July 2001

"Denny you have to have a plan"…Steve Arndt preaching the concept of strategy to a frustrated Dennis Cavagnaro after a too short XC flight

"STAY HIGH!"…Ted Hasenfus response to Jeff Bernard’s nervous cry on the radio "Hey Teddy What do I do?" …after topping out in a thermal at Monadnock and not seeing any landing areas for miles.

"Miles is minutes, err Minutes is miles… whatever!"…The infamous Rich Williams, a former local pilot pontificating after drinking too many beers at the 1995 Chelan Nationals about flying quickly in the peak of the day.

All three of these fine pieces of wisdom came into play during my assault on Randy Adam’s 11-year-old hang gliding mark. Indeed, if you have ever had the pleasure of flying with Randy, you saw him incorporating these principals, as well as his genius ability to judge clouds and thermal the best cores. Randy didn’t spend a lot of time looking on the ground for available landing areas cuz he figured he "ain’t landing". And most of the time he didn’t until the day was over.

It started with the perfect day. The right day is very important, especially in NE. For most of my flying life I have been saddled with weekend only opportunities, and this is very restrictive to going long. The great thing about June 9^th weather was it fell on a weekend and allowed many of us this rare peek at good XC conditions.

I woke up that morning and clicked on my computer screen to the thermal forecast. My jaw dropped as I cleared the sand from my eyes and saw the numbers. It was going to be an epic day! So I threw my Hang Gliding gear into the van and smoked the tires down the road. I past Lee, a flying buddy on the way and he pulled over to talk; but I ran over, put the forecast page in his face and said "get to the mountain man, big time air".

I got to the top of the hill blasting my Littlefeat "Let it Roll" CD all the way. Two trips up the trail later, I set up and got behind a long line of gliders pushing to launch. I launched about 1:15 or so.

I got below takeoff at first but quickly climbed up and joined Ted, Jeff, Jon, and Mark coring up in a nice Thermal. Four of us left in that one and I topped out at about 7,800’ or so. Now the first and most significant decision was to be made. Which way do I go?

The wind was blowing from the northwest and wanted to rake me over dinosaur country. This is a swath of heavy forests and very few LZ’s for many miles. It would be the best way to get miles, but at what cost? Would I always be compromising my ability to go from street to street and trolling developing areas just to stay near a reasonable LZ? Continue on page 2

I thought I could zipper along the river into Mass with more confidence, and since I had just done an 80 miler cross wind I was sure I could maintain a reasonable pace. I was getting good at bouncing around finding lift. I soon discovered that except for Ted flying with me till Fall Mountain, everyone else chose to go with the wind. No varios to play with.

I got extremely high near Morningside (8500+) and started to plan the next 10 miles. I saw developing clouds all along the valley. It seemed that the streets heading downwind were originating near the river. My plan was to go to get high at these points and just speed-to-fly between them. I had just gotten my new instruments on Thursday (Braeuniger IQ Comp), and loved the McCready feature. I never knew that I was flying so fast in lift downwind before. By slowing down I was getting a much better glide between the thermals.

I stayed between 6500-9000 most of the way through New Hampshire. As I started to approach Brattleboro VT, I was down to about 6k and started to work a slow climber. Off to my right I saw what I thought was a WW Fusion with winglets working a better core. As started to drift over I saw that it was Deane Williams in his Millennium! This was great! I had wanted to hook up with him earlier in the year and well, here we were cruising through Massachusetts and coring thermals. Again I stuck with my game plan. At the altitudes I was able to fly I could always see 10-15 miles down the valley. I could pick out a developing cloud within 5 miles and usually identify an alternative close by if for some reason that one didn’t pay off. Lift was moderate (3-500 fpm) and thermals were stronger and more consistent between 5-7.5K. If I wanted to make time I needed to stay in this range. If I punched through a slow climb layer (7.6-8K) it would again get strong until cloud base which was about 9.5K .

