Light Thermic Circles of Life To Laie

Just the thought of north winds and bay crossings brought Jim out early from work, myself cancelling all my errands for the day, and Scot, Hillbilly, Larry, Maui Doug, Alex and Scrappy all bailing on their lives to chase it to the clouds.

As I arrived, I clambered up the hill to high launch, watching Scot and Alex trying a bay crossing. They made it to and above Crouching Lion for a short stint, but to no avail, and returned too low, with Scott LZing at the fish pond in the lee and Alex making it to the beach.

No sheep in the pasture out in front, and now getting lighter, it was a slow climb up to the back peak as I circled there for what seemed like eternity, between 2K & 2300'. Dropping out of 5 or 6 light thermals until the big one swept me off and up to the heavens!

Once I reached the front of the second ridge downwind, above the bare dirt spot, it was on immediately, as I climbed up and back over Sacred Falls to where I found more thermic relief. Taking a couple pics as I climbed up to 3K and cloudbase over the falls, I now tracked toward Pounders in nice cloud suck.

Now on a comfortable glide I found myself above Pounders at 800', so on I pressed, to Laie Point, and landed in the corner of the point on the beautiful sandy beach. As I was on the bus back to Kahana I radioed up to Scrappy and Alex, as they were finally making it up and out of Kahana. I saw them at cloudbase and on glide also, Alex to Pounders and Scrappy to the same place I landed in Laie.

A quick beer on the beach with Jeannine (my wife), who just returned back from France, and off I went to retrieve the two other lucky souls that got up, up and away on a super light and thermic day. We relaxed back on the beach with the many big fish stories that come from a few brews, hanging out and enjoying the closing of the day. Can't wait till tomorrow - Alex got snowed in and can't work, Scrappy and I will meet him for more... Aloha, Mad Dog

Nervous

Nervous - like a weird feeling in the pit of your stomach… Nervous - like doing an eight ball off of the bumper of a parked police car… Nervous - like, is the pregnancy test positive???… Nervous - like doing Crazyman launches as your first ever free flight!! Yeah, that kind of nervous…

So, I met up with Reaper, Bonita, Maui Doug, Ginny, Matt, Courtney, Jeff Mc, JJ, Andrew, Berndt, Nick, and a slew of others today for launches and AWESOME Makapu’u flights. This was my first flight EVER and I have to say - it is an honor and a privilege to have had the chance to get to know the members of the HPA. You all have been a great inspiration and a great source of knowledge and sharing. It started with kiting, lots of kiting. But, I know that the kiting is extremely valuable. Then it went to towing - S-Turns, 360’s, forward and reverse launches, some bad landings and some very bad landings.

Luckily, I had good conditions for launch—I was on a low level rush since Reaper called me an hour before and told me that it was on and that he thought I was ready. I watched Bonnie launch and she was easily carried away to sail on ridge lift, a right turn, a left, and she was over Sea Life Park. Then Matt, Jeff, and Berndt, all went and they made it look easy. Then it was my turn. Reaper says “You ready?” “Nope”, I reply. Then I was setting up on launch. A’s & C’s - a fair inflation (I think - I was really jazzed at this point - the canopy could have been on fire and I might not have noticed it). I over turned to the right, corrected, along the ridge, a left turn, and then I was following Bonnie. I think it took a while to finally relax. Maybe it was the awesome show put on by the whales, or maybe it was the wind and the view; but, it finally sunk in. I was flying! One-and-a-half to two hours later… a landing I could walk away from.

For years, I have been watching you all above Kahana (as I went to work, as I came home from work, as I thought about skipping work and hanging out with you all), and above Makapu’u. All I can say is thank you! Reaper, thanks for all the great instruction so far (more to come). Bonnie, thanks for babysitting me (and warning me to turn to the right when I saw you hit that major sink!). Maui Doug, Ginny, Jim, Jeff, Alex, and everyone else - thanks for all the good advice!

