Please join us on Sunday to remember Johan

Update: Change of Time and Venue (last one, we promise!)

Please join us for a gathering of Johan's family, friends and fellow pilots, this coming Sunday, October 29, at 4 pm. Since we're anticipating a big group, we've reserved the Atherton meeting hall at the Kokokahi YWCA in Kaneohe for our pot-luck barbecue. This will be a chance for everyone to meet Johan's mom and brother and sister, who will be arriving from Sweden this week.

Johan's mom would like to meet us all, and hear some stories about Johan, in an informal and festive setting where we can all celebrate our memories of him in a positive way. Anyone who wants to share a story or say a few words is encouraged to consider doing so.

Peter will be making a Costco run to buy meat for the barbecue (steak, sausages, fish), but please get in touch with Don at 561-5363 to coordinate other food to bring (veggies, rice, bread, salad, pupus, etc).

We'll be posting updates here as we get further along. Thanks for your patience with our changing plans.

Goodbye, Johan

I am very sad to report that one of our pilots suffered a fatal injury at Makapuu today. Many pilots saw Johan launch from Manics in what were desribed as nice north wind conditions. We don't know why, but shortly after launching he began to swing from side to side, contacting the power lines to the left of the launch and generating a blue fireball, after which he drifted up onto the side of the hill, and was pulled over the chain link fence to land on the other side, near the trail to Cactus launch. He was found unconscious and was unresponsive when emergency services arrived. He was taken to the ER and died shortly afterwards from internal injuries. His family has been notified and Pete and Hillary will be taking care of his dogs.

We are all saddened by the loss of one of our most enthusiastic pilots. We will post information about memorial services as soon as we have the details.

We would appreciate our pilots keeping a low profile by refraining from flights at Makapuu tomorrow and perhaps the next day as well. Please help us by finding other sites to fly for a couple of days. Thank you.

Sneak Preview

At Diamond Head today, we caught an early glimpse of winter flying in October, as the first cold front of the season brought us some decent Kona winds. Out of 17 pilots at the garden, eight launched, and seven soared (some more than once). Everyone did a fine job (although poor Pete snapped 7 lines on his Magic 3 as he tried to yank his wing off of the sharp coral).

On a happier note, four pilots enjoyed their first high flights there: Frank, Johan, Scrappy, and visitor Greg. People flew until dark, and by that time Diamond Head was the only part of the island not swallowed up by the rain. It was great to see Jetflap Jeff out there looking better than ever (except for a small cast), and also Dangler back from Arizona for a brief visit, and even Alan from Cirque Hawaii stopped by.

Nanakuli - the Beast at 11

To those closet cases of thermal master wannabes ..

Friday I followed Ray and Nanakuli King Doug on a reported "11" for conditions. Once before I paid the dues by hiking the hill in search of those 5k to 7k I read the theory about. Flying ridgelift is a thrill and keeps you happy for a good while. However, what is more ultimate than being able to catch invisible bubbles of air shooting up from below .. eh right cool ! .. how do i find them ? I read and heard all about it but my first day at Nanakuli did not really make me a believer.

Already on the lower ridge we could feel a good wind up the hill, probably mostly thermal action as it was not really cross. Even though composed of thermals it is amazing how stable the breeze was. Just on the border of soarable on the lower ridge, we hiked to the middle launch at 800 ft or so. At the middle launch the conditions were even stronger and judged definitely soarable.

Ray launched and turned North. Shortly after he hit some pretty good lift and at least maintained going further North. It was my turn laying out the wing on the short launch .. no room for forwards. At the time for my launch the thermals were cycling and I even had to wait for it to calm down. The launch did not present any bad snags so I got off the hill in a controlled manner. As the day was strong I had my hopes up to be able to stay up and maybe even get high.

I followed Ray's path and headed North, pretty soon caught a good thermal and turned back to get the ride. Sweet ! I was getting some good lift .. already beaten my old track of scratch and maintain for 10 min. Being close to the boulder chip cookie hill I tried to get up by flying S - turns or just follow the rige. Challenging, as most of the lift was thriving towards the hill, I was able to maintain farther out but not really hit the jackpot. I was holding on dearly to those golden chips of altitude I earned from hiking up the hill.

By this time Doug was launching almost in an effortless spiral straight up .. annoying. I was thrilled by the fact that I got up to about 1100. I tried to work it farther but I started to slowly fall out. At about 700ft I crossed the ridge and headed for the football field completing a pretty sweet 25 min flight with a mellow landing in a 4-5 mile wind, no turbulence or funkiness.

Nanakuli is a big beast, it needs a lot of bullets to fall but when You get up You have clearly mastered a new level in your PG career. During my flight I was never seriously kicked around, the thermals sometimes strong but never creating collapses or uncontrolled turns.

Good luck ! and hike high on Your first go, it will increase Your chances of deciding to come back :)

/Johan

Three in a row - going on four??

Three days flying at Nanakuli. Not so epic days, but decent flying (for me).

