TEMPLETON TRADEWINDS

SPRING 1999

Newsletter of the Daedalus Hang Gliding Club

USHGA Chapter #69

PHOTO: Eric Shriever landing his highly experimental Stunt Glider on the beaches of St. Simon's Island, Georgia

President Eric Shiever 724-482-4232

Editor Pete Lehmann 412-661-3474

Newsletter Production and Rack Doctor Jon McElravy 412-466-3807

EDITOR'S INTRO

What a weird spring we've had. Never in my sixteen springs flying in this area have I seen such a multitude of easterly/southeasterly and blue days. Despite that we have had a considerable number of soarable days, although few have been the classic post-frontal spring xc conditions. Still, club members exploited the weird conditions to good effect, setting several personal, and one site record along the way. Personal distance records were set (and in some cases, re-set) by Luke Thompson, Paul Donahue and Ric Niehaus. One consequence of the odd weather pattern was that the better flights were flown from an unusually broad array of sites: Bills, Jacks, High Point, Templeton, Avonmore and Farview Airport.

Enjoy your summers. I am off to Wyoming for a month,

Pete

THE ORIGINS OF OUR SPORT

Two Irishmen walk into a pet shop. Right away they go over to the bird section. Gerry says to Paddy, "Dat's dem". The clerk comes over and asks if he can help them. "Yeah, we'll take four of dem dere birds in dat cage op dere," says Gerry, "Put dem in a peeper bag." The clerk does and the two guys pay for the birds and leave the shop.

They get into Gerry's van and drive until they are high up in the hills and stop at the top of a cliff with a 500-foot drop. "Dis looks loike a grand place, eh?" says Gerry. "Oh, yeh, dis looks good," replies Paddy. They flip a coin and Gerry wins the toss. "I guess I git to go first, eh Paddy?" says Gerry. He then takes two birds out of the bag, places them on his shoulders and jumps off the cliff. Paddy watches as his mate drops off the edge and goes straight down for a few seconds followed by a 'SPLAT'. As Paddy looks over the edge of the cliff he shakes his head and says, "Fock dat, dis budgie jumpin' is too fockin' dangerous for me"

======- PART TWO -=======

A minute later, Seamus arrives. He, too, has been to the pet shop and he walks up carrying the familiar 'peeper bag'. He pulls a parrot out of the bag, and then Paddy notices that, in his other hand, Seamus is carrying a gun. "Hi, Paddy. Watch this," Seamus says and launches himself over the edge of the cliff. Paddy watches as half way down, Seamus takes the gun and blows the parrot's head off. Seamus continues to plummet until there is a SPLAT!, as he joins Gerry's remains at the bottom. Paddy shakes his head and says, "An' oim never troyin' dat parrotshooting nider"

======- PART THREE -=======

A few minutes after Seamus splats himself Sean strolls up. He too has been to the pet shop and he walks up carrying the familiar 'peeper bag'. Instead of a parrot he pulls a chicken out of the bag, and Launches himself off the cliff with the usual result. Once more Paddy shakes his head - "Fock me Sean, first der was Gerry wit his budgie jumping, den Seamus parrot shooting and now you blimmin' hen gliding" --

VIDEO SHOOT

During the winter I received a call from a woman at an advertising agency who was putting together a video that was to be shown at the Pittsburgh Environmental Council's Environmental Awards presentation in June. Every year they put together a video which is used as an entertainment at the awards presentation and then shown at schools to illustrate the environmentally benevolent recreational uses of the Pennsylvania countryside. This year's theme was activities using wind, and, along with windsurfing up on Lake Erie, they came up with the idea of using hang gliding. The original intention had been to use Templeton, with its wonderful landscape over the river. I had received permission from Craig and Bernard Cochran, and the director and cameraman had come to the hill with me one day to look over the site and plan the shoot. Unfortunately, the weird spring weather meant that we never could shoot at Templeton, and had to use Fisher Road as a backup as we were running out of time.

The day we finally chose worked out very well with the one exception of the sky color. The sky began as a milky white with quite a bit of light, but not much blue, and deteriorated into a light grey overcast. Not ideal, but at least it was very soarable so that we could get the flying in. Using my Falcon, I made two flights, each time with a camera mounted differently on the glider. One time it was up at the outside of the control bar apex looking down over my shoulder, and the other was with the camera mounted out on the cross bar. In the first configuration the camera was imperceptible, while with it on the crossbar I initially noted a bit of a lag due to the mass out there, but after a minute or so it too receded from my consciousness. In addition to the cameras, I carried a DAT audio recorder and had a helmet microphone with which I then provided a narration of the second flight.

During the first flight I had John Fenner (and Geoff Mumford) with me in the air and we thermalled around with John below me for a bit in the hopes that he would show up well in the picture. Sadly, I was flushed on the first flight because I had spent too much time buzzing around launch for the camera. As a result they couldn't get a landing shot on that flight, but they did on the second one. To end the day's shooting, they did an on-camera interview with me about flying hang gliders.

Once we were done, we examined a few minutes of the video on their little monitor in the sunshine. Even under those less than ideal viewing conditions, the video looked really good. The launch with the camera on the crossbar was particularly cool. I am looking forward to seeing how they edit down the hour and a half of flying and the half hour interview into the two and a half minute segment that is to be the final product.

I want to thank John Fenner for having come along and assisted with the flying and set-up chores. That was a great help to me.

AVONMORE COMBINATION LOCK
THE COMBINATION # IS: 2001

NEW RATINGS, AWARDS, ACHIEVMENTS AND CLUB MEMBERS

MARK GARDNER and SHEILA BOYLE have joined our club. Sheila still lives in the DC area, however Mark has moved to near Altoona and will be flying with us. As Sheila seems, inexplicably, to be attracted to Mark, it is likely she too will soon be seen at our sites.

JOHN BECKLEY, a British pilot who will be spending a year working in the Pittsburgh area, has joined the club and already has experienced one flight at Templeton, albeit a sled ride.

ERIC SHIEVER enters hang gliding heaven by obtaining his HANG FOUR. Eric now gets the secret decoder ring and password of that august fraternity.

CHARLIE MARTIN received his AEROTOW SIGN-OFF at Wallaby Ranch. That frees Charlie to go aerotowing in Ohio with the FarView Airport crowd.

BFH: BILLS FUN HILL?

As someone who has had no small part in vilifying Bills Hill over the years, I would like to give an accounting of the longer XC flights that were flown from the site on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Bills has been a notoriously difficult site to soar over the sixteen years that I have flown it, let alone go cross country. Who in their right mind could have guessed we'd see three consecutive days of (often) excellent flying?

We Pittsburgh pilots began the weekend early on Friday due to the fact that an unusual number of pilots were either off or could take off on that day. Furthermore, as the bizarre NE conditions looked as though they would hold through the weekend we decided to stay overnight in Breezewood (Incidentally, the Wiltshire Motel has nice, clean rooms for $36+tax/double). By Sunday there were nine of us at the hill.

