By Jeff O'Brien on 2/26/2010 4:13 AM

Wintertime at Lookout

More from Eric Donaldson - Eric received a shiny new T2C over the winter and has been honing his skills with some sporadic flying.

VIDEO HERE



VIDEO HERE



Check out his blog: HERE

Thanks boys.

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By Jeff O'Brien on 2/24/2010 5:39 AM

Thanks to Eric Donaldson and the Lookout crew for passing this along:

VIDEO HERE

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By Jeff O'Brien on 2/16/2010 4:39 AM

Picking out colors for a new glider - one of the most enjoyable tasks. Which of the below did I choose? None :)

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By Jeff O'Brien on 2/14/2010 7:57 AM

Zippy last week landing on the beach.

VIDEO HERE

Thanks to Jonathan Dietch for the video and link.



;) The T2C is an energy retention machine.

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By Jeff O'Brien on 2/11/2010 5:39 AM

Christina Ammon, writer and PG pilot is closing in on the conclusion of a VERY unique fund raising project supporting VERY worthy charities.

"With This Ring Website"

If the ring sells, Chris is planning on donating $3000 to the bilingual school in Canoa Ecuador to support a teacher's salary for a year.

"The Cloudbase Foundation" exists and non-profit status is being finalized by Ricker Goldsborough. The Cloudbase Foundation website here"


Zippy's glider.

Free flight pilots are coordinating their efforts to pull the organization together in a very organic way and search for worthy charities to assist where "we" travel to. Ricker as been the primary motivator and I'm indebted to him for his tireless work ethic.



Father Frank, from the Mill Hill Mission in Guayaquil, Ecuador is still receiving our assistance, and we're committed to raising $500 per month to send him for medicines and nutritional supplements in his clinic.

Father Frank's website

Here are excerpts from Father Frank's latest e-mails:

WHAT A WONDERFUL SURPRISE!!THANK YOU VERY VERY MUCH. THE $1000 ARRIVED IN MY BANK READY TO BE USED. YOU AND THE TEAM HAVE HELPED US TREMENDOUSLY IN THE DISPENSARY. MARIA LUISA WILL ORDER THE MEDICINES TOMORROW.


Father Frank has been sending me receipts of his purchases.

WE ORDERED THE MEDICINES AND THEY ARE NOW IN OUR BOTICA IN THE DISPENSARY.I ENCLOSE A COPY OF THE PAYMENTS. I HOPE THEY WILL BE CLEAR TO READ. THE TOTAL AMOUNT COMES TO JUST OVER $1000. MANY MANY THANKS. THERE IS A LOT OF SICKNESS AT THIS TIME OF THE YEAR.THE HEAT IS SUFFOCATING. THE HOSPITALS ARE FULL ASND SOME PEOPLE ARE BEING NTURNED AWAY.

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By Jeff O'Brien on 2/1/2010 7:13 PM

Dr. Batman has been on it...

Dr. Adam West has been having some nice flights in South Africa, Porterville to be specific:

CLICK HERE

AND HERE

All photos by Adam West.



133km down the road with no planned retrieve.



Taking an unconventional line going out into the valley.



Picturesque ZA.
Cheers Bro.

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By Jeff O'Brien on 1/27/2010 9:41 PM

Adam West and Grove flew Signal Hill at the base of Table Mountain, South Africa recently. Here's an excerpt of the account:

From Dr. Adam West's blog: CLICK HERE



Video by Adam West. Here's an excerpt from his BLOG

We climbed out rapidly into the classic, laminar air and headed for Lion's Head. Cloudbase was close to the top of Lion's Head, so we couldn't head for the Apostles. Instead, we boated around the site, out over Bantry Bay and Sea Point staying just under the cloud.



Photo by Adam West.

We glided together for long stretches comparing the performance of our wings, sometimes flying wing-tip to wing-tip. My Wills Wing U2 145 held it's own against Grove's bigger U2 160. These are fantastic gliders.



Photo of Grove by Adam West.

More from Adam tomorrow. Thanks bro.

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By Jeff O'Brien on 1/19/2010 7:52 PM

Wolfi Swooooping

Wolfgang Ziess having some swooping practice.

VIDEO HERE



:) Great stuff.

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By Jeff O'Brien on 1/12/2010 7:28 PM

Jeff Beck floating his 10 year old daughter at the beach:

VIDEO HERE

Kiwanda Kid from Beck on Vimeo.

Here's Jeff's Bio:

In 1998 I saw a hang glider for sale in a local classifieds publication in Bellingham, Washington. the next day I picked up the double surface WW sport and stashed it in my best friends garage for fear of getting divorced. It looked nothing like the regallos I had seen as a kid and I was in awe of her. By luck I found an instructor locally who thought I could learn on it and soon a new pilot was born.


Jeff Launching - All photos courtesy of Jeff Beck. NWHG.net

A few years later I attended my first HG Instructor certification class driven by my love for the sport and a desire to get new pilots involved. Through the years I have learned as much from my students as they have from me and I continue to enjoy teaching. My school is a simple operation focusing on the hands on approach using a combination of training hill,scooter towing, and boat towing. It feels great knowing that I represent a company like Wills Wing and appreciate their support for the flying community.





These days I enjoy taking my 10 year old daughter tandem when I can talk her into it and try to fly XC when ever possible. Most of the time I fly my T2 154 and some days a falcon 2 tandem. I feel so fortunate to be in an area with so many places to fly and the possibilities of many more. I love working to open new sites and continue to help build a new community of pilots that make flying up here so special. You can learn more about my instructional program and see some of our beautiful sites by visiting my website at NWHG.net





Thanks Jeff.

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By Jeff O'Brien on 1/11/2010 6:32 AM

Matt Barker is a Wills Wing Crew member to watch. Here's a bio on Matt:

I learned at Kitty Hawk summer of 2000. Worked there off and on Summers of ’01 and ’02 and man what a blast that was! After that I helped start Ground Industries with 2 friends. We make mountain boards and just this year are making longboards too. Check us out at GROUND INDUSTRIES And my blog is FLYINBARKER.COM



Matt happy?:) about his new U2. (Photos Courtesy of Matt Barker)

As far as memorable flights…Early November 2002 up at Woodstock in N. Virginia was a good one. I launched and turned N to fly 9.5 miles to the end of the ridge and then back. At that point that was the farthest I had ever flown away from a primary LZ so I was stoked with that. Little did I know what I was about to get into! As I got back to launch I was 1500’ over. I noticed an area on the ridge that was collecting thermals and I stayed there and got up to 3000’ over launch. This was without a vario but I did have the altimeter on my watch. I was new to thermaling so to gain another 1500’ was killer. Again, I was stoked.

At this point the air got really smooth and the wind picked up considerably. Lift was everywhere and I eventually figured out that I was in a wave. I surfed the wave with everybody else that got up in the lower thermals for the next hour and got to about 10,000’. I was over 9K above the LZ, flying with the bar at my hips and couldn’t tell from that height which field was the LZ…I loved it! It took almost an hour to finally get down. We were all amazed at the flights we had and spent the rest of the night re-living the day! Amazing day for the East Coast!



Now I’m really excited to be getting into comps. I picked up a brand new U2 160 this past August and I went to team Challenge in October and had a great there. I will be at the Rob Kells meet this April and flying my U2 in the sport class. I’m looking forward to learning a lot, flying, and meeting new peeps! I can’t wait.

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