South Mountain Saturday

jlowery · Post by **jlowery** » Fri Nov 27, 2009 5:09 pm

Eric and I are planning on leaving town at 7:30 AM for South Mountain in Phoenix. It looks good between 12 and 2, S 15-18 and mostly cloudy. We're leaving a bit early so we can get his current crew of new H2s in the air before flying ourselves.

The Whetstones looks good, too, but of course there is that hike...

azwyatt · Post by **azwyatt** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 8:34 pm

So did you end up flying South? The winds forecast seemed a little scary for us baggers, but I kept looking at the mountain hoping some hangies were making the most of it.

Eric · Post by **Eric** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 8:55 pm

We did fly. Davis Chappins, Bill Bennett,John lowery and I as well as a Phoenix pilot in a Formula. Andy- from Phoenix, drove for us and everyone soared. Allen showed up and helped brief the guys on the bale out LZ.
Davis flew for an hour and a half and we flew together in thermals. For an instructor to have his Hang II student thermal with him on his 6th high flight was a gass!
The boys landed in the school yard. I landed at the intersection of Queencreek road and I-10, ( The next exit towards Tucson past Firebird lake. )
We never encountered any strong wind- winds aloft were 12 to 15 max.
Lift was strong at times I cored out from the glof course in a 1100FPM thermal. We also did not get high well not above 4000msl
The boys were flying Falcons and could advance over the ground at min sink. We launched early and were done flying before 1.

Eric

jlowery · Post by **jlowery** » Sun Nov 29, 2009 9:42 pm

The Phoenix pilot on the Formula was Matt. He also flies PG. We got launch assists from PG pilots Jorge and Shawn, and from temporarily earth-bound HG pilot Allen Housel; and transportation help from Andy, who drove the Suburban down for us.

None of the PG pilots flew, it got a little strong on launch by the time it was apparent that the winds aloft weren't going to be as strong as predicted.

Eric was on his new T2C and really smoked me in his first thermal. I was in front of the towers, he went a little bit further west to the point of the ridge and found a big one, just flying up to a thousand or so over. He also got that 1100 fpm thermal over the golf course. Amazing conditions for a late November day.

Thanks to all of the Phoenix pilots for helping us out.

Here's a little video of Davis' landing.

<object width="425" height="344"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/893NldVkwQM&hl ... ram><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="/http://www.youtube.com/v/893NldVkwQM&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="425" height="344"></embed></object>

John

azwyatt · Post by **azwyatt** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 8:02 am

Awesome. Wish I had been a part of it.

Yet again XCskies prematurely predicted a thunderstorm. I was chomping at the bit all day to fly because the winds on the ground weren't nearly as strong as XCskies said they'd be. Oh, well. I guess the rest of the PGers didn't make it in the air anyway. Just so long as nobody else on my kind of wing is having any fun!

Eric · Post by **Eric** » Mon Nov 30, 2009 10:09 am

We have several SAHGA pilots who -go both ways. I know I am interested in learning PG if your interested in flying when conditions are just a bit stronger Hg is the way to go. Just a thought.. there are instructors in Phoenix... with the use of the scooter you can train quite rapidly..
That is the premise of this club to support foot launched flight!
( AHGA members have been very supportive-Thanks)

Eric

azwyatt · Post by **azwyatt** » Tue Dec 01, 2009 2:31 pm

Yeah, that's in the five-year plan

First on the list is to get my P3 so I can fly Mingus! I'd really like to do hangies as well, but I probably won't have money for it until I'm out of school.

sorinorrin · Post by **sorinorrin** » Tue Dec 01, 2009 9:45 pm

Congrats on a great flight Davis. Thats one to put in the log book! I only hope I am there for your next hour plus flight.

Orrin

Gunter · Post by **Gunter** » Wed Dec 02, 2009 6:39 pm

To: AZWYATT
If you like I can help. I have a number of great Pg flying videos, some are for training, others are just for great viewing. They helped me a lot.
Call me if interested. 520-648-0411.
Gunter

South Mountain Saturday

Re: South Mountain Saturday