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Friday  & Saturday, 27th / 28th - yes, again, even MORE Hang Gliding - the weather was even less than 'great' and - well - I should have telephoned before driving out there...    I had two flights on Friday, 3 on Saturday - none were stellar in terms of air-time, - but I did get one 'save' at 276 feet of altitude and took this one to about 600 feet - pretty good.   I also got a couple of 30 minute flights -

    ----    I'm learning more about how to CLIMB - which is a fairly major achievement in my life, and/or for ANY hang-gliding-pilot.  This is a key skill - and I'm developing it very well!       Having a great tug-pilot helps, though!...    This link to Flightlog.Org gets you most of the information if you click-around.   And/or if you click on this link - it will take you to Mr._Bill's Gallery web-page(s) on the Apple server for a short (2 - 3 minutes) videos of  these two days worth of flights - nothing stellar, though... 

Sunday, 22nd - even MORE Hang Gliding - the weather wasn't 'great' - the LIFT was good but the rains came VERY EARLY

3 flights - none as 'spectacular' as the one a week ago, today, but - well - live and learn and I am ALWAYS learning!
Friday, 20th - MORE Hang-Gliding (yeah - I know - some people get tired of this!)... - so - only a few lines (I promise):
Cloud Base is the Place!!!!

Thursday, afternoon, 19th - note, here, that I FINALLY found ONE GeoCache!!! - ( waypoint ID: GCJOZX ) - but - though this is a 'small success' it is a success nevertheless.  Maybe I'll learn more about "GeoCaching" and find some more, now!...
Monday-16th & Wednesday-18th  at 04:10 a.m. - Free  Morning Concert:

- Mr. & Ms. Froggie were RIGHT outside the bedroom window this morning and treated me to a  free frog-song-concert (to awaken me)...
After 20 minutes of this I realized they probably would not quit their concertina, and the noise was deafening.    So Ms. Siew Mei and I got up at about 04:30 a.m..     Needless to say Ms._Siew_Mei encouraged me, later, to take a NAP, and helped, even.

Sunday, the 15th of June...

Bill with his glider

well - (WELL) - it were a VERY VERY GOOD day Hang-Gliding (I looked at the weather web-sites this morning and decided that kite-boarding would be BORING, so I left the house at 07:20 a.m. to go Hang Gliding...)

- I KNOW that I tend to 'bore' people sometimes with my continued 'obsession' - and I promise - after this - I won't bore you 'as much'.
- Today I had four flights at "The Florida Ridge".    Flights 1 through 3 were not 'anything to write home about', but were good at 'getting me "into'' the 'groove' and at working-out some kinks in some new gear.    One HAS to do these short and sweet flight(s) some times...

HOWEVER, flight 4 was the real deal - I will only 'tempt' you with some fairly basic statistics, here (since I've been abused about the number of statistics in my web-site)...

the 'link' to the 'statistics' (well some of them):       http://www.flightlog.org/fl.html?l=1&a=34&user_id=3737&trip_id=169836
the 'link' to the graphs / graphics:                           http://www.flightlog.org/fl.html?l=1&a=34&ana=2&trip_id=169836

you can see all flights at the Flightlog.org site, here:   http://flightlog.org/fl.html?l=1&a=28&user_id=3737&user=Bill+Schell


I must pass-along that my 'success' here had to do with a LOT MORE than just ME... I 'owe thanks' (and am thankful to):
A  very short (mostly on the ground (getting 'tips' from Mr. Kerry the  tug pilot)) video is available here from  our "Gallery" web-site...

for the 'Track-Log' file overlain on top of a "Google Earth" image - smaller-version (240K bytes)   OR  larger-version (about 1 megabyte)

This flight was a real thrill - for the neophyte glider pilot that I am, over two hours is a major achievement.  YES - there was great lift, but the accumulated advice and suggestions from people I had met at the East Coast Championships in Maryland, recently as well as Mr. Kerry (the tug-pilot) suggestions as well as my own 'work' here made everything 'come together' at one time.   At one point I knew that I'd done an hour - and that was certainly 'nice'.  And then the major hurdle of knowing I'd gone beyond my previous 'personal best' - that was another milestone...  

A LOT of the 'advice and suggestions' from other pilots came into play here - and the one major climb from 900 feet to 4,550 feet was a real revelation in that I stayed, basically, over the same spot on the ground for 13 minutes to achieve this - even with 'some' (not much) winds aloft (3-8 mph) the thermal I was riding stayed basically in the same place.   My 'thermal-climbing-circles' were much smaller (thanks to Mr. Kerry's suggestions), and that, too, made a difference I think.   Previously, I'd had the perception that larger circles meant less 'sink' (so your thermal 'LIFT' was more 'productive' but what I hadn't banked-on was that I was not 'coring' the thermal in small enough circles, that means I wasn't going UP as fast as I could...

