Dave Aldrich is a WW crew member who's deep into media and flies out of Marshall and Crestline in the San Bernardino mountains. Here's a nice example of his work along with a couple of links to his site. Check em' all out:

VIDEO HERE WITH BLOG



VIMEO CHANNEL

Nice work Dave.

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It's BLACK FRIDAY - Wills Wing has been open since midnight with DEALS on HG gear. Did you hear about Linda Meier almost being trampled by shopper pilots as she opened the door this morning? - CLICK HERE

Become a FAN of Wills Wing on Facebook - HERE

WILLS WING YouTube Channel

More videos to come... Let us know if you want to see an instructional video on something specific.

VIDEO FROM AJX FLY-IN



"Consume the day" :)

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I had the pleasure of meeting Terry and his wife Chris Reynolds while we were in Texas at the Big Spring comp. Through some of the initial conversation, I learned that Terry and Chris both shared my facination and admiration for raptors and the practice of falconry. Because I have been devoting most of my time and energy in the development of the new comp harness, I've been living falconry vicariously through their adventures with their Red Tail, Bud.



It's funny. I've been the lucky observer of some of the most sizzeling stoops by Peregrins while training them to hunt pheasants and I always love to watch my birds "roll over" at the beginning of the stoop so that they can get vertical without taking their eyes off their prey.


Bud "on approach"

This is a great series of their Red Tail, Bud, making such a stoop on a "bagged" pheasant. Seeing a hawk make this type of approach gives me hope that one day, we might learn how to make a hang glider do it;-) You never know.








Pheasant for lunch;-)

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"A Weekend at Edward's - 09'"




I spent Sunday morning with Delicate Arch.

Almost exactly a year ago, I took the weekend to reacquaint myself with "Edward's place" - Moab, UT and it's surroundings. If you can't get there, read "Desert Solitare" by Ed Abbey - the most accurate account of the area in my opinion. This past weekend, I had the opportunity to see Ed's place again. It was inspiring as always.







Saturday afternoon in Double Arch.



Here's my blog post from last year:

"Do not jump into your automobile next June & rush out to the canyon country ... In the first place, you can't see anything from a car; you've got to get out of the god-damned contraption & walk, better yet crawl, on hands and knees, over the sandstone & through the thornbush & cactus. When traces of blood begin to mark your trail, you'll see something, maybe. Probably not. In the second place, most of what I write about in this book is already gone or going fast. This is not a travel guide but an elegy. A memorial. You're holding a tombstone in your hands. A bloody rock. Don't drop it on your foot — throw it at something big & glassy. What have you got to lose?"

— Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire



The greater Moab area certainly doesn't belong to Edward Abbey, but his writings about it parallel my feelings pretty well. I spent last weekend in and around the Moab area sight seeing.

Friday I went for a hike through the fisher towers area. A climbing party happened to be rapelling a route called Ancient Art, and I stopped for a photo.



Like much of the desert, the Fisher Towers area is usually filled with complete silence. Silence so still it's quite loud in your ears. It's a silence that's rarely experienced anymore. We get used to the drone of the refrigerator, the low grade hum of the hot water heater. Even a home in the middle of nowhere isn't silent.

Coupled with the silence is the acoustics in the area. Climbers can talk in a normal tone of voice to hikers hundreds of feet away. You can hear the wing beats of a raven a few cliffs away.

I wanted to hit all my favorites, so in the afternoon I stopped by Dead Horse Point. The light wasn't flattering, but the scene was still sufficiently impressive.



After Dead Horse, it was a race out on Mineral Bottom Road to the Horsethief Canyon area. Much like Dead Horse only on a smaller scale, the Mineral Bottom area is really special to me due to the camping and flying I've done with friends in the area. I've been coming to the cliff since 2000. The best camping spot I know.



Walked out to the cliff with the dog to share a "sundowner" - We spent the last light enjoying the mirror finish on the Green R. and surrounding red rock cliffs.

After hiking back to the car, we decided to have a bit of a fire as camping parties had left quite a bit of firewood. We waited until the stars came out in the moonless sky before extinguishing the remaining flames and heading back toward town.



Like the silence, the stars are more profound in the desert. Far away from light pollution, the moonless sky lets you see deep into the universe. Constellations get lost among the more distant stars easily visible in the pure darkness. Don't stare too long though - you're liable to get lost in your own insignificance.

