Branches. The News Magazine of The Tennessee Tree Toppers. Fall Issue

Transcription

1 The News Magazine of The Tennessee Tree Toppers Fall Issue September 2009

2 Page 2 Table of Contents The Prez s Perch by Steve Lee 3 The TTT is Going Green by Keith & Ricker 3 A Funny Thing Happened... by Steve Lee 4 How to Gain Confidence for XC Flying by Ollie Gregory 5 The Ramp Plaque Project by Keith Atkins 7 The Beaufort Wind Scale by James Anderson 8 The Lesson by Brent Benoist 10 A Self-Taught Amateur s Guide to Editing by Keith 11 High Altitude Flying by James Anderson 12 Big Spring 09 - Newbie on the Prairie by Ricker 13 The TTT Gallery 15 Please Support Our 2009 Team Challenge Sponsors A-I-R ATOS USA - Jim Lamb Dunlap Tri-County Bank Flytec USA - Steve Kroop Green Life Grocery of Chattanooga Gunnison Gliders - Rusty Whitley Icaro Gipsy - Customer Service Department Leafy Tees - Tip Rogers Lookout Mountain Flight Park - Matt Taber Maui Jim Sunglasses - Dave Mahalo Moyes USA - Kraig Coomber The Oz Report - Davis Straub Prater PTT - Steve Prater Red Bull - Lisa Poepsel - The Wings Team Spot GPS - Raquel Talarico Wallaby Ranch - Malcolm Jones If you are interested in becoming a TTT Sponsor, contact Ricker Goldsborough or any TTT BOD member. Individual pilots are encouraged to donate their time, talents, and cash contributions towards the growth of the TTT. Available on the TTT Website Your 2009 TTT Board of Directors Steve Lee James Anderson Lucas Ridley Ricker Goldsborough Keith Atkins Buddy Cutts Jeff Dodgen Eric Donaldson Ollie Gregory Kathy Lee Mike Nash Jeff Nibler Mark Poling Dan Shell Jeff Wilson Links Videos Photos By-laws Waypoints Documents Site Information Automated Soar Casting Flight Regulatory Program Download a Color Copy of the News Magazine President Vice President Secretary Treasurer Newsletter Web Master Advisory Awards Competition Safety By-laws Membership Social Advisory Maintenance Volunteer to help with one of the committees AND Run for the BOD in 2010!

3 Page 3 The Prez s Perch September 2009 by Steve Lee Howdy Everyone, In the near future you will receive by mail the BOD ballots for These ballots will also be available on the TTT web site for everyone s convenience. Please vote each year for your favorite 15 nominees who have agreed to help the club by running for the BOD. Our club did not become the #1 club in America by flying, alone. Fifteen of your friends dedicate much more than just airtime during the year by serving on the BOD and they deserve a few minutes of your time to complete and return your ballot. Surprise your friends this year and make them count more ballots than any time in Tree Topper history. Make sure you are a current member. If you are not current during the election months (October-December), you will not receive a ballot in the mail or be eligible to vote. If you are not current when you fly, you are one of the nearly extinct banditos. I always recommend joining the TTT on a special occasion such as the first of the year or on your birthday, for example. The club maintains a current membership list but expects you to know your expiration date and re-new on time. If you have any doubt, just sign up again. Your extremely cheap dues will be put to good use and you will know you are current. BOD members have expressed concerns that our dues are simply too low to meet our financial obligations. You will likely get to vote on this issue in the near future. Referendum votes are rare, but very important, so please be sure to participate. The club has realtors and BOD members investigating the purchase of a Whitwell LZ. This has been a club priority since the early 1980's and the search continues to this day. The flat portion of TTT s famous radial ramp needed re-decking so volunteers worked from May through September to finish the job. If you did not contribute financially or physically to this historic re-build project, you can help on other club projects. Kathy Lee just flew 65 miles to Fort Payne, Alabama where I barely survived the sink hole. I climbed out and landed 97 miles out, just south of Rockwood, Georgia. There's nothing more fun than hang gliding. Steve Lee, TTT Prez TTT The TTT is Going Green by Keith Atkins and Ricker Goldsborough Our goal to become a Grass Roots Environmental Organization (GREO) starts with YOU. I m only one person. How can I help preserve our environment? By deciding to be a protector of our life raft in space, you can make a real difference through recycling and conserving natural resources. Think about it. You model your values with every decision you make. What kind of role model do you want to be for others? In what condition do you want to leave the Earth for your family, children, and wildlife? The TTT has decided to Go Green and we re starting with Team Challenge There are valuable benefits for all of us if we follow some simple guidelines and make smart decisions about recycling and conserving. By doing so, we demonstrate our concern for the environment and stand to gain major corporate sponsorships for our club. Everyone wins! The TTT is researching methods for implementing the required standards and practices necessary for GREO status. Your Involvement and participation is essential for our success. Here are some ways you can help: 1. Bring your own utensils, plates, bowls, and cups to use during Team Challenge. Washing and reusing your own stuff reduces the amount of trash that goes into landfills and oceans. 2. Buy your drinks in aluminum cans and dispose of the empties in designated aluminum recycle containers. 3. Do not buy or use Styrofoam products or plastic shopping bags. If you must buy products in plastic containers or made of plastic, make sure they have the recycle emblem on them and dispose in the designated plastic recycle bin. We will have separate recycle bins for glass and paper products. Be sure to dispose of each type of waste in the proper place. 4. Car pool for retrieves, when running errands, and when going out to eat. Buy only biodegradable detergent, soap, and shampoo. Take quick showers to reduce the amount of water, electricity, and gas you use. Turn off lights when not in use. 5. Buy only locally grown fruits and vegetables and limit your consumption of meat. This will reduce your carbon load, cut down on pollution, and help you to live a longer, healthier life. 6. Learn more by calculating your carbon impact at: Share novel ideas for living the green life with your friends and family. Each of us leaves a footprint on the environment. Have you checked your shoe size, lately? Consider Our Environment and GO GREEN with the Tennessee Tree Toppers! TTT

