Return of the Falcon League

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Ken Andrews
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Return of the Falcon League

Post by Ken Andrews »

Several years ago, the Falcon League became a somewhat regular thing on alternate Saturdays, and I think it's time to bring it back to life. In case the Falcon League doesn't sound familiar, the idea is to put experienced pilots on introductory gliders, and find some challenging cross-country flying right here at our home site. During the Falcon League's first run, we explored several interesting launches including Mt. Lukens, the 1500, the 2200, and a road turnout or two along the way. Pilots landed back on top of Kagel and the 2200, in Sand Canyon, and in eight different LZs between West Towers and the Big T wash.

A couple common criticisms of Sylmar is that there are few places to land out, and that it's a "fishbowl" where we go around and around between West Towers and Big T or thereabouts. There's an easy solution: fly a Falcon! Cross-country basically begins beyond a glide of the LZ, and one can get there pretty fast on a single surface glider. From the perspective of a single-surface glider, we have a great cross-country site. The mountain range is three times as big as it is on a topless glider, there are plenty of LZs, and they generally have easy retrieves.

While we may be flying introductory hang gliders, venturing cross country always requires advanced skills. We are launching, landing, and scratching low in unusual places, and reliable landings are essential. If you're an H-4 pilot interested in playing this game, or an advanced H-3 with solid launch and landing skills, let's plan to meet in the LZ at noon on Saturday. Depending on the weather, we'll decide then what our goal will be. Some possibilities include:

* Launch Towers, stay local, and land at the base of the dam for the sake of remembering how to land somewhere different on a single surface glider.

* Launch Kagel and fly open distance to the East. Land at Beehives, or the Big T Wash, or wherever we end up.

* Fly a competition task to West Towers, Lances, and back. The instrument skills are identical with those for more serious comps.

* Launch from Mount Lukens and land in the Big T wash.

* Go explore some emergency LZs. It's still better than sitting on the couch at home.

If you have a Falcon, perhaps I can inspire you to dust it off and join in. Gliders other than Falcons are welcome, but the less performance, the better. For those without a single-surface glider, Windsports will often rent one on generous terms. By the way, it helps hugely to have a ham radio. One that works. So you can talk AND listen. With charged batteries. Seriously.

Please let me know if you’re interested, and hopefully we'll have a crowd on Saturday, June 22, at noon in the LZ!
jimshaw
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Re: Return of the Falcon League

Post by jimshaw »

Ken,

Can't think of a better way of coming out after a long flying pause. Your invitation is the impetus! I need locate a BIG falcon though and will probably ask Mr. Joe to rent one. See you Saturday!
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Ken Andrews
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Location: Pasadena

Re: Return of the Falcon League

Post by Ken Andrews »

I thought the Falcon League on June 19 was a success. Erika, Marshall, Jim Shaw, George, and I visited three bail-out LZs on the way to launch: the base of the dam, the field north of the cemetary (near Hungary Joe’s property), and Beehives. The dam looked pretty good, thanks to Joe Grebo’s work there a month ago. The field near the cemetary got negative reviews from our group, being both small and full of rocks. At Beehives, the usual clearing is pretty small at the moment and has one beehive in the middle. The dirt road there is also landable, but it’s lined by sunflowers six feet tall, which are pretty, but not optimal for aviation.

On launch, Jim decided to fly to the main LZ, a good choice for his first flight back in a long time; and both Joe and Jay joined us for cross-country flying. Janyce very generously drove down for us. The lift was weak, so Marshall and George landed at the dam; Erika followed them in after putting up a good fight at Trash. Jay boldly led the way to Lances, but didn’t find anything there and landed at Beehives, a first for him. He landed crosswise to the road in a way I don’t quite understand, and to the detriment of a sunflower, but he landed well. Joe and I timidly followed Jay to Lances, and while we expected to land there, we stumbled into a weak little thermal that we couldn’t turn down. We scratched our way back to Kagel, ventured west to the 1500 (Joe tagged it; I didn’t quite make it), turned back, and landed in the low brush next to the Gavina Street bridge, a new LZ for me.
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Ken Andrews
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Re: Return of the Falcon League

Post by Ken Andrews »

The forum is back, and the Falcon league is back!

While the Falcon League is intended to be an every-other-Saturday sort of thing, it got upstaged by the Fourth of July trip to Hurricane a couple weeks ago, and by the Crestline fly-in last weekend. That means it’s high time to bring it back this coming Saturday, July 20. Let’s figure on meeting in the LZ at noon.

By symmetry from a few weeks ago, it would be logical to visit a few LZs to the west of launch, then drive up to Towers, launch either from there or from the 1500, and land in one of those LZs. My current suggestion is that we visit the LZ below the Red Spot (at the end of Emir Ave., off of Almetz Street), the Olive View Hospital LZ, and a possible new LZ adjacent to the Roxford Street freeway exit that I’ve had my eye on but have never visited.

But the Falcon League isn’t logical, so we could do something different. If enough people have competition-capable varios, we could choose a cross-country task (Trash to the 1500 to Lances, or some such) and run a proper race. If we were lucky enough to get high, we could go over the back and land at the Sand Canyon Denny’s, but the current weather forecast makes that look unlikely. An even bolder objective would be an open-distance flight to the east. Or maybe those options wait for another week; we can make the final decision on the spot.

The current participant list is:
Joe Greblo (maybe)
Marshall Robin
Mario Miralles
Jay Devorak
Erika Klein
me

Non-Falcon guests:
Steve Murillo
Bob Moran
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