Loading Gliders in Miami

Last Supper

The world of our bubble came crashing down this week. With less than two weeks notice, Otto and Rudee announced that they had sold Thai Lotus restaurant, our local hangout in Clermont. If you think this is just a favorite restaurant of the Questies, you're mistaken. It really is (was) part of Quest, part of our bubble. Most every local at Quest has waited tables at Otto's place over the years, myself included. Locals couldn't go to Otto's for dinner without being expected to wait on ourselves and often serve a few plates for the tables around us ;-) Any pilot visiting Quest was introduced to Otto's at one point or another and he was lovingly referred to as the Thai Nazi for his quirky rules. There was just no place like it.

Otto and Rudee came to the US from Thailand many years ago when Otto attended university here. They stayed and owned several different restaurants including a Blimpee's Subs in Manhattan and another authentic Thai restaurant there. About eight years ago they moved from New York down to central Florida for a somewhat slower lifestyle. Of course, anyone who knows them knows it has been anything but slow for them. Their lives were at Thai Lotus where they spent often 10 or more hours a day, six days a week making friends with everyone in the community. They haven't taken a single vacation for the past eight years. They are the hardest working people I know.

We all love them like they are part of our family as they certainly are part of the Quest family and we will miss Rudee's amazing Pad Thai and Otto's funny rules for what in essence was his home where he had guests for dinner every night. Steve made up a set of signs for the new restaurant (no plans for a new restaurant, by the way :-(...yet) that he presented to Otto Wednesday night where we all gathered for a last dinner with Rudee and Otto. Here were some of the signs:

"No Reservations Required. Come on in and Seat Yourself"

"In a Hurry? No Problem, Just Ask for the Express Service"

"Never Had Thai Food Before? Don't Worry, its Just Like Chinese"

"Casual Attire Welcome! Especially Flipflops and Tank Tops"

I've never seen Otto laugh so hard.

Here are a few pictures from our last supper.

Home Sweet Home

It always feels so good to be home again (even though there is a very high likelihood that in two weeks I'll be itching to leave ;-). We were threatened by Ernesto a few days ago, but that has now been downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm to a tropical depression. So, with any luck, we'll hardly even notice it. Despite the constant hurricane threat this time of year, I love it here when things are so quiet and mellow. The flying is really smooth and relaxing, the Thai food is plentiful, the grass is green and the sunsets are spectacular! Here are two shots of my "front yard" last night.

Streets of Havana

Cool old cars everywhere you look

Revolution is...

Cruising the Cozumel Coastline

Me Atop a Mayan Pyramid

Gerolf Conquers the Mayans

Happy Goalies on the 255km Task

Glen Volk Tries to Land on Me!

Gorgeous Texas Sky

Jonny Having Some Fun

Waaaaaaay Behind

We just finished up the pre-worlds in Big Spring and finally I'm getting a spare moment to give an update. Texas was good (as good as it can be ;-) and the meet ran pretty smoothly. I think we could use about twice as many tugs next year, but luckily I think people were pretty patient this time and everyone got in the air eventually. The weather wasn't as perfect as it has been in years past, but in the end they flew all but one day - with 4 tasks total (2 days cancelled after launch). Attila Bertok from Hungary won and that was good because he seems to be David's favorite international competitor.

It was good to see the town of Big Spring come out and welcome all of us. They had bleachers set up next to the runway and on the weekends, the bleachers were packed with spectators - amazing considering it was close to 100 degrees every day. They also had signs up all over town welcoming the hang gliders. I believe we were on the cover of the Big Spring newspaper every day - not totally sure, but I bought about 4 papers and hang gliders were on the cover of every one I bought. The restaurants even agreed to stay open past 8pm for us ;-)...incredible actually, for a town that rolls up the street at 8 normally.

After a couple of days of decompression after the meet ended, we headed off to Mexico for a little holiday. We have spent the last four days in Playa del Carmen, a somewhat small town on the Yucatan Penninsula about 45 minutes south of Cancun. Thanks to a great tip from Jeff O'Brien, we went right past Cancun and all the barfing spring break types to this smaller town, with slightly fewer barfers. It is still pretty touristy and everybody and his brother wants to sell you something, but it has been quite nice.