Pilots who flew Sat/Sun would have recognized the conditions on Friday except for one useful difference: Friday had some widely scattered clouds. Launch conditions were like Saturday and Sunday except a bit lighter. Nonetheless, it was badly left crossed when we started to launch. Of the four of us present, three got up and one suffered the ignominy of a sled ride for which Bills is so justly infamous. The other pilots all climbed to amazing altitudes (8,900msl was the best, and that was still 500ft or so short of base). My flight, on a Fusion, began with my being scraped off the ridge by the north cross and then having to find a trashy, weak thermal in front of the ridge. Meanwhile, Larry Huffman beamed up straight out of launch. My weak thermal had just gotten me high enough to glide down into the Turnpike gap, above which were cumulus clouds. There I was greeted with all the lift one could hope for, 700+fpm to eight grand. Our third member, John Fenner, also got high and we were all off to the races, heading southwestward.

I began by being a bit too confident of the conditions, and had dialed up my speed ring setting on the Tangent. In other words, I was getting into a race-mode. But after passing south of Breezewood and heading out into the largely blue open country beyond it I decided to become conservative until getting back into the mountains twenty miles away. That proved wise as I found little lift in the open and by the time I'd crossed Tussey Mountain I was getting somewhat low. At the south end of what we call the (route) 326 valley there is one little mountain spur which faces to the NE, and I glided up and behind that thing in the hopes of finding lift to get me high enough to make it into the US220 valley. Sure enough, the lift was where the theory says it ought to be, but it was blue, and nothing like what I'd seen under clouds earlier in the flight. Nonetheless, the thermal got me over into the 220 valley and up onto the highest, largest part of Wills Mountain just east of Hyndman, PA. Once again thermal theory was validated, and I found a 200fpm thermal that got me high enough to hop into yet another of the valleys (96). However, that small hop soon became unnecessary as the 200fpm thermal became steadily stronger until I saw a steady 850fpm on the averager. That beauty brought me up under a newly forming cloud that marked the beginning of a sustained line of fairly short-lived individual cumies and haze domes. While the individual clouds didn't necessarily work well, together they clearly defined a lift line that went southwestward past Meyersdale, PA and then expired as I approached I-68. While running that line I stayed above 7,000msl and repeatedly found 4-500fpm thermals to keep me there. However once the cloud bits ended I began a long glide that eventually ended on I-68 just across the WVA state line. Distance 80.2 miles, and 3:15. One of our outstanding chase drivers, Lynn Meadows was there within ten minutes to administer the traditional sacramental beverages employed to honor such a fun flight.

Lynn and I headed back toward Breezewood with the object of picking up John Fenner along the way. John had, like me, been skying back in the mountains, but he'd taken a somewhat more northerly track which ran towards Berlin, PA. We had lost contact with him back there, but during my retrieve Jim Meadows had raised John on the Bedford repeater, and then re-transmitted John's location to us via the Blue Knob repeater. Lynn and I had only gone ten miles before we knew exactly where to go to get John. He had made it 48.5 miles to land right on top of an Allegheny Mountain ridge SE of Berlin. Our third xc pilot of the day was Larry Huffman whose wife Brenda had quickly picked him up 34.1 miles out on US 220. An astounding day. Who would have dared expect two more like it?

On Saturday and Sunday the three longest flights on each day were, I believe, as follows:

Saturday was Larry Huffman's turn to smoke us. In the end he made it 62.1 miles, getting to New Lexington, PA which is southwest of Somerset. Larry's flight had two distinguishing features. First, the beginning half of the flight was incredibly difficult, and he couldn't get much above 5,000msl for the longest time. He was always low, and always having to work garbage lift until he finally go into the mountains and became more comfortable. The other notable feature was that it represented his first "backwards" crossing of the Allegheny Mountain complex of trees and mountains. We Pittsburgh pilots normally cross from west to east when flying out of Templeton or Avonmore. Going the other way from other sites (Bills or Fisher) has been an extremely rare event.

Meanwhile, having launched quite a bit later than Larry, I began my flight (this time flying Tweety, the Attack Falcon) by dribbling southward along Sideling Hill. I crossed the Turnpike gap, and then got stuck at ridge height (and below) for 12minutes on the north shoulder of the US 30 gap. Eventually my patience was rewarded and my frustration assuaged by a decent thermal that went from a trashy 300fpm to a solid 700fpm as it went up over the top of Sideling Hill. I was climbing through six grand at 700fpm as Larry was telling me how tough things were going for him. I decided not to tell him what I had.

Now began the long crossing of the Breezewood valley, a transit whose apparent length was greatly increased by the Falcon's poorer and slower glide than the Fusion's. I flew very carefully , staying as high as I could along the way. Nonetheless I wound up descending to ridge height on the by now well known NE facing little ridge at the south end of the 326 valley. There I began a short weak climb from 2,500msl. However I only made it high enough to hop into the 220 valley and onto the flank of Wills Mountain to the west of the road. I was reluctant to go too far in on the mountain because I was on the Falcon and a bit worried about being able to safely glide out to an lz if I didn't find lift. And I didn't find lift, so I headed south along 220 expecting to land. At about 2,300ft I found a light thermal that was slowly improving when I noticed a red tail 50yards off to the side of my circles. Believing that hawks are always in the best available core, I moved over to get in above him. Sure enough, his thermal was worth 450+fpm and I was outta there. It was getting late however, and the thermal quit at 5,000msl, but now I could easily get over Wills and into the 96 valley south of Hyndman. This was convenient as Lynn Meadows had just finished picking up her husband Jim at the north end of that valley (28.2 miles), and my landing in the 220 valley would have occasioned a great detour in the retrieve. As it was getting late I decided to just run along the top of Wills Mt in the hopes of finding another thermal or two to get me to the Fairgrounds LZ in Cumberland. If the lift didn't materialize, I would just bail off the mountain to the west and into the 96 valley and land. And so it was. I landed just across the Maryland line for 44.3 miles and a personal Falcon record distance. Lynn provided even better retrieval this time, and was there within five minutes of my landing.

The third longest flight of the day was by Tom McGowan at some 34 miles, but I am afraid I don't have his flight story, so I invite him to contribute it to this log of the weekend's flying.

Saturday's other flights were led by Jim Meadows who got 28.2 miles and landed in the little valley where Wills Mountain splits into a double ridge. Eric Shiever (27.6 miles) and John Fenner (26.6 miles) flew the entire way together to land at seven o'clock after having to re-launch due to very short first flights. Lynn, with Jim and Pete assisting the breakdown, had Eric loaded on the car thirteen minutes after Eric's landing. Is that service, or what? Paul got 4.5 miles on a first flight and then 1:45 in the wonderful evening semi-magic conditions, as did Pat Brooks who got 1:20, while Jeff Seruset got :20

Sunday brought slightly different conditions in that the left cross was initially a bit worse in direction and accompanied by considerably stronger winds. Fortunately the wind dropped off and the cross moderated somewhat. Still, it was damn tough to get up until much later when the evening produced wonder wind conditions. Launching early was a roll of the dice. I launched early and simply left with the thermal I had launched into. I calculated that trying to stay on the ridge in those crossed conditions was guaranteed to put me in the main lz. The thermal I had was broken and erratic and only went to 5,400ft as it drifted me toward Breezewood. That was the highest I ever saw before landing near Everett for 17 miles.

