Peaceful Easy Feeling

I love waking up in a place where I'm a bit of an outsider.  I've always loved it and I can't really explain why.  Maybe it's because I feel like it's something of an adventure...I don't know.

For the first time in nearly ten years, it's summer in the northern hemisphere and I'm not in Europe.  It feels kind of odd sometimes when I hear about all the flying my friends are doing in the heart of the summer.  But, I'm not at home, I'm waking up each morning to winter in Australia, spending the short days riding the cool new bike Glen bought me, watching him catch lobsters then cooking them up for dinner, doing a bit of winter flying in the Hunter Valley, a lot of running along the hilly paths and just having a generally quiet and cozy time.

The last few days have particularly warm, so Glen had a little surf the other afternoon.  The waves are only slight bigger here than at home ;-)

Exeter

Yesterday I drove to the little central San Joaquin Valley town of Exeter for my niece's baptism.  The central valley of California reminds me so much of the landscape around Forbes, Australia.  It's primarily agricultural and pretty darn open and flat.  I've just always thought the Australian version was cooler though because the small towns tend to have some character.  By and large so many American small towns have lost their centers and consist of a spread of one strip mall after the next and of course, a giant Walmart.

Exeter was a brilliant throwback to the time when towns had a square in the enter - usually the town hall - with shops and restaurants on the surrounding streets....think Hill Vally in Back to the Future.  Exeter was Hill Valley, with a twist. Nearly every broadside (and some narrow sides) of a building had an agricultural or historical mural painted on it.  Matt and I cruised the streets in amazement.  Matt (being the amazing artist that he is) complained that some were slightly off perspective, but I generally just loved the color of everything and the fact that there wasn't a Walmart to be seen anywhere.  

Wondering how there came to be so many murals, I read up online a little about the town.  I didn't find the answer to the "why" question, but I did read that many of the murals have hidden objects in them - like the bear's face in the Gateway mural.  I also learned that there are many, many more paintings that we missed.  I think this might call for a trip back to Exeter next time I'm in California.  

Matt and I loved the sunglasses on this modern day cowboy. And NO, it's not a cougar!! ;-) It's a mountain lion!

I read that the little face peeking out of the orange tree is actually the artist's daughter.

Mucho Gusto

Spending a bit of time with my west coast family on a little stopover on my way to Oz.  It's been so cool to finally meeting the newest addition, my little niece Allison.  She and her big brother Mathias are gorgeous little angels that nearly (not quite, but almost) make me want to have another one.

Santa Cruz Flats Race 2012

Registration is officially open as of about 20 minutes ago.  This year's event will be the US Hang Gliding Nationals and we have a limit of 70 pilots, so hurry up and register - we expect to fill up fairly quickly.

Registration is at www.santacruzflatsrace.blogspot.com

Don't forget to book yourself a room at the Francisco Grande.  They have a block of tower rooms for us and a special rate.  To get the rate, just call and mention that you're coming for the competition.  The reservations number is 520.836.6444.  There are a limited number of courtyard rooms as well, but as of last year, we have moved most of the operations, glider setup and daily pilot briefings to the area just outside the main lobby facing the golf course, so you'll probably want to be in the tower (it's nicer anyway).

 

Feeling so at home

Nefarious Ne'erdowell

You gotta watch out for the coppers in Skibereen.  Mom and I had to take this one on after he stopped us at a roadside checkpoint.  She managed to get him cuffed, I read him his rights and we stormed the castle!!

More pictures of Cork and Blarney

Finally the sun has started to shine - a full week into our trip.  It was worth the wait.  County Cork is gorgeous!

Blarney

Beautiful castle, heaps of history and culture and all I can think is what an ideal landing field the king had in his back garden ;-)

When in Dublin...

I may have found my real calling.  I completed my training at the official Guinness school and I can now pour the perfect pint.  Fortunately, I can't really drink the stuff.  

