Wills-Wing-Demo-Days-2013

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The Skydog Report

Sunday April 8, 2012 is a day full of sun and big cumulus clouds and we get started around one pm. I was towed up about fifth and after searching for a couple of minutes I found a good thermal and was soon at cloud base at 5,000 feet. Some pilots were falling out of the lift but a few of us stuck it out and after a half hour we caught another good one that took s up to 5,400 feet and we went travelling to find a better line but we all got down to 3 grand and then later we picked another whopper and I was at 5,990 feet but getting sucked into the dome again just like yesterday so I scooted out to the downwind side and after stuffing the bar I finally was in the clear. I took a run out to the Omni Hotel and came back with 2,500 feet and caught another one to 5, 900 feet. It was a great ride but I found a great sinker and landed after 1 hour and 25 minutes.

I grabbed a cart and got to take off just as the dinner bell rang so I waited while the Ranch staff had lunch. I got up around four o'clock with Oded and Moritz launching right after me and we flew together for about a half hour and then I saw Rick Bremmer on his Ghostbuster getting up pretty well so tried to follow Rick but soon was far below him. I think that I got up to 4,900 feet this time and landed after 46 minutes and decided to take a break but Moritz and Oded went for another flight and they both did very well on their WW U-2s.

Photos Below

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Chaddy

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Ken and Honey # 22

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Bertrand

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Thomas

Chris Mangels

Bertrand Delacroix

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Samira

Fernando

Roger Sherrod

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Fernando Milani

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Tug

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Ryan and Desiree Voight

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My Ky Spoek - Holland

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Mark - Miami Fl.

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Mark - Miami

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Jenn - Holland

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Nick

Jenn - Holland

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"Smokey" Daan Rookmaker

Wayne Devillis

Wolfi

Ken Martin

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Line Up

Mark - Miami, Fl.

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Hugo, Samira and Bertrand - Chillin

Mark - Miami, Fl.

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My Ky and Rob

Jenet - Holland

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Dave Lopez Crew

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Mark - Miami, Fl.

Michael Robertson - Toronto, Canada

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Kimberly and Greg Ludwig

Mark - Miami, Fl.

Demos

# 99

The Skydog Report

Monday April 8, 2013 starts out sunny with lots of tandem flights and some solos too. The sky starts to cummie up around noon and by 1 pm it is looking great so we start heading to the staging area. I get off second right after Wolfgang and wham into a good one after a rasty tow. I think it was the roughest tow I have taken in years, Well I got off and found a good one right away and followed it up to 6,090 feet and played in the lift for a while then I moved on to other clouds that looked good and it was great for an hour and 13 minutes when I landed after finding super sink. The afternoon lunch break was in progress so I relaxed and got ready for flight number two. By five o'clock I was back in the air and Oded and Moritz were right behind me with two other pilots getting off before me and then another six behind me. Another rough tow but not as bad as the earlier one and off at 2,000 feet and into another good one and up to cloud base again at 5,700 feet. I was surprised that the base had not risen but lowered 300 feet. Oh well, I cruised around at over 5 grand for a while watching as most others were hanging at 4,000 feet but then someone came along at my altitude and the game was on to stay in the best lift and on top. I think I won that game and took the lift to base again and had to stuff it to stay out of the cloud. Cruising around for a while I came across a real nice T2-C and that sucker was staying higher than me so I chased him for likely 15 minutes and couldn't seem to catch up but then I noticed that my VG was not quite tight so I pulled on the extra eight inches and I could not believe it but I was above the new T2-C within two minutes. Hey, that felt good and I wondered if the VG made that much difference or was it a coincidence. I stayed above for a while but the other pilot found a better lift line and I could not catch him again but we were very close for a long time and finally I landed just a minute before that beautiful T2-C. What a great flight and mine lasted 1 hour and 46 minutes.

Oded and Moritz also had very enjoyable flights both with over one hour of airtime. Oded and I rushed off to Table Tennis and had a great workout.