4 Page 4 A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Chelan by Steve Lee I live near Henson Gap, Tennessee and when the East Coast Championship was held here a few years ago, I decided to give competition a try. After placing 3rd on a Wills Wing Ram Air, Rob Kells asked if I would fly his newest glider, the Wills Wing XC, in the upcoming Chelan Nationals. I had no more vacation time for the year and it was a real bummer telling Rob I could not go. He faxed a very well written leave request to my employer and the next thing I knew Kathy and I were headed to Washington! We landed in Seattle and rented a brand new Mazda MVP minivan with only four miles on the odometer. The van was so new we decided to purchase the extra full coverage insurance plan for the week. We drove around the corner and picked up Kathy s glider that we had shipped out earlier and it fit perfectly on top of the van. My brother, Doug, who would be our driver for the meet lived in Wenatchee and I wanted to call him right away. Kathy spotted a pay phone and I pulled up to make the call without even getting out of the air conditioned van. Nobody was home so we headed for Chelan. KA-BOOM! I forgot to straighten the steering wheel and drove the driver s door into a concrete post beside the phone. I backed the van off the post and we checked out the badly damaged door. The van had just six miles on the odometer and it sure was a good feeling to get that first ding out of the way. We drove on towards Chelan recovering from the door damage looking forward to some fantastic hang gliding. There were over 130 pilots in the meet including Three-time World Champion, Thomas Sucanik. I flew the entire course line with him one day and led the way from time to time. I didn't know I was flying with him until my brother, Jim, radioed the information to me. On the last day, I was in third place and confident I could take second. I blasted out fast and shot across the Columbia River only to sink out and land on the flats. Many pilots made goal that day but I was humbled to go from hero to zero on the last day. I finished in 12th place but only the top 10 pilots received awards. Our plane was scheduled to leave early the next day so we left Kathy s glider with my family to ship back to Tennessee. The van had collected a thick coating of Chelan/Mt. St. Helen dust inside and out but we didn't have time to clean it up. Despite getting up early, we were running late for the drive to the airport. My harness bag got hung on the rear seat belt and, as I tried to pull it free, I tore a massive hole in the headliner. The damaged door, heavy dust and torn headliner made the brand new van look like a clunker. Kathy drove through the early morning wilderness when the out of gas light caught her attention. In the middle of nowhere, we saw a sign for gas with an arrow pointing the way. We drove many paranoid miles deeper into the backwoods. The van began to sputter just as we rolled into a secluded Mom & Pop gas station. We laughed with relief as we filled the tank and checked the time. It was going to be close but we knew we could make it if we hurried. Kathy drove fast the rest of the way to SeaTac airport. We circled the airport perimeter looking for the Car Rental Return sign but entered a huge parking lot by mistake. There was a traffic jam inside and once we finally found the exit, gates and tickets were required for exiting. We did not have a ticket. Kathy asked me, Now what are we going to do?! I said, Honey, just stay on that guy s bumper in front of us and get through that dang gate, we can still make the plane! She did a great job and my advice worked like clockwork...until the gate dropped on top of the van and made a terrible noise screeching across the roof like fingernails on a chalkboard. Next, we felt the jolt of a spiked bar that popped out of the pavement and punctured a rear tire. The security guard began yelling for us to Stop! as we sped onto the freeway. We did not get very far, though, because Kathy had to pull over when the tire went totally flat. Just then, the Dollar Rent-A-Car shuttle bus came by so I jumped out and flagged down the driver. I told him we had a few problems with the car and were about to miss our plane. He helped us load our bags and gear onto his shuttle and hurried on to the Dollar rental office. The rental agent wanted us to fill out an accident report but there just wasn't enough time. Kathy said, There's been no accident...we had a flat and left the van around the corner... our plane leaves in 15 minutes! They quickly loaded us into a shuttle that drove right back by our abandoned van and the shuttle driver just had to stop and take a look. Through all the dust you could still see the demolished door, ruined roof, hanging headliner, and torn-up tire. The van looked like it had been left in a battle zone for many years. Kathy and I crouched lower until the shuttle finally moved on. We sprinted from the shuttle to the airport terminal and reached the gate just as they were about to close the plane s door. We collapsed into our seats, looked at each other with relieved disbelief, and laughed all the way home. We had as much fun on the ground as we did in the sky. We never heard anything from Dollar Rent-A-Car and were so glad we bought that full coverage insurance plan. Thanks again to the late Rob Kells who made that great vacation possible. There's nothing more fun than hang gliding. Steve Lee TTT