But just after I had landed, feeling proud of myself, I heard Eric Shiever and John Fenner announce that they were around 8,000msl and headed my way. Soon I saw Eric's Fusion turning right over my lz and becoming mighty small. He continued onward over Tussey Mt and into the 326 valley where he became low at the same place I had been low on the previous day. But he too found a weak thermal that just got him high enough to dive into the 220 valley where it sounded like he was going to land.

In the meantime Larry and Brenda Huffman, on their way home to Pittsburgh, stopped at my lz to drop off my truck with which I was to chase Eric and John.

John had begun his flight with a horrendous struggle to get high enough to go over the back of Sideling Hill. He had dribbled as much as seven miles southward from launch before finding a boomer to eight grand. Having already started on a more southerly track, John began angling ever further to the south. This tactic was necessary because he was no longer finding good altitudes, and because his southerly start point had put him on a line into a wide expanse of trees and mountains. As he never could get high enough to cross those woods, he was compelled to continue south until landing at I-68 for 36.9 miles.

While he was doing that, I was racing south on 220 to pick-up Eric who'd landed there...or so I thought. I suddenly received a faint transmission from him saying that he had climbed out from 220 and was over the back of Wills Mountain. Later, as I neared Cumberland I heard a final, really faint, broken message saying he was at Wellersburg on 160, just NW of Cumberland. After getting John we went to find Eric who told us that he had pulled off a 150ft barnyard save in the 220 valley. He says that he could count just about the chickens and assorted beasts below as he began his climbout. Another spectacular flight: 46.8 miles, 2:04.

The other Sunday flights included Jim Meadows and Jeff Seruset's late day departures from the ridge. Jeff made it 14.1 miles to the Loysburg gap in Tussey Mountain, while Jim landed up on the old strip mine behind the Fisher Road launch for 8 miles. That was the good part. The bad part was the hour and a half it took to get out of there. In the end a local on a four wheeler took Jim and his glider out and into the waiting arms of Lynn. At the hill Paul got 2:25 in the same wonderful evening conditions that had occurred the previous day, Pat got 1:20 and wandered far out into the valley in front of the ridge and Luke got 1:20, landing almost at sunset. Before a surreal return to the top of the hill. But that's another story

In closing I should mention that on Sunday my vehicle had had no beer in it, a scandalous state of affairs when picking up xc pilots. After finding John we had searched for beer, only to be frustrated by Maryland's barbaric Sunday liquor laws. We therefore thought to stop and try to buy beer in a private sportsmen's club just short of Eric's lz. After parking out front, John walked in to buy the beer while I waited in the car and explained to Eric on the radio why we'd be a few minutes late. He replied that the local he was talking to confirmed that going to the sportsmen's club was a good idea. He'd said, "They'll sell beer to anyone. Unless they think you're a cop". At that moment John walked out of the place...empty handed. Oh well.

DRIVER'S PAGE

Until fairly late in the spring, the drivers' activities had been pretty much limited to short hops over the back, although on one of the early trips to the Pulpit Lynn and Brenda picked up Pat, Jim, Larry and Pete after short flights over the back.

The next weekend Brenda got Larry, Pat and Pete at 30+ miles in a quick, efficient three-pilot retrieve as all three had landed within five miles of each other east of Clymer. That same day Lynn then picked up Jim and John Fenner who had landed together at Davis International Airport. Later Brenda and Chimney went along on the trip to FarView Airport and then chased Mike, Larry, Pete and Jeff. Poor Chimney's pride was hurt by having to be associated with what he viewed as some incompetent flying by his pilots.

Things only began to heat up when we began to go out to Bills Hill. On three successive days the drivers proved their skill, and demonstrated how damn lucky we are to have them driving for us. On Friday Lynn Meadows got to Pete within ten minutes of his landing after an 80 mile flight. And that was done despite her having started well behind him, and having to make a large detour en route. After picking up John Fenner on the way back, they all then ate at the beautiful old stone Jean Bonnet restaurant in Bedford. On Saturday Lynn outdid herself, getting Jim, Pete (inside of five minutes) and Eric Shiever. In Eric's case, with the assistance of Pete and Jim, she had Eric's glider loaded and on the road in exactly thirteen minutes after he'd landed! This was also the day that Brenda got her chance at a long one when she got to Larry very quickly after he had landed at 62 miles. Again, that was despite having to work her way through difficult countryside to get there.

The next big retrieve was at Jacks Mountain when large numbers of pilots went over the back. Lynn wound up with a completely full vehicle, having gotten Jim, Pat, Jeff. Inexplicably, however, she missed one pilot on the side of the road. Go figure. Brenda, after picking up Larry, was then kind enough to go out of her way to pick up Pete. Brenda's other big retrieve was at High Point where she first picked up Pete and then got to Larry before he'd broken down.

Jim Meadows deserves special mention for having come out after work one day to drive for pilots on a day he couldn't fly himself. With four pilots over the back, and one of them 84 miles out there, the pilots would've been seriously stuck were it not for that act of kindness. Thanks.

ANDREW HOLUPKA IN VEGAS

After finishing his Army active duty service in Arizona, Andrew has moved to Las Vegas, NV. He says that Daedalus pilots are welcome to visit his home which is strategically placed between the Strip and the local hang gliding sites. His # is 702-433-1788 x1312

NEW TOYS

FURTHER FUSIONS: MIKE NEUMAN enters the modern era, retiring his beloved HP-AT which he has flown with notable success since 1991, and buys a FUSION 151. Less noteworthy is the fact that PETE LEHMANN has bought yet another FUSION and a KEEL.

LARRY HUFFMAN, while successfully resisting the trend toward Fusions, was unable to resist the pressure to procure a QUANTUM PARACHUTE. Larry also upgraded to a GARMIN 12 after the antenna on his old gps failed.

Having determined that one of his leading edge's was structurally inadequate, ERIC SHIEVER has replaced it with a NEW LEADING EDGE. After test flying Pete's WINGLETS Eric decided that he liked what they did for its thermalling characteristics and order some for himself.

FORD EXPLODERS PROLIFERATE: Both the HUFFMAN's and the MEADOWS' have indulged in vehicular excess by buying fancy new FORD EXPLORERS. Mind you Lynn's is the truly excessive one, going with the V-8 engine and leather interior as she did. Stylin' rides, both of them.

TRADEWINDS SUBSCRIPTIONS

For a one year subscription (four issues) send a $6.00 check made out to Daedalus HGC to Dewayne Renwick, 4 Griffith Dr; Home, PA 15747

HEADSETS

Some of you may have seen the well made push-to-talk headset used by Eric Shiever. If you are interested in them, check them out on the web at,

FLIGHT CONNECTIONS, INC.

5823 Goddard St.

Shawnee, KS 66203

FAX (913) 268-0272

PHONE: (913) 268-7946

ARAI TANGENT FLIGHT COMPUTER

Any pilot flying cross country, or with aspirations to do so, will benefit from the sailplane technology that makes speeds-to-fly easy. GPS interface is available, although the 3-D BAROGRAPH will only arrive in the new millenium to avoid any danger of a Y2K problem cropping up in the instrument. For more information on this easy to use, state of the art, performance enhancing instrument and/or personalized help with speeds-to-fly theory call Larry Huffman at 724-352-3726. He sold the demo, so you missed a chance to demo it and will just have to take our word for it that they're great varios.

