NY-2014

The Skydog Report

Saturday May 17th Patrick O'Donnell and myself visited the Finger Lakes and camped at Hammondsport, NY. We drove to Harris Hill first arriving there at 10:30 Am and the wind in the landing are looked good but e had to go for gas first and phone the airport. When we got to launch at 12:30 the wind had subsided to about 4 mph so Patrick set up his new wills Wing Sport 2 - 135 Sq. foot glider. We waited a while but the wind never picked up to a soaring speed so Patrick finally took off for a sledder for his first flight on the new glider and it all worked out well and Patrick landed in the large grassy field where we usually land. we headed back to H-Port to set up camp and found a half dozen paraglider pilots in the air floating around above launch. Patrick was eager to set up his big tent so we did not fly Saturday evening.

Sunday morning we checked the forecast and set out for Harris Hill again and this time Eric Coverdale joined us and e arrived around 12 noon and again the wind was light so Eric and Patrick set up and waited. Finally around two pm there was a few times when the wind was coming in at 8 mph so Patrick had a go at it and sunk out. Eric waited a half hour and took a cycle and went up when he took off and then Eric flew the ridge for a couple of minutes and then I saw him do a 360 and then another 180 heading in towards the hill and the last I saw Eric was stalling into the trees 300 feet below launch as far as I could tell from the launch area. I drove to the bottom and found a lot of emergency vehicles and spectators along the road near the landing area. I asked Patrick who called 911 and he said that a lady in a passing car had first called in. Patrick had hollered up to Eric and found that he was not injured so we let the rescue people look after getting Eric out of the 60 foot three that he was perched in. Patrick took a second flight and caught a good thermal on his new glider and lasted for 15 minutes. Poor Eric waited almost three hours to get to the ground and was in good spirits. Jimmy Kolynich invited Eric to stay at his home on Sunday evening. Monday Morning Patrick and I along with a Paraglider friend Sadi went to Harris Hill to help retrieve Eric's glider and in two hours we had it on top of his car and we were off to H-Port again arriving there at 5:30 and this time the wind was gusting to 30 mph so we waited and finally the wind dropped to 15 mph and I took a flight a I got above 400 feet but after 20 minutes the wind dropped off and I landed nicely at the Church. Next I saw Eric take off and Eric landed after a sledder. Eric was happy that his glider had not been damaged and that he had a flight on it before heading home. Patrick and I drove home Tuesday with only short flights under our belts. Wednesday morning I read that Tuesday was a fantastic day at Ellenville with pilots getting close to ten grand Msl so I was wishing that we had gone there with Ed and Ron. Oh well, Better Luck next time.