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My narrow miss at a Darwin Award...

On a bike ride a week ago, I spotted a snake on the trail. Stopped to have a look at it. A good size snake with the markings of a rattle snake, but an imposter. I continued on without disrupting the little guy.



Yesterday I was biking up the trail in nearly the same spot, and a snake was laying across the trail. As I skidded to a stop, I couldn't get my right foot out of the pedal. My sprained ankle has left me with little twist strength. As I began to teeter over falling toward the snake, I looked down to see a few rattles on the tail!! As I fell nearly over the snake, I thought, "you've got to be F-ing kidding me." My hands and arms landed close to the snake who half coiled up in defense.




The next moments I don't remember, but I found myself standing up next to my bike on the ground with a sore ankle, my flight response having righted me. I turned my attention to the little dude. He laid stationary, not rattling. When I moved closer, he was keen to get away. I took out my phone to get a photo, but each time I cut off his path, he'd turn in a different direction quickening his pace. His body was warm and he had plenty of speed. Rather than stress him out and provoke him, I let him slither into the trees.

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Had a photo gathering session on the south side yesterday. Threw the Go Pro Hero cam on for a few.

VIDEO HERE



Airtime: 1:30. Flights: 5.

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After over 24 hrs of cure time, I was really excited and a bit nervous to pull the carbon off the new molds. Dustin had given me some advice that I was hopeful would pay off and after pulling the molds out of the vacuum bag, I was relieved when the parts pulled perfectly and cleanly. The new back plate and boot got trimmed, sanded and prepared to receive finish coats before bed last night.





Kara and I have some friends visiting from Minnesota and Aaron likes to fly fish so, we made a plan to get up early and use fishing as an excuse to stand in a beautiful river in the back country. We stayed up late last night so 6 am came quick. As usual, soon after I got my lazy ass out of bed and a pot of coffee in me, I was so glad to be awake. The sun came up and we made the hour drive to a nice run on Fish Creek. Aaron was psyched when, in typical Montana style, we passed a covey of Turkey, tons of Whitetail deer and a cow elk on our way to the river.



The fishing turned out to be difficult but we managed to pull a few on tiny nymphs.



When I got back to the house, I had nothing but carbon and sewing on the brain. I managed to get the boot halves together, the back plate finished to the point where I could draw some patterns from it, and after hanging the carbon to cure, sat at the sewing machine for the rest of the afternoon and evening. Can't wait to fly in this one.

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A friend from work was really into learning how to hang glide this season and began his training hill lessons about three weeks before I left for Europe. He was doing extremely well with a natural ability to remain relaxed in the air. It wasn't long before he was launching from the top of the hill, controling roll and approaching into good flare timing. On one of the last lesson mornings before I left, he pulled his quad badly and was unable to run so the break was welcome for him to heal completely. I came back and he picked up right where he left off. One of the first mornings back, we went to the hill with moderately windy conditions so he could experience being pushed around and to put what he has learned about how to ground handle in wind (gusting to 8;-) to good use. He did great and was ready for an instructive tandem before a last lesson followed by his fist high flight.

Here is a short video of his last couple of flights on the last day at the training hill


We woke for his last lesson to completely still conditions. I must say, I'm always plesently surprised at how good if feels to get up really early and set a falcon up as the sun is rising. Something about the perfectly mowed grass and the quiet. Besides the birds waking up, only a few are out and about. It's also really satisfying to see another person stoked on learning how to fly hang gliders. Launch after launch went off without a hitch and ended in Alex on his feet, smiling at the bottom of the training hill. The conditions caused him to have to pay attention to his angle of attack while running hard but was otherwise easy for him. We're both psyched about meeting up later this week for his first high flight.

Later in the day I met up with a student from last year for a flight from Mt. Sentinel. Sentinel is a hang 4 site because the LZ can be a bit restricted and sporty at times. Paul has had around 40 high flights and has the abilities to set up a sound approach and to land with consistency. Our club agreed that a H-2 with the appropriate skills could be "sponsored" by another pilot, H-4 or above, to fly from Mt Sentinel to build their experience level before trying to soar it in active conditions. The site has airspace issues, landing zone issues and is behind a locked gate that remains delicate. The pilots in Missoula are very careful and conservative with such a precious rescource. I can't describe how nice it is to have a really good HG site right over the town we live in. The convenience and interaction with the community are unparalleled.

Here is a couple of photos of Mt Sentinel.

Jeff and I race toward Mt Deanstone for another climb


landing at the LZ

Paul did great with a perfect launch and an approach that was identical to his plan. He pulled off a no stepper right in the middle of the LZ. I launched the T2C right after he landed and got to spin and loop my way to the deck. We were both feeling buzzed in the LZ, breaking down with the warm sun setting. Pretty cool day.
My friend Jimmy used to say "when you get to be outside to see the sun come up and go down, you know you kicked that day in the ass". I would have to agree;-)

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I despise being bored so to have such an engaging project to be motivated to work on has been the perfect way to make time fly between comps. I used to come home and really need time, about a week usually, to readjust and to find the groove of the home and work routine. Being at a comp has it's own routine but being at home, with work and the balance and fulfillment that I find from my family, although obviously familiar, takes a little time to settle into again. The schedule of getting up and putting on scrubs to go to the hospital to see patients at 3:30am isn't quite the same as getting up for coffee at normal hours, wearing flip flops and shorts, while waiting for the team meeting or pilot briefing to start. It's not that I'm complaining, it's just a different song to dance to.