I wanted to get over 9K so that I could veer away from the smaller airports around North Hampton, when I lost Deane. He was on a fast cruising mode and didn’t slow down to squeeze the extra altitude. After I lost him I said to myself that he was right to move on. It was getting to be 4:15 and I had to make the most of the peak of day lift. I started to press on more aggressively.

I was coming up to Connecticut, and even though I was at 9.5K I wanted to go east inland so I would not be a factor with Bradley Airport. I thought about doing this back at North Hampton, figuring that I could begin to use the downwind drift to extend my flight later on in the day. Again like my pal Steve always preaches to me, by having a couple of moves planned out ahead it allowed me to think about how I would deal with these issues ahead of time. If I made one decision at a time for the immediate situation it would rush my thinking and lead to unforced errors. Flying distance in the east is more chess like then anywhere I know.

Before I crossed the MA/CT border I had to turn off my GPS to save batteries. With Hartford to the west, I looked out and could clearly see this great long body of water. Oh my God, it was the Long Island Sound! I start to tear up and became aware of the significance of the flight I was having. I knew I was over 100 and maybe approaching 110 but I was still at 7K and on a cruise to a group of fields downwind. When I arrived at those fields I was down to 2,200’. The sky had just about completely dried up. There was only this last transparent puffy mass hanging around looking to dissipate. I went for the upwind side to see if anyone was home. "Could thermal come out and play?"

Well his mommy said yes, and I started the slowest of climbs (less then 20-30 fpm) and seemed to just hang there (no pun intended), for 15-20 minutes! As I slowly ascended, the lift got a little stronger and I drifted downwind away from the fields toward a long stretch of trees. When I got above 4500’ I could see another LZ possibility downwind. As my good fortune would have it, there was another LZ after that, and then I would have to get close to 5,000 to make New London. When I got to this last LZ, I had about 2700 to go on a search for more lift but alas, that was all she wrote, so I set up and landed at approximately 7:40PM. I unhooked and turned on my GPS to mark the spot. It read 122.1 and I nearly passed out with tears streaming down my face, a happy guy indeed.

Analysis: If you subtract the time it took for me to start the XC from the hill and the 10 minutes or so that I cored zero at the LZ looking for lift, I was on the trail for about 6 hours. That’s moving rear crosswind at 20 mph. Ideally I should have started 45 minutes sooner and based on the speed that Deane was flying I think it was possible to pick up the pace another 3-5 mph.

This means this day had the potential of 155-168, and since I was on the track for New London I knew (being a Long Island boy), that New London was the closest point to cross the sound to Long Island’s North and South Forks. Heck if I played my cards right I might have been sipping Pina Colada’s with the Rich and Famous at South Hampton beach instead of drinking beers in a biker bar waiting for my poor wife, Anne, to retrieve me! (Thank you honey for picking me up Saturday AND after Thursday’s 80 miler to the coast). I’m a lucky guy,

Greetings from the President

Summer finally arrived with the promise of a great flying season. It has been good to see all my old friends on the hill again, and it is really great to see a new group of hang IIIs starting their mountain flying careers. I was listening to some of the new group already talking about their goals of making their first XC flights back to Morningside.

The roadwork promised at Rutland has not been done yet. I am trying to get someone who lives in the Rutland area to take charge of getting this work done. In the meantime, beware of the rough conditions and take it easy.

Dennis C. is working on the Regional Competition for later this summer. Look for his report in this newsletter. I know Dennis is planning on the last weekend in August and Labor Day weekend. This date will coincide with the club summer party, which is scheduled for September 2nd at Ted Hasenfus's house in Weathersfield.

At our last meeting a request was made for the Club to help pay for two years' of property taxes at the Mohawk Trail landing site. The motion passed. In the future, if a request like this is to be made, please talk to the officers first, so that we can look at the treasury, and so that the voters can be informed. As a result of this vote it looks like we will be running in the red this year and dipping into our savings.

Before next year we will publish a detailed account of expenditures and income so that you can see where your money is going.