Duck

Chilling at Kahana

I had a couple of interesting chilly flights at Kahana yesterday with visitor JJ from the Bay Area. I knew the wind was still blowing pretty northerly in the wake of the last front, and I had high hopes for a bay crossing before the easterly trades set in.

We hiked up around lunchtime under a steely grey overcast sky. The sensor at Punaluu was swinging between 25 and 78 degrees, and there were lots of dark texture patches showing gusts out on the water. Sometimes the whole bay would fill with whitecaps, only to turn to glass the next moment. After launching and going straight up, mostly we found ourselves pretty parked up there, in air that felt super cold and lumpy. After about an hour, we were cold and bored with our gale dangling, so we gave up on any chance of a bay crossing in that strong stuff, and landed at the beach. We retreated around the corner for lunch with JJ's wife Adrian at Bobo's.

At around 4 pm we were still chilling at Bobo's, enjoying their unofficial BYOB policy, when we realized the wind had mellowed and had settled into a consistently north direction, around 33 degrees. We clambered back up the hill to take off for one more chance to cross the bay. It was definitely lighter than before, and I got up above two grand over the front pretty quickly, watching JJ struggle with some line tangulation on launch. I headed out over the water just as he was starting to get up. I could tell it was stronger than usual for a bay crossing, but I was starting with plenty of height, and the air was buoyant despite the strength.

I made it across slowly but surely. However, now that I was above the Crouching Lion I found myself parked facing a headwind from the east, and I had to patiently stand on my speed bar to make any headway around the corner to Hidden Valley. I finally made it up over there, but it was too strong and too east to be pleasant, and by this time JJ had given up on the bay crossing and landed, so I joined him down there. John, Pete's longtime student from Hauula, showed up with his nice dog Mocha and hung out with us for a while too.

It was a pretty strange day to be flying - it never quite made up its mind about the direction or strength. And even though I made it over to Kaaawa, it certainly wasn't the bay crossing day I'd hoped for. I know what it's like when it's good, and this wasn't quite it.

Later on I heard from Scrappy that Jared and the skydive crew had also been out speed flying in the strong conditions over at Makapuu.

Thanks to JJ for the great lunch at Bobo's, and thanks to John for the end of day refreshments.

Monkey Off My Back

Finally got a little air time at MPU. Donna & Maile cheered me on at launch, but I was taunted by the other Monkeys present, Jim & Frank, to go downrange. Still not ready for that but did add a new set of flying instructions. Glad to be back in the Saddle. All for now, hope to fly down range real soon!

Meeting & Party: Sat Feb 13 @ HTMC in Waimanalo

Please join us for our first quarterly meeting and party of the year on Saturday, February 13th, at 6 pm. We are returning to one of our old familiar haunts, the HTMC clubhouse in Waimanalo. We encourage everyone to bring refreshments or pupus or something for the barbecue, as well as $3 each for the clubhouse usage fee.

Cross your fingers for a good flying day at Makapuu beforehand. It was really fun to land on the beach in front of the clubhouse that one time it worked out for us.

Thanks to Rich for the clubhouse connection - and for remembering to reserve it a month in advance every time!

Go, Dave and Jorge!

While these pesky frontal passages force us to chase our tails in circles here, sniffing for little scraps of flying time at our Kona wind flying sites, two of our best local XC hounds are hunting big game at the Monarca Open Competition in Valle De Bravo, Mexico.

Fireman Dave and Jorge are spending the week south of the border playing with the big dogs, including many top US and world comp pilots. The competition runs for a week and the weather appears to be cooperating with nice strong conditions for our boys.

Details and results can be found on the Monarca website. Also, Rob is posting daily reports at the Eagle website. If anyone hears any news of our boys feel free to post it here. Go Dave and Jorge!

