flightblog@wonderwinds

http://ahga.org/azxc08.php

An all-year contest more or less. It'll end at the end of the Labor Day Fly-In at Mingus. XC and out-and-back flights rack up points, and points turn into chances to win a vario. 30 bucks to register, and registration gets you a custom event tee shirt. All flights from any site in Arizona count.

I did the code

First real flight of the year. For an Arizona pilot, that is embarrassing. :redface: Oh well eh? A couple of weeks ago I got a scooter tow flight from Greg Berger on a Falcon225 in a small breeze with tiny little thermals happening. Didn't try to do anything with them though. Just wanted to launch and land. Holy crap what a nerve wracker it was to do that little flight too. All sorts of rusty. Uncomfortable. Not Current.

So anyway I had the chance to fly this weekend. So I did. I had a driver (thanks Lori - you rock!) and a mission to bring a glider from Phoenix up to Mingus area, so my plan was to transfer the glider along the highway then haul up to The Craters and take a flight or two. Maybe even soar a wee bit if possible. As it turns out Kris (the owner of the glider I was transporting) was up on Mingus and pretty much wasn't gonna meet me to make the transfer. He told me there were 15 gliders set up on Mingus and it looked like it was gonna work all day up there. Hmmm... Well we had just stopped for a bit to eat, and Mingus is generally a morning site, but I figured we'd head up there and see how it looked. I knew I would be there late, but so what: could always drop off the glider and head up to The Craters after that. Plus if it was looking really good I'd set up because Mingus is a beautiful launch to fly from.

Got up on top really late. Saw one pilot (who shall remain nameless) standing on launch in what seemed to me to be an awesome and long cycle. Hmmm... I decided to set up and drop off the glider in camp. After I dropped off the glider in camp the pilot had hucked off and was doing pretty good, so I started setting up. All through the time I was doing that, and I always was slow at building a glider, it would die off then cycle in again really nice. Hooray! When I had my harness on put on my helmet it decided to blow down. WTF? :confused: About that time some of the people who flew that morning were back up on top and started giving me shit for needing a better plan.

Christ on a stick working 12 hours a NIGHT 3 or 4 nights a week does NOT lend itself to flying. Especially when Sunday is always one of the nights I work. No one seems to get that. People ask what days I have off. Jeezus I have EVERY DAY off. It's the nights I don't have off. Ask a day worker "what nights do you have off" then tell them how they can do something that'll take all night...

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What a pathetic turn of events for the ushga! After failing to secure ushpa.org when it was obviously their agenda to change the name of the org, they couldn't find a way to bully the asshole who snarfed it up into turning it over. Instead they bought ushpa dot aero, and renamed their faggoty little magazine after the shiny new domain name.

Did we, the paying membership who happens to be the only recipients of this faggoty little magazine, have a say in the renaming? No. Of course not. It's "marketing" so who gives a fuck what those of us who pay have to say. Much like the current contest for a new logo. We, as members, had an opportunity to submit a logo. We also get to vote, but the ushga doesn't give a fuck about what we say. Check out this little gem from the main page at ushga.org:

The logo contest survey isn't an official vote for the best image by the membership, but it does offer a vehicle through which the Logo Contest Jury gets feedback from the membership. The Logo Contest Jury will take that feedback into consideration when making their decisions. After February 21, the last day for the Membership Survey, the Jury will deliberate and submit their choices to the Board for an official adoption vote in March.

In other words:

When we don't like what you suckers say you like we'll do what we want to do. Fuck you.

Sadly, they're all assholes. Anyone seriously interested in replaced the ushga with a national org that cares more about free flight than their own fetid existence is welcome to contact me. I'll throw a shit-ton of money at the project without blinking an eye. The annual dues I now pay, on the other hand, are subject to serious deliberation about the value I get for my money. At this point all I get is "nothing" so ...

A bit of a pitch would be nice, but wouldn't a paved ramp be totally cool?

Completely irresponsible asshole! This dumbass thinks creating a public hazard is "publicity". Smooth move, cuz now the city of Draper is considering rules about hang gliding and paragliding.

