Fun at Wallaby Ranch 2012

The Skydog Report

Tuesday is a spectacular day with lots of pilots and lots of Lift. Tom Nejame gets towed up first and I follow and by the time I get up Tom has taken off for a seventy five mile triangle. I work great lift up to 5,100 feet at one point and have a few ups and downs getting down to 1,200 feet and then back up to base at 5,100 feet. My total airtime was 1 hour and 35 minutes. Later I noticed that some pilots were staying up until 6:30 so I should have taken a second tow." What was I thinking". Patrick O'Donnell and Gilles Roussel get into the air and have great flights. Patrick logs over one hour and Gilles logs over two hours, I had my GoPro on and got some great footage which I will edit and get on here soon.

Tom Nejame Testing His New Helmet Shroud

Giles is Airborne

 Rick Bremer - GhostBuster

 Landing Approach Fast

John

 Skydog Bob

# 4

Hawk In Front Right Arrow

Pete Vranesich

Patrick Flairs

 Mike Barber Lightspeed

Pete Pfeiffer

Mikey

Glider Being Towed In Front and the Ranch Below

 # 7

Pete Vranesich

Gilles

Paul Flies Dragonfly

 Patrick Wingin

Bob Coming In Over the Trees

The Skydog Report

Wednesday is overcast and Pete Vranesich from New Jersey and I decide to give it a try at 3 pm and wait for lunch to finish and get towed up but only get buoyant sledders. My flight was 17 minutes.

Pete Vranesich

The Skydog Report

Friday is another windy day so we go for a bike ride on the Orange trail for a couple of hours. Gilles, Eric, Mary, Maureen and I had a good two hour ride and took some photos. We also visited the Orlando R/C Helicopter field and watched the pilots doing their tricks and met some great guys.

The Riders and Pups

 Maureen and Gilles

The Skydog Report

Saturday is another windy day with lots of sun and we are getting anxious to get some more Hang Gliding. Today we booked time in the parachute simulator in Orlando and we scheduled for Monday evening at seven o'clock. Weather reports show some clearing by Tuesday and then a few good days so we will see how it turns out. We will be leaving for home a week from today (Sunday) so I hope to get some airtime this coming week.

Eric and Mary's Dog - Tess

Momma and Baby Gators

We Have Seen About Twenty Gators This Year

 Gators Everywhere

Bob and Maureen

Smart Looking Gator

Humpback Gator

 Big One

The Skydog Report

Monday is a cloudy morning and the tandems go up and find it too windy so stop after four runs. The clouds break up by 1 pm and we start thinking that a flight might be in order. I get out to the flight line and Patrick sets up and Gilles rents a U2. We get airborne by 2 pm and I find some lift under the mostly cloudy sky. I was let off just south of the Ranch and work some light thermals and finally get down to 1,800 feet and then I head out to the north side of the field and over some rising ground just to the north of  Tom Nejame's home and I spot a white bird circling and sure enough the white bird is going up and I join him at 1,100 feet and then I see two red tails circling close by and I join them and we have a close encounter and we get up to 2, 965 feet and I am feeling good in this heavily clouded day. I follow this one to the north about a mile and stay above 2,400 feet and finally want to get back to the Ranch so that I might land there. On my way back I find some lift but not as strong as the good one that I started with and finally after 56 minutes I land behind Patrick and Gilles who took tows after me. Patrick and Gilles take 30 minute flights and then we all take second tows and I last for 20 minutes and land.

The forecast for the next four days looks real good and pilots are getting excited so we see how it goes and I will report again soon.

The Skydog Report

Tuesday February 28th, with a forecast of sunny for the next four days Starts out foggy but by 9 am the tandems get going and by en they stop for breakfast. At noon a few gliders are set up and ready to get going. Over to the east side we go and four of us are ready to launch by 1 pm. I get off last and find good lift to 5,631 feet and play in the sky with Patrick, Gilles and Tom before Tom takes off XC again. The three of us bump around the sky for a while finding some pretty good sink areas and Gilles and Patrick land after a half hour and I hang on for 56 minutes flirting with the clouds. I take a second flight and only last for 18 minutes. Two hours later we see Tom landing after his great triangle that kept him airborne for 3 hours and 40 minutes. I have never seen Tom with a bigger smile and he just loves the challenge of XC on his atos. lots of fun stories are told and a great day was had by all.