One of the other things I learned was persistence / concentration.   That one climb was so good - but I had to learn to CONCENTRATE really really hard - and it was a right-turn - (for 13 minutes).   The only reason I quit climbing was because I reached cloud-base and that's a nice place to be because it's cooler, but it's also dangerous because you can't see the horizon if you get 'cloud-sucked'...

ANYWAY _ a LOT of 'lessons learned' and a lot of 'great advice' from people who care enough and will take the time to talk to and suggest things to a neophyte pilot like me...  In MANY SPORTS people will not share with you their 'secrets' but - in this sport everyone is quite open about what works and what doesn't....  Now I know more about that - but I still have more to learn - I really, now, want the 4 hour or 6 hour flight. (but I have to find some different shorts - so some bodily functions are more 'efficient' when flying!

more later -

Saturday the 14th:

Well this 'geocaching' thing I thought would be a 'snap' - because I'm fairly experienced with the GPS and I have a bicycle (two actually) and some Hang Gliding friends introduced me to this when I was recently up in Maryland.    There's a web-site where you can learn more about the sport, and you can find out where the geocaches are in your 'neighborhood'.    I was amazed to discover that there's something like 83 within a 10 mile radius of our house here in Stuart, Florida.

However, I'm glad to report (embarassingly enough) that I was a complete failure...   I picked-out 3 for the morning's activities - via bicycle (all within less than 1 mile (as the crow flies)) and I couldn't find even one...       Then I downloaded a few more, later in the morning, got in the car, couldn't find any of those, either.   (fire-lines having been cut through a forest, some rattlesnakes, more poison ivy than is in our WHOLE yard and a paved-over-street seemed to be in the way of some?)

So then I got home from that episode, downloaded a few more,  got in the car, again, tried them, failed again...

My Hang-Gliding friend says 'keep the faith' that I WILL find some!   I'm not so sure.   I've never felt such a complete feeling of utter failure at ANYTHING in my life - so I MUST TRY AGAIN! - I will try until I succed (at least once).   MAYBE if I find success in this endeavour, I might find greater success at other things in life, huh?  See above note(s) for a real success - I can do SOMETHING right! (with advice!)...


Friday the 13th - I didn't know this until I arrived at "The Florida Ridge" (flight-park) - maybe that's why no one else flew hang-glider(s) today.  I flew twice in my own glider (Wills Wing Sport 2 - 155) and then once in Dennis' glider - a new North Wing "Horizon ET" - very similar to my glider but flies a bit slower, and is a tiny bit bigger, and has much nicer (landing) wheels on it...

Now I'm home, here in Stuart, and I'm 'struggling' with the Windows_XP-PC "only" software from Garmin (the maker of my GPSMap 76CSx) to get the appropriate maps back onto the machine after the use of the GPS in Maryland for retrievals.  When Davis loaded the Maryland map-road-detail, the software wiped-out my Florida maps that I'd loaded into the GPS...

I suspect I might invest in a couple more 'SanDisk microSD' cards to make this situation such that I do not NEED the Windows_XP-PC any longer!

I also have track-logs of today's flight(s) - but - apparently most of my readers / viewers have decided that hang-gliding track-logs look like 'squiggly-lines' (which - - of course - - they are) - so those track-logs are only going to be available here if you want them (when I get around to 'editing' them and uploading them:   Flight_1     Flight_2   ) ... ... ...

Mr._Kerry is now flying the tug at The Florida Ridge on a regular basis and he's VERY GOOD.     With today's 'massive' lift on tow (over 1,000 fpm) - he tried, a couple of times,  to 'drop' me in the 'core' of the thermal and sometimes that can get VERY EXCITING.   The excitment level is especially  HIGH  when I'm flying a different glider (like Dennis' excellent North Wing)...

BUT, today, - the LIFT was there - I just couldn't seem to stay in it, and after a while I decided I was not only TIRED, but the thunderstorms were getting closer than I was comfy with.

On the drive over and return from The Florida Ridge I stopped at several places on Lake Okeechobee - which due to recent drought(s) and the horrendous development of Southern Florida (which means more people using water out of the lake (and more irrigation taking water out of the lake)) is WAY WAY down from it's 'normal' 15-18 feet (above sea level).   It's nearing 9 feet right now - the lowest level it's been at since it was built some nearly 60-80 years ago.    here's some pictures of the low lake level  - Lake Okeechobee picture 1,    Lake Okeechobee picture 2,    Lake Okeechobee picture 3. 

ALSO: _ had the mini-van serviced on Wednesday - it's still going VERY STRONG with 55,000 miles (2 1/2 years old)...