Allred said the incident has city officials considering an ordinance to specifically address the issue of paragliding and hang-gliding in the community.

Note that "DickWad" Dell Schanze wasn't flying a hang glider or a paraglider. Note that ANY hang glider or paraglider pilot who finds himself or herself low over an interstate is making peace with their God - not thinking of all the cool publicity. Note that an adult would accept that their actions had extremely negative impacts and would apologize and accept their fate. Note that "FuckMonkey" Dell Schanze seems to think they're out to get him and he's right and they're wrong.

"All they're saying is, 'We hate Dell Schanze,' " he said. "How is it a public nuisance attracting attention? I think people with a half a brain cell know you can't charge that. Is there any logic to it? No."

Schanze questioned how flying his paraglider near I-15 was different from a "person riding a horse with a pink shirt and lights" next to I-15 or police cars with their red and blue lights on that have pulled over other vehicles.

"I'll accept the charge if they charge every one of their officers and charge everyone walking down the sidewalk," he said.

Hey Dell Schanze: when you can't spot the asshole in the group it's because YOU'RE THE ASSHOLE! I wish you would do the world two simple favors, though I doubt you've ever done anything for anyone other than your pathetic excuse for a self: die, and rot.

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Damn. We - the free flight community - bust our asses to not piss off the groundlings, and this faggit decides scaring the fuck out of them is 'publicity'. We drive for hours to get to remote sites where we can do our thing without adversely impacting the general population, though most folk dig on seeing us when we happen to be close to them. The thing is we're NOT close to them when they're driving at 75mph on the interstate grid.

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POWERED flight should be regulated, and POWERED PARAGLIDERS should be HEAVILY regulated. DickWad Dell Schanze happens to be an extreme example of what goes wrong when you give idiots easy access to the air. Dell Schanze: you're a dooshbag.

Firstly, went up to do some towing with Greg last weekend and get a lesson for Jason. I played the role of "nice guy who helps", but didn't mess with Jason's lessons at all. He did good based on feedback from Greg and Marshall, but don't tell him that! He's going to get married this weekend, so no lesson for him. Foolish choice if you ask me, but then again I'm not young and in love. blech. Anyway Mark was there too. He's a very advanced student who should be looking at his rating(s) very soon. Jake is a pretty good student pilot who flew my Eagle, and Gene is a brand new student who learned that flight doesn't just magically happen. Marshall is an instructor apprentice, and Greg is the resident instructor up that way.

So I got three tows at the end of the day. Nice soft air to play in, and no need to break it down and haul it up a mountain or hill again. Cool, but not the point today.

Memorial Day at Dry Canyon got canceled due to weather. Specifically, no weather for so long that the Forest Service closed the forest due to the risk of fire. Once before they let the club have their fly-in, but not this year. Too bad, but maybe everything works out in the end. As it turns out, my new glider STILL isn't here. Greg supposedly went out to Wills Wing to pick it up yesterday (Friday) but I'll believe it when I see it. About a week ago Greg told me that Wills told him they took another look at the glider to make sure everything was hunkydory and realized they didn't include my tail fin. Vertical stabilizer if you're into multisyllabic words. Fuckers! The U2 doesn't come with one but I wanted it because BC says he'll never fly a glider without it. I might not use it, but I might and can't if I don't have it available. Anyway they threw a new keel in and added my fin for me. Plain white so I can decorate it as I see fit.

Bottom line is I'll be seeing my glider for the first time on the day I was going to travel back to Alamogordo for Memorial Day at Dry Canyon. That'd suck as I don't really want to get to know it when I'm busy taking their site XC record from them. Now it seems I'll be flying at Mingus instead, which works out just as well I guess. XC from Mingus isn't as friendly as XC from Dry, but I'll have quite a few flying sites to take the new ship to, so all is well.

Oh and get ready for the First Annual Labor Day at Mingus Mountain Fun Fly-In. Last year's 30th anniversary at Mingus gave some of us the idea to make an annual event of it, so some might see this as the second annual, but given that this one will be completely different than last year I'm okay with calling it the First Annual.

That's all folks!