Sylmar Hang Gliding Association

After a few disrupted weeks, Saturday, September 26 is a Falcon League day! For those so inclined and not at Big Sur this weekend, plan to be in the LZ at 11:00 with a single-surface glider. This might be the perfect day to launch Kagel, get high over the 2200, and head over the back to the fabled Sand Canyon Denny's. From there, we go as far as possible along Highway 14 to Avenue S and beyond.

In preparation, it might be worth charging your radio and cell phone, reviewing LZs in that direction, and reviewing airspace restrictions in the Edwards Air Force Base area if you're feeling truly optimistic.

I'm wet with anticipation. Ron Wiener gave me some over-the-back waypoints for LZ's. I'll try to hunt them down while I'm charging my GPS.

jdevorak wrote:I'm wet with anticipation.............

Too much information. I'm planning on flying Walt's on Saturday with Dizzy. Maybe I should bring my Falcon rather than T2?

EDIT - Still too much information for my stomach. Looks like Walt's may be Sunday which means I'll show up at Kagel with my Falcon and a towel or some saltpeter for Jay.

Sorry guys. I'll be at Crestline today.

Falcon League sat 10/10. Last week we had big adventure going over the back. It was limited to Ken and I because the others were lazying it up at the beach. Tomorrow the weather looks a little below par. That would be good if we were golfers. I still have it on my agenda to launch low and land high. Any other suggestions?

jdevorak wrote:Falcon League sat 10/10. Last week we had big adventure going over the back. It was limited to Ken and I because the others were lazying it up at the beach.............

Last league day I went to 15,000' 3 times on my way from Crestline to San Gorgonio and then over Big Bear Lake and landed on Baldwin Dry Lake. I would have liked to have gone to 7,000' on my Falcon with you guys and landed at Sand Canyon too but couldn't be both places at once so I went for the big adventure flight instead. Tomorrow, we have Kraig Coomber and Chris Smith coming out to lead the Litespeed Brigade through aerial maneuvers. I'll just put some Moyes decals on my T2 and try to blend in. Once again my Falconations are being interrupted. Maybe next time.

It's a Falcon League week. I'm hoping that we can launch from Mount Lukens again, for the first time since the Station fire, though there are still some uncertainty about access. If you're interested, be in the LZ at 11:00 with a single surface glider.

I will be there. Maybe we should take some donuts for the Cop blocking the road to Lukens launch.

is this a falcon league weekend? will it even be flyable? will there be paparazzi on launch now that we're nationally known?

Yes this is Falcon League Saturday. Yes there will be paparazzi on launch from the European tabloids (max bring your camera). Potential tasks include: a comp like task, top landing someplace, or exploring LZ's over the back if it's blowing down.

Yes, Saturday is a Falcon League day. I'm slow posting because of indecision about a trip to Crestline instead. The weather looks iffy (both places), but we'll take our chances at 11:00 at Sylmar. There are lots of interesting challenges we could try, depending on weather:

* Launch low, land high. We could launch from the 1500 and top-land either at Kagel or at Trash, for a rare net-altitude-gain flight.

* Fly a competition task. It's easy to choose a challenging cross-country course on a Falcon at Sylmar, e.g.: Kagel, 1500, Lances, Kagel. The LiteSpeed guys might scoff at a seven mile task, but really they're just jealous.

* Scout LZs. If it's unflyable, we might as well explore landing areas east of the Sand Canyon Denny's along the 14 freeway; or west of West Towers, in the Porter Ranch area.

We'll make a decision based on the weather in the LZ at 11:00.

Great turnout and excellent competition today! I don't know whether the magazine article made any difference but today's turnout was the best in a long time. I hope this is the start of an new tend. I don't care how much I fly my T2, a Falcon is an entirely different experience and you can squeeze them in odd places you'd never think of landing a topless.

Today's task was to enter the 1000 meter start cylinder around the 1500 at 1:30 PM then tag the 1500 within 250 meters.
Next waypoint was tag Lances within 250 meters
Last waypoint was Kagel
Bonus points for top landing Kagel.

I flew without a GPS equipped vario and decided to make it more challenging on myself by flying directly over each waypoint. I got to the 1500 at 3100', two minutes after the start opened and hung around until I got to 4,050'. Jay tagged the cylinder around the 1500 and turned back towards Locals. As I was heading back I broadcast to all Falcon pilots that there was good lift at the 1500 and not to be shy about heading there. Ken told me that Jay was ahead of me. I passed Joe and Ken heading West while I was heading for the thermal above Jay and arrived 4-500' over him. I took a few turns then headed for the third bowl of Kagel with Jay hot on my heals.

I made a few errors at Kagel and ultimately Jay, Ken and Me were all within 100' or less going up carousel fashion. Then it was just Jay and me in front of Trash, wing-in-wing. I cut out at 3,650' and headed toward Lances out front while Jay took one or two more turns and followed the ridgeline which saved him a few hundred feet above me. I got stuck at Lances at 2,950' and it took 15 minutes to work back up to 3,250' while Jay was already working his way back to Kagel launch.