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Tool of the trade:


On Tuesday I came back from lunch and decided I didn't feel like working on pods, so I hopped in the T2 without my wallet, phone, or packup gear. The lines worked so well that after a few minutes I was on my way to Wallaby. I just couldn't give up such a good day this late in the year. On my way down an Atos passed under me heading the opposite direction. After turning at Wallaby I soon found myself on a 15 mile final from about 4700 feet into a light headwind. My wing ate that for lunch and had about 500 feet to spare.
Joe Bostik came over Wednesday and took my glider out for a test fly and didn't come back until late in the day after doing basically the same exact flight with a similar late day long final. Two days of out and back about 45 miles each time in late November. That's pretty sweet.

Here's the pink Dragonfly being packed into a 53 foot sea container for it's journey to Puerto Rico. Jamie, Ricker, and I are going to down there next month to do some tandems, freeflying, charity work, and party. This is just the beginning:

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KAVU - Busy Livin'

http://www.kavu.com/ - There isn't a cooler company. We appreciate KAVU's desire to showcase hang gliding. They are a company that lives and breathes the "local worldwide" vibe. Check out the goods and the team blog. Fun!




ELEMENTS BABY!!!

The Elements Project will premier in January. Stay tuned for more news. Click on the link above and below.

ELEMENTS ON USHPA



Photo by Will Viktora from a filming session.

New Crew Member blog:

LARRY BUNNER'S BLOG

Thanks to Alex McCulloch for this link:

DUCT TAPE PLANE REPAIR

"Yea - a bear tore apart the plane. Send me some Saran Wrap and a few rolls of Duct Tape and I'll git her home."



Photo by Ricker Goldsborough

Non-Profit status for a free flying charitable organization continues spear-headed by Ricker Goldsborough. It's all happening.

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HG pilots making a difference...

LINK HERE

UPDATE: Efforts are in progress to file for non-profit status and create a free flight foundation to search and research the most needy charitable organizations wherever we travel to fly and attempt to provide assistance. This is a HG / PG project and documents will be submitted by the end of this week. More to come...

Hang glider pilots literally around the world came together to raise over $4000 for charities on our trip to Ecuador. During my first trip there last year, it was heartbreaking to look into the slums from the highway at the squalor. With a little video and a lot of help from folks like Ricker Goldsborough, we found very worthy charities to help.



Father Frank's nurses, Maria and Obemia, (right and left-who have been with him for 35 years - with one of the school's teachers center) in front of the pile of medicines and nutritional supplements for the malnourished. We've pledged to raise $6000 for Father Frank's mission. ($500 per month for a year to cover the clinic's medicine bill)



Father Frank's blog




Some of the slum dwellers the supplements and medicines are helping.



More funds are needed, and if you care to donate CLICK HERE



Father Frank's daycare currently has an enrollment of 45. Most of the babies come from single mother homes. The cost of the daycare is $4 a MONTH.

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Sunday was going to be bluebird and it had been quite a while since I had the time and opportunity to climb in the mountains with Gibisch. We hung out the friday before and after some shit talk, hatched a plan to spend a short day in Blodget Canyon to do a quick route in the sun. It was supposed to stay between 20-30 degrees F on Sunday and the canyon forms a venturi that can bite in the winter so we were into doing something that we could move fast on to stay warm.





We met up for coffee late morning (Missoula alpine start;-) and made it to the trail head around 11. The parking lot and trail are on the shady side of the canyon and there was still a dusting from a snow shower the day before. Seemed like we might have cold hands in our future.



Blodget is one of the unique features close to Missoula that draws me to this place. It's lined on one side with South exposed walls and spires of granite. The routes have an "alpine rock" feel, contain sections that sometimes require adventurous route finding, and are high quality in terms of exposure and experience.





I always find high value in hanging out with Chris in the mountains. Even though I was admittedly a little rusty, it felt like old times and it felt great to be on a route in the winter in Montana. Even though the climbing was mellow, we enjoyed every minute of it.



We topped out and scrambled down snow covered ledges until we were able to rappel the rest of the way to the deck. Walking the 45 minutes or so back to the truck in the dusk was satisfying and familiar. Just what I needed to recharge the batteries.

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Some of the mid-western WW crew on the shores of Lake Michigan. Way to exploit the dunes on the Great Lakes! Thanks to Wes Schield.

VIDEO HERE

An excerpt from Wes: "Kevin (Sheridan?) was the Ambassador of the Asian Invasion today. When he landed, he was swarmed by site seers. I'm not sure if he gave out any autographs but everyone wanted to both take his picture and have their picture with Kev, it was great."

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Daniel's EXCITING launch



Some Landings



Thanks to Daniel Velez - Check in around 1:00 for Dustin's pass.

VIDEO HERE



SOME LANDINGS



AN OVERVIEW OF CANOA



SLIDESHOW

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