HOME! - (9th June):  actually arrived here last night about 6:30 p.m. after stopping by Jacksonville to visit with Mom for an hour or so... - Now doing the laundry, washing the mini-van (inside and out) - rinsing the kite-board-kites (and other gear) - vacuuming the sand (and dirt) out of the mini-van, cleaning out the ice-chest.   Also had a 'cooked breakfast' this morning (after 12 mornings of cold cereal with fruit, a cooked breakfast was a REAL TREAT...    BUT I had to go to the grocery store, because after 12 days away the only thing left was cat-food - and Ms. Siew Mei, (the cat) said that was HERS! - anyway - good to be home but already checking out the weather this week for kiteboarding and/or hang-gliding - we'll see which way the weather goes (right now it looks like low-winds and RAIN most of the week but that could all change!.

Today I have to deal with the trash cans, mowing the lawn, and other such domestic chores...

 
Today is Saturday, 7th June - the last (scheduled) day of the "East Coast Championships" - hang gliding event here near Ridgely, Maryland at Highland Aerosports (small airport).

The forecast for the day includes (but is not limited to):  96 F degree temperature (with 102 heat-index) - 33% cloud-cover, 46% humidity, 5-10 mph wind out of the south-west (later in the day) - it's FOGGY right now (at 07:53 a.m.) - 200-500 fpm LIFT (which is 'fair but not 'stellar'') - and MAYBE we'll get a 'long-task' off to the north / north-north-east  - we'll see what the weather, the task-committee, and etc. all end-up-with...
Today is Friday, 6th June (two days after the anniversary (on 4 June) of the "Tianamen Square" incident in China)

Highland.sunset6.jpg
Sunset from Friday, 6th June... - not a great picture but not bad for a camera-phone...

Sometimes I yearn for my old Hasselblad at times like this; when I want to take a really GREAT picture of something really STUNNING.   The sunrise and sunset opportunities here are typically pretty good.   The opportunity for using a top-end camera abound.   I feel really 'limited' with the iPhone's camera, though excellent for a camera phone yielding 1,200 x 1,600 pixel images, the ability to crop in the camera / zoom / wide and white-balance are way limited compared to an advanced amateur or professional grade digital camera.

HG people
Here's a picture of some people attempting to 'pass the time' AND stay in the shade in the 87 F degree temperatures in the launch-area.   The tug-pilots and the field-crew 'launched' most of the field, today before about 3 p.m..  Then most of them landed about 4 p.m.  THEN most of those re-launched - and then, UGH UGH UGH UGH...

Just a 'few' of the many people I recognize (roughly from left to right): Belinda, David, Tom, Jamie, Ron, Jim, Mandy, Jonny.

The guy who 'won the day' - Mark Frutiger (from New York) - didn't 'start' his flight towards the northern goal until 5:18 p.m. - WOW (a very very late start).    I didn't start driving (to do retrievals) until about 4:30 p.m.; two people had telephoned me before I even left the Highland Aerosports property; but I was finished picking-people-up and back at Higland by 6:00 p.m..

Today is Thursday, 5th June:

Mr._Bill is STILL AT the 'East_Coast_Championships' hang-gliding event here in Ridgely, Maryland)   A few more pictures here, and notes of both hang-gliding and kiteboarding (the hang-gliding was 'blown-out' (too much wind / bad conditions)) to fly on Tuesday(3rd) and Wednesday (4th), this week.

So there was a contingent of 3 of us with kiteboard gear and assorted hangers-on and we went kiteboarding one day quite near Annapolis, Maryland at a place called Sandy Point Park.   It was gusty out of the south-east (probably because of the 'Bay Bridge' (we have no pictures, sorry)).    Then on Wednesday(4th) we went to 'Dewey Beach, Delaware - Atlantic coast; pictures courtesy of Ms._Amanda_Brown (commonly known as "Purple Glasses Green Hat (from a hang-gliding competition 2 years ago in Florida)), now more commonly known as 'Mandy').    Her Dad is competing here and strangely enough he's not normally known as Rick Brown, he's more commonly known as "Mandy's Dad" - go figger...

Mandy's Kiteboard picture 2
a picture of the 'beach area' here at Dewey Beach, Delaware (this is the 'sound-side' of a tiny little isthmus of land - the picture-direction is 'roughly' NNW.

Mandy's KB picture 10
This is a picture of Mr._Bill and his 13 meter kite.   Ms._Mandi captured this image (roughly to the WNW) with several seagulls. Note there are VERY VERY VERY few 'white-caps' - and so the 13 meter kite is still small for this wind-strength - but it's the biggest kite that I had with me on this trip...

Anyway - pictures of kiteboarding at Dewey Beach (on the sound-side, not on the Atlantic side) (map) (where Mr._Bill sliced-up his right big toe on the 1,000s of HUGE horseshoe-crabs on the bottom, when the wind died and he had to walk back to shore.)   Then after lunch we went further south to Fenwick Island (Delaware) State Park  (map).    However, tornado warnings were up so we never actually got to do any kiteboarding here...