Speaking of money, last year's summer party cost the Club quite a bit. There was a donation bucket in the tent, but not very many people saw it. It looks like this year we will need to be a little more aggressive about soliciting donations. The party is a lot of fun, but if you do not want to see a dues increase, please be generous!

VHGA Summer Party

I would like to invite all club members and their families to join us at this year VHGA Summer Party

The Club will furnish beer, soft drinks, hot dogs, hamburgers, and chips. Please bring a salad to share.
The cost to the Club is about $600.00. The tent and portapotty are the two biggest expenses. There will be a donation bucket--please contribute.

Mt Ascutney LZ Advisory

I am asking for your help to save this LZ. The club officers have made this request before and pilots are still ignoring it. We are not to drive into the landing zone field we call Africa. This means your are to park on the street and carry you glider out to your car. No one is to drive down Daves driveway or park near his house. If someone is coming to pick you up and they have kids? Please keep a close watch of the kids. Dave talked to one of our members about an incident within the last few weeks where there were several cars parked in his driveway and kids were running all around his yard and around the pond. He is also very concerned about one of these kids getting hurt or drowned. This landing field is very important to all the pilots that fly Mt Ascutney. Please be considerate to Daves wishes and the clubs best interest.

There I was thinking I was going to die

These are going to be regular stories from hang glider and paraglider pilots about some experiences that they have had. The officers of the VHGA hope that by sharing these experiences, other pilots will learn how to handle these without having to experience it themselves. All pilots are welcome to submit their stories with a brief explanation. You don’t have to include your name if you don’t want but please submit the stories. You may help save another pilots life by letting them know how to handle similar situations.

My story is about a tandem flight I have recently or should I say tandem launch. Anyone who knows me knows I pride myself on having a good strong launch. I found myself on top of Mt Ascutney with Laura Michaels for a tandem passenger. Conditions were strong but doable. A few of the regular XC pilots were there with high hopes of going long. Also there were a few less experienced hang 3s. Most of the regular XC pilots got set up and launched as quickly as possible. This left me with the less experienced pilots and a few pilots that came late. Conditions got stronger as the day went on. I talked to John Arrison one of the late comers and we both thought it was getting to strong for less experienced pilots. I talked to the pilots about waiting till things calmed down a little. Thinking of their safety. We all agreed that the newer pilots and I with the tandem would wait it out for a while. We launched the last two experienced pilots in the stronger conditions. After a short time I felt conditions calmed down enough to where I felt the less experienced pilots could handle it. Knowing that I would be left without an experienced wire crew to launch me I decided to ask some bystanders for assistance. John Musto (who could not fly that day due to glider problems) and I with bystanders launched these pilots without incident. The bystanders did a good job learning how to assist the pilot as wire crew. Now came it came down to the last to launch, my tandem passenger and I. I called the people that were going to help me behind launch to give them my last instructions. Tandem launches in hang gliders are a little different than regular launches. The biggest differences in strong conditions there is a lot more wing to control. Also I need to get both my passenger and I moving together as one to be able to launch. So I explained that they would hear me ask my passenger if she is ready, if she says yes and I still got control of the glider I will yell clear. When I yell clear the wire crew is to let go of my wires, but stand there because I will not start my launch till I feel my passenger start running. This split second delay will be different that they were used to. I carried my glider up to launch with assistance of John Musto on my nose wires and the bystanders on my side wires. We got up on the platform and Laura and I hooked in and did our final checks. A calm cycle came in so we decided to get in launch. I stood there for a few minutes watching the gust and waiting for a good launch cycle. By this time the wind changed direction and was coming from the west, which was from my left. I did not feel this would effect our launch too much. I asked John to clear the nose wires and go to my left side wire. Knowing that was now the more important side to have a more experience wire person on. Things felt good so I asked Laura if she was ready she said yes. I still had good control of the glider so I yelled clear. At the second we started to launch a gust came in. I pulled down the nose of the glider a little without breaking stride. I felt the right wing starting to twist back. It did not feel like the wing popped up but twisted back on my shoulders. I pulled hard on that side to straighten out the glider and looked quickly to find my right side wire man was holding the wire. I don’t know if I ripped the wire out of his hand or if he finally let go but I found Laura and I flying sideways to launch with a tail wind heading straight for the trees. I thought for a split second to stuff the glider into the trees before we got up too much speed and hopefully minimize how bad we got hurt. But I decided to try to save it. I did a hard left turn slamming Laura into the downtube. This made us do a wingover type maneuver missing a tree with my base bar by inches. Now I found us turned into the wind heading for launch. I did a hard right turn and flew away from the mountain. All of this happened in just a few seconds. After getting control of the glider I asked Laura if she was ok and if she wanted to go land or fly. She wanted to continue flying and that great flight is a different story.

