December 10 at Ed Levin Park

I made a visit to California this weekend to visit relatives in the San Fransisco Bay area. After hearing so much about Fort Funston and the Hang Gliding community there in SF I decided to take a day and go flying. Specifically, I wanted to work on foot launching since I have so few hills here in Ohio. I made contact with an instructor via the USHPA website and scheduled a day of lesson on Saturday at Ed Levin Park.

The Park is great because it's got large wide open lawns and a mountainside with established launches at a bunch of different altitudes. So it's perfect for practicing skills. I think it is often soarable but the forecast for Saturday was very light winds and slightly overcast.

I met John Simpson at the park in the morning and we set up and got started working on foot launches from 50 feet. From this launch I practiced executing a strong run downhill in light conditions. John expected the wind to change from south-south-west to more northerly and sure enough it did. I had 4 foot launches by that time and got 2 more after the wind changed. Cross wind launches are interesting because of how far away from your launch direction you have to point the glider. I was running down hill almost directly west, but the wind was 30 degrees off to my right so I had the glider pointed nearly directly into the wind. This exaggerated yawing of the glider into the wind felt bizarre but it does help to ensure a smooth launch. And anyway, as soon as the glider does start flying, it corrects it's yaw back to the direction of the launch run.

In total I had 6 foot launches from 50 feet, and 2 from 300 feet. I think this qualifies me for the foot launch skill, and maybe even the cross wind launch skill however I forgot to get my instructor to sign off on these in my log book, oh well.

I also got to experience how much more work you have to put into learning when you are required to carry the glider up hill each time you launch. I've gotten used to being driven from one end of the field to the other on a golf cart! It's exhausting.

One of the other local pilots there offered to record a short clip of one flight:
I didn't have level wings and was maybe going a little fast for the flare, but I made the spot landing!
This was the second flight from 300', on the first flight I did poorly judging the altitude on final and overshot the spot quite a bit.

And I also recorded my usual tail perspective on the GoPro camera but have had trouble editing it together. And anyways 6 of the flights were 10 seconds or less (from 50 feet) so it doesn't make for a very interested set of clips.