This time has been a bit different though. Along with the huge joy that comes from seeing my family, I have a new work project that has been keeping me busy and smiling. The difference between it and my work at the hospital is that I can't wait to work on it. A normal work day is to get up at 2:45am to shower, get to the hospital and work a 12 hr shift in the ICU, come home and get some design/sewing/carbon work done for a couple of hours, go to pick up Nya and spend the evening hanging out with her and Kara when she gets home from work. I try hard to be here, now 100% so it's this quiet family time that allows me to relax and recoup until we read books and put Nya to bed. Then, after Kara and I hang out a bit (especially if she has a website to work on) I go back down to the shop for a late night of work on the harness project. I am so motivated to get this prototype done and as it takes shape, I am more and more excited to fly in it. I really feel like it's transforming into a product that all at Wills Wing will be proud of.



I have arrived at the point where the sewing can't really go any further until the carbon is done so yesterday was all about the lay up. After getting valuable advise from Dustin (who is much more savvy with carbon work than I) I prepared the surface of the molds and got to it. I laid up the back plate and boot halves and got them in the vacuum bag to cure for 24-30 hours. I will pull them tonight and get to trimming and finishing the parts. I can't wait to see the shape take form. I just have to build my design for the capture system of the two piece back plate and finish the deployment bag capture on the inner skin before I instal the carbon and hang in it. To anyone who is interested or has been following this project at all, I'm stoked. It's coming along very well;-)



After getting the carbon in the bag, I took a hike with my dogs behind the house and was lucky enough to watch a major cu-nim drop virga and a nice rainbow out from under it's "shelf". I only had the camera on my phone so the photo kinda sucks but it was quite beautiful.

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ryan@wingsoverwasatch.com gave me a Go Pro Hero cam to try out. Took it on a bike ride this evening. A wreck up the canyon gave me the opportunity to weave through the jam.

VIDEO HERE

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One more photo from the South Side a couple of seasons ago by Adam West or Alex McCulloch



Rented Seth a falcon and met him out at the south side. Started low on the training slope and worked quickly to the top. His last flight he soared and pulled a top landing when he after sensory overload from the flight. Made his month perhaps.

I took hops on the falcon in between Seth's flying.

Great to see the KAVU and KEEN folks this past week.

Airtime: 30. Flights: 5.

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I was hanging at the outdoor retail show in SLC this past week and Seth Warren (KAVU) was in town promoting himself, looking to film, and fly.

A couple of photos taken a while ago out at the south side by Adam West or Alex McCulloch:



We were late, but it was on when we arrived at 10am Thursday. Will Viktora, a photographer from Flagstaff happened to be in town and he joined for the morning.



I jammed my glider together, followed Seth's direction with the shots he wanted, and had a nice session. Sliders, downwind passes, low level flying... we made the morning work.

Airtime: 1:00. Flights: 5.

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On Saturday I went up to Squak Peak, set up my glider and a camera mount in the heat and proceeded to sweat profusely waiting on launchable wind. It never came, and for the first time in years, Inspo. had completely skunked me.

I got up at 5am on Sunday and headed out to the south side to redeem myself. Winds built during the morning and there were a few pilots out from Colorado on their way to King.



Gabe and Julian, the Telluride boys diving for cover.

BTW - in case anyone reading this cares, there's absolutely no boycott from US Team pilots regarding the King meet. Zippy's in Zapata, Shapiro has to work, I have to attend the outdoor retailer show in SLC which is in direct conflict with the meet, and Dustin and Davis have no interest in King. The underlying politics over Big Spring and the King meet is BS and only undermines the sport. I hope the King meet has cu's til sunset and records are broken.



Had a great morning trying to get just the right shot. Did slider after slider after slider and finally twisted my ankle well enough to end my day. Swollen and sore today.

Airtime: 2:00. Flights: 10.

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A couple days after returning to Missoula with Shapiro, we put camera mounts on our gliders and "had a fly" as Joshie likes to say ;)



Dead trees behind launch.

Frankly the flight was just ehh. I got up over 12k in a sharp thermal a couple of miles to the south, but I think the poor handling from the camera mount and perhaps fatigue made it less enjoyable than it should have been. Flying beats most activities on any day though, and I told myself to appreciate it more...

The commercial jets coming into Missoula do pass right through the HG airspace and one airliner came floating out of the blue like a shark underwater and glided past. I turned away from it as it passed well beneath me a mile away.

I was thankful for the decompression and creative time with Jeff and his family. We're like minded and motivated and enthusiasm was bred over a few pots of coffee and some work late at night in the basement. The past has been great and the future will be even better as we continue to bliss out in the present.

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