Lessons on Humble Pie

This will not be a typical funny story, but one that you should read and think about the next time you consider going downrange. I have only been flying for a year, but I have had the privilege of being tutored by some of the best pilots we have. Books and words can only give you the knowledge, but oftentimes you have to experience situations to really make them stick. Injuries are the usual penalty for a failed lesson, and my hope is that this little ditty will keep others from throwing themselves into a bad situation.

On Saturday, January 16, 2010, I flew a personal record epic flight, Makapuu to Kahana. The next day I buzzed out to Green Walls, cloud surfed over to Olomana and then back to the Makapuu LZ.

The lesson starts now at Makapuu on the MLK Day holiday.

-Launched from Crazy Man in moderate wind, very good launch.

-Benched up quick over Sea Life park, first indicator of conditions, but appeared ok, others were already downrange.

Lesson 1: Just because others are already down there, doesn't mean it is still good.

I benched up fairly quick: Indicating it is strong, stick to this ridge, but first check penetration, look for direction indicators and use GPS.

-Immediately headed for the point of turn to Waimanalo. Noticed wind was changing to the north more, so tried to predict which ridge faces would have lift.

Lesson 2: Did not check penetration at this point, not sure if it was strong but do not remember checking penetration. Can not emphasize this enough, I was too eager to catch up to everyone so I did not waste time checking penetration.

-Headed across Waimanalo to Green Walls turn. It was not as easy as the other 2 days. Wonder why, but did I check, don't think so, just figured it was a little more north than the last 2 days, which was right but still caution was out the door.

Lesson 3: During whole flight across Waimanalo did not really check penetration but still felt ok, again always check penetration. This means head out away from the lift into the wind to check for forward motion. My comfort is 8 miles an hour into the wind on glide anything less will raise some caution flags. I am thinking of upping that to at least 10 before any XC for a long while. These comfort zones are personal and will depend on experience, wing rating, your weight in glider and maybe a number of other items. Don't let anyone tell you it's perfect, come on down.

-Flight down Green Walls was lower than the ridge, hmmm, I was higher the other days. Direction indication again moving North, lift came at the end to make it to the Pali.

Lesson 4: I will say this a million times in hopes that I will remember and you will too. Check your DAMN penetration. Ya, it takes time off your score but the alternatives don't let you fly the next day or ever.

-Pali lift was awesome. Got up really fast, noticed Alex lagging lower and pushing out front. Scrappy radioed it is bumpy and going back at 3200'.

Lesson 5: Lift was way better than the other day, which means what? The wind is stronger. Holy crap, if there is a pilot with tons of experience on a faster glider low and in front of you, what the hell are you thinking. Get in front of him and lower if you have to. Another awesome pilot tells you he is going back and rocking at 3200', that should set your elevation way below that even though cloud base appeared higher. Oh, and if you are that experienced pilot, and you see someone of any caliber behind and higher a radioed suggestion to start thinking would be good.

-Crossed the Pali, seemed ok still, did not check penetration before heading across, but did not experience any notable drift during soar across to LikeLike.

Lesson 6: Check penetration before any further pushes.

-H3 area gave its first of many ignored indicators: Alex went into land, Jared did a crazy save to a patch below the tunnels of H3, and again Scrappy radioed from next bowl over, "Backwards and rocky at 3000'". I was only at 2500' but was maintaining and headed to next bowl.

Lesson 7: If a better pilot, Alex, goes in to land and it takes him forever to get to the LZ due to lack of forward speed on speed bar too, you already screwed up. Jared, of course, should not be used as any indicator. Scrappy had now lowered the backwards elevation to 3000'.

-The next bowl I was low around 2100', maybe even 1900', I did look for LZ spots, but did not check penetration to see if I could even get there. I headed across the bowl to catch up to Scrappy, who could not see me due to being so low. I was far enough, or so I thought, from the face of the ridge, but was not getting any beeps, so I crabbed towards the face until I heard the first beep. I radioed to Scrappy that I am benching up on the bowl next to you, be there in a minute so I can follow you to Hygienics.

