Monday, November 26, 2012

Go When You're Ready!

"Go When You're Ready!" Brad's quiet but authoritative command is still ringing in my ears. Thanks to everyone who came together to make Hawaii's first maneuvers clinic an amazingly fun and successful event. It was great to see so many of our pilots expanding their horizons under Brad's instruction. During two improbably perfect weather days at Makapuu, and one day grounded by less perfect weather, the country's top maneuvers coach shared his wealth of knowledge with an enthusiastic group of fourteen pilots. I hope we can put together another clinic like this next year: I look forward to seeing more Hawaii pilots falling out of the sky with Brad's reassuring voice in their ears!

We were incredibly lucky with the weather: up until the day before the event, it looked like we might have light southeast flow, or even due south, and we'd be trying to run this at Nanakuli and Diamond Head! But at the last minute, the sea breeze came to our rescue and offered sweet soaring conditions on the first two days. The clouds were low at Makapuu, not much higher than hang launch, and at times the air was crowded with up to twenty pilots at once. But despite the low clouds, most clinic participants were able to get as high as 1,500-1,600 feet, and make up to six or seven runs each day over the two excellent weather days, with time for several maneuvers in each run.

Participants included many maneuvers veterans and also many first timers, and everyone was able to make progress at their own pace. By the end of the first day, things were running so smoothly that Brad was able to call out two pilots at once for simultaneous practice runs. It was a sight to behold. By the end of the second day many pilots had made enough progress to work on full stalls! What a great confidence boost this event was for everyone. It's a testament to Brad's skills and judgement that none of our clinic participants had to throw a reserve or land in the water. Poor Pete was stuck in his boat with nothing to do the whole time!

SIV Excitement-477We've dreamed about the possibility of having a maneuvers clinic here for years, but we've never quite figured out how to make it work. Thanks to Pete for having the vision to invite Brad over here despite my misgivings about running a clinic like this at our sensitive club sites. That is a unique distinction for us here. I'm not aware of any other club in the country that has tried to pull that off. I think there were three main reasons it worked so well for us: (1) We had the country's top instructor working with us; (2) the clinic was exclusively for Hawaii pilots; and (3) we were blessed with two perfect Makapuu weather days.



Thanks to everyone for their many contributions to this event:

To Pete, for making it all work (and sitting in his boat all day)...
To Brad, for coming over with no idea what he was getting into!
To Dave Goto and the HGA for putting up with all our craziness...
To Thom and Donna, for hosting Brad and Miriam at their house...
To Ray and Noell, for their generosity with barbecue and beverages...
To Ray, for taking Miriam tandem for photo work...
To Thom and Five-0 Mike, for shade tents and other infrastructure...
To "Mallard", for a feast of a dozen pizzas on the last day...
To Scrappy and others, for launch assistance...
To Joey, for loaning me his "collapsible" FreeStyle 2...
To the many others who shared food and beverages...



I've surely left out many other valuable contributions. Please chime in with comments if you can think of anyone else who should be recognized. Also please add a comment if you have any memorable stories to share from this weekend! And let me know if you have pictures and videos to share so I can include them here.



Weekend roll call: Brad (and Miriam), Pete (and Annette and Tyler), me, Duck, Thom (and Donna, Maile and Kalei), Jim, Kauai Dwayne and Rayna, Maui Tim, Maui Rich, Sawzall Rich, Steve, Bonnie, Five-0 Mike (and Ces), Sharky, Kauai Joe and Courtney, Joey (and Robin), Fireman Dave, Frank, Maui Doug, Cheree, Scrappy, FlyStrong, Dave Goto, Mike Benson, Leo, Eagle Eye Tim, Ray (and Noell and Lilliana and Chelsea), Woody, Allegra, Roland, Bay Area Derek, Brent, TommyRD, Ken Berry, Oregon Jon and Justin, Seattle Matt, Alaska Price, AK Jason, Lake, and probably a few others I can't think of...

6 comments:

Gravity said...

Great write up Alex.

CAN YOU BELIEVE THE WEATHER?

What an awesome and according to Brad G, the best SIV ever.

I'd like to also thank my brother Dave who sold me his boat at 50% off, and fixed it on Day 1, and did the 3 hour SS Minnow tour around thru the Molokai channel to get to you guys.
It was a hell-of-a ride in an 18ft boat...

Also, I'd like to thank the pilots in making me very bored for 3 days and listening to Brad's instructions so I didn't have any rescues...

GOOD JOB!

swan said...

Super fun! I wish that I could have participated, but I will definitely be in for next year's, when Brad comes back. I'm so happy for everyone that it went off so well!

Sharky said...

Woot! I got to Spiral with "The King" - worth the price of admission alone! Alex is such a cool cucumber it was fun seeing him do "heinous" things in the wings he flew.

Thanks to everyone who put this together! Brad, you do know once you've been initiated into the Flying Monkey Clan that you are obligated to make a pilgrimage each year now? :)

Best end to what has had to been my best vacation ever!

=-) Sharky

Thom said...

I am not sure what you guys are talking about????

How could that have been labled as 'Fun'?! Just one of Brad's favorite adjectives and then for him to say "You will look up at your wing and it will look like a flower".

I am not sure what kind of flowers they grow in Utah, but I am taking him to a Botanical garden this week. Where he can show me which flower looks like the mess I had above my head!

This was a much needed course for me as well as all that participated. I have a much better feeling under my wing and a deeper appreciation of Utah Horticulture.

We are kinda isolated out here and it is difficult for us to get to the mainland for an SIV. For Brad to take a chance at coming out here to teach was an awesome move. I think next year we will have a much larger barrel of monkeys participating.

I know Donna's mom liked waking up to Brad's coffee every morning, so we are all hoping you will make this an annual pilgrimage.

Thanks again to Reaper for lighting a much needed fire and dragging Brad out here.

Thanks to Brad for bringing Miriam, she definately got some great picutres. Oh, most importantly, She is also alot easier on the eyes than Brad, sorry bro.

I am not sure which lesson was the best. But learning to change my shorts in the air made my landings alot more tolerable for my self and those in the LZ.

Can't wait to do it again next year!!! or sooner.

JJ Jameson

sandy said...

@JJ -- Hah! a flower, yeah -- on my very first trip to Utah, while kiting my still unblemished Sport3 at their Southside Point-of-the-Mountain launch area, a lovely Utah "flower" cut a slice in my wing. Definitely some mean ugly flowers out there, and I guess you saw some overhead this w/e! But now I guess you know how to prune them ;-)

Bon Bon said...

Wow. After watching the weather all week; I really had my doubts that this would work....and to get Makapu'u....2 days in a row?! Epic.

I had a lot of fun trying different maneuvers; on different wings. I'm still waiting, and ready, to try a full stall. I can't wait! It was very easy to do all of this with Brad's calm voice in your ear. And knowing that a boat was right there below you...just in case.

Like Alex, I'd like to thank a lot of people, too, as it was a big effort to make it happen:

Reaper, Dave, and Motorhead for all the hard work getting the boat...
Brad, for putting up with a barrel of monkeys...
Goto for all the shannigans...
Sidehill and Donna, for having Brad and Miriam, and Miriam for taking photos...
Ray and Noell, that was generous to provide a grill and barbecue and beverages - none of us expected that...
5-0 and Ces, for a ton of snacks and drinks and shade tents...
FlyStrong, for awesome photos...
Scrappy, for helping on launch...
Ducky, for ordering a ton of pizza after a day of kiting at Kahana...

Thanks, everyone; what a blast!

Thanks, Brad for giving up flight time of your own and helping us out!