Short Flight, New Old Trainer, and Woody the Woodrat

This Saturday was another short flight of just under a half hour, but I can't complain since the season usually doesn't start until March. We did get to try the new north launch, which worked brilliantly, and got to drive up the newly-maintained road (Thanks, BLM!). It also gave me a chance to scare off those rogue beavers which keep taking out the dangerous snags at midlaunch, but not before they managed to gnaw down the last two remaining snags.


Since I got to the lz a little early, I decided to buzz by a fellow pilot's house to pick up a glider that he'd graciously donated to the cause of replentishing the local hang glider pilot population. It's a Moyes Something-or-other (the placard was missing), and it's in pretty good shape. If anyone recognizes this particular model of single-surface wing, please let me know. As far as I can figure, it's sail area is about 182 square feet, so it'll work good for bigger pilots. Thanks again, John, for the donation!


Last year for our annual Starthistle Fly-in, I was responsible for designing the t-shirt art, theme development, events, and awards. It's a lot to do, especially to a full-timer like me, so I decided to get a jump on making the trophies for this year. Last year I sculpted, formed, and cast a dozen figurines to mount on plaques. Having never worked with casting before, there was a bit of a learning curve, but I was pretty happy with the results. The figurines are of the club mascot, Woody the Woodrat, with his head poking through a carabiner. Woodrat is the name of the mountain that we fly and the carabiner is what suspends us from our wings. The original design actually came about several years ago when gliders like the trainer above were the cutting-edge ships. Nowdays, if anyone was seen setting up one of those old gliders to fly off the top of Woodrat Mtn., their sanity would be questioned. They're great for the training hill though.

Anyway, the way I made the figurines was by sculpting an original out of Sculpy clay, coating it with several coats of latex, and using the latex mold to make plaster casts. What I didn't do last time that I should have was to make a 'mother mold' so that the latex mold wouldn't deform while the plaster was curing. I did that this time, and the result was a dozen very similar figurines without the slight variations in shape that resulted last year.
Now I have twelve nearly identical plaster figurines sanded and ready to paint. The hard and messy part is done.

Soaring - Well, Almost..

Ridge soaring doesn't do much for me. It's a nice alternative to staying earthbound during the winter months, but 'real' soaring - chasing a thermal up until it tops out several thousand feet above launch - is much more exciting as far as I'm concerned. I still watch the forecast in hopes that a rain-free, fog-free prefrontal day at Walker Mountain will coincide with the weekend, but those days are few and far between.

This last weekend hinted at becoming a 'real' soaring day. There was just enough of a lapse rate to entice me to drive up the hill and find out first-hand how accurate the forecast was. While others were settling into their easy chairs in front of the TV, cracking open beers, stuffing Doritos down their gullets, and preparing for the Stupor-bowl (I'm obviously not a big football fan), I was assembling my glider at the top of Woodrat. It was such a beautiful spring-like day I just couldn't stand the thought of lounging away the day while watching a bunch of overpaid jocks run into each other. But I digress..

Ken met up with me in the lz, but didn't feel inspired enough to fly. There was also a contingent of paraglider pilots there, including Rick (of course), Carl, Jules, & Don. The wind was blowing over the back when we got there, but as the sun heated the west side, cycles began coming up the face. The paragliders launched first, and some managed to maintain for quite some time. I gave Ken a headstart down the hill in my truck before launching and worked the same lift as the PG's for a half-hour or so. It wasn't anything to get too excited about, but for the first day of February, a day of thermic soaring - more or less - is a real bonus.

We'll be watching the skies from now on for the first tell-tale signs of spring soaring conditions - when the turkey vultures (abbreviated TV) return on their annual spring migration. So, I guess I'll be watching TV after all...