ADAM SMITH HANG GLIDING SERVICES, INC.

It is with with great pleasure that one can announce the opening of a new hang gliding business in our community. Over the past years we have had enormous success going cross-country in this club and providing communal retrieval services for the lucky xc pilots. However in the recent past the burden of retrieval has fallen disproportionately on some volunteers, and it seems that the high demand for retrieval services has created a commercial opening. Therefore Adam Smith, a laid off academic economist at Pitt, has decided to apply his theoretical understanding of markets and open a hang gliding services business at our sites. Below you can read his tentative price list and a hypothetical example of how an xc retrieve might be billed.

LAUNCH AND RETRIEVAL SERVICES PRICE LIST

XC Retrieval (on return trip) $ .50/xc mile

XC Retrieval (special trip) $1.00/xc mile or $ .35/road mile, which ever is the greater sum

XC Retrieval (with equipment) $1.25/xc mile

If Your Vehicle Was Left at Launch $3.00 penalty

Bad Retrieval Directions $10.00 surcharge

LZ Retrieval (your vehicle) $1.00

LZ Retrieval (our vehicle) $3.00

Wire Assistance $10.00/hour ($1.00 minimum)

Cheap Beer $1.50/can

Better Beer (when available) $2.50/can

Discourtesy toward driver $5.00 penalty

Let us now examine an example of how the pricing system works. We will look at the hypothetical case of a pilot named Carl Marks, flying over the back from Jacks Mountain. Carl makes a commendable flight of 14.4 miles, and then summons John, one of the firm's employees, driving one of the company's fully equipped retrieval vehicles, a Blazer in this instance.

In the course of retrieving Carl, the driver travels 75 road miles, a total increased due to the necessity of John ultimately having to drive Carl to the top of the hill to retrieve his vehicle. In this example we will also assume that Carl is an ill-mannered boor who neglects to thank the driver.

Now, here is the bill that would result from this hypothetical service call.

A. Calculating on the basis of XC miles

-14.4 miles @ $1.25 for retrieval with gear in our vehicle $18.00

-penalty for leaving car on top $ 3.00

-one Molson consumed en route $ 2.50

-penalty for not thanking the driver for the two hour detour $ 5.00

Sub-Total $28.50

-Carl would, however, receive a partial rebate of $1.00

for replenishing the retrieval vehicle's beer stocks with

a beer of 'equivalent value' from his own cooler -$1.00

Total Due $27.50

B. Calculation on the basis of Road Miles

-75 road miles@$ .35/mile $26.25

-penalty for car on top $ 3.00

-one better beer $ 2.50

-rudeness penalty $ 5.00

-partial rebate for beer of equivalent value $ -1.00

Total Due $35.75

As the second sum is the larger one, it is the billable figure.

Terms of payment, net 30

USED EQUIPMENT FOR SALE/WANTED

If anyone would like to advertise any equipment for sale, let me know before the end of each quarter. Please let me know if you've sold anything.

WILLS WING SUPER SPORT 143 $1200. Less than 100hours, now surplus due to arrival of a new Fusion. Orange LE, orange and white undersurface. Built in 1995. Jim Meadows 724-226-0286

WILLS WING EURO-SPORT 167 Blue and white. Two extra downtubes, manual, batten pattern, and speed bar. $1,000 OBO Call Doug Cassley (724) 352-4497

USED MOYES DIVER BAZAAR

137 XTRALITE to a good home. It's in fine shape and will make you look better than you really are. $1,500. He is also selling his

XS 142 Very good condition. $800. Call Larry Huffman (724) 352-3726

WILLS WING SUPER SPORT 163 New in '94; 70 hours; sweet handling and only tumbled once. Flouro Red, Yellow and White. Folding speed bar. To contact him for details call Ric Niehaus at his welter of numbers to be found listed below.

PACAIR K4 PARTS GLIDER contact John Fenner for availability. 741-6792

CG 1000 HARNESS and PARACHUTE with kevlar bridle $350 together. Call Tom Linder (724) 863-3529

PACAIR FORMULA 144 Good condition, 70+hours. $1000 OBO Also a new spaghetti harness (for 5'6"-5'11") and 20gore parachute for $250. Contact Felipe Amunategui in Cleveland at; Dr.Amunategui@worldnet.att.net

PACAIR FORMULA 144: red w/white LE and blue top. 2 speed bars, wheels and thermal mitts.

FLYTEC 3005SI VARIO with airspeed indicator and mount.

Call Bill Kuhar: (216) 252-4313

COMPLETE FLYING PACKAGE: Super Lancer 180 (one owner), Odyssey harness, parachute, Litek vario, training harness, 2-channel Courier business band (USHGA) radio. Kevin Gallagher (724) 282-6894

FORMULA 154 Less than 100hours, purple LE, pink and blue. Good shape+safe edge downtubes. $900 OBO Call Christian Titone at (610) 286-9427

TUBES+VARIO I have down tubes for a Pulse and or a Mark4 Also a base tube and Litek vario. Charlie Martin, 412-922-9954

ABSENT FRIENDS: RIC AND KAREN NIEHAUS' EXCELLENT ADVENTURES IN EASTERN PA

Ric and Karen have moved to the Philly area where Ric has been pursuing his hang gliding passion in the company of his other passion, Karen (look, they're still only in the first year of their marriage). Ric's been flying at the Sac, Bills Hill, Kirk Ridge, and RedWing. Notable flights include the first XC flight from the Red Wing tow site, which, by definition, gives Ric the Site Record. He got to 6,000agl and made it 26 miles to the south along Route 206. On another day he got nine miles to the north. Cool, another Daedalus club member scarfing an out-of-area site record. He also had a two and a half hour flight at Kirk Ridge where his friend Norm had an aggressive hawk knock off one of his XC's winglets.

Best of all, however, was the day they went to Woodstock in Virginia. The day began abominably when Ric discovered that both of his carbon fiber sprogs had splits in them. Demonstrating admirable shade tree mechanic's skills, Ric obtained a large number of small hoseclamps to splint the sprogs. By the time he was ready to launch it was five o'clock. No worries. Ric then proceeded north to the end of the ridge, took a start picture and headed south. Past launch he crossed the big gap, and was now cruisin'. In his first flight at the site, and after all the day's tribulations with the sprogs and a late launch to boot, Ric ran the entire ridge to land at eight o'clock 50.7 miles from his northern start point. For the second time in one week Ric set a new personal distance record. As if that weren't enough, Ric's good landing concluded his 25 flights in the landing contest, and he's likely to win that too. Excellent flying.