5 Page 5 How To Gain Confidence For XC Flying by Ollie Gregory There you are at cloud base. It s cool, literally, and so pretty. You climbed well in the nice lift. As well as anyone! You re proud of yourself for getting up smoothly in the generous thermal you found near launch. That was pretty easy! You float around and eventually the lift under the nice cumie fades. Now what? You aren t ready to land yet, but you don t feel confident about gliding across the valley to the next promising looking cloud. You re hesitant to attempt landing in an unfamiliar field. You don t want to hassle with calling buddies for help to get you back to home base. If you don t hit another thermal, you just boat around a while and end up landing back in the old familiar LZ, again. Nice and comforting. It was a good day. You ve done this dozens and dozens of times and it is becoming a little routine. You are thinking about starting to stretch yourself a little. Maybe go XC and see some new sights or at least get out of a short glide to the LZ. Maybe the stories the XC pilots tell sound like a lot of fun. After all, you have been climbing and landing as well as them lately. Hmmm? OK! Here s a sure fire way to improve the skills you need for beginning XC without having to stick your neck out very far. It is fun and rewarding to learn new skills and hone them to a confidence-inspiring edge. You can do all this right in the comfortable air around your old familiar LZ. Here we go! The most important skills to have in hang gliding after picking safe conditions in which to fly are consistent launching and landing skills. Ask your mentors how your launches and landings look. Ask a friend to video several and critique them. Go to your instructor and flying mentor for advice and practice, practice, practice until you ve got that down. Next, pick a different area in your huge LZ and make that your target for spot landing practice. Be sure you can hit it. Use your parallax vision to help you set up and land on that spot where you don t have your usual visual cues to help guide you. You won t have familiar cues in some XC landing fields, but you will have some cues. Practice watching trees, leaves and flags for wind direction and velocity. Practice setting up to land close to the downwind end of your familiar landing field. This will help you when you must land short on a cross country LZ. You can practice this on every flight until you have it down. Doing this will improve your short field landing skill. There is a lot to learn, here. It warrants a separate article. On an XC flight you plan to fly from good landing options to good landing options. How do you figure out where you can get to on a glide? It sounds scary to try this because you might not make that glide to your chosen LZ and there may not be any good options if you don t. Most XC pilots fly from one super easy glide to a big LZ to the next one, and so on. It is an intimidating prospect if you don t really know how far you can glide. Here s what I do to practice this skill. I mostly fly mountain sites so I can set the launch as my practice glide ratio marker. I go pretty far out and try to glide in with just enough altitude to make it over launch and turn away. Then, if conditions are good enough, I climb and do it again from another angle and perhaps from further away. You don t need a fancy Flytec 6030 for this but one does make it really easy to succeed. Few people know that the top competition pilots racing into goal use only their eyes during the last few miles. This skill relies upon the same parallax visual perception you should be using to spot land. The point ahead that isn t moving toward or away from you is the point where you will end up. Practice going faster or slower toward a point and see what the speed adjustments do to your glide ratio. If a spot is moving toward you, you will overfly it. If a spot is moving away from you, you will not reach it on your current glide path. With this practice, you ll gain a better feel for what to do in sinking vs. lifting vs. stable air to get to your desired destination. It is fun in the mountains where you can play in the valley in front of your launch and glide back toward the top of the mountain. If you make a mistake, you just head to the valley, thermal up again, or land in the bail-out LZ below your launch. In the flatlands, you can practice getting to your LZ with 1000 feet or whatever you are comfortable with that will allow you an opportunity to thermal up and do it again. To do this you must fly toward a spot not moving up or down in your visual field that is beyond your LZ. Practice this on every flight and you will develop this valuable skill. Now what? Practice getting up in weak lift. Scratching up from low is a skill the experienced XC pilots use much more that you might expect. We don t just cruise along at cloud base checking out the tiny little people mowing their lawns and taking out their garbage. When you practice scratching up, you gain lots of confidence and the skills that will make it easy to hang-on to those snaky thermal cores while less practiced pilots flail around and sink out. To do this, have a great flight first. Launch and fly around until you have had your fill and are getting a little bored. Then run out a ways and glide back to launch height, find some lift and climb until you are sure you have that thermal centered, and then you bail out! Yep, you bail out of a nice climb and go out into the valley to waste a Continued on page 6

6 Page 6 How To Gain Confidence For XC Flying continued from page 5 little altitude in order to get a little lower than where you caught that last one. You search out another area of lift and work it up. When you have it centered and you have some altitude, you bail out, descend a little lower than last time, and do it again. This will really help build your confidence because you are honing the number one skill for XC > finding and centering lift with efficiency. Now you know what I m doing out there! So, you do this until you are getting sort of low, but not so low that you are uncomfortable. Now you practice Do Not Land tactics. You aren t done yet! You practice floating around above your selected LZ in whatever lift is available. You may find a core that will get you up again. Whoo Hooo A low save! Or you may just extend the inevitable landing. You will learn so much with this skill. You must maintain a reasonably easy glide to your approach entry window while doing this. This is important: don t practice do not land skills over your nice LZ until you re so low that you unable to set-up a good approach resulting in a crummy landing! Practice these skills with forethought. Practice while safely floating around your familiar LZ at say 800 feet above the ground or whatever is a very comfortable height for you to try something new. Be sure you aren t in the way of towing and watch for other pilots who are coming in to land. This is how it goes. Sometimes you just land. Sometimes you find a spot of lift and work it while watching what is going on around you. If you sink out, you glide to your approach entry window and land. If you can just stay up a little longer, what do you gain? You get to watch the wind indicators longer so you will know which direction you will take for final. You can outlast those gliders who are in conflict with your landing timing and watch them land. You might get up! You are gaining confidence with making a lot of decisions before landing, but you are practicing this over a safe field where you ve landed hundreds of times before. All these experiences will help when you are over an unfamiliar LZ without the usual cues. So now let s put a practice flight all together. It is a nice soaring day. You are set-up and ready early. You have pre-flighted your glider and harness. Your instruments and radio are all set and ready to go. You watch the hang gliding gurus carefully for signs of movement toward launch. Yep, there they go! You get in your harness, check yourself and scoot into line right on their butts. You get a good hang check and instruct your launch crew on what to do. You launch using the extended grapevine grip to prevent loss of pitch control as you execute a perfect launch just like you ve practiced. You turn toward the big boys and girls who are climbing up a couple hundred yards in front. You enter the thermal using good thermal etiquette and start to climb. Whooo! Hooo...Cloud Base! You fly around for a while and the lift fades. You glide out into the valley while keeping launch in mind. When you are a nice but comfy distance out you turn around and glide back to launch while watching with your parallax vision for a spot ahead that is staying put. That spot is where you will glide to if nothing changes. Speed up and see what happens to that spot. It may be moving upward in your visual field. You won t make it there. Now find the launch ramp and fly different speeds. You may be able to fly a speed which keeps the launch ramp still, neither rising nor falling in your relation to your position. If you can do this you will arrive right at launch height. Turn out into the valley before you scare anyone and start searching for lift. O.K., there are a few gliders turning out there. Go to them and thermal up. When climbing well, several hundred feet above launch height and established, you ditch it and glide back toward a point, maybe the ramp again, to practice your glide judgment skills. You get there right at launch height and turn back into the valley to search for lift, again. This time you may not see any thermal indicators so you head to someplace likely such as under a cloud or over a foothill. What do you know? You hit something. You scratch carefully with tight turns while carving the circle and adjusting toward the lift. You don t slip your turns so you don t waste altitude. You are at 800 AGL and have some time to figure it out. You find a core and up you go to repeat the climb out process. You ditch the lift and go back further into the valley and glide in again. Eventually, you arrive below the ramp height and you don t find a nice one to core back up. At this point, let s say you arrive over the LZ with adequate safe altitude to practice Do Not Land! You float around while checking out all the traffic and the wind indicators. You have decided to practice landing very short toward the south end of the LZ, so you float a conservative circuit around that end of the field. Sure enough, you bump into a lifty area and make some smooth turns while watching traffic, wind indicators and paying attention to your altitude and any hazards that might be nearby. You make a few turns and you haven t lost anything. You notice that the trees are still but there are a few ribbons moving near some houses and the cute woman hanging out her wash to dry is standing on the north side of the clothes line. You do a few more revolutions and notice some incoming! A tandem and a Falcon with a guy hanging almost straight upright are coming in at about the same time. Continued on page 7