Thursday 10-05: I met Doug at Ulei Loop after my diving job. we hiked all the way to the top launch and had no problem getting out of the hill or up, after going up and down to 700 ft, I hooked a good one and climbed to 2100 on a single thermal. sweet! when I saw some dark low clouds coming form the back. I just chicken out and landed at the baseball field. Doug showed me the air was still smooth by going around the valley for the 2nd time... The kids were having fun at the LZ, especially after we landed. They helped us fold our gliders and played "hermit crab" with Doug's harness.

Friday 10-06: after the YMCA presentation some of the pilots went to the golf course for lunch. Doug called me and said nanakuli was looking "epic". Johan joined us and we carpooled fom waikele's KFC, dropping a car there. I launched first from mid launch, followed by Johan and Doug. I was staying up but it was just not happening right for me . . . the thermals were very close to the hill. closer than my confort level with this "new to me" sigma 5 glider. I couldn't get much higher than the top of the hill (aprox 2000 ft) and decided to land. Doug went over the back and landed by walmart at Kunia Rd.

Saturday 10-07: I called the day "not flyable" in the morning because the sky was gray, but Doug mentioned something about "blue sky patches" and "nanakuli looking good", so I couldn't pass it... after posting in the chatter box my intentions I got some company: Russell, Frank, Sandy and Nick volunteered. Johan was interested but failed to show up. Jeff McCloud drove up there to show support. Thursday was high launch, friday mid launch, today (saturday) is low launch. I Wish! It was so dead at low launch, not even ghosts were there! We kept going and the wind started to blow from the dump side at mid launch, here we go! I thought it would be fast, but it died again... what was I thinking by stopping there instead of high launch? Until it started to blow again.... get out of the way, here I go... and straight up I went! I cruised for a bit, finding good and smooth thermals. Again, close to the hill, but this time it was better. Once I made over the top and the "end" of the thermals at 2700 ft I decided to cross the valley, towards pyramid rock (going east, towards town). Made it there with 2000 ft... hook one up to 2400, down to 1800 up to 2200, down to 1700, up to 1800, I'm out of here! I glided back to the hill, just below mid launch and played over the lifting air for another 10 minutes over the houses and baseball field until it was feeling a little low and I decided to land. On my way back to the car some local guys bbq-ing in their yard offer me a soda and we talked story for a few minutes... the bbq wasn't ready but I was going to pick up Sandy at the dump side and couldn't stay longer. Frank landed there as well and before Sandy could fold her glider he was by my car. "How was your flight" I asked, the answer "I got beer in the car!" he was thirsty, so we drove back to his car right away. Russell landed in the baseball field after some 30 min flight, and joined us on the retrieve of Sandy and Nick on the other side. By the road we shared cold beverages and stories like "At some point it was so light I was afraid I would have to hike down!" Sandy mentioned I got the "last train". Maybe we'll be there earlier to catch the first train and the 4th day in a row at nanakuli. Keep checking the chatter box!

Aloha

Pics available under my flickr acc.

Baking Cookies at Makapuu

Yesterday's exhibition at Makapuu for the leeward YMCA kids was a resounding success. I was impressed to see over 15 pilots out there so early on a weekday! I was also very impressed to see three full busloads of kids show up along with their stalwart program leaders!

But I was most impressed with the weather - Nick must have paid that wind bill after all. The only downside was the heat - the intense Makapuu sun baked those poor kids to a crisp as they sat for two hours in the hot sandy landing zone. Maybe next year we can get Nick to pay a little extra for a shadier venue!

The forecast was grim for a morning exhibition - super light winds, possibly SE, with sea breezes not expected until later in the day - and when we first got to Makapuu the flow was slightly catabatic and offshore. But over the course of the morning, as the sun heated things up, the breeze gradually clocked around to the west and then towards the north. By the time all the kids had streamed out of their buses and through the bathrooms to take their seats on the cookie sheet, I mean landing zone, the northerly sea breeze was sucking in just enough for our pilots to launch from Cactus and soar around a bit before trying to nail the hula hoops the kids had provided for spot landing.

The clouds were super low, foiling our plans to huck Fireman Dave and Scot off the hang launch, but at least Dave was able to show the kids his disappearing act at cloudbase, as well as a nice leisurely SAT in his Gangster before he pegged the hoops like a marksman. I think some of our pilots were a little surprised to hear Bob telling them it was time to land after working hard to get up in the light lift, but everyone was a good sport and landed on command, utilizing a variety of creative approaches to the hoops, with varying degrees of success. Congratulations to our new pilot Christine, who enjoyed her second flight in Hawaii, her first at Makapuu.

We had a long line of kids trying out Doug's simulator, which we hung from an ad-hoc swingset structure Bob built on the spot. And speaking of Bob - he has earned himself the new nickname of Cap'n Kangaroo for his entrancing performance as MC of the event. Bob strapped a vario to a telescoping pole and demonstrated the happy and sad sounds we all know so well. He also put on a radio interview show where the kids got to direct questions to various pilots in the air, followed by more questions to pilots in person later on. I heard there were some great questions - if anyone remembers any funny ones please post them in a comment here.