Lesson 8: Again, no penetration check, no drift check (when going any angle from the wind, direction check, using GPS, or hell just look at the other side of the bowl or the ground, and if you are going towards the face or away from the wind immediately turn into the wind and do what! Repeat after me "CHECK PENETRATION"! If you are not getting any, you're done, messed up, try to go land out.

-Now the blow that makes this a lesson worth listening to. I had gotten that one little beep, yaaaah, so I looked for more by creeping into the bowl, still far enough away but still no penetration check. I was still at an angle away from the wind, not sure, but it may have been 45 degrees or more, when I got hit with the most uplifting surge I have had.

I turned into the wind of course, using right break, which surged me even harder up. Not sure what elevation I was at when it hit, but when I turned I was at 3200', looking at a cloud just barely over my head. Ok, speed bar got jumped on instantly, finally I check forward penetration, way too fetching late, it was about 1 mile per hour to the north, and I was still going up, and the cloud grabbed me.

I knew big ears would create more drag but I had to get out of these clouds. Looked down, compass at NORTH, GPS ground speed SW, I was going backwards, I figured I was over the top of the ridge, 3700', so pulled big ears, and when I came out I was looking down at the back of ridge. I released big ears and pushed hard on speed bar, too late, I am done for.

I tried for a slight instant to get what elevation I could, but started near clouds again and opted to turn and burn. "May Day, May Day, going over the back, call if can". That was my last radio transmission.

The ride down the back was horrendous, I can't explain it other than when you watch in a movie a car going over a cliff from the drivers point of view, I was going to crash.

The first seconds were peaceful, thank God, so I could look around to get my bearings, I could see the twin towers of Pearl City off in the distance, ok, I am in that valley, not sure what one, but in an unpopulated, tree filled jungle.

Peacefulness ended abruptly as I got thrown to the right, to the left, I was looking at my partially balled up wing below me, oh shoot, throw reserve, then I swung back under it and it re-opened. I will be staying on a 1-2 for a long time, it saved my ass.

This washing machine stuff happened for what seemed hours, but I know were only minutes, until I got low and somewhat out of the turbulence. Now I was picking trees. I got a few little thermal/ratty air bumps and even stayed in one until I got back in the rotor, but it was enough to get me over the first 2 sets of power lines. I thought "Wow, glad not to be in power lines" but apparently the sky gods had another lesson for me.

I was approaching another set of power lines, I was not going over this one, not on glide. I hit a few bumps and started some turns to look for any gift I could, but the cupboard was bare, I had to go under.

These lines were way above the tree line, sorry I did not look at GPS anymore, concentration was out front and side to side. I got low and soared underneath with big ears ready to go if any lift did appear.

Made it through and was now looking for a tree, a low one preferably, I could see a stream bed below, way below. I hooked my left tip into a tree and did the George of the Jungle whip into the canopy of the tree while applying brakes on the right side to ease the impact. I was now 'Strange Fruit' at 35' in the air. Called Alex and stated I am ok, got to get out of tree, can't get GPS until on ground. I am hiking out, call off Rescue.

I had to swing to the tree to unhook, checked out my path to the ground it was decent so I lowered my gear. When I got to the ground again called Alex to state ok, hiking out, canopy way too thick, no GPS reception, no visual for helicopter either. Then down the trail where cell phone was spotty to no good.

Lesson 9: Always leave your tracking on when using the GPS, you can always give the last coordinates. Mine was not on.

About a mile or two out, I got to a nursery where I was met by unfriendly workers who are against visitors on their private property. After explaining my situation the moods all swung, and they were more than helpful. Thomas, the owner, and Terrance, one of his workers, gave me a ride to Grace's and then helped me the next morning to recover my wing. Those guys were great, Thomas said to stop by for a cup of coffee, but next time ring the door bell, he was kidding, no door bell. But he did say use the front door not the back.