7 Page 7 How To Gain Confidence For XC Flying continued from page 6 You know you can yank in the bar and slip in ahead of them, but you aren t losing much and you decide to go ahead and float. The tandem isn t going to land at your location, anyway. Who knows where the Falcon will end up? After watching them both land, your lift disappears so you float and search around within a comfortable range from your approach entry window. It is a nice day and once again you find a little patch of lift. You miss it so you have to head toward the entry window and land. You are in no rush since you have had 5 or 10 extra minutes to scope out the wind direction and conditions on the field. The clothes hanging on the line were showing winds from the NE anyway, so it will be a CAKE to put it down near the south end of the field. This is the kind of stuff I do on virtually every flight. When I fly from Henson s to LMFP, I Hang Glider Pilot Check List Pre-flight Harness, Equipment, & Glider - Check Assess Weather Conditions - Check Hook-in - Check Thorough Hang Check - Check Extended Grapevine Grip - Check Good Launch Technique - Check Safe LZ Selection - Check Good Landing Set-up and Technique - Check practice this until I fail a low save and have to land. I consider Do Not Land to be a highly useful tactic that I use at the end of every XC flight so I can really scope out the field. I practice it at the end of competition flights if I arrive high enough at goal in order to get back up and watch the show as others race in to goal. I practice these skills almost every time I fly because I believe they make me a better pilot. Try them out and see what you can learn. Put a nice heavy duty rack on your vehicle and get to know some XC buddies. You are on your way! Oh, and remember to pay your driver well. They are priceless. Ollie Gregory Join The United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association Support The Foundation for Free Flight And Join The Tennessee Tree Toppers TTT The Ramp Plaque Project by Keith Atkins After last year s unbelievably successful Revamp the Ramp fund raiser, the BOD voted to acknowledge contributors with a brass plaque. Mike Nash and I went to work designing the plaque with history help from Dennis van Dam and Denny Haldeman. Numerous pilots helped gather and spell-check names of over 200 pilots involved over the years from the original ramp construction to the current project. The BOD envisioned a large brass plaque with precision engraving. Mike purchased the brass plate and located a machinist for the engraving job. I finished the design layout and sent it to several pilots for proofing. We left a cut-out at the top center for a 7 X10 brass etching of an aerial view of the ramp. Then, off to the machinist. Mike donated the very expensive brass plate and cost for over 50 hours of machining! We needed an aerial photo and someone to etch it onto brass. I finally found a company in Indiana that uses a laser photo application method on brass instead of engraving. A TTTFlymail call for high resolution aerial photos was answered that same day by Miller Stroud. Nate Newkirk worked his usual Photoshop magic on Miller s photo which was used for the plaque and the front cover of this issue of. Mike donated the cement blocks for the monument support structure and Clark Harlow and Dan Shell hauled them to the work site. With BOD approval, Steve Lee hired and supervised the stone masons construction of the monument, now complete and ready for Team Challenge In the mean time, I am continuing my search for a metal engraver while experimenting with galvanic electrolytic and acid etching methods. TTT

8 Page 8 The Beaufort Wind Scale by James Anderson In 1805, British Admiral Sir Frances Beaufort came forth with an empirical scale designed to standardize reports of wind speed, a useful concept in the days of sailing ships. Those of us who are sky sailors have a vested interest in wind speed, as well. The original scale has been expanded quite a bit beyond the original "blue water sailing" applications and holds some interest for us. There are many references to his scale on the Internet. My favorite web site is faq/tornado/beaufort.html. The photo on the next page shows sprinklers and truck dust from a distance comparable to what a HG pilot would need for setting up a landing. The wind is at 5,000 feet MSL. Some other web sites you may find useful include: The scale reads up to force 12, hurricane force, which I find of little use to me as a hang glider pilot since I hope never to fly in hurricanes! So, the scale below is truncated to Force 7. One thing that might help us is a selection of pictures that represent different wind speeds. Why don't you look through your pix file and see what you can find to send to the editor? James Anderson TTT