Our first whole day here we took the fairy out to Cozumel and rented scooters to putt around the island. The carribean water is beautiful clear blue and as warm as bath water. We made the circle around the island stopping along the way a few times for swimming and snorkling. That was such an exhausting day being out in the sun all day that we opted for a day in town at the local beach yesterday. Couldn't do much other than alternate swimming and snoozing on the beach.

Today, our last day, was pretty cool. We rented a car and took off for the 3 hour drive to Chichen Itza. The Mexican's don't make it easy to rent a car here and if I had it to do over again, I would definitely take a tour bus. The drive was long on roads with potholes bigger that my bathtub, but we made it there. What a cool site Chichen Itza would be without all the tourists ;-) They no longer allow people to climb the main pyramid so we were a bit disappointed that we couldn't go to the top. But, we made up for it by stopping at another smaller set of ruins on the way home. They have a pyramid much taller than the one at Chichen Itza and we were able to climb to the top of it and stand there imagining how it might be to launch into a big fat thermal and float around above it.

Did I Forget to Mention that Gerolf Won the French Nationals? ;-)

Tour de France

The day after the French Nationals ended, the Tour de France came through Laragne. They closed off the roads fairly early in the morning and we were too lazy to get up at the crack of dawn, so instead we pulled out the map and planned to drive somewhat close and then hike along a ridge to see the race. Luckily, we were able to find a dirt road that got us really close and then we just walked up the pass a few kilometers and waited for them to come up the hill.

What a cool thing to see! I had no idea there would be so much hoopla. The "caravan" comes through for about an hour before the riders and its hilarious - a bit like the Macy's Day Parade. There were "floats" and dignitaries, helicopters, the whole works. The caravan was nearly as cool as the racers and it certainly lasted a lot longer.

The shot with the bare-butted fellow is of the leaders at that point. The closer up shot is the peloton - with Floyd Landis at the far right in the green.

Lavender

These amazing lavender fields were everywhere in the part of France where we were for the French Nationals. Despite the beautiful aroma, they say it's a really bad idea to land in them because they're swarming with bees!

Launch

They have a really cool ridge here that they launch from. Its very narrow and you can launch from either side. Makes it good for days like today when the wind was very light and they were unsure about the direction. Just set up in the middle and take off in the direction that looks best!

The Road to Laragne

With the French

After a few rainy days in Austria, we headed out to Laragne, France for the French Nationals. This is a part of France I had never seen and (like most places new to me ;-) its just beautiful. I don't know what I was expecting really- maybe something similar to Millau- but its much more mountainous than I thought it would be.

The competition is going well so far. There are pilots from Germany, Austria, Italy, the UK, Sweden, Norway and probably a few other countries too. But, mostly there are French guys. They are dominating after the first 2 tasks, but I fully expect those Austrians to catch up soon ;-) I hope to fly here tomorrow or the next day. Being the big chicken that I am, I'm a bit nervous about flying a Litespeed and so, like usual, everything has to be absolutely perfect before I can muster the courage to go for it. What's new.

Last night was the final match of the World Cup- France against Italy. With so many Italians here we figured it would be fun to watch the game with fans from both sides. The entire village of Laragne was out for the game with a big screen in the town square, a small marching band and everyone with French flags painted on their faces. If anyone doesn't know yet, Italy won.

I'll post some random pictures soon.

Last Days in Croatia

The Europeans ended with a bang on Thursday. After the British team filed a protest the second to the last day, they cancelled the last day of flying because they couldn't find (or didn't want to find) a way to prevent guys from cheating by going over the 7000ft ceiling. It was a bit sad and disappointing not to have a final task. But, what was more disappointing was the behavior of so many pilots at the prize giving the next day. There was so much animosity toward the Brits for filing the protest and as a result, having the last two days canceled. While I understood the frustration on both sides, I thought the behavior of some was so very childish and unsportsmanlike. During the presentation of the team medals, the French (apparently in protest against the Brits, who received the bronze) walked up onto the stage, took their medals and then walked off again. They wouldn't stand on the podium with the Brits. This, of course, was after continuous whistling (which I guess is the equivalent of our booing) by the Swiss team who felt they were robbed of the bronze medal by the protesting Brits. It was about the most disrespectful thing they could have done and I found it rather tasteless. The Brits were fed up with pilots cheating by breaking the altitude restrictions and it seems many of the others (the French and the Swiss) felt like they should be allowed to do as they pleased, despite the disparity between those who cheated and those who chose to obey the rules.