Photos Below

Rosie and Jim Kolynich - Jeannie and Bill Vicary - NY

Steve Prepost and Jenn Silver

The Nederland's Group - My Ky, Jenet, Rob and Ton

Chaudi, Pup and Roger and Zoe

Naomi Dingman

Lori Sanchez

Lee and Jen Silver - Toronto, Canada

Oded Kalir and Bill Vicary - New York

# 102 Norway

Old Buddies From The Past - Bob Grant, Chris Smith and Michael Robertson

Vincene Muller - Calgary Alberta, Canada

Vegar Hansen

Jim Lee's Motor Glider - Phoenix

The Skydog Report

Wednesday April 10 th is sunny and the tandems get off to a good start in the morning. By 2 o'clock we are lining up to get some great lift and I get off second behind Scott Lenard and Paul towed me through some super lift but once I pinned off I could not find a scrap of lift and landed after 18 minutes and got back in line behind about 8 pilots. My second tow went well and this time I hit a good one just after release and took it up to 5 grand and then went searching for my next lift line. There was a most beautiful fragrance in the air form the orange blossoms. As I was burbling around as I often do I noticed that Mikey Barber was at my altitude so I followed him south for about three miles and then we headed back to the north after taking a lift to 5,400 feet. I was confident that Mikey would find the best lift so I stayed on his tail and finally I noticed that he had a student (Kipp) in tow so I thought, Good, I will just follow Mike and hope that I can keep up. We worked thermals north and when we got about five miles from Wallaby we got into some heavy sink and were down to 2,200 feet but luckily for me Mikey found another good one and I joined him and we made it back to cloud base at over 5 grand. Away we went again with Kipp 1,000 feet below and finally after about the ten mile mark I could no longer find Mikey's student and now I was only relying on Mikey's good judgement to find the lift. I stuck on his tail as best I could wondering what all this new scenery actually was. An hour into the flight I was looking for something familiar and I saw what looked like maybe some Hang Gliders in a field two miles ahead and after some studying I realized that it was Quest Air field and I was so happy as all through the flight I expected that I would sink out and be lost. I was elated to see Quest and now being down to 2,000 feet I thought that I would likely make it to the quest field and then I got lucky and found some good lift and crossed the field at 4,000 feet and then worked the thermals up to 6,515 feet over Groveland where I happened upon two other gliders in the sky and we had a great time trying to max the lift until it finally died and we all landed at the Quest field. Mikey had headed south and returned to Wallaby but I was afraid to follow him in case I should land out and I now had the security of a familiar airport landing. When I landed I was introduced to one of the other pilots and it turned out that it was Jim Moyer from Ottawa Canada and he is a friend of my brother who lives near Toronto. Mark Frutiger cooked us up hamburgers and Nick from Russia who also landed with me enjoyed Mark's hospitality. I called back to Malcolm and he asked Jason Williams to pick us up and Jason was at Quest before we were packed up. A great day for me as I have not tried a XC flight in many years. My airtime was 2 hours and 49 minutes and I think my straight line distance was likely 24 miles. It was great to finally meet Jim Moyer and his wife Cathy from Canada who I had been hearing about for years from my brother Jeff and wife Colleen. Oded and all the pilots at Wallaby also had great flights on this spectacular Wednesday. Oded logged 3 hours and of coarse Rick Bremmer did his regular five hours plus on the famous Ghostbester.

Photos Below

Chris Mangles

Jenn Silver - Apprehensive

Oded Kalir - Lift Off

Paul

Steve Prepost and Jenn Silver

Vegar Hansen - Norway

Steve Prepost and Jenn Silver - Lift Off

Kurt

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Lee Silver - Lift Off

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Fay Barber ad Jenn Silver

Lee Silver - Toronto, Canada

Lisa Pearson - On Right

Chaudi and Roger

Oded Kalir

Chaudi

Hugo Ready to Fly

Chaudi - Lift Off - Topless Glider

Rocket Man and Mike

Nick - Russia

Bertram, Hugo and Samira

Mike

Stefanie Holcomb

Hugo Is Ready

Bertram and Hugo

Hugo - Gotta Love That Face

Chadi - Lift Off

Nick and Yuri - Russia

Breakfast at the Ranch

Tyson Richmond and Rocket Man - Dave Sweggart

Breakfast

A Wills Wing Family Breakfast

Chaudi

Steve and Kelsey

Bjoern Joakimsen - Norway

Eric Fair and Honey

Hugo

Angel

Keisha

Hugo and Bertram Have Landed

Steve Pearson

Bjoern Joakimsen - Norway

Vegar Hansen - Norway

Hugo in Harness

Morning Beauty

Steve Pearson - Wills Wing - California

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Fun Time

Beautiful Family

Dimitry Burdov

Per Ramstad - Noway

Russians at Wallaby: Yurii, Dmitry and Nick

Dmitriy - Russia

Per Ramstad - Noway

Nick - Russia

Wayne Ripley

Nikolay Sushkov Landing Approach

Dale Rutherford Flies Wallaby Ranch

Mom Elaine and Dale Anxious to Get Airborne

All Suited Up and Ready to Go

Let's Go

Malcolm and Dale Are in the Air

Flying High

I Think Dale Likes Flying

What a Beautiful Day To Be Flying

Wow

Let's Get Ready to Land

Smooth

I Think Dale Wants To Go Again

Wow, That Was Fun

Dale, Mom Elaine and Dad Michael

XC to Quest Air

Skydog and Nicolai Land at Quest Air Airport

Bob and Nicolai Risukhin

Carol and Jim Moyer

Bob Grant and Jim Moyer

Itay Guy - Orlando R/C Helicoter Club

The Skydog Report

Thursday and Friday were wash out days with lots of wind and some rain so here we are on Saturday and it is a Sunny morning and at 2:30 five of us take to the sky with no cummies and all sled runs except one Norwegian fellow who caught a bubble and extended his flight to 30 minutes. My sled time was 13 minutes. Hoping for a boomer on Sunday.