9 Page 9 The Beaufort Wind Scale continued from page 8

10 Page 10 The Lesson by Brent Benoist Without my sunglasses, the sharp crisp wind rising from the valley was making my eyes water. For late winter, it was a good day with a consistent smooth flow up the mountain and directly into the bare rock face of the launch site. These were the conditions for which I had been impatiently awaiting since my last flight in late October. I took on the full weight of the airframe as I pressed my shoulders into the glider s A-frame, picked it up, and stepped cautiously closer to the launch point. The air began to lift my wing as my feet made a crackling noise on the brown oak leaves and dormant grasses that carpeted the area. Soon, that same wind would clear the leaves away and spring would bring the thermals that earth bound pilots dream about all winter long. Getting closer to the launch point, my heart picked up the pace and my senses went on high alert status. I am not sure all pilots feel this way, but as I get closer to the inevitable takeoff my hearing, smell, touch, and even taste seem to become momentarily hypersensitive. I took one more look at my variometer which showed that I was 2230 feet above the landing field in the valley below. In the last few seconds prior to launch, I started reviewing my glider set-up in my mind. I had already gone through the preflight check of my wing and harness, verified that the carabineer that connected me to the wing was locked, buckled my helmet strap, checked my parachute, and got some help with a hang check from one of the other pilots. Yep, I was as ready as I would ever be. In the final second before launching, I replayed the takeoff procedure in my head. Three steps: grapevine grip, wings level, keep the nose down. Now it was time to walk-jog-run and help the wing find that perfect point of equilibrium between my weight and the oncoming wind over my sail that would allow me to once again become part of The Blue. Here we go, walk, jog, rrr that is all I ever remember as I shift into what I call automatic mode - where my mind and body make subtle, unconscious deliberate movements that keep my wing suspended in the ether. Surreal is the best description that I can apply to the series of events that occur prior to feeling the glider once more lift me heavenward. Conscious thought soon returned as I once again awakened to the beep, beep, beep of my vario indicating that I was soaring. I banked The Student left to enter the lift band parallel to the mountain slope. Making small, almost imperceptible inputs, I adjusted to keep myself in the best lift area without getting too close to the budding tree limbs that seemed to leer at me whispering, Stay clear, or else. Having gained some 80 feet over launch I slowly turned to the right and crabbed into the wind so that I was now heading in the opposite direction. Still gaining altitude I noticed that I was passing 120 feet over launch. That is when I became aware of The Master the bluish-black wingspan of a Peregrine falcon some 50 feet below me and heading in the same direction. For a few moments I enjoyed the feathered fellowship and did my best to mimic his movements. I could not help but slide downwind of my new mentor as he turned into the wind, spread his tail feathers, and made imperceptible adjustments that allowed him to come to a complete stop. He hovered, seemingly motionless, over the earth as only a creature with his unique soaring ability can do. Once again, I attempted to follow the master s movements. I turned cautiously to face the wind and eased out on the control frame to raise my glider s nose and slow myself to as close to a stall as possible. In the back of my mind I knew it was unlikely that I had enough wind speed to allow me to come to a complete stop like my friend. Still I gave it a go and was pleasantly surprised as I matched the raptor s position in the air. For a few brief moments, the two of us lingered motionless, side-by-side, with only a few yards separating our wingtips. Then, as I knew it would, my air speed fell below that required for stable flight. The glider s nose dipped as I banked right and lost sight of the falcon. I was now headed back towards the rock face of the ridge. The air speed over my wing quickly increased to the point that the glider corrected and I was once again flying wings level. I found myself seeking to make the most of the gentle wave of air that blew in from the valley against the base of the ridge, compressing and creating the pressure that offered a free ride upwards. Continued on page 11