The bottom line is that I don't know what the solution was exactly. But, to those who have the integrity to follow the rules that are laid out for the competition, it is disappointing, to say the least, to watch others cheat without consequence. I thought that cancelling the day wasn't exactly the right decision. Instead they should have simply punished only those that were breaking the altitude restrictions and not the entire field. However, according to a few reports this wasn't feasible because at least 20 pilots did not have 3D GPSs and so their flights/altitudes couldn't be verified. Plus, it would have been somewhat burdensome for the organizers to check every single 3D GPS. The only fix for this would have been either to never mention the rule in the first place, or be prepared to actually punish the cheaters. Seems the organizers just couldn't find the courage to do this.

Anyway, in the end the Austrians won the team Gold and young Michi won the individual goal. Here are a few pictures of some of the happier pilots ;-)

More Pictures

Here are a few recent shots at goal and one of our villa up on the hill. What a great place we got. Beautiful old house with a pool and all and we get it all to ourselves. It's definitely set up for parties, but we've been too busy to host one yet.

Austrians

Croatia

Someone mentioned that I forgot to say where on the planet I am at the moment. I am at the European Championships in Rok, Crotia. The competition started three days ago and so far the weather hasn't been as nice as last year. Although it's sunny and warm, each of the past three days a high thin layer of gook has come in shading things a bit and making conditions less than ideal. The first day was more than a bit overcalled, with a 100+km task. No one made goal. Yesterday was slightly better with a shorter task, but still only one pilot making goal. Today at last a few guys (something like 20, I heard) managed to get to goal, although others fought long hard fights and still didn't make it. I believe Corinna was in the air for several hours without finally getting in to goal.

Here's Seppi.

Luck

While I know how lucky I am to be able to live the traveling, vagabond sort of life I live, sometimes it hits me in a big way and I am forced to sit back and really take notice of it. Here is a shot of my “office” today. Thanks to Dave Sieb, I found a beautiful room for rent in a house that sits on the edge of the ridge the guys are flying. After they all launched and before heading down to goal to watch them come in, I sat on the terrace outside my room and started working on some trademark arguments I’m writing for a client. My hostess brought out a bowl full of the sweetest cherries from the tree in the yard and there I sat, writing away, while I enjoyed the warm sun and the view up the ridge and down to the valley town of Buzet.

Reminds me of a line from one of my favorite Eagles songs…..”I don’t know why fortune smiles on some, and lets the rest go free.” I don’t know what I did to deserve fortune’s smile, but I am certainly most appreciative and hope I never take it for granted.

Testing the New Toy

....my new camera that is, not the glider.

Back in Croatia

Here's litte Tyler Rigg hanging out in his second favorite place.

Windy

We're here at Highland Aerosports in Maryland for the East Coast Championships. This is really such a beautiful area and I have so enjoyed the flying. It reminds me a lot of Florida flatland flying in that the thermals are mostly big, fat and smooth (with the exception of yesterday). I have generally sucked in the meet, but its been good for me to get used to flying a flex in competition again. Hopefully by the next one (Canungra) I'll be a bit more relaxed and will do a little better than a few places up from last ;-)

I really hope this meet will turn into a regular annual thing. This is the second year they have done it and everyone here promises to be back next year if they hold it again. Sonny, Adam and Kristen do an amazing job here and the tug pilots are awesome! Young Zach (he can't be more than 18 or so ;-) has become an excellent tow pilot. He towed me up every day but one and I could have closed my eyes and believed I was being towed by Lisa (the best tug pilot on the planet). I believe there were 30 pilots in this meet and I suspect next year there will be a lot more. The tasks are pretty short (which is fine with me) as we are a bit limited here because of the proximity of the bay and such.

A really funny thing happens here every day as we're pinning in. The usual question is "what did you land in today?" - most fields around here are crops, wheat, barley, soybeans and corn are the most common. Its funny to hear "what" everyone landed in.

Today should have been the last task, but the wind is howling- they're saying 25mph+. But the sky looks great - reminds me of Zapata, perfect cloudstreets lining up! Here is a shot out the clubhouse door.

Nothing to Fear But Fear Itself

The worlds are over and it must say it is quite nice to be finished with all the chaos and commotion. It was a few days after the meet ended that things started to get back to normal, but they did and we quickly settled into the usual summer pattern at Quest with rain, heat and high humidity. Only one solution to that - get out of dodge!

