Hang Doggin'

Saturday's forecast was not too spectacular, hot with light & variable winds aloft. The soaring/thermal forecast was more promising, so, with no hang-driver to chase us, we decided to try for a local flight at Short Divide. It seemed like a nice day to take Clover the Hang-Dog with me too!

It was near 90 degrees and sunny on launch, with a moderate breeze out of the southeast. In order to safely launch, we needed the wind to "clock around" at least to due south, preferably southwest. So we set up, tweaked our gliders, fiddled with radios, cameras, varios, GPS units, harnesses and other gear while hang-waiting. Cody asked me, "Whatever happened to the "simple" days of hang gliding?!" We noticed that some cycles were occasionally starting to track right up launch.

Cody thought he had some dust or debris in his eye, causing some irritation. He had me take a look, and I could see what appeared to be a tiny, sharp metal fragment caught on the front of his eyeball just to one side of his pupil & iris. We tried rinsing it out with water, and then brushing it off with a wet paper towel, neither of which worked. He then asked, "do you have a magnet?" I looked through my pickup, and remembered that I had two ceramic magnets used in treadmills. These magnets are so strong you can put one on both sides of your hand and they will stick! So Cody tilted his head back, held his eye open, and had me use the magnet to extract the metal sliver.

The first try did not work, but the second attempt was a success! (You can see the tiny boomerang-shaped fragment in the middle of the magnet) We then rinsed his eye out again, bringing him instant relief, saving a trip to the ER, and salvaging the afternoon of flying! By now the cycles had become quite consistent on launch at 10-15 mph, and there were a number of dust devils churning skyward in the valley beyond Gunsight Peak. We knew that on a high-pressure day like today, the window of bench-up-ability might only last an hour, so we hang-checked,

including the K-9 Hang-Doggie, and walked out to the top of the launch slot just after 4 PM. During my launch run, Clover had to dangle behind me, but then as soon as I proned out she climbed up on my back where she felt most comfortable, taking the weight off of her harness. She eventually crawled up higher to get a bit of a windbreak from my helmet. This was her third flight ever (she had two last year), and she seemed to quite enjoy the view and the ride, as long as I didn't start pulling too many G's!

Cody launched about ten minutes later, and proceeded to show me the thermal which allowed us to drift back to the upper mountain. There was not much ridge lift to speak of, but the moutain seemed to collect and release enough thermals to allow us to gradually climb up and over Clarkston and then Gunsight Peaks. The forecast proved to be fairly accurate, as it turned out to be a nice day to "boat around" over the mountains, but probably not much of an XC day. I toppped out at 9,100', and Cody found a ride that took him to about 12K. It was a strange, but magical afternoon of soaring. It was difficult to determine which side of each summit ridge was the upwind side. There was lift on both sides, converging and combining directly above each spine. The moderately bumpy thermals soon smoothed out into buttery-smooth magical air, allowing Cody and me to explore each mountain up close and personal, and play follow the leader in close proximity in a sort of 3-D aerial ballet.

Here's a mini-movie from our flight! *If you click on it twice, it will take you to the YouTube page, and you can then click on "Watch in High Quality" for better resolution.

While over Gunsight Peak, we heard some distant radio traffic with a vario in the background. As we listened in, we discovered that it was another HG pilot flying XC from King's Peak at about 16,000 feet! As we cruised around effortlessly, a small single-engine plane passed by at nearly the same altitude, about a half mile away from the peak. I flew in such a way to make myself more visible, although the plane's path was a safe distance, now flying parallel to us. He must of finally seen us, as he gave his wings a "waggle", which I then returned in kind. He then turned a wide, sweeping circle around the peak, probably trying to figure out what we were and how we got there!

We flew for a while with a dozen large turkey vultures over the peak. Clover got excited as we shared the air and danced in and out of the raptors in the "boaty" lift. It is exciting to "get high and fly far", but there is nothing quite like this kind of air. After over two hours, we decided to call it a day, so we went over the back to begin our descent to the Clarkston LZ. It took longer than usual to get down, and the valley seemed to be releasing all of its energy as the glass-off had begun. We both had acceptably safe no-wind, uphill landings, and then began breaking down.

Clover was poooped, happy to be back on terra-firma, but didn't want to take her harness off just yet!

Airtime: 2 Hours, 13 minutes!