11 Page 11 The Lesson continued from page 10 Like Pavlov s dog, I subconsciously made conditioned responses to the sound of the vario indicating lift, resulting in minor flight adjustments to maximize altitude gain. The rising air was not quite as strong as it seemed on launch. In spite of the weak conditions, I was able to gain another 50 feet, or so, and flew back and forth along the ridge long enough to satisfy myself that I still had the skills to fly the ridge. I had not lost anything over the winter. Although I have enjoyed flight for many years, I still find myself impressed with the elegance and simplicity of glider design. My mind slips off to ponder just how the pioneers of modern flight originally conceived the principles that make this adventure possible. The quiet stillness is something to behold. Me, the wind, and the birds just hanging there, taking it all in with the warm sun shining down on the brownishgreen foliage of the cool earth is one of the many joys of free flight that only birds and soaring pilots can experience. No beeping sound. A glance at the altimeter indicated I should turn towards the landing field. Later in the season, conditions will get better and I can pursue a longer flight but, for the moment, I satisfied myself with a quick sled ride back to the field. No sense in pushing the limit on such a light day. One more turn to ride along the ridge in search of the falcon before I made the commitment to head for home. No sign of the falcon. He knew the lift was dying out before I did. Passing over the trees below I became keenly aware of my decreasing altitude. Nearly a half mile of trees had to be traversed before I would be over a landable field. So, I pulled hard on the chord that changed the shape of my wing which allowed me to glide more efficiently. The far tree line now appeared to be moving towards me so I was obviously going to make the field with plenty of altitude for a good setup. I estimated the wind direction by observing the movement of trees and grass and flew directly into the wind on the right side of my chosen LZ. I made two 90 degree left turns to head downwind towards the far end of the field, another for the base leg, and a fourth for the final upwind leg losing altitude the whole way, as planned. Finally, I pulled-in on the control bar which simultaneously pitched my craft downward and increased my air speed. I pulled my legs out of my harness but remained prone. After entering ground effect at around six feet above the ground, I eased out on the bar to level my flight. I took my left hand off the base tube and placed it on the upright. Next, I did the same on the right as I was approaching the midpoint of the LZ. Moving both hands upwards on the down tubes until they were level with my helmet transitioned my body to the upright position. I let the glider fly at trim speed for a count of One-Mississippi and pushed up hard and straight above my head. The wing responded by pitching up and acting as an air brake and my feet came to rest once again on the ground. Looking back at the ridge I offered a nod of thanks to the Peregrine for the lesson in flight. I hoped that I would one day be allowed to fly with him again. TTT A Self-Taught Amateur s Guide to Editing by Keith Atkins The TTT s have unlimited talent, energy, and knowledge among its membership. You have so much to offer the hang gliding community through your informative and entertaining articles, stories, and photographs. Each of us benefits from learning from our friends and newsletter articles promote the TTT s agenda of informing club members and encouraging pilots near and far to join the club. Reviving and editing the TTT s Newsletter in 2008 and 2009 has been a challenging, frustrating, and tedious but very rewarding experience. Here s how it all comes together. You come up with an idea, take the time to develop it, and write your article. You include photos with captions, names of subjects, and photographer credits. I create a working MS Word document and compile all articles for standardization of fonts, formatting, and paragraph justification. Each article is edited for grammar, spelling, punctuation, verb/ noun agreement, paragraph construction, and flow. Next, I copy and paste articles and photos into the layout, add text boxes, and type in titles, names, photo captions, and photographer credits. I modify the wording and layout, as necessary, to fit within the allowable spaces in order to avoid empty blocks. I check for and correct irritating alterations haphazardly tossed in by the mischievous ghost in the MS Publisher machine. Hundreds of tiny tweaks, adjustments, and alignments are required to approach consistency throughout the layout. After proofing the entire layout several times, I send it to all authors for revisions and approval. Final modifications are made, I thank the authors for their hard work, and send a.pdf version to Buddy Cutts for uploading to our home page. Finally, after 40+ hours of editing I sit back and relax with a cold one until it s time for the next edition. Please support The Tennessee Tree Toppers by contributing articles and photographs to our news magazine. TTT

12 Page 12 High Altitude Flying by James Anderson At the risk of sounding obvious, I think we all realize that the higher we fly the further apart the air particles get per volume of air. There are many implications from this including anything that works on the "action - reaction" principle, for example. The name of this game is what I refer to as "the altitude gradient." Hang glider pilots should understand that since we can't put more air particles in our airspace for our gliders to react against, we have to add more energy to the equation. This means that when we flair our gliders to land at 5,000 MSL we have to flair a lot harder than we do at 500 MSL. We must expect the glider to handle differently at various altitudes. If we don't, we must be prepared to run it out when we land if our chosen LZ will permit a good hard run. If our chosen LZ does not allow for this, or if we are not up to a very hard run, the result will be a "crash landing" instead of a twostepper. Flair hard, real hard, and be ready to run hard. Avoid downwind landings like your down tubes and your hide depend on it, because they do. Landing into the wind is even more important at high altitudes than it is at low altitudes. Consider landing early, if you have to, when you find yourself in a situation where the wind direction is known and has reasonable strength. If you don't fly with wheels, reconsider using this piece of safety equipment. If we want to launch at 7000 MSL, we must be prepared for limited reaction mass air particles so, again, we must put more energy into the launch. Run, run, RUN! And, of course, we have to maintain control and fly the glider while doing so. Watch what the locals do. Pay attention to the pilots who make it look easy - they are the ones that are good at it. Go for the steepest slope you can find that the locals use. If they don't launch there ask, Why not? Pick a cycle where the wind is blowing straight in, stronger than you are used to at lower altitudes because you know that cuts down on how fast your feet have to pound. Specifically, as you watch The Guys That Make it Look Easy, think about how strong the wind was when they launched. Watch their feet as they walk, jog, run. Note that at first they have a nice long running stride. Before it is over, their feet may only hit the ground every 10 or 15 feet. Be ready for it. It feels weird at first. Lots of flat slope launches are high. Where is a good cliff launch when you need one? Forget about no wind launches until you have gained a lot of good experience at it. Watch out for people who tell you that "no/light wind launches are easy here". Make sure they have not written any life insurance on you. Don't lend them any money or anything else. What kind of physical condition are you in? Cold? Flux? Hang over? Altitude sickness? It is hard to walk at high altitude, let alone run with weight. If possible, acclimate yourself to the altitude before you fly; it s time spent at altitude that counts most for acclimatizing to high altitude flying. Consider sleeping high if you have it bad. If you get tired of running, just push out a little and jump into it, right? Wrong! Check it out: Pushing out is a control input to the glider. It tells your glider you want to change the angle of attack. Can you say "stall"? Can you say "crash"? The solution is to run hard, fly the glider, and maintain control. Remember that if you get high you need supplemental oxygen. Otherwise, your fingernails turn blue and your judgment gets "interesting". O2 is expensive? Take up golf. By the way, O2 systems have weight - oh good, we get to run faster! And another thing. Dehydration is a bad. At high altitudes dehydration is dangerous. Get a Platypus or Camel Back and drink water during the flight. You need all the help you can get - don't cut yourself short. Last but not least, minimum maneuvering speed is going to be higher at greater altitudes. This means if you are at your normal trim speed the glider may not listen to you or accept your flight inputs. I crashed because of this one. It is no fun approaching a hard object and realize that you need to speed up towards that hard object to get the glider to respond. Speed is your friend. Carry a little extra speed any time you are in doubt. Reading back over this, it sounds a bit negative. That is not the point. The point is not to scare you away from high altitude games; the rewards can be great. The point is this: one benefit from learning to read is to learn from others mistakes. Have you ever been over three miles high? Talk about an incredible high! And we can actually fly higher than that with proper experience, safety awareness, O2 and H2O. If I can do it, so can you. Watch out for Frank Giliette. He is in his mideighty's and he is one of The Guys That Make it Look Easy. Good Winds. James Anderson TTT Remember Safety, Judgment, and Good Decision Making are Paramount for Every Flight.

