Saturday, January 02, 2010

Obama in lockdown until UFOs identified at Dillingham

Fireman and I hiked Kealia trail to take advantage of our only flying site. Before the hike, the wind was coming in north - after the hike, the wind was coming west. After a while, there were a few flows from over the back - not the best direction for a paraglider. I called a glider company to see what they were experiencing aloft. They were thinking of suspending flight operations temporarily due to bumpy conditions near the ridge. These guys were launching upwind and downwind at the airfield, totally confusing us.

While we were watching conditions, a couple appeared at launch and Dave and I looked at each other and said "wing holders". Turns out the wahine knows our very own Nick Johnson - he always reminded me of Tiger. Our plan was to take off and fly away from the ridge to avoid the south flow and the dreaded hike down and land ASAP. This couple was great - once we stopped getting major downslope flows, we got Dave off and then they helped me - couldn't have done it without them (I owe them a sail).

While I was prepping to fly, Dave was skying out over launch 1700' plus - the thermals were going off. I flew off and experienced the same bouyant air over the quarry. Since we were worried about the dreaded southerly flow, we set up for landing at the hangar strip and noticed the wind switched to NW - too late for a resurrection despite the pumping thermals.

Upon landing, the Federal Air Marshalls (FAM) drove rapidly by and took up a reconnoitering position at the tower parking lot. While Dave and I debriefed each other on our flights the FAM drove up next to us and dismounted to approached us. They were OK with our flights (they saw me fly on new years), but they had gotten calls from Secret Service about UFO's over Dillingham. We showed them our ID's and they verified our ATC approval - High Roler and Firefly.

They then called the SS and it was funny listening to them describe, at first, hangliding, and then paragliding after we corrected them. "They're parachute kinda wings that are bigger and glide with the wind and they launch off the side of a mountain." Once everyone was comfortable with our intent, Obama was released from the safe house and allowed to resume his golf game.

4 comments:

JeffMc said...

Awesome story, Frank and Dave! Not sure I can blame the Feds though... I mean you two ARE pretty suspicious :) And I've witnessed Dave's inhuman hiking abilities, I'm not 100% sure he isn't an alien! :)

"UFO's".... LOL

-Jeff

Brazilian Ray said...

looks like you got some fans!

counting...

Alex said...

You guys are my heroes. I can't see myself trying to explain my own interpretation of the FAA TFR to the Federal Air Marshals or Secret Service, but I would place my bets on both of you guys pulling it off. But at the same time I wouldn't be surprised if they don't specifically mention paragliders in the next VIP TFR. Hopefully we won't even have to think about that since Obama is going to spend his next vacation on Kauai or Lanai...

Bon Bon said...

UFO's??? That's great!! "parachute kinda wings" is even better!! lol

nice.

~Bon Bon