HANG DIVING DEEDS

FEBRUARY 20 TEMPLETON A decidedly overcast lake effected sorta day, but it was not too windy and it was thermally as hell. Plus, two of the pilots had new gliders to fly. Eric Shiever flew his new Fusion for the first time, climbing out behind launch and eventually leaving with Pat Brooks and Pete Lehmann for short xc hops to the Exxon station after flights of half an hour. On the ridge Jim Meadows flew his new Fusion for an hour before landing below and validating the effectiveness of his new wheels. Larry Huffman had the day's longest flight of 1:25 and, along with the "xc" pilots, got to the day's max altitude of 1,600ft agl.

FEBRUARY 21 TEMPLETON The day was mighty cold, but the sky was awesome looking. Only Pete Lehmann flew, and after ten minutes he scratched out to 2,900agl. After that it was nothing but zero sink patches and strong sink before landing on 422 for eight miles. He then got to ponder the normal luxury of abundant drivers as he hitchhiked back to the hill.

MARCH 2 AVONMORE Eric Shiever showed up by himself to fly for half an hour before the approach of a front shifted the SW winds around toward the northwest and flushed him.

MARCH 7 TEMPLETON Another frigid but beautiful snow covered day. Jim Meadows and Pete Lehmann went out disbelieving a partly sunny NW 15-25 forecast. Their skepticism was merited, as they found NW10-15 and sunny skies. Jim left first and eventually got to 2,700agl before landing near the south end of Keystone Lake for 14.4 miles, while Pete later got ten miles and the Falcon's first double digit XC flight.

MARCH 13 TEMPLETON A very light and north cross day dissuaded the multitudes from setting up. That is all but Pete on his Falcon, and Ric Niehaus who had to set up as his father in law was there to photograph him. Pete got five minutes, and Ric a sled ride.

MARCH 20 PULPIT The light north forecast sent four pilots to the higher Pulpit site. Pete began the festivities with a very short first flight, but it was Larry Huffman who began the serious flying after a very low save near the lz. The ridge was light, crossed and full of nasty sink patches that decked most pilots. The Daedalus pilots eventually did well, however, with all four getting high and eventually bailing over the back. Jim Meadows :55 and Pat Brooks :25 both made it five miles towards Mercersburg. Pete (who had been aided in setting up again by Pat and Jim. They had the Falcon ready to go in about fifteen minutes) left at 2,600 over launch with Steve Kinsley but they were soon grovelling low in zero sink not too far over the back. Meanwhile Larry had again unsuccessfully tried to land in the main lz before getting back up and going over the back at only 1,200 over. Eventually he caught up with Pete and Steve, but was horribly low (maybe 700agl) before climbing out with them and, late in the day, eventually getting to 5,200msl (circa 4,500agl) near Interstate 81. In the end he took pity on Pete and landed with him 19.4 miles over the back, southeast of Chambersburg. It was a truly fun day of low stress but rather difficult flying.

MARCH 23 AVONMORE Light, cross and thermally. Luke Thompson got up solidly at first, but was flushed after fifteen minutes, a fate shared by Pete Lehmann. Later, Eric Shiever launched in even worse looking conditions, but then climbed out to 2,900agl and went 7.5 miles.

MARCH 25 TEMPLETON A very unstable, but largely grey day. However, when the sun broke through the thermals happened. Pete Lehmann got to cloudbase at 3,700agl on his way to a scratching xc flight of 15 miles. John Fenner later scratched out and made it past the Exxon station for 3.5 miles.

MARCH 26 TEMPLTON Pete and John return in rather desperate conditions of NNE at 5. Pete got one cycle for :14 and a bit of a scare about reaching the lz in the Falcon when he got flushed. John got a royal flush straight off launch.

MARCH 27 BILLS FUCKING HILL Daedalus pilots went out on an iffy forecast, in part to deliver Marc Fink's new Fusion. But before delivering it Pat Brooks first had to test fly it. That he did with the day's best flight of 1:10 and 3,700over (5,500msl). Unfortunately for Marc it was blowing down by the time he was ready to launch his new toy. Jim Meadows and Larry Huffman suffered similar fates when attempting second flights after very short first ones. Pete Lehmann pimped off Pat and climbed with him before heading south for a short six mile flight along the ridge.

MARCH 28 TEMPLETON A Day of Many Firsts Not bad for a light forecast and blue skies. Things began unauspiciously with light and north-crossed winds. Eric Shiever launched first, and got up fairly quickly in the light lift. As things improved he got ever higher, and finally made an attempt at the Stack'n'Back award. He made it to within 400yards of the stack before turning back and ultimately landing below. A noble effort. Of the many others in the air, there were heaps of firsts: Charley Martin doubled his longest soaring flight by staying up forty minutes after a short first flight. Luke Thompson made it 4.8 miles over the back for his second, and longest ever xc. Paul Donahue went over the back for the first time, landing at the Exxon station I the first of his two flights during which he totalled 1:45.

Jeff Seruset totalled 1:55 in two flights including one visit to the ever popular Exxon station. I wonder if the owner would consider installing a beer vending machine?

Larry Huffman had the day's furthest flight, making it 36.5 miles to land on 553 east of Penn Run. He began the flight with Pat Brooks (35.8 miles) and Pete Lehmann (31.3). They eventually split up and rejoined each other a couple of times en route, but in the end they all landed within five miles of one another. For the second day in a row Pat had the day's best gain, this time to 5,700 over launch, a definite harbinger of spring. Pete on the other hand had the lowest save of about five hundred feet over Davis airport. Interestingly, John Fenner and Jim Meadows later landed at that same private airstrip 19.5 miles.

MARCH 30 AVONMORE A day of grave disappointment. The soaring forecast was the best ever seen, predicting climbs to perhaps as much as 12,000msl. That brought out an unusual number of pilots, but, unfortunately, they went to the wrong site. Despite a southwest forecast it was, in fact, northwest. The resulting nasty right cross did what it usually does, it decked most pilots after a short soarable period. The results: Luke Thompson had the most soaring time of over half an hour in two flights, Pete Lehmann :30 in two flights and a very short xc, and Pat Brooks :20. After that it was varying degrees of misery. John Fenner had three sleds, Mike Neuman two and Eric Shiever one, and a leading edge.

APRIL 3 FISHER ROAD A day of easy soaring on the ridge accompanied by some quite strong thermals. Unfortunately there was an inversion which capped the lift at not much more than 1,300over. Only Larry Huffman got any higher (1,600). Jim Meadows had his first experience landing a topless glider in a possibly downwind situation after getting flushed. He survived with no broken aluminum and got an hour on his second flight. Paul Donahue (2:00), Pat Brooks 1:30, and Pete Lehmann (2:17). It should be noted that the landing contest began poorly for several of the pilots.

APRIL 5 BFH/FISHER ROAD Another accursed Bills Hill forecast produced very light and crossed conditions. Jim Meadows and John Fenner were doomed to slide, while Pete Lehmann got a lucky save down in front. It eventually turned on to 2,700over, but he foolishly came back to the ridge and eventually landed next to the Turnpike. The crew then saddled up for Fisher Road where conditions were light, but late-day soarable. Jim got :50 and Pete :30 while John Fenner had a nightmare. He had a truly spooky launch, couldn't get up and then had an equally spooky landing that cost him a downtube. Dr. Pete administered Becks beer for therapeutic purposes.

