Flying Crested Butte

Skip Hewitt met up with Mike Chevalier and myself at the Crested Butte LZ on Saturday, September 29th. Loaded up, drove up, set up. I punched off first into what was pretty strong air especially for late day conditions - ridge lift with embedded thermals. Boomed up right away above the peak where the air was a little smoother. Mike took off about 20 minutes later. Unfortunately Skip couldn't get off with his Falcon in the strong condtions, particularly in that it was blowing across launch from the north. When cycles came straight in they were very strong. I had a nice flight landing near town at about sunset but felt bad that Skip couldn't punch off.
Flying Crested Butte is always special and the fall colors made it even more so.

Villa Grove Glass Off

Villa turned on at 2:30pm Saturday September 22nd and gave us soarable cycles until dark. Ten pilots flew starting with Skip and Nickie who launched first. Both got high and it was great seeing them get good flights. Yellow Dog launched and got up. Mike Chevalier launched next and plummeted to the LZ giving the rest of us pause. Soon after it turned on again and the rest of us launched catching the tail end of booming thermals that turned into a spectacular glass off. Not to surrender Mike came back up for a relight and was rewarded with a nice smooth flight. It was going up everywhere and climbs to 14,500ft were easy. After 1:40 I was cold enough and spiralled down to land. A great day after a long spell bad luck.

Summer Flying

The monsoons started a little early and continue now into August. Whale mountain is flyable every morning and there's been a few XC flights there so far. Villa however has been sporatic with good days and also days where the wind has been over the back or wet. Its an off year compared to last year but the fall is coming - typically our best months for flying in the Colorado mountains.

Steamboat Springs has been "on" and Roberto Frias has been showing everyone the XC potential that can be had. Thanks to him and others we had a nice time this past weekend.

Colorado Fly Week - 2012 (June 30th - July 7th) held in Villa Grove, Colorado was a huge success due to the months of planning and preparing by Tiffanie and Larry. It was flyable every day accomodating 134 pilots who flew during the event. Some pilots flew XC (Scott Huber flew to Taos, NM) while others stayed close to launch. Tiffanie's organization skills garnered up food vendors, cash bar and nightly entertainment. Hang glider and paraglider pilots from all over the country made it the largest in the country this year. http://ozreport.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=28949

Hang Gliding Video of Flying Villa Grove

Villa has been on for most of the spring and I managed to capture some wonderfull flights with my Contour HD video camera. The GoPro is the most popular camera among hang glider pilots. I chose the Contour HD as I opted for reduced "fish eye" curvature around the perimeter of the video frame. The video link below shows four and half minutes of several hours of smooth flying at Villa Grove. https://vimeo.com/43355161

May 5th = Mike Chevalier and I launched late and circled up in smooth lift only to be pounded by a virga curtain moving from Bonanza east of Villa Grove towards the west on the Sangre De Cristos. The clouds droping out had us pinned up against the Sangre De Cristos. At 12,000 we took our licks and penetrated west into the rain/virga shafts. Mike and I were thankful in that Larry and Greg were in the LZ calling out the landing conditions while we were setting up our approach to land. It was a fun day watching the weather from launch and then getting nice flights.

Once again spring has come on big at Villa. Several great flights there since the end of March. Rick Maddy and I flew April 17th and had a great flight up near cloudbase. The air was a little rough down low but smoother as I climbed up to 15,000ft. I still haven't edited my video(s) from this year yet. Here's a photo from a flight last fall.

Greg and I helped Larry rebuild the hang gliding launch and are openning a second and third launch in preparation for Colorado Fly Week, June 30th through July 7th (page 21 of the May issue of Hang Gliding and Paragliding Magazine).

TTT Team Challenge

A little out of order but so what. My longest road trip last fall was to participate in the TTT Team Challenge with Rick Maddy and JJ. We camped up near the club house and pavilion. It was a great trip and Hensons Gap is a GREAT place to fly. TTT is probably the most organized well run hang gliding club in the country. Breakfast and dinner provided. Flying by day with various presentations at night by well known XC pilots. We flew in teams, each guiding the other to their respective goals (different for each pilot). I made my 20 mile out and return plus several other flights during the course of the week.

The country side at Hensons gap is beautiful and full of landing areas. Here's a link to a short video. http://vimeo.com/34757492