A Break from Tradition

For the last decade, Wendy and I have been going to Stinson Beach for Thanksgiving. Prior to my taking up hang-gliding, we'd go to the San Francisco Auto Show, then go to the beach. The last few years, I'd drop Wendy off at Stinson, she'd then ride her bike up the Bolinas / Fairfax road, connect to the ridge road, then over to launch. I'd then fly down, and we'd eat on the beach.

This year we broke from tradition and headed to Windy Hill instead...



Windy Hill is a sweet little flying site located along Skyline Blvd above Portola Valley. I got a late start today and didn't get up to launch until 11am. I trudged the .2 mile hike with my glider up to launch. The muddy trail made the hike a little treacherous with the 72 pound glider on my shoulders, but I finally made it up to launch.

Meanwhile, Wendy was riding her bike from our place in San Mateo into Woodside and Portola Valley, then up Old La Honda Road to Skyline and on to where my truck was parked at the Windy Hill Preserve.



I set up fairly quick in the cold conditions, but knew I should have arrived an hour earlier...I had quite a crowd at launch, but got off with little wait. As soon as I launched, I heard a voice yell "Hi Christopher, have fun!" That was Wendy having just arrived at launch to say hi.

The thermals were fairly broken and I could not make any use of the dwindling ridge lift. I managed to get in a couple turns in a thermal, but got dumped out just as quick as I got in. Making my way down toward the LZ I tried my usual reliable thermal spot, but no luck today. I found a bird that I thought was thermaling, but he was on a beeline to the north...forget it.

I worked my way over to the LZ and was glad I took the time to put up the streamers today...the wind was from the ENE and blowing pretty good...no downwind uphill landing today...I'd have to thread my glider through the oak trees and get it down low on the postage stamp LZ for the usual downhill upwind landing. Swinging out wide over the friendly neighbor to the north, I got the glider below treeline on my base leg, made a low turn on final for a stress free no-stepper landing with a few hundred feet to spare before the treeline along Portola Valley Road.

Within 15 minutes of my landing, Wendy was in the parking lot with the truck and my beer. There were lots of happy people at Windy today and lots of people asking questions about hang-gliding and such. It was fun to share the day with everyone.

Windy has it's challenges...staying up is the first challenge. Landing is always the second challenge, but rewarding when done well.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Flight time: Not worth mentioning
Altitude: Does it really matter?