The Troubles

Day one in Northern Ireland and I’m already feeling quite ignorant.  Aside from a Daniel Day Lewis movie and a vague recollection of stuff on the news over the years, I had no idea the extent of the “troubles” here in Belfast.  After a long walk around the city, we heard about a Peace Wall and decided we ought to check it out.  Expecting a sort of memorial with murals and the like, we were really surprised to find a 25ft wall separating the Catholic and Protestant neighborhoods built to quite literally keep them from killing each other.  While there were murals and graffiti and political statements all over the Protestant side of the wall, it wasn’t a memorial of any kind, it was a barrier, still used to this day to keep the peace.  Every night at sunset, the giant metal gates close off the one main road from the Catholic side into the council estates on the Protestant side.  So there is effectively a curfew….today!  Although these walls were originally meant to be temporary, the first ones were built in the late 60’s and they’ve multiplied over the years.  In the 90’s there were less than 20 and apparently now there are 40. 

These aren’t Muslims and Christians killing each other.  They’re Christians….both sides.  I think most Americans would find it as strange as we did that two Christian groups whose beliefs are very very similar would actually want to kill each other.  I suppose it shouldn’t be all that surprising – most, if not all of the killing going on throughout history has been in the name of religion.  But, having grown up very Christian, it still amazed me that two Christian groups were fighting this way.  To me, it would be like the Baptists going after the Presbyterians….an idea that we would laugh about.

On the Catholic side, the houses are built right up next to the wall, so close that they have chain link enclosures protecting the homes from objects being lobbed over the wall.  

Shine Sweet Freedom

As much as love spending 24/7 looking after 65 pilots and another 15 crew members during the Rally each year, when it all ends I have to admit that it feels a bit like being released from prison.  My life was at last my own again last week and it was heaven.  Glen and I set out to be regular Florida tourists enjoying the trendy life in Miami Beach, the gators and airboats of the Everglades and the islands of the Keys.  What a beautiful way to rest up and be reminded that I have a life outside of hang gliding.

Rally Day 1

It was a no-go for today.  We got up this morning to heavy rain, high wind and low cloudbase…not exactly the way we had hoped to start our trek north.  But, by mid-morning we were teased with clearing skies and somewhat lighter winds.  The task committee called a relatively short task south to Lake Wales hoping that the forecasted strong winds would not come around.  By noonish a task was nearly looking do-able, so we headed out to stage and sent a Dragonfly up to check out conditions.  Unfortunately, things were nicer on the ground than in the air and the safety committee didn’t feel the towing conditions were alright for us so the task was eventually cancelled.

A few guys opted for a free fly to check out conditions.  They reported that lift was good and strong, but turbulence on tow and landing was a handful.  We’re crossing our fingers for lighter wind tomorrow and we’ve travelled to Dunnellon, just 60 miles of so north of Quest where the enormous field is oriented into the predicted wind without any tree lines to rough up the air.  Although the forecast is for wind about as strong as today, the airport at Dunnellon might prove to be better for towing.

Thanks to Ricker for today’s photos!

Aerotow-batics

I guess life has really gotten in the way of blogging lately.  I spent a great summer in Australia, did a bit of flying - but not as much as I would have liked - took a quick trip to Taiwan, then back to Australia all before the annual Colorado ski trip.  Now I'm home in Florida with my favorite person, hopefully getting a lot of flying in this summer.

Here's a very interesting little video of my tow yesterday evening at the Florida Ridge.  The comp started today (task cancelled, high wind), but I wanted a quick practice tow before things started.  By way of background, I was on my glider, with my harness and release and all of my usual equipment and VG settings - nothing new at all.  The wind had been quite strong all day, but mellowed slightly in the evening.  It was blowing probably around 10mph and there were storm cells out in front, but not moving in quickly.  The idea was to have a quick tow to 2000ft and then come in and land before the closest cell arrived.  Glen had gone up 10 minutes before and there was almost no lift, so he came down and landed as I was taking off.

I've been aerotowing for nearly 15 years and I don't ever recall getting more than 10 degrees or so out of line from the tow plane - when I have (even the slightest bit), I'm a big chicken and immediately release.  I'm definitely not one to keep trying to get the glider back into line if things get off line at all.  I prefer to just release and have another go.  The weak link didn't break - I released on the second oscillation.  So, with that background, I would welcome any comments/thoughts on what may have happened here, because I don't really have a clue, other than to say that I had a serious PIO problem.  The thing that bothers me most is that I've never done anything even remotely close to what I did last night and I would love to know how I could have screwed it up so badly.  Mostly, I'm just happy to still be here ;-)