www.sahga.com

Is anyone interested in Box on Monday, April 4? I will recheck the weather forecast in the morning.
Lew

Lew, I'm looking to get some flights in this week as usual. I was hoping to get out on Tues./Wed. Though, if possible. Perhaps Mustang will work on Tuesday?

Either way, feel free to touch base whenever. I'm sure we (me, you, and the wearher gods)can work something out.

Ioan and I will meet at the Box LZ at ! PM today (Monday, April 4). We will drive up the back side and hike the easy backside trail to the upper launch. I will be at the I-10 & Houghton (north side) parking space at Noon to pick up anyone who needs a ride to Box.
Lew

Ioan and I had very good flights at Box yesterday. Ioan drove us up the back side to a parking space just before the road gets especially nasty, and we hiked the road to the backside trail. After flying, I drove up to retrieve Ioan's vehicle. If you want to avoid a tough hike, the 2 vehicle shuttle is a nice way to go! However, it does add 45 minutes at the end of the day.
The wind at the top was somewhere in the vicinity of 14 mph from the NW. The wind appeared to come straight up the North launch, but once the wing was inflated, the wing wanted to swing around and head for the trees to the right of launch. Ioan tried to launch several times, but had to take time out to remove tree limbs from his canopy. While he worked at that task, I launched about 5:30. (I barely missed those trees.) A bit later Ioan had a very clean launch. I launched a bit too early for the glassoff, but Ioan timed it right. He spent much of his flight soaring above both the HG and PG launches.
Lew

Ouch, I would've liked to have joined you two yesterday. Unfortunately, I got home just a hair too late (1210'ish).

I'm glad you had good flights though.

I may try my luck today. We'll see.

Soren

Ioan has a video of my last Box launch. I am learning how to use my harness as a plow to remove vegetation while I launch. Ask Ioan to show you the video and maybe you too can learn this useful technique!
Lew

If you need a password for this. Type in "lew". The link below will take you to vimeo.com where you can see a higher resolution of the video.


<object width="1280" height="720"><param name="allowfullscreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><param name="movie" value="http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id= ... =0"><embed src="/http://vimeo.com/moogaloop.swf?clip_id= ... y=0&loop=0" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" width="400" height="265"></embed></object>

<a href="/http://vimeo.com/21998022">Box Canyon - Lew launching - April 4th 2011</a> on <a href="http://vimeo.com">Vimeo</a>.

After my two aborted launches, I took the time to inspect my glider and lines for any problems caused by collapsing the wing on top of the bushes to the side of the launch. Lew set up and I took my camera to capture his launch. I remember it as being tense but it wasn't until I looked at the video that I realized how wild it actualy was. By the time I untangled my glider, the wind calmed down from 15 to about 10 mph and it became a lot more stable. I had a 51 min flight mostly on the ridge, crossing over to the hanglider launch and back again.

Landing is another story but I got that on camera too.

Looked like a near perfect launch to me.