I lucked out, no injuries, no loss of gear. Totally a lesson to be learned and my extreme hopes that everyone will take heed. Check your penetration.

Lesson 10: Equipment to add to my collection, lighter, headlamp flashlight, first aid tape. Small section of rope. Hopefully never to have to use.

ATTENTION All Pilots of Experience, near and far, I would like comments added to this story. Things I may have missed other than the obvious and stated. Don't hold back, let me have it. I would like personal mishaps noted as well with damage details, I got lucky but Blood & Money seem to sit harder in the memory. I have talked to a few pilots who are going to add their words of Wisdom & Gory Details of Defeat. I hope to print this up eventually and make other future down range pilots read this as How to Fly XC and Live to Tell About It.

Sunset Bay Crossing

After waiting all afternoon for wind, it finally turned on at the last hour before dark, and I followed Jayson and the Canadians up for a nice north session at Kahana and a late bay crossing as the sun disappeared and the lights started to come on.

Canadians Charlie and Lee got stinking high over Sacred Falls and flew to Pounders in the morning while I was trying to get work done. It's hard to get work done when you're running to different windows of your house, peering up at the sky and watching your visiting buddies specked out on your favorite little XC milk run, with the radio tuned in to their chatter. At one point I heard someone say "I'm crossing the island now..." and I ran to the window to see who was crazy enough to jump over the back of Sacred Falls - but it turns out they just meant they were heading downrange to Pounders. Whew.

The forecast said we would get some nice moderate northeasterlies today, so I had high hopes for a bay crossing. But when I got there just after noon, it was barely working, super light and north, and I thermaled hard for quite a while but could never break 1,600 feet. I toplanded and waited on launch for a long time with Maui Doug, Jayson and Larry as it got lighter and lighter. We finally all sledded down for a late lunch at Bobo's and some cold refreshments.

Maui Doug went to Makapuu only to find it blown out there! 15+ mph cycles on Crazies and huge cats paws spinning onto the LZ. After I heard that, I knew it would soon be working for us - even though I still didn't feel much of a breeze at Bobo's. Lots of low clouds were coming in, from a super north direction, and as we parked and started up north launch we finally began to feel some wind building. The sensor was showing 9 mph at 8 degrees. The only problem was that we started launching around 5:30 with only a half hour of light left!

Canadians Mark, Jonny and Hans had great sunset flights, while I led Jayson across the bay for a twilight cruise over his condo, the first time he's been over there. Actually I headed over long before he finished helping his buddies get off, but he finally made it up and across just as I was coming back around to head in for a landing. By that time it was super dark and all the street lights were on. Jayson came back and landed shortly after that, and I scrambled home late for dinner.

What a fun day - I can't believe it really turned on like that at the end.

MLK Day Makapuu Migration

Jeff is out of town for a few days, so I thought I'd post a quick story to reassure him about how boring our sled rides were on MLK Day. Not to mention how many poor slobs had to hike down because of the incessant squalls that kept blowing through to dampen our wings and our spirits. Jeff, don't click the "read more" link, it's just more of the same sad story...

Psssst! Don't tell Jeff, but seven pilots flew downrange from Makapuu today under a super high cloudbase, in increasingly strong north conditions, for a total of just over 100 miles shared between them all. Two made it to the park in Kahaluu, and one got really close (16 miles each). Three more sank out at various spots in Haiku Valley (about 12 miles each). And the last one...well, let's just say his karma wasn't working so well today (at least 18 miles).

I was suffering from a terrible case of indecision today. Even though the clouds were pretty thick and widespread, they were also incredibly high, way above the range, as I observed on my way into town. So it seemed like it would be a good day to try for a Makapuu XC, and chase Thom's karmic flight from the other day. That was my plan all morning as I waited for Logan to finish his orchestra rehearsal.