I don’t now if the bystander helping with my left wire did not hear me yell clear and did not let go or if he thought he was saving me by grabbing my wire when the gust hit us. Either way I think I age real quick for those few seconds. I hope you never have to go through anything like this. I guess what I am trying to tell you, be prepared for anything to happen. Also know your wire crew, better yet have your wire crew know you and what you expect form them.

Regionals

Steve Prepost and I will be running the regional contest this year and I wanted to share with all of you the details of the meet.

The Dates: Weekend of August 25, 26 and September 1,2,3. There will be a pilots meeting on the first day of the competition at Morningside Flight Park at 9 AM.

The Flying Sites: At this point the primary site will be Mt Ascutney, (see http://www.vhga.org/sites/mount_ascutney_nw.htm), This site will be used in safe winds of L&V, WNW-NNW. For all other flyable days we are going to use the new tow operation at Morningside. If you haven’t had the opportunity to tow with Johnny and Les’s tugs you are missing the best chance to get airtime in New England. If your not tow rated you have the summer to get checked off. We really do have the beginnings of Wallaby North and there is no reason to miss out on easterly days or climb the Mountain in the summer heat!

The Scoring: Your day’s gross score will be based on the distance you complete. A handicap divisor will be applied to topless gliders and rigid wings to normalize the glide ratios. The King Mountain meet in Idaho has used a system like this successfully for years. We will run as many contest days out of the 5 scheduled as possible and total up the scores. IF WE HAVE THE REPRESENTATION we will award 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd for pilots who have logged XC flights of 50 miles or more and another set of finishers for under 50. This will be determined on the first day of the contest.

The Cost: I am asking for a $10 entry donation to offset awards. Steve and any other volunteers will do the best to ensure a good time and fair meet. All costs associated with towing, transporting your glider and retrieval are up to you. You need to make your own ground crew arrangements.

Please contact Dennis Cavagnaro at (603) 529-2010 or at dcavagnaro@earthlink.net if you plan on competing.

Come out, get some XC contest experience, have some fun and kick some butt. We haven’t had a Regionals in a while and we need your support. The VHGA summer party will be held at the end of the contest

Mt Greylock Request

The owner of the bailout LZ at MT, Greylock. requested that any pilots landing there please walk directly from where they land to the nearest road so as to avoid trampling the hay, which will be getting tall soon. For the same reason, he also asked for people to break down on the lawn rather than at the edge of the field.

Region 8 XC Contest 2001: Update

Hang Glider Over 50 Miles

Name	Distance (miles)	Other Flights (miles)
Dennis Cavagnaro	122.1	80, 34
Ted Hasenfus	101
Deane Williams	93
Jeff Benard	78	12
George Ferris	76	45
John Sillero	55.6
Steve Arndt	50
John Arrison	35
Jon Szarek	30

Hang Glider 25-50 Miles

Name	Distance (miles)	Other Flights (miles)
Mark Vaughn	80.4	31.3, 21.8
Tom Lanning	48.3	47, 30, 27, 25, 18, 17, 10, 9
Jim MacNutt	18.7

Hang Glider Under 25 Miles

Name	Distance (miles)	Other Flights (miles)
Tim Hoopes	68.5	39.7
Roger Furey	34
Greg Hanlon	27.8
Dan MacManagle	21.5
Aric Paulson	18.7
Ken Rosenberg	18.7	10.6

Paraglider

Name	Distance (miles)	Other Flights (miles)
Dave Morris	22	13

Tandem

Name	Distance (miles)	Other Flights (miles)
Gary Trudeau	10.6	4

XC Contest Rules

There are 5 classes. The first three classes are based on the pilot’s longest flight in any previous year. The distance classes are broken into 3 categories under 25 miles, 25-50 miles, and over 50 miles. The two remaining classes are tandem and paraglider.

