The Free Flight Guy

Record Day for Dave, Record Rodeo Ride for Me

admin — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 16:46:00 +0000

Dave, Meredyth and I flew Saddle Ridge last November. His video of the affair, good (if cold) times were had by all.

The Weather Stinks, Watch This

admin — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 05:25:18 +0000

Yep, like anyone else unlucky enough to be swamped in this anticipated if unappreciated deluge I have been counting the seconds until the next flyable moment when I can break away to some launch and get high. AdrenalineAddicted posted this video today and I’m interested. Pretty pictures, the music is nice (although I can’t keep up with the lyrics) and I’m going to go look for the documentary when I get a moment.

Chelan Butte Woman’s Fly In

admin — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 03:48:09 +0000

Friday and Saturday at Chelan Butte Women’s Fly-in. Fun times were had by all.

Free Flight Over Tiger

admin — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 03:59:39 +0000

Cut out early today and headed to Tiger. Was blessed with graceful air

Blanchard Weekend Soaring

admin — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 18:03:27 +0000

I called Matt on Friday and we talked about options, but the forecast didn’t look good anywhere. He sent a message via facebook later in the evening which summarized read “Tiger or Bust, probably Bust”. Thus I spent Friday evening packing for a short backpacking trip.

Saturday morning opened on the east side of the Cascades with gust front moving through the valley and tree tops were bent over. Matt called me and said “What about Baldy?” Nope that’s a no-go. “Ok, how about Blanchard, it might work?”

Thirty minutes later I’m in Fun Truck making my way west. Showed up at Matt’s place, consolidated into his rig and picked up Gilead. An hour plus later we were scouting Blanchard in building conditions and a cross launch.

Matt and Gilead were off the hill first and both of them were spanked as they headed into the cross wind. I brought up and launched, but didn’t protect my right wing (north side) and got tipped down wind and lost a lot of altitude. When I recovered I was near the lee side of the hill and half way down so I gave up and went to land. Oops!

Landing was into west-north-west and strong. I had to hit speed bar because I set up final too deep, but I had plenty of time to make it back into the field. First time at Blanchard taken care of.

I rode up with Ralph, Vinay, and Ashley. Second launch went much better although I tripped and almost botched it. I was ready for the right side wack this time and weight shifted into it. This had me pointed the right direction and stable.

Ashley and Ralph were airborne and soaring the north ridge. It was bumpy in places, but enjoyable. Thermals were blone out so we had to turn a lot. Thirty plus minutes later and a pretty good asymetric collapse later I followed Ralph back around the corner to the LZ. Fun times.

Landing went well. Gilead and I packed and then Matt landed spiral style. He brought beer, clank clank, in his harness from above. Sweet day at a new site

Speed Flight

admin — Fri, 17 Oct 2008 18:37:05 +0000

200 km/hr 2m off the deck. Need I say more?

Hard Body Gaggle

admin — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:14:59 +0000

Never before have I seen this many sailplanes in the same sky at the same time. Check it out at 4:45 or there abouts.

Eye Candy While You Wait

admin — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 19:39:36 +0000

planeur from romain on Vimeo.

Yes, I know. Baldy Fly-in was last weekend and I’ve pu tnothing up about it at all. Suffice it to say that FFG is running behind.

Enjoy the above discovery, really nice bit I think was shot somewhere in the French Alps. Makes me wish I had a DG-800 and a tow.

Leroy Westerkamp Altitude Record

admin — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 21:57:12 +0000

Amazing video of some high flying, low oxygen soaring.

Baldy Fly-In Scheduled Soon

admin — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:02:46 +0000

I just added a page with the details you can review here. I plan on at least showing up for a while this year and I hope to see many of you there as well.