I tried to cross the gap from 3,250' from the middle of Lances and got flushed and decided it was safer to land by Hungary Joe's property then chance it low. Unfortunately I have poor 3D spatial perception and did not see that the tall grassy area I chose to set down along the ravine had a 7:1 down slope. As a result I was going to overshoot in spite of doing some porpoise maneuvers and was forced to mush the glider into the grass from 20-25' or go into a ravine. I failed to ball up fully and snapped my left down tube. No other damage to me or the glider.

Phill called me on the radio to move my glider so those who were not on radio would know I was o.k. It took me a few minutes longer than it should have. My apologies for that! This is now the third time I've landed downhill in a bailout area. Not good! One of these was on my T2 at the Plateau and I had to aim for a tall Manzinita bush to avoid a trip into the ravine with the high-tension wires and towers. I plan to sepnd as much time as I can at Marshall Peak working on my uphill/downwind landings until it becomes second nature to me. I'll try to get as much as I can on video.

Anyhow, Jay chose not to attempt a top landing at Kagel because he was alone. During our briefing I suggested that no one without prior experience attempt it unless there was someone else with them. Greblo finally got back from Lances and did 3 top landings on Kagel. While I was breaking down in the meadow, me and two nice locals, Travis and Oscar watched Ken struggle at the West end of Lances for a long time. While I was at East Lances earlier I had cautioned Ken that the lift was marginal. So he was aware of the situation.

Finally, Ken set up a textbook approach to the correct parcel of land and made a clean downwind landing. Later, Lisa came by to pick us up. Julianne was there was about 8 or 9 other local residents to greet the expedition team carrying the errant Falcon across the ravine. We may have recruited a prospective student during our brief gab session before we loaded up and returned to the LZ.

Eric reported throwing in the towel when he was unable to get back up when returning from the 1500 and Max landed at the hospital. I'm not sure who left out? Feel free to chime in. Anyhow, it was a blast and next time I'll bring my comp vario so I can keep up with everyone else. It's also excellent practice for flying comps on my T2 as well. I hope we get decent weather in two weeks time and another enthusiastic turnout.

The Falcon League will brave the skies again this Saturday. Weather Underground just updated their forecast from definite north winds to maybe-kinda-sorta north winds, so I'll take that as a positive sign. Like usual, we'll take our chances at 11:00 at Sylmar. Repeating the options from two weeks ago, we could:

* Launch low, land high. We could launch from the 1500 and top-land either at Kagel or at Trash, for a rare net-altitude-gain flight.

* Fly a competition task. It's easy to choose a challenging cross-country course on a Falcon at Sylmar, e.g.: Kagel, 1500, Lances, Kagel. I've landed out twice now in the attempt, but I refuse to believe one has to be named Greblo or Devorak to complete this course.

* Scout LZs. If it's unflyable, we might as well explore landing areas east of the Sand Canyon Denny's along the 14 freeway; or west of West Towers, in the Porter Ranch area.

My weather forcaster is showing SW at 9kph and the NW holding off until Sunday. Should this be overly optomistic, Ron Wiener gave me GPS cooridnates of 3 LZ's over the back. Speaking of GPS's, did you know that they wouldn't work unless you take Relativity into account? And, it is true at Falcon speed as well as Light Speed.

i'm in.

What did I miss today? I could see gliders launching on the Kagel Kam while I was home under the weather.

We had four participants launching the 1500. It was a light wind launch. Greblo went first taking two steps and hoping into the air, but don't tell his students. Eric brown went next with a good launch. I was third with what Ken termed an "agressive launch". I ran a long way down the hill and through the skeleton of a burnt bush sticking out like bayonets. The three of us went out to the point and climbed up right away. There seemed to be a convergence line going over the 1500. East it it went back behind the mountain. West it went out front. Ken launched a while later and had to work hard to get up. I hung back to watch and continued climbing to 5200 feet. Greblo was gone. He borrowed Andy Beem's mylar Falcon 3 just to seek revenge for me beating him last time. I tried to follow the back line staying in the clear air. I hunted around behind Kagel not finding any more lift. I saw some gliders that seemed to be high over trash so I thought maybe. It was cold so I headed into the haze. Ken got to Stupid's low and was still working hard to get back into the game. I found nothing at Trash and went on to Lance's arriving about 4000'. That is the altitude marker I use for going east on a Lightspeed. I turned back. I found Eric low at Trash. Ken finally managed to get up at Local's and came over us high(er). He waited around a little bit while I tried to punch back through the inversion layer at 3800 feet. Ken gave up on me and at 4400 he left for Lance's. Eric sank out and I tried for another half hour before giving up. Ken made the jump at 4000 and boated across with a west wind push. He saw Greblo had landed at to Dino's plateau. Ken landed at BigT wash, winning the day.

jdevorak wrote:............Ken landed at BigT wash, winning the day.

Yay, Ken! Thanks for the report, Jay. I missed a challenging and rewarding Falcon day.

Are we falconeering on Saturday? I may or may not be able to make it, but figured I'd check.

We sure are! We'll meet in the LZ at 11:00, fly to our hearts' content since the forecast for Sunday doesn't look so hot (or so dry), and land in time to make it to the Christmas party in the evening. I don't know what the objective should be; perhaps we can try the competition task from Kagel to the 1500 and Lances and back to Kagel, since I have yet to complete it without landing out.