APRIL 7 TEMPLETON After the previous week's misadventure of going to Avonmore on a westerly day, this time the pilots stuck with Templeton. It was very left cross, but soarable for much of the day before finally crossing out and lightening up. Mike Neuman spent considerable time in the air getting over 3,000msl a few times before toplanding and pulling his hamstring in the process. Pete Lehmann flew twice (:40) including a hop back to the Exxon station where Chimney quickly retrieved him. John Fenner had a good soaring flight, and then a later desperate, short scratching effort. Luke Thompson spent about ten minutes scratching below the top at the road cut, demonstrating considerable tenacity. Eric Shiever got :20 on his K5 while his Fusion is still in the shop, and Paul Donahue also got an hour before being the last pilot flushed to the lz. Later in the evening, Dan showed up with his paraglider and attempted to launch it into a rotor on the training hill slope, much to the amusement of the by now intoxicated hang glider pilots.

APRIL 10 BFH, AGAIN (and a Fisher Road fly-by) An iffy forecast produced iffy flying. If you were lucky, you got up. Pete Lehmann began the festivities by launching into severely left cross conditions towards two thermalling hawks. Followed by Larry Huffman, they desperately struggled in broken, weak and drifting lift along the the crest of the ridge. After a getting flushed off, and then scratching back up a couple of times Pete was finally scraped off near the turnpike. Larry then found a reasonable thermal to 4,000msl on his way to 8.5 miles southward along the ridge. (Starting behind him Mark Gardner kept going and made it down to near Hancock for 23 miles. A phenomenally interesting flight) A number of other pilots dove off during this first phase for extended sleds or short flights: John Fenner, Jeff Seruset, Ric Niehaus.

Later in the afternoon the wind essentially died, and cycles seemed to have become much weaker. After JR and Will Jenkins had launched and indicated the presence of lift away from the hill, Pat Brooks launched and found it. Pete dove in below him and the two of them slowly climbed out over the back. After finding one more good thermal to 4,000+msl Pete eventually landed in the valley behind for 3.8 miles. Meanwhile, Pat got up onto the plateau to the northeast of Fisher Road where he got the day's best gain to 4,700msl at 400fpm. From there it was a glide to a field almost at the foot of Ritchie's Knob for 10.5 miles.

Back at the hill it was a tale of woe. Jim Meadows had "one flailing sled ride", Jeff and John both valiantly scratched for five to ten minutes. Ric and Paul Donahue concluded the tale with sled rides.

APRIL 13 TEMPLETON Spring is slowly becoming a presence. John Fenner was the only pilot to fly of the many who showed up for the anticipated good conditions. Unfortunately the winds were again very strong, and only John dared launch. He was rewarded with really good climb rates of up to 800fpm, and a rapid ground track. However when it came time to land outside of Indiana for 23 miles John had a horrifying landing approach. He was landing in a narrow valley in windy conditions. The resultant rotory air tossed him around before he made a fine landing in a very small field.

APRIL 18 AVONMORE In desperation Larry Huffman, John Fenner and Pete Lehmann went out under overcast skies promising the possibility of rain. In the end it didn't rain and was fairly straightforwardly soarable, if not spectacular. Larry and Pete both got about an hour and John forty five minutes, with the best gain being 1,100ft. Pete was test flying his new Fusion and was at first quite taken aback by the contrast with his Falcon. He's become a sissy Hang 2 pilot.

APRIL 24 TEMPLETON Another sterling example of meteorological excellence. A forecast of N 10-20 proved to be more like NE 5-10. At the end of the day many pilots had actually had a good time despite the grim beginning. Most notable was Mike Neuman who first endured two sled rides and, much worse, the combined abuse of Chimney and Craig for having gone to the bottom. Rather than face further harassment from those merciless critics Mike set up for a third time and climbed out at nearly six o'clock to go 15.9 miles over the back, thereby pacifying Chimney. Pete Lehmann had launched first and had left the hill at 800ft figuring that he was too far over the back for the Falcon to make it back to the ridge. After going down to 500ft he finally got up solidly (4,400agl) and went 28.1 miles to near Homer City. Larry Huffman departed behind him and finally caught and passed Pete to land near Black Lick for 32.3 miles. Before launching Paul Donahue entered the Region's year long xc contest and then promptly made his first real xc from the site landing beyond Rose Valley for about nine miles. He then found great fault with his Team Gypsy retrieval. Pat Brooks concluded the cross country flights with a hop back to the Exxon station on his second flight, totalling :55 in his two flights.

Back at the hill Jeff Seruset got :50 in his two flights, Luke Thompson ten minutes in his first flight since returning from a white water kayaking trip, and Jim Meadows had a sled ride.

APRIL 25 FARVIEW AIRPORT /ASHTABULA AIRPORT

Pete Lehmann really didn't know if he would be able to tow Tweety the Attack Falcon with the type of bridle he uses, so he was a bit apprehensive. The Ohio guys reassured him that it'd be no problem, and so it was. In the end, and after flying together for two hours, Larry Huffman (6,200msl/4,900agl) and Pete landed with one another at 23 miles after a somewhat low and interesting crossing of the mile-wide Mosquito Lake. In the end Mike Neuman got past them on his Fusion for 31 miles. That was really good because he's had a decidedly mixed experience with the glider and has taken to calling it the Led Zeppelin. And today he again began the day with a Led Sled which concluded with a downwind landing that left him upside down on top of the flipped glider. Supposedly, Chimney was hiding under the truck after that performance, proclaiming that he was too ashamed to be seen with Mike. Jeff Seruset landed on the western shore of Mosquito Lake for 21 miles, and Pat Brooks landed near the tow strip. John Fenner made his first four aero-tows. They varied from low-level weaklink breaks to tows to 1,500ft. The local pilots also enjoyed the sky, with Ralph Eckart getting an hour and four grand over the tow field, while Kenny Swarm got :25.

In a similar vein, Luke Thompson went up to Ashtabula Airport where he made his first winch tows on Mark Nicolet's newly built static winch.

APRIL 26 TEMPLETON Yet another honking blue day. John Fenner was the first pilot to brave the strong conditions after they had mellowed somewhat. After a futher delay watching some of John's aerobatics Jim Meadows and Pete Lehmann launched. John and Pete promptly bailed over the back at low altitude. John made it 4.5 miles to the Rural Valley road and Pete made it 11 miles, landing at RuralValley at seven o'clock.

APRIL 30-MAY2 BFH: AGAIN, AGAIN AND AGAIN Larry Huffman reaps the rewards of having had to work four ten hours days by getting Friday off. As a result he and Brenda, accompanied by the Meadows', John Fenner and Pete Lehmann go to Breezewood for a long weekend. Conditions were promising, with the about the first cumulus clouds seen this spring although the severe left cross made getting up a bit tricky. Flying his new Fusion, Pete launched first and after a minor struggle got up to 8,000msl at the turnpike gap to before diving over the back to the southwest. Larry went next, and beamed out of launch to take a track somewhat north of Pete's. After John Fenner struggled desperately along the launch ridge, drifting and dribbling ever further southward until about six miles south of launch he too finally found a climb and got stinkin' high. The day's only victim was Jim who got a short :10 minute sled ride to the lz. Demonstrating an admirable generosity considering the circumstances, he let Lynn go and chase John and Pete as they went over the back.