13 Page 13 Big Spring 09 - Newbie on the Prairie by Ricker Goldsborough Arriving at the Big Spring National Hang Gliding event for 2009 was an honor in itself, but the privilege of watching the top dogs fly would be icing on the cake. I did not realize, though, that I was about to be completely overcome with Hang Gliding Competition Syndrome. First came the fever, soon followed by much stronger symptoms as the full force of this malady hit me. I am now completely sick with love for Hang Gliding Competition. As with many challenges in life, our worst fears are rarely realized and we often discover our true potential when we take acceptable risks. By participating in the Big Spring National Hang Gliding Competition, I learned my apprehensions were greatly exaggerated and they disappeared upon the wind once I took to the air. I gained new skills, greater confidence in my abilities, and learned some important lessons along the way. The processes that were set in place for the competition were flawless, the pilots were most helpful, the town was very accommodating and it was clear to see that a lot of work had been done over the years by David Glover and a handful of others to make this event happen. I understand that it all started with just an idea and a phone call to the airport director, Mr. Jim Little, who then involved Terry Wolford (Big Spring Events Coordinator) and Hang Gliding Events and Weather Guru, Davis Straub. With an idea and the willingness to take that first step, the rest will follow; kind of like Build it and they will come. Hmmm, I m starting to get an idea! Most important, for any comp you must have good pilots and having exceptional pilots like those at Big Spring really helps. So, to all the pilots that attended, Thank you. You guys Rock! I was totally surprised by the helping nature of all the pilots. Yes, I mean everyone including stars like Jeff Shapiro, Jeff O Brien, Zac Majors, and Davis Straub. Each day presented new gifts from above like Derreck Turner tutoring me on the do s and don ts of competition flying. Derreck turned out to be one of the stars and I was very impressed with his humble attitude. For that matter, I did not see a single pilot walking around with a chip on his shoulder or a superior attitude of I am better than you are. O.K., I can drop more names like Larry Bunner, Glen Volk, Alex Cutty, Mark Stump, Mark Bolt and more; the list goes on and on. Everyone there willingly shared their knowledge and experience to help me with my first comp and no one held anything back. For newer pilots who are thinking of doing the Big Spring Comp but feel hesitant to take the plunge, I have listed some information below that may assist you in your decision making process. Keep in mind that comps are not for everyone, but it is my belief that everyone should do a comp. Why? Read on. I know that various comps are not all alike. Each has its own set of challenges. My observations, lessons learned, and suggestions, here, pertain to Big Spring but I plan to participate in many more. I will share what I learn about each if this is helpful. At this point I would say let me know, think good thoughts, and spread the word. Why Do A Comp? You get to fly with the best of the best, your skills will be put to good use and tested daily, you learn great stuff fast, and you get to fly often and far. The support you get helps to build confidence and the seasoned pilots that compete are very willing to answer the dumbest questions you re afraid to ask. Don t be shy. Ask questions. The excitement is hard to fully describe. The amount of information available in the collective knowledge base is vast; more than anyone can assimilate at one time. I have said many times that my brain holds only 64k so I had to dump data to take on more. Each day I forgot my own name and where I was from in order to store the important information like what ice cream to eat and when to eat it. Safety Some may say that since this is a race that safety issues are compromised. I disagree with this opinion. I did not see any lapses in safety protocol. The best pilots are ones with the knowledge and good judgment they consistently put into practice. In fact, I think that safety issues were considered more at Big Spring than at a typical training facility. Some of these guys do this for a living and consider safety an even higher priority. There were times when the task committee plotted a course over some harsh terrain but, guess what? You don t have to fly over it. Go around or don t go at all until you are comfortable. In fact that s what I did on one day. We were required to cross over some nasty ground. Even though I was high I chose not to cross and decided to return to a large field where someone else had landed. After playing around a bit and practicing what my friend Ollie had taught me, the game of Do Not Land tactics, I finally landed. The bottom line is that you don t have to fly. You decide. Granted, if you want to win you Continued on page 14