Also, if anyone has pictures to upload, please do so and post a comment here with a link. I'd also love to hear the perspective of others who were there - I was busy with the simulator most of the time and I probably missed a lot.

After the kids left we had lunch and flew a bit more, but the day never really turned on beyond a low simmer. Doug called some pilots out to Nanakuli for what he predicted to be an epic 11 of a day, but the thermals were disappointingly sparse, and proved to be challenging for everyone but Doug, who made his usual flight over the back to Walmart. That flight would be an 11 in my book any day.

Thanks to everyone for all your help in making our first exhibition such a success yesterday at Makapuu - the kids had a blast and so did we. We've never tried anything like this before, but after yesterday's experience I think it's something worth trying again sometime. Thanks to One Eye, the Cap'n, Don, Suicide, Johan, Reaper, Doug, Nick, Scot, Fireman, Brazilian Ray, Christine, Mad Dog, Utah Troy, assorted Austrians, and anyone else I may have neglected to mention.

Weather or not to fly

As I read the blog I am amazed at all the great weather information that so many young pilots have learned over the years while flying at Makapuu and Kahana. Weather knowledge is important, but it's not enough to keep us safe - we could all benefit from a reminder of the importance of improving (and flying within) our own abilities, and flying with safe equipment.

Fourteen years ago when I moved here, I was flying a comp wing. Why not? It was super fast and had a great glide. That to me seemed like the wing to have here, especially with the smooth ocean air we get from the trades. I soon realized that maybe a comp wing wasn't the best glider to fly as my daily glider. They are subject to higher stall speeds, more collapses, faster spins (faster everything), and really just a hell of a lot more trouble than they're worth. So I quit flying my comp wings and bought a DHV 2 glider. Great speed, good glide, safer, and I didn't have to worry about keeping my bloody wing open all the time.

Also, fourteen years ago (and very nearly up to the present) we only flew Makapuu in very light winds from Cactus or Lazy Man launches, and therefore we hardly ever experienced any turbulence from Rabbit Island, or other mechanical turbulence. (Unless we went XC, and then we encountered numerous areas of turbulence such as behind Mt. Olomana or heading around the Pali.) Now that we fly in very high winds from Crazys, Tomato Juice, Tomato Patch, and Manics, we have been experiencing a lot more turbulence and a lot more incidents. Are these strong wind conditions reducing our margin of safety to an unacceptable level?

The last meeting I went to at Bob's shop was "proof in the pudding" of our current safety margins. How many pilots have had accidents or incidents this past year, and how many more are going to get hurt before we step up and say to our friends, "Maybe we shouldn't be flying in this much wind", or "I hate to see you putting yourself at unecessary risk by flying that acro/comp glider." I think as a fairly new club, we might benefit from having a safety committee to discuss these issues, and maybe figure out some guidelines to give our newer pilots some tools to make safer flying decisions.

One safety issue in particular that has caused many of us trouble over the years is the danger of inducing a negative spin when making downwind high banked turns. We all need to remember the importance of keeping our airspeed up while in a high banked turn, especially while low or descending through a wind gradient. When the inside (lower)
portion of our wing is heavily braked as we are making a high banked turn, that portion of the wing is in danger of losing enough airspeed to continue flying, and it is likely to stall, causing the wing to spin or just drop out of the air. Higher performance wings will stall sooner, but even the safest wing can't continue to fly below a certain
airspeed. I recommend using less bank, more weight shift and less brake input when you make those turns.

We can all have more fun and be safer if we stay on the conservative side of our flying decisions, by flying gliders that give us higher safety margins, respecting the weather conditions (and knowing when to just walk away), and continuing to improve our flying skills. Try to be a little conservative and you'll live longer...

The Reaper

Broken Wing(man)

As many of you have probably heard through the grapevine, Jetflap Jeff (the reigning "King of Makapuu") Forrest had a hard landing at the LZ today. I spoke to Lana at Queens ER a few minutes ago and Jeff had broken a wrist and fractured his T12 vertebra. Other than that he is doing fine and might get to spend a little more at home time with his wife in the near future.

We are wishing him a speedy recovery so he can get back out in the swing of things. When the sting wears off (and the painkillers) we hope he can give a full report.

All Day Kahana: Up, Down, and Out of Town

Fifteen pilots out at Kahana yesterday, including three of our newest members, Randy, Bill and Alan (way to go guys). Conditions were light for a while and not everyone flew as long as they wanted. Scot and I were determined to seek our fortune downrange, so we hitched a ride on the cloud bellies to jump the valley. Lift was light on both of the next ridges, but it was a fun little trip - Scot landed at Hauula, and I squeaked into Pounders. Thanks to Johan for the pickup!