https://vimeo.com/115502394

From Colorado Fly Week - 2014.

I was accepted into a medical study sponsored by NASA and the University of Texas to perform tasks while training for sub-orbital space flight. Leaving tomorrow for the National Aerospace Training And Reseach Center (NASTAR) and will perform two days worth of flight related tasks while in the space capsule centrifuge. Each participant is assigned a flight instructor and physician. I'm told don't eat anything I don't want to throw-up. Thanks Brandon for the contact info and this chance of a lifetime.
http://www.nastarcenter.com/research/studies/human-factors-and-man-machine-interaction

Spring 2013

The flying season got off to a slooooow start. In 2011 and 2012 we were flying Villa Grove (San Luis Valley) by mid-March. 2013 has been pretty rough. We had a lot of cold weather and snow well into May. I only managed two flights total by the middle of May. Weird. Memorial Day weekend changed all that. I managed two back-to-back flying days during fantastic Villa Grove glass-off conditions (strong wind with lots of sun) that made for perfect late day flights. It was blowing in at 40mph plus while setting up on Friday evening May 24th but Villa ramps down fast near sunset. Got the smoothest air I've ever had on both Friday 5/24 and Saturday 5/25 after high wind days.

Awesome flying Memorial Day Weekend 2013

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

Dreaming Awake

David Aldrich is producing a movie about hang gliding. Here's the URL for the teaser. http://vimeo.com/20775072

Flying Whale at Villa Grove

We've had spectacular flights all though July at Villa Grove. I finally got my first ride at Whale, an east facing launch at 12,200 ft agl. Larry and I both launched in the morning as this was his last flight prior to his neck surgery. The road up is rough to say the least but the scenery is spectacular.

First Flight in my New CG-1000

Nice harness. I laid in it at Mark Windsheimer's Airtime Above Hang Gliding sail loft and found it to be really comfortable. My first flight, I launched off Villa, zipped up and climbed up through smooth lift to 12,400ft agl. The harness was comfortable and the back plate slider mechanism was very smooth and easy to use. All is good. I turned NW to head toward Whale Mtn and felt some cold air making it's way into my legs at the top of the harness boot. I pulled the zipper cord again and the zipper slider split into two pieces and opened up completely. I climbed above and away from the Sangre De Cristos, let go of the glider and started fumbling with the zipper to see if I could fix it, but after several minutes it was clear the boot zipper experienced a total failure and the harness would remain open with no support for my legs for the rest of my flight. I turnd back toward Villa Grove and decided to prepare to land.

After landing it was clear the zipper slider broke in two at the junction of the upper and lower pieces. Mark examined the broken slider and will replace it and make a small modification to pull cord that will make the whole mechanism smoother. These changes will be incorporated into new CG-1000 harness as they are developed.

The failed zipper slider was frustrating, but much like a broken zipper on a winter jacket, was easily replaced and not indicative of the harness itself. The workmanship, attention to detail, fit and finish of the CG-1000 is top notch and I highly recommend this harness to any recreational XC pilot wanting a single dangle harness.

Catching Up

This year has been great at Villa. There have been a few times I've driven up to launch and didn't fly. But everytime I ran off that rock this year I've soared. It's been a great spring and early summer and Villa has delivered BIG!

Did a short XC almost to Crestone but couldn't get around the corner at MT Gibson to the Crestone Bowl. After flying back several miles it was clear I wasn't going to make it back to Villa and comitted to landing out. I came out over the San Luis Valley to what looked like a road from above but turned out to be two tire tracks through the desert. Landing conditions were good and I landed and parked my glider on a nice flat spot near the "road." The sun had set and I couldn't raise anyone on the radio and started to prepare a camp site under my glider when Grant F. saved the day. He responded to my radio transmissions and relayed my landing position to Larry at Villa who came and saved me from a long night in the desert. Sweeeeet!!

Villa Opener March 18 2011

First flights of 2011 at Villa - Matt, Dean and myself. The road was mostly dry with a short section of snow near the top. Launch was dry. Perfect! Especially for March. Conditions were good although it got pretty strong after we were up. Wind velocity picked up and large areas of moderate lift made for a fun but sometimes "exciting" day. Two F-16 fighters flew by us. Don't know who was more surprised, us or them. Dean took some video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niJA5MXN7bc

My Time Is My Own - NOT

After 30 years with NOAA I finally left and moved to So Central Colorado. Larry Smith (Villa Grove - http://www.rmhpa.org/site_guide/villa.htm) is keeping me busy. We gotta get his rigid back together so he can get back into flying... and get ME back into flying ;-)

Benching Up at Williams

Catching up on video editing. Here's one from Williams last summer.
http://vimeo.com/13140207

Still hungry for more

Got some nice rides this summer but not enough. Lookout, Williams, Steamboat, Willow and Crawfords all delivered on the occasions that I was there. Villa, not so. And I spent a lot of time at Villa. Hopefully October will be big. ;-)

Williams June 2010

Nice day at Williams - Little over 2 hours between 11,000ft - 14,200ft. Matt, Steve, Rick, and Alex on his new T2. Matt got to over 17,000ft. I think he's one of the best mountain hang glider pilots around. Short Video