Backlogging - June 15, 2008 - The Flight I've Been Dreaming Of

Today, I flew. I mean I really flew. Pretty much every Thursday I start paying close attention to my local club's forum. There's not much activity during the week and that's when people start posting where they might be heading out to on Saturday and/or Sunday. It's also when I start calling observers. So when I saw that the Pulpit was the site choice I was excited and also disappointed. I've never flown the Pulpit and it's not the easiest Hang-2 site but I've got 8 mountain flights under my belt now. However, it's a ramp launch which I've never done. The primary LZ is not within a zero wind glide from launch and has very tall grass. The secondary LZ is an easy glide but the field is small and it has power lines, I would need an RLF sign off to land there. To slim my chances further, I had not yet really soared. Sure, I had stayed even with launch for a little while on a few flights but I had never gained above launch. Nevertheless, the forecast was very nice and it looked like it would be brain-dead soarable so there was a possibility that I could fly but I was not letting myself get too excited because I knew there was a large chance I wouldn't get to fly. I left NoVA around 11:00, weaved my way through the ever-present traffic (it's Father's Day fer cryin' out loud!) and got there about 1:00, just in time to see 6 or 7 seven gliders all set up and 6 or 7 pilots standing on the ramp, arms folded, scowly faced. I joined them on the ramp and saw that it was coming in 80 to 90 degress right cross. This was not what the forecast said! How could it ever be wrong?!?!?! There's no way I'm flying today. We stood there for a good 15 minutes and the right side of my face was actually starting to get cold. Damn, even the real pilots aren't gonna fly today. We all convened and the decision was made (like I had anything to do with it) to break down and go to High Rock, which is about 1.5 hrs away, I think. I wasn't really paying attention, just following. High Rock is another site that I had never flown and it happens to be a cliff launch, which I had never done. Still, the LZ is an easy glide from launch and had been freshly mowed so my chances of flying were certainly increased. The launch is about 1,000' above the LZ. When we got out there, my observer and I went down to the LZ, did the paperwork and walked the field. The field is a huge rectangle and wide open. The only trick today was that all of the freshly mowed hay was in large 4 foot tall bails all over the field. But there were definitely lanes all over the place that one could use and it wasn't unsafe. Besides, I've learned that coming in really fast is not only fun, but I also have much better control over where exactly I'm going to put my glider down. So, back on up to launch and I was starting to get excited. Like always, I set up my glider nice and easy, taking my time but not lollygagging. After I was set up and preflighted, I wire crewed for 3 pilots with my observer so that I could get a better idea of how exactly to launch there. It all made sense to me so after those 3 launched I went and got ready. As I walked up to launch, I was excited but confident and made the decision to head out and land if I didn't start gaining altitude immeadiately. After all, it wasn't that late and I could probably get another flight in. I set my glider down about one and a half steps away from the edge of the cliff and waited for a good cycle to come through. I had two pilots on my wires and we waited through real light stuff and then real strong stuff but at least it was all straight in. Wow, I thought, I might not fly today because there's no way I'm doing my first cliff launch in anything but very nice conditions. But as fate would have it, I would fly today. Things eased up a bit and a real nice cycle came through. I picked up, looked to my observer and said, Yeah? He said, Yeah! I said, Alright, CLEAR! And off I went. I had a nice clean launch and I turned left. Beep, Beep, beepbeepbeepbeepbeep! Yes!!!!! I was going up and up and up. By the time I turned and came back, I was at least 100' over launch. I worked good ridge lift and also the thermals that came through. I actually did consecutive 360's and kept going up! Before I knew it, I was 600' over launch and flying around with the biggest grin on my face. Lift was everywhere and I just kept climbing. Eventually I made it up to 1,200' over launch and then I started to sink. I was back down to just 500' over and then I went back up! Back up to 1,500' over launch! Yes!!!! I can't believe I'm actually flying my hang glider 1,500' over launch. Just then, I noticed a beautiful bald eagle less than 100 feet off of my left wing. When I looked over at him, he pulled his wings in and did a diving right turn under me and out of view. Absolutely amazing! I sank after that quite a bit again, down to about 500' over but wouldn't ya know it.....I went up again! This time I just kept going up and up and up. I maxed out at 2,630' over launch. I got to practice diving turns, diving 360's, big 360's, tight 360's, high speeds, stalls, you name it. I learned so much today. After quite some time in the air I was starting to get pretty tired. So, at an altitude of 1,400' over launch, I decided to come down. I headed out and played around over the LZ and lost altitude for awhile until it was time to start my DBF. I had already picked my lane from the air based on the wind direction and width between bails. Yeehaw!!, nice fast downwind, nice diving base leg/turn onto final, right into the lane that I chose. I pulled in more, came down with good speed and set it down with a no-stepper to top it all off. Here's the facts:
Total airtime: 1 hr 53 mins
Max Altitude: 2,630' over launch
First time at High Rock
First Cliff Launch
First Soaring Flight
First 360
First time thermalling
First time looking down on someone's glider
First time looking down on hawks and vultures (and lots of them!!)
First time flying with a bald eagle
Man, today was awesome. It truly was the flight I've been dreaming of.