Tuesday evening.

 We head to I-Fly at seven pm for parachute rides I the wind tunnel and the five of us have a real blast in the tunnel. I was so happy to see Maureen being so excited with her flights in the vertical tunnel. This is one activity that I would really recommend and if you purchase tickets from Costco the price is about half of the regular price and the instructors are a blast to fly with. ifly.com

 Gilles

Skydog

 Gilles

 John With His Phantom

Pretty Day - Great Lift

 Aric

Pete

Scott on Approach

Maureen and Mary in the Pool at Wallaby

 Dragonfly Speeding Down For Another Tow

Hawk In Front

Meagan

 Van Fleet Alligator

 Gilles

Patrick

 Skydog

The Skydog Report

Wednesday is a sunny morning and he tandems are zooming into the sky and Patrick O'Donnell, our raving reporter takes our camera to the north end of the field and gets some great shots of the tandem action. I have some sewing work to do on my harness and Lance gives me a hand using his special tools and after an hour the harness is ready to go. I had a problem for the last two days with my zipper Velcro pulling apart and leaving me unclosed for the last three flights. I get my GoPro set up and all of my gear ready and just as I am taking my time doing so, Paul the tug pilot comes over and says, how soon will you be ready Bob and I tell Paul hat I will hurry finishing up and meet him at the North end in fifteen minutes so the rush is on and the sky is already full of cummies at 11:45. Paul gets down there just ahead of me and after a few minutes Fay Barber has the tug ready to tow Paul skyward. I am next and Fay gives me a great tow right into a boomer that takes me to cloudbase and into the fluff. We had some trouble getting my GoPro to operate properly and while being towed I realized that I had left the SD card in my computer so no video for this flight. Well, I was having a great flight but decided to spin down and get the SD card and get some great footage on this spectacular looking day so this flight only lasted 12 minutes. Maureen realized that I needed something and rode her bike out to the take off and zoomed back to get the card and I was in line and on tow again within fifteen minutes and skyward bound and Fay gets me into another good thermal and I work it up to 2,800 feet while watching as Patrick gets towed up behind me and he flies around at about 2,000 feet and is having some great fun. A few minutes later I notice Scott with his Blue T-2 with the new sail a good ways to the north of the field and about 500 feet higher than I am at so I decide to follow a lift line over to where he is turning and I get there about 800 feet below Scott and I manage to get up to about 200 feet below him and I turn my left tip up and hope that I got a shot of Scott spinning around above me. Soon after,s Scott heads back to the ranch and I stay with the cloud and eventually I get up to 4,000 feet. I cruise back over the ranch from back at the sand mines and find a lot of on going sink and land after 1h and 2 minutes. Right back in Line again and Paul pulls me up to 2,000 feet and now the lift seems a little more sparse but I find some 300 fpm stuff and search around for better lift and off to the north again I see a Moyes Malibu having some fun so I decide to join the Malibu and I get there just above and we thermal together and I am sure I have some great video of the thermalling action. I am soon a grand above the Malibu and he is drifting toward the ranch and I head over to a patch of lifting land and find more good stuff and fly over the big subdivision for a while getting some nice lift. I see that it is almost three o'clock and most pilots are setting up their approach so I head on down after a 51 minute flight. I sure do wish that I had a memory like Davis who can recall who was where throughout many of his flights so that I could make this more interesting for you all but at seventy the old memory is all but shot.

We take a ride up to Quest to visit our old friend Mark Frutiger and have some fun visiting there seeing all the updates that Mark has made and Eric, Mary, Maureen and I go for a swing over the QuestAir Lake and the pups go for a swim. After watching pilots come in for the end of the day landings we hear lots of stories of a great day of flying. Next we go for a ten mile bike ride on the Van Fleet trail and return at dusk. What a great day of action filled fun.