There is no entry fee and is open to all pilots flying any New England site including Petersburg Pass NY as long as the pilot meets all of the site requirements (including proper ratings, waivers, membership, and any thing else that may apply).

There is a two-week time limit on reporting flights to the contest organizer *****

It is be the responsibility of the pilot to report their flight to the contest organizer. This year’s organizer is Gary Trudeau. He can be reached by phone (413) 743-0147, by email at gtet595@aol.com or mailed to 595 Outlook Ave, Cheshire MA 01225. If possible please use the submit form on WWW.VHGA.ORG. This form contains all the information needed to enter the competition.

All distances must be in miles and tenths. The distance is a straight-line measurement between launch point and landing point. GPS coordinates or sectional maps are the only means used to determine distances. The contest organizer has a sectional map that can be used to determine distance.

Trophies will be given in all classes. Trophies will be handed out at the annual XC Dinner in February.

***** Due to reporting problems earlier this season. There will be an open time period for any pilot to report any XC flight for the competition this year. This time period will end August 1 2001. This means any XC flights that were not reported within the two-week window can now be reported and entered in this year’s competition.

Fly West Not So Young

After a long winter it is always surprising to see how exited we can get even when the conditions don't look that good. It was April 29th and the mountain road had only been passable for a few days. The forecast was for light east winds. Not exactly the ideal conditions for a northwest site, but what the heck.

After talking a reluctant Jim McNutt into coming with me, we headed up Mt. Ascutney with my trusty driver Beeb. Much to my surprise, there were six other pilots to launch. As usual my impatience got the best of me, and I was the first to launch with a flight plan of getting out of the lea side ASAP and hope to find a thermal over the Roger's rock area. Getting low over Rt. 131, I wasn't even going to make Teddy's. I could see the other pilots out on the old SW launch looking down at me, and I could just imagine what they were saying.

Finally I got a little chirp from my vario which developed into a nice 800 FPM up. Saved at last! The lift continued to 6500'--now what to do? We are such creatures of habit that heading west just didn't seem right, but that was the way to go. I got low about 5 miles out and was not too optimistic for a long flight. But the lift got better, and I was soon topping out over 8000'.

Heading into the Green Mountains is a rare treat. Okemo provided a nice strong thermal, and over the town of Cuttingsville I spotted a bird thermaling 1500' below my 7500'--he was climbing fast. The bird turned out to be a mature bald eagle. What a treat to be soaring with such a majestic bird, so high up!

I was soon at the Route 7 valley. The day had been completely blue, so there was no such thing as a visible blue hole to signal sinking air. The valley was sinking all the way across to West Rutland. The West Rutland LZ was visible, and I arrived with only 500' feet to spare. I was really hoping someone would be flying at Rutland, but, alas, no one was there, and the flight was over.

Note from the Secretary

Officer Attendance- John Arrison, Dennis Cavagnaro, Gary Trudeau, Niece Miller, Colin Fay

Treasurer report- Treasured report was read and voted to be accepted with Account balances as of April 28 Checking – $5665.84 and Money Market Fund – $15,492.49.

Site Report: Rutland- There is $1800.00 left to fix the road from the money allocated last year. The donation from the VHGA to the farmer known as Ducky was well appreciated by him. We are not permitted to drive into the big landing zone. We must park on the roadside of the bridge and walk out to your car. The club to look into a possible solution for parking in the future. Jake Schweiger is coming back from Colorado and is interested in selling the house at the base of the mountain. While here Colin will talk to him about the best way to fix the access road to launch and possible contacts he has for use of heavy equipment to do the job. All VHGA members are asked to help police our flying sites and help enforce the rules.