So, I thought I might take the new glider up to Highland and see what it's like to compete again. Needless to say, I was more than a little nervous about towing and being in a new strange place. I decided to wait till later in the window to launch because the wind was stronger than I would have liked. Luckily, the tow (the part I was most afraid of) went beautifully. My glider really is unbelievably easy to fly. It think it just needs a more confident pilot. I suppose that will come eventually, but I wish it would hurry. After flying rigids for so many years, I truly feel like a beginner pilot again and that isn't comforting. I just have to keep telling myself that I DO know how to do this and that my fear and apprehension are the problems, not my skill. Tomorrow should be much nicer as I won't wait till the lift is all gone to launch ;-)

Maryland is a lovely place. I never imagined there could be a place with more open landing options than Florida. But there is! Bo and I flew into Baltimore yesterday morning and made the hour and half drive to Highland through the wide open countryside. Not much more than wheat and corn fields and nice green grass everywhere. I can't help but wonder why this area is still so open, with big cities being so close by. If we were in California, this would be built up with giant subdivisions as far as the eye could see and traffic backed up all the way from here to the city. What is that line from the Last Resort? - "they put up a bunch of earthly boxes and Jesus, people bought em."

Rock Stars

So yesterday, most didn't know it, but the women's goal was at the airfield of a man named Steve Morse, who played with both Deep Purple and Kansas. Corinna was the only one to make goal, but ended up talking quite a bit and Charlie was there with the camera, so they gota nice interview. Well today he decided to come out and watch the flying. He is a pilot himself (ultralights and other small planes, I believe), so he was really interested in seeing the comp.

Here is a shot of us!

By the way, there were tasks called to the north and everyone went on course. But, the sky quickly overdeveloped and the task was cancelled in the end.

Task 5...or so

We had to wait much of the afternoon, but it turned out to be a great day. The sky looked similar to the last two days when we woke up this morning- overcast and full of gook- but by noon it was starting to look like a task might be possible. The swifts and rigids had a 50-something mile task to the north and the girls went 40-something in the same direction. Just as the last of the girls were launching we got reports from a few rigid pilots on course that an Atos was tumbling. Several Dragonflies were deployed to try to find the guy. Reports were that he had tucked/tumbled, but did not deploy his chute. It was an hour or so before we got any more information, but we learned fairly early that he had in fact NOT thrown his chute, but landed (or hit) softly enough that he was unhurt. I don't know the guy, but his name is Alex Schreiner, either from Switzerland or Austria. Will be interesting to hear the story when he returns. We normally don't have big enough air here in Florida to cause a tumble, but who knows. We're all just happy he is ok.

In the meantime, there were plenty of rigids at goal - someone said something like 30. However, only one girl made it, that was Corinna. She's going to be very happy. I wouldn't want to jinx her, but I think winning the day today may have sealed up the win for her! Let's hope!

Lazy Days

It's been a bit slow the last few days as we had some muck in the air the pretty much killed all the lift. The last two days were cancelled and we thought today might be as well. But, here we are at quarter after one and it looks like they are going to get a task in. Everyone is heading to the north because the sky looks clearer that direction. The swift and ridig tasks are 54 miles and the girls are going slightly shorter for 44 miles.

Day before yesterday was officially declared international bonding day by the meet organizers. It turned out to be a blast. Since the last two days' tasks were not cancelled straight away, everyone pretty much hung around Quest and goofed off for what was left of the day. Jim and Russel erected one of the portable climbing walls and everyone was crawling around on it. We also had a bit of redneck olympics with the horseshoe pits and frisbees, and even an inpromptu foot surgery! So much accomplished in a single day ;-)

Task 2 - Tons of Towing

Today's forecast looked much like yesterday's, so there was quite a bit of grumbling in the morning. It's funny to me how much more politicing there is going on at a world meet then at any regular big meet. I don't have the official results yet, but some of the rigid pilots were unhappy that the start times were so far apart (1/2 hour) yesterday because those that had to take a second tow were unable to even get in the air in time for the first start. So, that meant that Robert Reisinger, who had the fastest time by far, ended up in 5th place because he wasn't able to get the first clock. Alex Ploner, who was only 1 minute slower than Robert, ended up 12th. So, the briefing this morning was filled with grumbling over the start intervals.