Dragonfly

Sara

 Sara

 Aric On My Left and Hawk On My Right

Gilles Good Landing

The Skydog Report

Thursday is another sunny day with great cummies showing by 10:30 am but no body is too excited yet so we get some things done and move to a different cottage. I work on a new mount for the GoPro so that I can hang it on the nose and shoot down for a different view. By 1 pm guys are asking if I want to go for it and so I say OK and we push down to the end of the driveway and somehow even though I walked down third, Scott and Jason let me go first, maybe as a wind test pilot as the wind seems somewhat stronger than on Wednesday. I expect that the upper level winds are about 15 to 18 mph. I get towed by Fay Barber and she puts me into a good thermal at 1,700 feet. I cruise around getting up a bit to 2,300 as I watch Jason and Scott being towed up. I loose track of Jason but see that Scott is towed a bit higher than I am at so I am scrambling to get up to Scott. Finally I find a good one at the north end of the field and I see Scott get down to likely a grand while I am up to 2,800 feet. I loose track of Scott and see many others being towed up and I try to get them in the frame below me as I am shooting down from the nose plate, After 33 minutes I get flushed and land and immediately get in line again and soon Maureen brings me a drink and some cheese I am ready to go again and Fay tows me up to 2,300 feet. This time I find better lift over the orange groves to the west of the field and get up to 3,200 feet and I see off in the distance what appears to be Patrick way out over highway 27 and over the subdivision at what appears to be about 4,000 feet so I decide to head that way and sure enough when I get closer to 27 there is nice lift at 600 fpm and I take it up to about 4 grand and I see Patrick heading back toward the Ranch and later Patrick told me that he was not sure that he would make it but he arrived at over 1,000 feet ato and I saw him land soon after. I putted around in the thermals trying to make it up to base but could not make it into the soup but it did get fuzzy for a bit at 4,630 feet which was my highest. I worked my way back to the Ranch not finding much lift, My second flight had lasted 1 hour and twenty minutes. I checked some of the footage on the GoPro and I am very impressed, At one point I have a beautiful hawk with white wing tips thermalling with me and I hope that footage shows the hawk working with me. The bird seemed to enjoy my company and I certainly did enjoy his.

I will try to get some footage ready real soon after we get home next week.

 Sara

Scott

Sara

 Meagan

Patrick

 Someone Is Above Me But Not For Long

Skydog

Ranch In Background

Skydog

 Bob and Maureen After Last Flight in Florida 2012

 The Biking Gang

The Skydog Report

Friday March 2, 2012 is a great day with nice cummies but the wind is a bit high like 15 - 20 mph and we have a boat rented for the day near Cocoa Beach. We start out on the north end of the Banana River and cruise 25 miles south to near Cape Canaveral and there we stop for lunch on a deserted island overlooking the Carnival Cruise boats. We see some dolphins near the causeway and about ten windsurfers are sailing at the Banana River beach. After lunch we head across the canal that joins the Banana river and the Indian river intercostal waters and head south back to the boat rental service. I was a nice 89 degree day to be on the water for Eric, Mary, Maureen and myself.

Rented Boat on the Indian River

Maureen in the Florida Sunshine

The Skydog Report

Saturday March 3, 2012 is quite windy again so we go for a sixteen mile bike ride and see a few alligators and five turtles. Later on I break down my glider and we get ready for the trip home on Sunday morning.

 We woke up o four inches of snow on our way home

 Bob and Flash

The Skydog Report

Summary March 15, 2012 - We had a very enjoyable month in Florida with mostly sunny days and great temperatures. I would like to have had more great days of flying but I did OK with sixteen flights and topping out at 6,115 feet with lots of great thermals and 16 hours and 41 minutes air time. We did a fair bit of biking and saw more than twenty alligators and lots of Turtles while biking on the Van Fleet Trail. Also had a great day on the water with a rented boat.

We will do it again soon. - Bob