Ascutney- A work party to be scheduled to help the rangers open up the park. A mailing will go out to announce the date and time. The mountain is still closed at this time to flying due to the 5 feet of snow. John Arrison hiked up to launch and reported that both the south launch and the northwest Launch should be OK

Burke- Niece Miller reported that the road is in great shape and will be open starting Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day. John Arrison and Niece Miller are working on the club members having better access to fly the mountain.

Hawk- It is believed that the NEPHC is still insuring this site at the present time.

Washington- Nothing new discussed except for the still 25 feet of snow still on the mountain

Club Vote- To approve another $500.00 to fix the West Rutland launch access road in addition the $1800.00 if needed was accepted. To include Burke Academy under the present insurance policy for that site was accepted. To drop the August meeting was passed. Cirrus Corp asked for a $1200.00 to help defray their expenses of the LZ at Mohawk Trail. A vote to give them for half was defeated and a vote to give them the full amount was accepted. A rescue fund request for an unspecified donation was a non-vote and was to be investigated further before voting on a donation.

Regionals- Dennis to run with the help of volunteers Steve Prepost and Jim Colella. Different tasks for hang gliders and paragliders. Possible dates of August 11-12 or August 18-19. Dennis asked for possible feed back. More to be announced in the future.

Pilot Training – Tim Donavan gave a great talk on how to read a sectional map. Quick summary of some of the key points. Every pilot planning to fly XC should have a sectional map and know how to read it. Blue circles mean that there is a control tower and don’t go any closer than 5 miles from it. Magenta circles are uncontrolled air space but be very aware of other aircraft in this area. Small blue lines and magenta boxes show the paths that planes take to enter that airport. So be on the look out for them when flying on the down wind side of these areas. To avoid a controlled air space plan early and make a small deviation rather than flying there and have to make a major deviation. The long straight blue lines are general paths that the planes will use to get from airport to another. Be very aware of aircraft in these areas. He talked about specifics about some of the air space a XC pilot might have to deal with attempting a long flight from Ascutney and West Rutland.

Aerotowing at Morningside

The aerotowing operation at Morningside Flight Park is up and running. All of Jon Benson hard work is starting to show through with some shinning results. His operation is running 7 days a week and offerings two tugs (Moyes Dragonfly and a Flightstar) flown by 4 certified and experience pilots. This towing operation has an excellent safety record in it short time of running with already over 300 tows with no injuries. Towing can be done in all wind direction. The tug pilots are knowledgeable of the local house thermals. Numerous pilots have had altitude gains of over 5000 feet after release and XC flights of 100 miles. The tows are reasonable at a cost of only $20.00 each. If you are not aerotow rated he offers a rating package for only $200.00. For the person interested in finding out what hang gliding is like, Jon also offers tandem aerotows up to 2500 feet with an experienced tandem pilot for a cost of $125.00. I would recommend coming to check out this professionally run operation and enjoy the aerotowing

Letter from the Editor

I am encouraging any member of the VHGA to submit articles to the VHGA Newsletter. Any article submitted will be considered for possible publication. The editor reserves the right to publish and edit any articles submitted. The editor will accept classified ads pertaining to hang gliding and paragliding. Classified ads must be resubmitted if you wish them to be published in the next VHGA newsletter. Articles, classified and upcoming events may be submitted to the VHGA Newsletter at

Classifieds

FOR SALE: Wills Wing FUSION 150 Glider has Approximately 70 hours of airtime. 2000 FUSION SP Modification for improved handling, Comes with a Wing Camera Mount and a 2001 Calendar.
Asking $2500 - Contact me, Mark Vaughn at (508) 877-8545, cmvjv@aol.com or knowvne@aol.com

Accessories: Lambskin/wool barmitts barely used, $20, extra high quality, very warm (not good with folding speed bars) Rodger Furey, 508.880.7709, Furrod@aol.com

122.1 MILES: A New England Record