Sunday I had the pleasure of flying Waddell for the first time...
Conditions were looking not so bad from what we could see on the water, but the birds were telling us a different story at times...sure they were soaring here and there, but there was something about how they'd fall out of the sky at times that made me wonder...we gave the day a little more time while our gliders stood at the ready waiting for our next command.
Meanwhile a nice Cessna taildragger greased in a superb landing and we talked with the pilot for a while...I love taildraggers. The kite boarders were having their fun, as well, bobbing along the water.
***
Ryan was finally the first pilot to launch and the lift seemed abundant but not very widespread...Ben was soon to follow and things weren't looking too bad, although the two weren't getting very high.
I decided to walk my glider out to launch and give it a go...the winds had picked up quite a bit and my comfort level was being pushed...
Ryan and Ben then landed...huh?
Both said the air was pretty trashy but thought it might get better...I guess the key word here is "might"...I positioned myself back at launch, but was having a tough time getting a good feel that things were right with regard to wings level and all that...finally I pushed forward and popped up into the lift...
Everything seemed nice and smooth as I made a few passes along the bluff...there was a significant northerly component to the wind, but we were getting about 250 to 300 above the beach...not bad...at about the 3 minute mark of my flight, I headed north a little ways to see how much lift there might in that direction...
I was pushing the bar out delighted in the sound of my vario going beep, beep, beep...ahhhhh, lift! Soon others will be following me up to the next ridge! Brian, Joe, John, Ben, and Ryan will all be running for their gliders and following ME!
It was at that time where the wind, and my glider, had a different plan...
Almost immediately, I was nose down in a right hand turn straight to the beach...
This is Waddell!...sublime...easy to fly...a little fickle at times, but come on!
Not this time...
I pulled in the bar and dove the glider straight to the ground...that's all you can do in these situations...according to my vario, I went from 0 to 64 mph in a matter of seconds. My right turn lock out was corrected to the left and I kept the speed up all the way to the beach for a nice moon-walk landing. The laminar air on the beach was a nice reprieve. The girl with the Grateful Dead / Burning Man dancing moves turned momentarily to look, then continued on her writhing dance routine...I actually noticed that as I was whizzing by her...a few seconds earlier I was 275 feet above her...now I was right beside her...she continued dancing and I hiked my glider to the lee-side of a dune along Hwy 1.
John then launched and seemed to be having a decent flight...I thought I had launched too soon and turned my back for a few minutes...when I turned around again, he was gone...had he top landed? I looked over the dune and there he was, parked next to the dancing girl busting the same Grateful Dead / Burning Man moves. John had a similar experience with the air in about the same location as I did 15 minutes prior.
So, what happened? I think there was a significant mixing of air that day at about the 250 to 300 elevations. Throughout the Bay Area, there was a strong northeasterly component I feel was possibly rolling through the canyon just north of launch, or at least affecting upper layer winds. There's a sizeable tree-lined ridge that could have had winds blowing over or something like that...hard to tell. There were onshore winds that had a northerly component to them, as well...I don't know...I've flown in rotor before, and that is what I flew in on Sunday. I had positioned myself in a nasty mixing layer of air, but will go back to Waddell because that is what we do.
I'm going to chalk this flight up to one of the top 3 "Oh Shit!" moments in my flying career...the flight wasn't necessarily scary or make me question the sport of hang-gliding...on the contrary. My flight at Waddell made me appreciate hang-gliding all the more and want more...more Waddell...more everything...more flying with great buddies who know what it's like to test our skills once in a while...at the end of the day, we perched ourselves along the cliff edge and watched the sun set. The kite boarders were still bobbing along the water, and the Grateful Dead / Burning Man dancing girl had long since gone.
Ahhh...Waddell...I'll be back, you little...
Flight time: 3 minutes, 34 seconds