Now it was off to the races. Pete was out front running a lift line of cumies and haze domes to the southwest. Things were going well until he started getting lower about 30 miles out when the clouds evaporated. Working lighter lift that didn't go too high he finally dove onto the highest point on Wills Mountain above Hyndman where he found a thermal that began at 200fpm and steadily improved to a solid 850fpm, with a best of 991fpm on the averager, a truly extraordinary thermal that topped out at 8,900msl. And with that thermal a new line of cumies and haze domes set-up downwind of him, and things were again easy. The only trouble with this course line was that it went through country that was new to Pete and which was not covered by the map he was flying with. He had sent Lynn down to I-68, and once he recognized the intersection of US 219 and I-68 he then directed Lynn by counting the exits west of 219. It worked perfectly as Lynn arrived at his lz west of Friendsville, WV ten minutes after landing. The distance of 80.2 miles represents a new site record. The other flights are detailed in the separate article above.

MAY 5 FISHER ROAD VIDEO SHOOT John Fenner got half an hour in one flight and Pete Lehmann two flights totalling 1:25. See above story for details.

MAY 9 AVONMORE The recent rains had made the new road in to launch a miserably muddy mess, and with the sodden ground and over-development the flying was not too famous. Flying between rainstorms Pete and Larry got about half an hour and hopped over the back to land. John Fenner had a similar flight but landed below. New club member Mark Gardner made his first flight at a club site also getting about half an hour, but commenting that it was a bit trashy. Little does he know how mellow it was. Jim Meadows was the day's sled victim.

MAY 10 TEMPLETON Overcast skies and light, left-crossed conditions greeted the pilots. Eventually Pete Lehmann, Larry Huffman and Pat Brooks got up in the very thermally, if rather light lift under the overcast. They eventually got up together and bailed over the back, but with no success. They landed just as the clouds broke up, the sun began to shine and Eric Shiever flew over their heads after having gotten to base at five grand msl. Eric had a simple flight for the first fifteen miles just dolphin flying from one cloud to the next, losing little altitude. He finally landed northeast of Clymer on Route 240 for 32.3 miles. Larry, Pete, and Pat got 6.1, 5.1, and 3.4 miles respectively.

Back at the hill John Fenner demonstrated his tenacity on his second flight by staying up for 2:45, but he could never get high enough to leave. Jeff Seruset got :30 in two flights, Charley Martin totalled :45 in his two flights while Jim Meadows and Paul Donahue had short flights on the ridge.

MAY 11 TEMPLETON Taking a mental health day off work, Larry Huffman went to the hill on a very light day. He and Jim Meadows didn't even set up until late in the afternoon, while Paul launched early for a ten minute flight and a downtube. Jim Meadows too had a short flight and a bad landing in the conditions that both he and Paul considered rather odd. Alcoa thanks them, however. John Fenner spent fifty minutes on the ridge in beautiful conditions going from ridge top to 250ft. Meanwhile, late in the day Larry had climbed out in extremely light lift and, never getting very high, went 25? miles. That definitely beat going to work.

MAY 13 BFH and FISHER ROAD Ric and Karen Niehaus' presence at Breezewood was enough to get Pete Lehmann to drive out on a crummy day. After a quick look at the Pulpit, and then a sled ride at Bills Hill, the two happy warriors went to Fisher Road. It looked pretty weak at launch, but they fairly easily soared, eventually both getting nearly an hour and 800-1,000ft over launch. They landed just in time to break down in the rain.

MAY 15 JACKS MOUNTAIN Yet another weekend of easterly/southeasterly conditions. The soaring forecast was fair, but not excellent so the multitudes assembled at Jacks anticipating some sort of ridge running. In the end, while the locals ran the ridge (with singular success for the Pagens, Marc Fink and others), our club went over the back. By late afternoon conditions had turned on in a big way, producing conditions far better than forecast. The log of cross country flights began with Jim Meadows' and Pat Brooks' four-milers over the back to Belleville after 1:30+ flights. John Fenner was the only pilot to run the ridge, going 10.2 miles to the south, something that Pete Lehmann had begun to do before being flushed after :50. Paul Donahue went over the back for 14.5 miles for a personal best that was to last only one day. Larry Huffman made it 17.5 miles to Alexandria, and Mark Gardner got twenty miles. The two longest flights were ones that could have gone a lot further but for the wall of trees presented by Allegheny Mountain. Jeff Seruset and Pete Lehmann both got to over 7,000msl shortly before the mountain, but could see no way across and therefore had to head SW along Bald Eagle ridge before finally landing in the vicinity of Tyrone for 24 and 29.5 miles respectively. During one climb Pete had seen 1010fpm on his twenty second averager, one of the strongest thermals he's ever seen in the east. Back at the ridge Luke Thompson had a ball in the evening conditions, cruising to the gap'n'back several times in 1:20.

MAY 16 FISHER ROAD/JACKS MOUNTAIN

While the bulk of the club's pilots went to Fisher Road, Paul Donahue wisely, as it turned out, stayed at Jacks. Running the ridge this time, and staying high to avoid the hordes of sailplanes competing in the Nationals, Paul flew 43 miles for his second personal record in a row, as well as setting his longest duration record as well, 4:15. Well done!

At Fisher Road, life was not so pleasant. Flukey conditions on the ridge resulted in multiple sled rides and short soaring flights. Pat got :05, Larry :20, Jim a 'sinking sled ride', and Eric :20. Only Luke had a nice time on the ridge, getting 1:00 late in the day with Mark Gardner. Pete got up easily enough, but then struggled at the end of the ridge with a vario that kept trying to rotate on his base tube before bailing over the back for 6.9 miles. Only John Fenner and Jeff Seruset got out decently, with John getting to 5,000msl (3,000over) for 14.2 miles, while Jeff came up just short of John at 12.8 miles.

MAY 18 FISHER ROAD This time Pete blames Mitch Shipley for forcing him to go flying during the week. His friend Mitch was in Washington on business, so they agreed to hook-up in Breezewood to go flying. The 'mostly sunny' forecast provided complete overcast, and sled rides for the four pilots present; Mitch, Ric Niehaus, Eric Shiever and Pete. On their second flights they all managed to soar the ridge down to the end, after which Eric (1:30) and Mitch continued to soar the little ridge above the lz. The best part of the day was the local who stopped to chat while the pilots were breaking down. He was a drunken, middle-aged good ole boy who had been doing burnouts with his muscle car along the road next to the lz. He reeked of whiskey and had a beer in his hand as he stepped from the car. After telling us that it would do 140mph along that road, he later told Karen, to whom he had obviously taken a shine, that it'd do 150mph. He then confided to her, clearly trying to lure her away from that worthless airline pilot husband of hers, that he made $150,000 a year building muscle cars. How Karen resisted the charms of such a financially secure and sophisticated gentleman is beyond me.