KB_DBa_04Jun08.sm.jpg
here's a 'track-log' image of Mr. Bill's kiteboarding - (click for larger)

Mr._Joe did not get to go kiteboarding this day (and didn't rip-apart his toes on the horse-shoe-crabs) because he didn't have a big enough kite.

Much of the 'public-information' (that is available on the web) is based on the Delaware "Atlantic Coast" beaches - Note we were (at Dewey Beach) on the "Sound Side" not on the Atlantic (seashore-side).   Though at Fenwick Island we WOULD have been in the Atlantic Ocean (we never got out there)... This link is to the Delaware "Seashore Park" - which is 'mostly' about the Atlantic Coastal beaches, not the sound side beach(es)...


Highland Aero Sunrise 6
and another sunrise picture - which I seem to specialize at these sunrise pictures because I'm always up at about 05:15 a.m..  THIS MORNING, though someone left in an airplane at about 05:30 - that was a 'thrill' - he flew right over me as he left the runway...

Other people have done greater justice to the Hang Gliding event and it's associated activities...

Jamie's Blog here      Jonny's Blog here     Jeff O'Brien's Blog here

One of the 'odd' things that one rarely thinks about in the hang-gliding world, is that there are at least five cars here from Florida;  Jamie's, Jim's, Pau & Lauren's, mine, and Campbell's "BIG_HONKING_TRUK", and not a one of us has a sticker from a Florida flight-park... Harumph - we need to remedy this situation somehow? - MAYBE we need to 'abuse' some Florida Flight Park Owners about their lack of stickers?

BIG NEWS: Ms._May's ceramic_art has now been featured in the NATIONAL CIRCULATION ceramics magazine "Ceramics_Monthly".  Please go visit this web-site to read more about her successes in the ceramics world.

We are VERY PROUD of her achievement(s) here...



Well - today is the first of June and also the first day of the 'East Coast Championships' (Hang Gliding competition (hosted at "Highland Aerosports")) - here in Ridgely, Maryland).     Ridgely is about 60 miles due east of Annapolis, Maryland and about 60 miles south west of Dover, Delaware (and right in the midst of some quite good kite-boarding spots (that Mr. Bill visited and evaluated on Friday, 30th May...))

Running into old-friends and making new ones is always a part of the hang-gliding thing.   No matter where in the USA (or I guess the world) that we go - we always find people we've met before...     As someone once said about Hang Gliding, "In any other sport I've been involved in there were always people I didn't like; but in the Hang Gliding world, I've yet to meet anyone I don't like."    I guess this pretty much sums-up why we like the people we meet and fly with.

Just a few of the people who we've re-acquainted with here, are:  Jim, Sunny, Adam, Mandy, Rick, Jamie, Belinda, Davis,  Nicole, Campbell, James, Lauren, Paul, and a whole host of others...     Some new, some old, some from all over...     A few others have yet to arrive, but have said via e-mail or telephone that they will be here...

Saturday (31st of May) should have been a 'practice' day but it was 'practice staying dry' day - there were a whole host of storms in / around the Chesapeake Bay area, and we got our share, both here at Highland Aerosports (with 60 knot gusts and hail) and when we (myself and a couple of others) tried to go kiteboarding - in Stevensville (at a place called "Terrapin Park" (picture_1,   picture_2,   picture_3,   picture_4...  The rain and thunder and hail and lightning and even a tornado or two reported were amazing... - however, this morning (Sunday, 1st of June) things are drying out nicely!


Highland Aero Camping area
just one view of the 'camping' area...


Highland sunset
a sunset at Highland Aerosports (with the Mini-Van and Mr. Panda Bear in evidence)


Highland Sunrise
a sunrise at Highland Aerosports, - from Saturday morning...


Gliders & Mini-Van
Here's Mr._Bill's glider (to the left) our mini-van and Ms._Lauren's glider (to the right).

I'm here 'mostly', though, to drive retrievals ( that is to pick-up competitors / pilots) when they don't land where they started from (they're not 'supposed' to land where they started from on most days)...   However, the driving-retrievals thing is a lot of work and one needs a lot of skills / talents / knowledge when engaged in this role... 

One needs skills in navigation as well as communications (and driving, too!)   Sometimes; the pilots can't find all the skills they need in a single  "carbon based life form" (person) so they have to hire  a "TEAM" to help them out...    The team typically consists of one or more people to do the jobs... someone really GOOD at Navigating and someone ELSE GOOD at Communicating, and then they ALSO have to have a DRIVER...  It takes a lot of COORDINATION to keep all these people pointed in the same direction!...

- more pictures later -

last updated:    00:09  a.m. on Sunday  29 June, 2008    revID:  1v