Prez-Sez

Joe Brauch

Happy Fall!

I guess no news is good news on the flying front, although a few more flyable days this month would always be nice. I met a couple that just got back from Point of the Mountain. (I think that is what it is called) They were reminiscing about top landing, brain-dead launching and soaring, and choosing when to fly and land. The only complaints they had were setting up camp out of the wind and the long drive to Utah. They did have perfect "calm" wind launches from the Pulpit, and from what I could see from launch, flawless landings. I would love to have enough time to do what they were doing. I know they are having fun. I am glad that we were there at "our" site to make it available for visiting pilots. Although they just sledded they still logged another safe flight in another new site.

It is hard to be an east coast pilot. I hear stories from west coast pilots and dream of endless days of soaring perfect ridges in cloudless skies above beautiful valleys. Then, I remember that I am an east coast pilot. What we do here is requires a little more "heart" than those "easy" conditions out west. It takes quite a bit of effort to become an east coast hang glider mountain pilot.

It starts with those training hill flights. It is 90 degrees and the cow pies are about as fragrant as the knee hanger harness. (Which is usually a little too tight around the crotch.) After what seems like endless ground-skimming flights we get that one flight that gently lifts us to maybe 50 feet off the ground and we are hooked. We have heaved a heavier than air contraption of aluminum and Dacron down a steep hill and got the thing to carry us skyward. Following many more flights from the bunny hills we get launch and landing techniques that will carry us confidently up to larger hills. Our time spent here enduring gusty thermally days and playing in light, swithchy winds has boosted our skills to allow us to fly in more varied conditions. Although we bend a few down tubes, we can take that 30 degree cross and make a good flight from the top of the hill to a perfect no step landing directly into the wind.

Then we get our first "high" flight. If we thought we were hooked before the ground dropped away 500 feet below our toes, we would now spend every available day trying to do it again. Now our skills of taking off and landing in those changing conditions have paid off in effortless launches and hour long soaring flights. We soon need to bring water to quench our thirst for more airtime while we are wagging our tongues in the smooth glass off at the end of the day. Next, we learn what a thermal can do to brighten our day. Yes, a few more skills needed to be perfected but in those marginal sled days came experience. Soon enough we were turning every little bit of lift just to see if it was a thermal. Now we got it. East coast mountain pilot skills have held us in the air just long enough for us to think ... this is a perfect ridge and a beautiful valley.

Thanks Orville and Wilbur!

Happy Thanksgiving,
~ Joe