MAY 19 TEMPLETON: FINALLY A NW DAY WITH CLOUDS It was raining in the morning, but by about noon it had become partly cloudy and, against his better judgement, Pete Lehmann let Ric Niehaus and John Fenner persuade him to go flying. They got to the hill around 2:30 and were ready to go by about 3:30. John launched first and Pete followed at almost 4:00. The ridge was kinda trashy and Pete wasn't having fun both because of the turbulence and because he was flying the Fusion and again suffering from the need to adapt to a very different glider. He finally left in a thermal which promptly quit at 2,200agl. Because of the previous day's heavy rainfall and the overcast morning he was still a bit too early and had to scratch for ten more miles before again getting to that height. But by then (about 4:30) the clouds had finally become coherent and he was climbing decently (350fpm) to base (4,200agl). The Saviour, aka Jim Meadows, was leaving work at that time and called to see if the pilots needed a driver. Man, was that a welcome question! Jim went to the hill, grabbed Pete's truck and set off in high speed pursuit (Note: at the end of the day Pete could tell from the minimal fuel consumption that it had been Jim and not Lynn Meadows who'd been using the gas pedal).

In the meantime John and Ric Niehaus had finally gotten up off the ridge after being battered a fair bit. Ric had been really unhappy because it was his first flight at Templeton in the big Super Sport since it had been tumbled there two years ago. He said the only reason he didn't land was that it was too nasty to do so. However, in the end he climbed out to 6,000msl (4,700agl) and made his longest ever flight landing near Dilltown for 38.7miles. Further demonstrating his prowess as a cross country pilot, Ric hustled a ride to a bar to await retrieval and secure two six packs of beer for the rest of the crew. Ric's mentor in these matters didn't fare as well. Mike Neuman launched after five o'clock and went a creditable 28 miles, landing early to ease the retrieve, which he knew was going to be late anyway. It was after landing that Mike discovered that he was in a truly uncomfortable position. He'd forgotten his wallet and thus had no money for beer, a disgraceful state of affairs. After first struggling 1:45 minutes on the ridge, John Fenner landed 13 miles out on the Gastown road for the shortest flight, but longest retrieve.

While all of this was going on, Pete was running under a series of long, wide, dark and flat-bottomed clouds. Lift was seldom as much as 400fpm, but it was very reliable and the Fusion's glide (with an 18-20mph tailwind at altitude) was keeping him plenty high between them. The only real problem was Allegheny Mountain as he wasn't really very high, base was 5,800msl and he crossed at Beaverdale where the mountain was 2,500+msl and full of trees. He had never crossed there before, and couldn't see if there were lzs on the back of the ridge. To be on the saf side, he slowly worked his way to base at Beaverdale, and then just zero sinked in the gray until lzs were visible over the back. After that it was easy, and he finally landed about six or seven miles SE of Bedford for 84.1 miles at quarter to seven. Not bad for leaving the hill after 4pm. Jim arrived before he'd broken down and they retrieved the other guys on the way back to the hill.

MAY 20 TEMPLETON On their way home to eastern PA, Ric and Karen Niehaus stopped by Templeton where Ric cycle-soared a total of four times to get forty minutes. It had been very light and right crossed.

MAY 22 JACKS MOUNTAIN Larry Huffman was the only soul to brave the crummy forecast, and he reaped the reward of a 22 mile (6,800msl) flight north along the ridge. It was a strictly thermal day of essentially no wind on which all other pilots got sled rides. At one point he got to observe the remarkable sight of a sailplane below him dumping water ballast in flight.

MAY 27 TEMPLETON Another northwest day, but unfortunately an essentially blue one with many of the characteristics of a high pressure day to go along with a nasty left cross. Mike Neuman, John Fenner and Pete Lehmann all launched within a couple of minutes into a brief straight cycle. It was somewhat trashy on the ridge, but Mike and Pete climbed out fairly soon in a somewhat erratic thermal that only got stronger when they jogged south to a forming cloud. They got to maybe 6,300msl and left. Pete was out ahead and south of Mike and in some trouble at NuMine when Mike hooked a howler 3/4 of a mile north of him. He risked the upwind glide with the Fusion and got there to a 700fpm climb to 6,800msl. They figured they were golden: four o'clock and the lift had turned on. Wrong. After that they merely grovelled, glad of anything over double digit climb rates. Mike finally landed north of Heilwood for 35.6, but Pete had taken a slightly more southerly line and got back up again in garbage lift to continue on another twenty miles. He could never get over 5,000msl and ran into Allegheny Mountain at Cresson. Figuring he could never get over the obstacle, he went south of route 22 looking for a fat, clean lz in which to land due to the by then rather strong winds. Well he found an appropriate lz at 55.6 miles, but at the last second in ground effect he was rocked hard and couldn't correct in time...because he, a simple minded Falcon pilot, had forgotten to release the friggin' vg. Result: 1Keel+1carbon basetube. In the immortal words of Chimney,who was driving, "Gottdamn stupid!". Not to mention expensive.

Of the other guys, John Fenner got 33.1, plus bonus miles. He had landed at a farm's family gathering where beer was being dispensed to all the guests. Eric Shiever made it 14 miles to near NuMine. Pat, Jim and Luke chose not to launch due to the later velocity and cross. Much later in the evening, new British pilot John Beckley had his first flight at the site, a sled ride.

MAY 29 HIGH POINT/TEMPLETON John Fenner, Larry Huffman and Pete Lehmann went to Cumberland to fly from High Point in hot conditions with unusually high cloudbases. Larry had the day's best flight, getting to 8,400msl (6,400over launch) and then going 36.7 miles in effectively zero wind conditions. Oddly, despite the awesome altitudes, the climbrates were not very good at all, 300-400fpm at best. Pete got a measly 4.8 miles after leaving a bit early and far too low. John got about :20 on the ridge.

Meanwhile, back at the Templeton ranch, Eric got a 10 min. flight

MAY 30 AVONMORE/HIGH POINT Eric Shiever is the hero of the day. While all others present, Pat Brooks, Jeff Seruset, Paul Donahue, Deborah Uttenreiter and Charlie Martin (2) get sled rides, Eric Shiever skies.

On an essentially L+V day Eric launched at three climbing buzzards who got him a couple of grand. With that altitude he glided out over town where he got to 6,000msl and seriously entertained going upwind. However, the clouds seemed better over the back so he headed out. With Pat Brooks chasing him, Eric later got to 7,800msl (6,500over) on his way to a crossing of Allegheny Mountain and landing south of Altoona for 58 miles. As an indicator of how light the wind was, the flight took him 4:25 minutes for a rocket-like 13.1mph average speed. He also provided further substantiation of the good-mojo value of ospreys when he encountered one at Ebensburg at 6,600msl in a 700fpm thermal.

HIGH POINT While Eric was skying and cruising, Larry(6,000msl; 4000over)1:20 and Pete (:50) got up and flew around Cumberland. After landing out along the banks of the Potomac River, Pete went back up for a short late soaring flight. He was hooked-in ten minutes after unloading the Falcon.

MEMORIAL DAY AVONMORE In severely crossed, un-memorable conditions Larry Huffman manages a breathtaking ten minutes (250ft) while Pat, Eric, Charlie, Jim, Jeff, and John all slide.