 |
| George above Area 151 by David Le |
8 April, Fri. – We got
started around 0930 with the trailer but no hang glider and reached Dog before
noon (gas at Costco in Covington - 207.9). C.J. helped Tina by doing the
registration while I helped Brian Scott and others gather driftwood for the
bonfire. C.J. had realized by now that she had forgotten to pick up her Ozone
backpack with her computer so she would not be able to work on her article for
the magazine during the weekend. Later, as the sun got lower, Larry and Tina
figured that everything was set-up and went up for an evening flight. I got a
ride up with them. While they set up, a mini-wing pilot flew. I waited until
all the HGs had launched and the wind had switched to the north before setting
up. Kim and the mini-wing pilot showed up and launched before me after several
tries. [Before they took off we saw more PGs in the air – they hadn’t launched
from Dog. Later we found that they had come from Area 151(Brent Taylor, Gene
Beaver, Dave Auman and ?)]. It took me several tries as well and Tim had set up
and launched his HG before I got off. It was nicely soarable on the north side
and I climbed to 3200 feet but didn’t try to reach the microwave. Hang gliders
were over at Elk but I didn’t think I could get back if I went over there, so I
tried flying north to the ridge near the boat ramp. I was almost there and down
to 1700 ft when I saw a hang heading back low. Figuring that there was no lift,
I turned back and zoomed to the LZ and then climbed on the point and all the
way back above TO where I saw another PG struggling with the launch. I went
back toward the north again, then turned back to the LZ. While I was still
pretty high I got rocked with some big turbulence, and when I was flying my
cross-wind leg I was hit by a gust that blew me downwind into the high grass. I
turned sharply back and it looked like I was about to land outside the mowed
area when another gust lifted me and slid me left into the field for a good
landing. Later C.J. and I had dinner in the trailer where it was relatively
warm compared to the dropping temperatures and breeze outside.
9 Apr, Sat – Cold night and a
gloomy, low-cloudbase morning. I hung out while C.J. worked on registration
hauling in money hand-over-fist as a record number of hang glider pilots signed
in. Around noon I was surprised to see a paraglider setting up to land because
I hadn’t seen any PGs launch. It turned out to Matty Senior on a paramotor; he
and Josh had launched from the airstrip in Eatonville and flown past Mt.
Rainier to reach the Dog LZ. Josh had run low on gas and had turned west to
almost reach the Morton Airport. Matty thought that he could borrow someone’s
car at Area 151 so he could retrieve his van from Eatonville. I gave him a ride
over there and picked up Josh on the way at Skaggs Road. A few PGs were flying
down from Area 151 and after packing up Vince and Adam and David Le decided to
go back up. I threw in with them. On launch we could see a number of wings at
Bremer, some sinking to the bailout, some getting up. After some time, two of
the pilots reached 151 and began soaring near launch. That was a good clue that
it was soarable; Adam (he of the Einstein hair) took off but missed the cycle
and sank out. I was luckier and got into the lift; I flew a ridge lift pattern
with a wing from Bremer for a while then started trying to circle in thermal
lift. As I got a bit above the trees on launch I tried going back into the bowl
behind and working the face. After a couple of tries I was able to stick and
Vince and David came over and climbed with me and above. At one point I was
high enough to look directly at snow-covered St. Helens and realized the other
peak must be Adams, not Rainier. [Probably we were all thinking about the
flights to Dog on the previous day but no one made a move to fly to the next
ridge (Hopkins?) and I had left my phone in the car anyway.] I tried going back
toward launch and then headed west from there gradually climbing until I got
over the valley rim at around 2500ft. The air was getting somewhat more
textured and I decided to fly out into the valley. I circled the edge of Area
151 and worked down. I was rocked by turbulence on a high downwind leg and
again when I turned on final but landing was smooth. After packing up I and
most of the paras went over to Dog for the dinner which was just beginning at
about 1730. At least four went up to join the two PGs which were flying now
that the wind had moderated. Whether on purpose or just by happenstance, there
never were more than five PGs in the air at any time. Dinner was good with lots
of tasty stuff including C.J.’s “blubarb crisp” (with a can of whipped cream).
I hung out a while around the fire but I wasn’t prepared to sit through a lot
of amplified music from the stage (back of Dave’s U.S. Army flatbed truck) so I
headed back to the trailer pretty early. When C.J. got back it was cold enough
that we ran the heater for a while before going to bed with an extra quilt. It
turned out that once the cloud cover formed, it didn’t get very cold after all.
 |
| George at Area 151 |
10 Apr, Sun – Another cold
and gloomy morning with low cloudbase. I hung around the trailer for a while,
took a walk to the north on the delta as far as the creek, came back and had
some lunch. Matty and Josh were already back from their Sunday flight from
Packwood up toward Rainier and back. The sky had cleared and people were flying
so I headed over to Area 151 to see what the PGs were up to. I had missed a
trip up to Bremer again; some had flown back to 151. Kraske had headed to Dog
to pick up a Dog key, Brent had packed up his trailer and headed home, Vince
was gone. Rob, Adam and another ex-HG from Portland were still around and
eventually decided to go up to 151 TO. It was gusting on launch and didn’t feel
like it would be friendly air so we waited for an hour. Finally I decided to
give up and everyone but Adam agreed. He launched and sank right out. We drove down
and I returned to Dog where I packed up the trailer while the spot landing
awards were given out. C.J. and I left around 1700 and were home around 1900.
It was a different Frostbite without C.J. flying.
11 Apr, Mon – I disconnected
the trailer and washed the accumulated grime off it. Then I set it up and
unloaded the fridge and dumped the porta-potty. As I was setting up the trailer
I noticed that the aluminum trim on the driver’s side A-wall was loose near the
front. I drilled a 7/64-in hole and put a bolt in to keep it in place. Then I
sliced and scraped and used solvent to remove some worn weather-stripping from
the curbside aluminum roof support. I installed a new length of open-cell foam
weather-stripping. That should be good for a while although every time I close
the roof, one side scrapes against the weather-stripping and abrades it. I left
the Renogy solar panel in the trailer; it had worked very well at Dog keeping
the battery fully charged so that we could run our lights, water pump and the
propane furnace (as well as charge my phone). I blew a fuse when I hooked it up
to the wrong polarity – but that’s what fuses are for, I guess. (I need to
replace 15A fuse.)