Apparently the complaint of the day today was that some girls were being towed higher than others....god forbid! For some bizarre reason, the girls' safety committee decided to hold the girl's launch for a half an hour (I suppose just to wait until conditions and wind got even worse ;-) The result was the rigids all launching first and the girls ending up with the high cirrus that killed much of the lift. In the end, I believe every single girl had at least 2 tows, some several more! With the towing difficulties the girls are having, I don't think it was the best idea to wait to launch into the worst conditions....but, of course, no one asked me ;-)

Anyway, we are all back here again enjoying a lovely meal that Primus cooked! The girls had a 60 or so mile task to the south. No one made it, but it looks like Corinna may have been the closest (about 20 miles short). The guys went all the way down to the Florida Ridge (125 or so miles) and I just heard that around 35 made it in!! They will be very happy (and tired...the drive back is at least 3 and half hours ;-(

As for the Swifts, only Manfred made it back here to Quest. I don't recall what their task was, but goal was back here. I guess Robin was in second, landing 10 or so miles short. I haven't heard anything yet about the Swiss guy or Mark, Armand or Brian.

It will be a late night for the scoring because most have a very long drive home. But, here is the link to the scores as of yesterday - http://flytec.com/Events/2006/2_5_w_worlds/scores.htm
I didn't get any photos today....too lazy to carry my camera around, so here is a shot of my first flight on the new glider! Isn't it beautiful (note the perfectly matched harness) !!!

Update on Task 1

I just spoke with Corinna by phone and it looks like there were 5 girls in goal and probably all, or close to all of the rigids. Here's the unofficial lineup of girls:

Natalia (Russian - don't know which one)
Kari Castle
Corinna
Natalia (the other Russian)
Carol (Swiss)

I'll see what I can find about the rigids. In the meantime, here's a shot of today's Swift winner, Robin Hamilton (flying for the UK) relaxing under his glider.

Worlds Task 1

The rigids and the girls had the same task today, oddly enough. It was somewhere in the 60 mile range with goal down south to River Ranch. Pretty pitiful excuse for a rigid task if you ask me. The Swifts went a bit further returning back here to Quest. We had fairly strong wind out of the west, making for rough towing conditions. And, it seems at times it was a bit hard to stay up. Alex Ploner had 2 tows, Robert Reisinger had at least 2, possible 3 and David Chaumet had at least 2 or 3. If the likes of those guys can't stick, I don't know how the girls managed to stay in the air ;-) (oops, that sounded a bit sexist). Overall the launching went well, despite the rough conditions. A few girls opted to stay on the ground though after multiple rowdy launches :-/

This just in: Robin is first in to goal a solid 15 minutes ahead of Manfred (they took the same start!). Armand (Canada) and Steve Cox (Switzerland) were in next, a ways behind Manfred. So far no siting of Brian or Mark.

I also hear that there are at least 20 gliders in goal at River Ranch, but I don't know how that is divided up between rigids and girls. I do know there is at least one girl - Corinna - hopefully more!

More later.....

2006 Worlds Opening "Ceremonies"

The meet starts tomorrow after a great little party this evening. Technically, it was the opening ceremonies, but really it was just dinner and a good time. In keeping with the down-home American theme, we had Texas BBQ and a blue grass band. But, the big draw was the aligator wrestler that came out and gave us a "safety-briefing" in case we landed in the swamps ;-) Bottom line is, take a roll of duct tape to tape their mouths shut. It was very timely as we have had three people killed by alligators in Florida over the past week.

The alligators seemed to be a real hit and everyone got to hold one and have their pictures taken. After they left we did a bit of square dancing to the calls of Charlie the German team photographer. What a hoot. Charlie didn't have a clue about calling and neither did anyone else, so it was a good laugh for everyone.

The comp starts tomorrow and we've been promised a rain-free forecast for at least the next five days out. Unfortunately, we don't have a wind-free forecast. This has been an unusually windy spring and we can all just hope that it mellows quickly.

Read My Lips -- Al - ee - gay - tor

Kermit the Frog was afraid of alligators and used to say that. I guess only mom and dad will appreciate that ;-)

Here's Alex with one of them!

Baby Ruhmers

This is little Thomas Ruhmer. What a sweetheart this little guy is. He seems to just love whoever he is with at the moment and let me cart him around for an hour during the opening ceremonies without a bit of fussing - had his eye on my iPod though, so I finally had to give him back to his daddy.

Someone suggested that I drop him and see if he flies ;-)

American Girls Team