But I heard that Jim had launched Crazies and found it so cross and squirrelly he had to land on the rocks below Manics. After that no one wanted to fly there. I guess I didn't either. And then I heard that the Canadians were getting high above Sacred Falls behind Kahana. Maybe we could fly from there to Makapuu.

So after Logan was done with his orchestra, I sped out to Kahana to meet Scrappy, but by the time I got there the wind had completely died. That didn't stop the Canadians from running back up for sled rides, the gluttons.

After sharing with me a quick and delicious can of liquid courage, Scrappy jumped in his truck and led the way back to Makapuu. As we were nearing Hygienic Store, Jayson called to say everyone was getting up at Kahana. Scrappy and I turned around and began to race back. Jayson called a moment later to say, actually, only one guy was getting up, the others were sinking out. Scrappy insisted we turn around and race for Makapuu.

As we neared the Pali Highway we could see Frank and Joey rounding Puu Konahuanui, with Jim a bit behind them at Puu O Kona. It was brisk and north, and they didn't seem to be working very hard to stay up. I was getting pretty excited by now. We were all going to fly to Kahana!

Thom was already at Makapuu when we got there, as were Dave and Ginny, although neither of them were flying. Thom, Scrappy and I quickly launched and headed downrange to chase Frank, Joey and Jim. We heard over the radio that Frank had landed in Haiku Valley, and Joey had reached Kahaluu Regional Park, with Jim landing out somewhere close by. Then around the time we left the Pali Lookout to head for Haiku Valley, Jared caught up with us to join our caravan for the final leg.

Haiku always seems to separate the men from the boys. I definitely know which one I am. From what I thought was a lofty vantage point of 3,500 feet, I watched Scrappy, Thom and Jared blaze across the valley, and I tried to follow the best line, but only Scrappy and Thom got up on the other side. Jared ended up landing deep in Haiku Valley, and I got flushed soon after, barely making it out through the increasing headwind to a decent landing area at Kaneohe District Park. At least I managed a stylish landing between the soccer practice goalposts.

Maui Doug kindly picked me up, and we headed to Hygienics to chase Scrappy and Thom. We got there just in time to see Thom getting blown over the mountains behind Kahaluu, hearing him call "Mayday, Mayday" over the radio. Apparently he had let himself get a little too close the ridgeline in an effort to get higher in the strong ridge lift back there, and was caught in the venturi effect at the crest of the ridge. By this time the wind had really picked up.

We called in the rescue chopper, and Maui Doug and I sped over the H3 to the other side of the island to see if we could find Thom. Meanwhile Scrappy landed at the park in Kahaluu, and Reaper stopped by on his way back from Kahana to meet the first rescue crew in Kahaluu.

Doug and I made our way to a school above Pearl City where we met the chopper rescue battalion. After calling us to say he was unhurt and dangling high in a tree, Thom quickly got himself down, and started hiking down a nice trail along a dry streambed. There was too much canopy cover for his GPS to get any kind of fix, so we couldn't figure out where exactly he was, which worried us, especially since there was about 20 minutes of daylight left in the day. But he soon reached a plant farm, at which point the rescue chopper spotted him and called off the mission, and a guy at the farm gave him a ride to Grace's, where we found him waiting just as Brazilian Ray pulled up to meet us.

I hope Thom will share his version of events at some point - it's a pretty exciting story. But mainly we're all relieved that it has such a happy ending. I guess it's not quite ended yet though - he still has to go back in tomorrow morning to get his wing down from its perch high in a tree at the back of Waimalu Valley.

Sunday Slideshows

    
I was busy all day this past Sunday with family stuff, but I heard that many great flights were made at Makapuu, including some great XC trips. Dave flew to Hygienics to test out his new comp wing. Thom flew out over Olomana and back to Makapuu, a first for him (as it would be for many of us). Canadians Charlie and Lee flew to Koko Crater and back (which would also be a first for many of us). Three pilots posted pictures. Anyone who actually flew that day is welcome to add comments to this post to fill out the details.