The Skydog Report

Sunday morning starts out overcast cloudy so I go to the R/C helicopter field and watch them for a couple of hours and come back to Wallaby by 12:30. Looks too windy and mostly cloudy until around 3:30 and I get ready with another pilot and Chris Mangles tows us up. I am off first and find decent lift taking me to 3,000 feet for about 15 minutes and later when I saw the other pilot thermalling I used his lift line and finally got up to 4,025 feet at which point I sped to the lighter side of the cloud to keep out of the 1,000 feet per minute up and into the clouds which looked nasty, The other pilot who was flying a kingposted Moyes glider landed after about 40 minutes and I landed after 1 hour and 17 minutes. Just as I landed 3 Russian pilots were being towed up and they all got one half hour flights. There was some buoyant air but the thermals were not strong. Maybe Monday will be better.

Photos Below

Dmitry Burdov and Julia Kucherenko

Chris Mangles

Dmitry Burdov

Julia

Malcolm and Julia

Julia - Russia

Dmitry Shestun and Nikolay Sushkov

Mick Flies Superfloater

The Skydog Report

Monday April 15 is a beautiful calm morning and lots of tandem flights take place before breakfast along with lots of solo flights. Everyone is having a blast.

At 1 pm I ask Mark Bold if he wants to fly my WW T-2 and he gets ready to fly and is first in line with about twenty pilots following him, Mark takes a standard tow and hit some great lift and gets up to 4,350 feet on his 1-1/2 hour flight. We had the Gopro on and Mark gets some great shots and takes his helmet of for a half hour and he looks so cool. After Mark comes down the gang is ready for lunch and I wait until 4:30 and then Chris pulls me into a mostly blue sky but some cummies are forming to the west and I hang on for 40 minutes and get up to 3,200 feet and then get flushed. Mitch Shipley flies from Quest Air and cruises around above me and lands about a half hour later, Rick Bremmer does his regular four hour flight in his Ghostbeuster, It was a very good day and Tuesday's forecast is for a 8,000 foot cloudbase so we hope to get high and go far.

Photos Below

Students

Aric

Student

Per Ramstad - Noway

Student

Students

Ian Hochsteder

Tandem

Student

Malcolm and Student Take Off

Student

Russian Pilot

What's With The Hands

Solo

Tandem

Steve Tandem Instructor

Fin Norway

Felipe Amunategui

Kevin Byler Conneticut

Steve

Steve Prepost Tandem Instructor

Aric Tandem

Per Ramstad - Noway

Tandem Group

Lauri Croft

Per Ramstad - Noway

Aric Tandem Instructor

Malcolm Tandem Instructor

Tandem

Per Ramstad - Noway

Per Ramstad - Norway

Russian Team

Per Ramstad - Norway

Monday Afternoon

The Line Forms

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Mark Bolt on my WW T2

Check Out Mark's Video - Click Here

Mark Bolt Getting High

Photographer

Felipe Amunategui

Mark Bolt

Peter, Kevin and Wayne

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Fin Spjeldnes

Way High

Jason Williams

Mark Bolt Getting Misty

Jason Williams

Aero Towing

Mark Herman

Chris Mangels

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Sky Out

Landing

Dave Labagh

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Rick Bremmer - Ghostbuster

Mark Bolt - Glider Below

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Wayne Ripley

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Aric Paulson

Ian Hochstetter

Mark Bolt Sand Pitts

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Nick

Fly By Kermit Weeks

Mark Bolt

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Digger

Mark Bolt - Dr. Owens

Mark Bolt

Larry Graves "Digger"

Matching Tattoos

Foot Wrestling

Cousin, Felipe Sr and Felipe Jr.

The Skydog Report

Tuesday April 16, 2013 Starts out mostly sunny and the hot air balloons blast their propane to wake me and I see them lifting off right in front of Malcolm's home and next I hear the tugs towing tandems and the day begins. The tandems stop a bit early as the wind picks up and clouds move in so breakfast is on. By noon there is a group of about twenty pilots getting their equipment ready. By noon the sky has cleared and we are getting over to the west end launch and Jason and I are first in line. Paul pulls me up over the warehouses and I work some spotty lift and finally after 20 minutes I hit some more consistent lift and Jason tried a bit north and finally got down to 800 feet before he caught a good one at the edge of Wallaby field and we were off skyward with lots of others joining us. Four of the Russian team are still here and a group from Connecticut drove in Yesterday and they are enjoying the lift here today. I see one of them has his GoPro on so we both try to get some good footage . I see what I thought was Scot Maue in his Exxtacy coming up and skying out well above me at 3,500 feet and just screaming across the sky. After landing, I realized that it was Mark Bolt on Scot's Exxtacy and Mark had an awesome flight of 3-1/2 hours up to cloud base which was just over 4,000 feet today. My flight time was 1 hour and 52 minutes and I topped out at 4,125 feet. My Total Airtime at Wallaby was 18 hours and 34 minutes. Lots of happy faces in the landing area and later Oliver brought out his paraglider string kite and put on a good show with it. Another wonderful day at the Ranch.

Photos Below