14 Page 14 Big Spring 09 - Newbie on the Prairie continued from page 13 may have to push yourself but by the time you are even close to that point your skills will be much better and the danger factor ends up the same. Flying with pilots more accomplished than you may make you a safer pilot by becoming a more skilled one. Make sense? Big Spring Pearls of Wisdom (May apply to other comps, too) Cover your harness boot with many layers of duct tape or it will wear out on the concrete. Carry a large garbage bag in your harness in case it rains on you and you want to cover yourself, your harness, or your instruments after landing out. Understand how to give your GPS coordinates to your driver. If you do not have a driver they will find you one. Exchange phone numbers before you fly. Bring a blanket or drop cloth to protect your gear and your butt while setting up. Listen more than you talk. There is a lot to learn if you eavesdrop a bit. Set-up early so you have ample room to work and an easy exit when it s time to move your wing from the hangar. Stage your wing in the staging line early so that you have a better choice of when to go to the launch line. Launch early so that you can get established in the air early. This way you get to fly with the big dogs and learn more. Don t worry about start times, just fly fly fly and have fun. It will be a normal process to start watching the start times and start circle. For me it was not until day 6 that it all clicked. Do not overload yourself with all the race stuff. Just act as if you were at home flying and have fun. Even the big dogs fly with the idea of having fun. I saw Zippy dive out into the blue one day while the rest of us were at cloud base waiting for the start time so that he could do a climbing wing over and then another and then another. Then, in a few munities he was back in the gaggle with a huge smile as if to say, Did you see that? That was fun! Drink lots of water and undo your zipper on your pants before you fly. You will thank me for telling you this when it comes time to get rid of unwanted ballast. Always ask if you can assist a pilot after they have landed. Do your talking in the air. Most pilots appear to be equal while in a gaggle and thermaling,and very well matched on glide. The actual race, however, and where the talent is most evident is when it comes time to play the 3D chess game of knowing when to go, where to go, and how to go to the next cloud or even out into the blue. Now, that s the best measure of a great pilot. Fly with fully charged radios and instruments. Have an idea of where to fly and try to fly over primary roads. The tasks normally take you close to them so there is no need to land in an area with no roads nearby. I always landed next to a large road and it made retrieval easy. (Thank you Pam for promptly being there). Watch the clouds for indications of quickly developing rain and gust fronts. It s easy to avoid these dangers if you know what to look for and keep your eyes open. Wear kneepads to prevent associated pains of landing on the concrete if a weak link breaks on tow. Wear long pants or spandex pants to protect your legs and make it easier to zip-up your harness. The launch lines can be long, so relax. And conserve your energy. Jeff Shapiro is good at this. Closing Thoughts If you only follow the good guys while on glide and do not do your part and spread out to help in the process, you will be scraped off. Watch for the good guys to pull rope, as this is a good indication that they are shifting gears. Congratulations to Glen Volk, Jeff Shapiro and Zac Major for taking the first three spots of the Big Spring National Hang Gliding Competition Masters you are and I thank you all for sharing your skills and talents with others and with me. Your humble attitude and willingness to share is contagious. Thanks again to you wonderful drivers who patiently waited for us day after day. If it were not for you, we would have been in lots of pain. Pam, you re the greatest and I thank you and your husband, Art Cayer, for allowing me to be part of your team. This comp set many firsts for me. Having a quality guy like Art Cayer to share it with was simply the best. Art and I worked as a team in the air on the 6 th day and, as a result, we out flew many of the better pilots. After landing, we had a few hours to act like 10-year-old boys while Pam endured our child-like behavior. It was good to be us that day. A big Thank You! goes to the town of Big Spring, and let s not forget the all important Tug Pilots. Every time I towed they dropped me off in a great thermal. They are the best. Faithfully, Ricker Goldsborough TTT

15 Page 15 The TTT Gallery Miller Stroud tests The Icarus Myth at Henson Gap - August 2009 Photo by Beth Haulum Butch Pritchett s inaugural flight on his ATOS at Henson Gap - August 2009 Photo by Beth Haulum

16 Page 16 Lucas Ridley landing at LMFP Photo by Lucas The TTT s First Lady of Flight - Kathy Lee Photo by Julie The Wallaby Crew invades Tree Topperville Photo by Julie

17 Page 17 Big sky at Big Spring, Texas - National Comp 2009 Photo by Ricker Goldsborough Margarita Drinkin, Mexican Arm Rasslin G-Man Larry Bunner at Big Spring, Texas It s Miller Time at Wallaby, Photo by Wilson

18 Page 18 Mark Stump and Campbell Bowen at Big Spring, Texas Eric Donaldson at Big Spring, Texas 2009 Photo by Ricker Goldsborough Photo by Ricker Goldsborough

19 Page 19 Eric Donaldson Lands at Big Spring, Texas Photo by Ricker Goldsborough Eric Demonstrates the Hovering Hang Glider Landing Technique Photo by Ricker Goldsborough

20 Page 20 Foreman Steve Lee supervises construction of The Ramp Commemorative Plaque Monument Photo by Ricker Goldsborough

21 Page 21 Henson Gap Photo by Karla Benoist Glider, Beauty, and Keith at Henson Gap Photo by Steve Prater

22 Page 22 Tennessee Tree Toppers P. O. Box 1286 Dunlap, Tennessee Club House (423) America s Hang Gliding Club Have an idea for the next issue? Write it up and share your experience and adventures with your hang gliding buddies. We welcome new authors! Call Clark Harlow for an unforgettable tandem hang gliding adventure. Hang out with Clark and soar til you ve had your fill, weather permitting, and get the photographs to prove it! (423) The Tennessee Tree Toppers is a not-for-profit club of hang gliding enthusiasts and friends located near Dunlap, Tennessee, over-looking the beautiful Sequatchie Valley. The TTT is the home of the world-famous wooden radial ramp at Henson Gap. We offer extensive camping, a club house with kitchen, bathrooms and showers, RV hookups, a pavilion with BBQ s, a huge bailout LZ at Henson Gap, a cliff launch at Whitwell, hiking and biking trails, and numerous LZ s throughout 65 miles of the Sequatchie Valley. Visit us whenever you can and you will want to become a member of The Tennessee Tree Toppers. The #1 Hang Gliding Club in America is e-published quarterly. Keith Atkins, Editor Cover Photo: Aerial view of The TTT s Wooden Radial Ramp at Henson Gap by Miller Stroud - f/x by Nate Newkirk You can experience this aerial view of the TTT s Ramp at Henson Gap during a Tandem Flight with Clark. Photo by Clark Harlow