandem flight for his eagle hanggliding package. It was still too thermally for him to get a lot of practice but the hope was that the instructor could thermal up and he could get an extended flight. The dinner near the aquarium was excellent also. Marina and I shared a rack of ribs and David had fish. I am glad that she shared with me because there is no way I could have eaten the whole thing by myself. The walk down the river afterwards was nice also. It is amazing what a difference excellent weather and companionship can make.
It is now Monday and surprisingly dark for 7:00 AM. I really do not like the early daylight savings time. I feel like some extra sleep would be really nice but we will probably be leaving soon. It would be great to have another day like yesterday but that would be asking a lot. I will post again.
Sunday morning arrived very early. As soon as the sun began to illuminate the sky, David and I headed for the training hill. We decided to skip breakfast and head straight for the hill. There were already some people there setting up so we just blended in. It was a pretty good turnout. The first instructor I talked to, Lauren, was the instructor for the big hill and told us that we could fly but we should have gotten some paperwork done in the visitor center the day before. They have sheets of paper which they document the student progress and it would have been helpful to have the documentation from the previous year there. David had 6 good flights and landed on his feet every time. He didn't get signed off for mountain flying though because his nose attitude was too high when launching. He improved every flight but the nose angle never looked quite normal as he was running down the hill. His nose angle was different that that of the other students who had good flights. I really respect Lauren's evaluation of David's launch technique. I would have let him fly from a mountain even though there was this little flaw in his nose angle. Lauren said that he should correct this before flying from the mountain. She was absolutely correct. Having the nose angle high on the training hill may not be a big deal but it is on the mountain.
After the training hill, We met Marina back at the flight park. The directions that were given here by the web page Lookout Mountain Flight Park sent her over the top of the mountain and past the other tourist attractions here. I should have paid more attentions to the directions that I asked her to look for. I would have had her go a different way. It is really good to have marina here with us. We ate at the local mexican restaurant early then I had a one hour flight to 7400 feet in the afternoon. Soon after I landed, it was time for David to have his final tandem flight for his eagle hanggliding package. It was still too thermally for him to get a lot of practice but the hope was that the instructor could thermal up and he could get an extended flight. The dinner near the aquarium was excellent also. Marina and I shared a rack of ribs and David had fish. I am glad that she shared with me because there is no way I could have eaten the whole thing by myself. The walk down the river afterwards was nice also. It is amazing what a difference excellent weather and companionship can make.
It is now Monday and surprisingly dark for 7:00 AM. I really do not like the early daylight savings time. I feel like some extra sleep would be really nice but we will probably be leaving soon. It would be great to have another day like yesterday but that would be asking a lot. I will post again.
Labels: Family, hangglide, Lookout Mountain
# posted by Soarman @ 9:00 AM 
