Tracy and Lisa - Cloud 9 - 2014

The Chris Bratsis Report

Sunday September 28, 2014

Hi Bob, 

Here is a note about last Sunday Sept 28! I'll admit I was not too optimistic  with the forecast. It seemed like it was going to be just like Saturday which was sled ride city for everyone. I chose not to fly and play launch director. Any way Sunday I arrived about 12:30 and scuttled about shooting the breeze with; Brian Ridder, Trevor Gildersleeve, Tom Niblick, SkyDog Bob Grant of course), Lisa Colletti, Tracy Tillman and Owen McDermott from Canada. Am I missing someone??? If so I'm sorry. Well the sky began to turn, well, normal!!! An unstable air mass had moved in and haze domes were forming along with some scattered cumulus wispys.  So around 3:00pm the lemming rush began. Trevor went off first and the rest of us followed. Tracy dragged all of us into the sky and exclaimed, "It's a no=brainer". For whatever reason I stayed mostly to the north of Cloud 9 field and flew with you for quite a while. I also met up with Tom "Nibbles" and Brian Ridder right over the field. We all stayed high for most of the flight around 4400 feet. Lisa must have been flying down south of the field so I never saw her and you took off for places unknown. I think later you told me you went north west. After a couple of hours I saw pilots landing. I figured I had better land as my son Alex was coming out for his first ever tandem flight with Tracy so down I came and had a good landing except I did over shoot the spot. I believe Brian Ridder was last down shortly behind me. I think I had 2 hours & 15 minutes along with everyone else give or take.  Then My wife Pat came out to watch Alex take his tandem flight and boy was he stoked. He has always wanted to fly. Maybe the bug will bite him too! WoW! what a great late September fall day of soaring. Couldn't have been much better. 

See You in the air!

The Skydog Report

Saturday and Sunday September 27 and 28, 2014 turned out pretty good although Saturday did not have great lift I did get two 17 minute flights and one 35 minute flight which was fun for me.

Sunday was much better and most of us got up over four grand and there were some  two and one half hour flights. I got up to 4,537 feet ato and lasted for 1 hour and 47 minutes going to far north and getting back too low to stay up.

Thanks to Tracy and Lisa for providing this wonderful place for us to fly.

The Sept. 28 Video

The Chris Bratsis Report

Sunday September 7, 2014

We had a nice day of flying at Cloud 9 Sunday. The crew for today was Lisa (Sky Goddess) Colletti, Mark (Sky Hog) Dugan, Brian (Sky Scraper) Deimling, Brian (Sky Blaster) Ridder and Marty & Tom (Sky Twins) {sorry guys with your last names}. And of course Tracy the (Sky Tractor) Tillman. We lined up around 3:00 ish with Lisa, Duggie, Brian D, Brian R, Me (Chris), Marty  & Tom. Lisa broke a weak link right off the cart so Duggie went off. I let Lisa hop in before me and Tracy yanked us all into great lift. I don't believe anyone fell out and stayed up and off to the races we went. I think base was about 5600 although I only made it to 5476ft. Of course Dugan got to 17,999 as he says. He found a hole in the inversion. "That Dugan and his stories". The rest of us mortals...excluding Sky Goddess Lisa of course, boated around from thermal to thermal, pretty much staying near Cloud 9 field. Many of us had some low saves but nothing out of the ordinary. I ended with 2 hours 30 minutes which was about what Lisa, Brian D & Brian R also had. I'm not sure how long the Sky Twins had...they must be nearing their 1 hour flight times i'll bet. Dugan lurked above me to be the last one down...again. He must have had 3 hours or thereabouts. All in all a great day of flying in September here at Cloud 9.

Dugan returned on Monday and reported he had a 2 hour flight up to about 4700ft...nice!!!

The Skydog Report

Wednesday September 3rd Patrick O'Donnell and I heed for Cloud 9 as the forecast says sunny and warm. We get there at 11 am and Tracy is rolling the field and we set up. Soon Tom Niblock and Brian Deimling drive in. A little later Bernie Spring and Bob red show up so we have a good group to fly with. Lisa come in around 2:30 and gets into the air Quickly. The rest of us had already taken flights and I lasted for 54 minutes and the others had 45 minute flights. Lisa blows us away staying above 4,000 feet for one hour and thirty one minutes. For most of us it was a struggle but Lisa made it look easy on her new Litespeed. We all tried a second flight but I only lasted 25 minutes on my second flight. On my first flight I had got up to 3,671 feet. Lisa's highest was 4,650 feet. Not a stellar day but well worth the drive for us.

Brian Deimling Flies Close By on His Litespeed

 Brian Joins Me

The Skydog Report

Sunday August 3rd and I am at Cloud 9 for another great day of flying. I get into the air first at 1:30 and Tracy puts me into a good one and I work it up to over 4 grand. In the first half hour I was up and down a lot but after that the thermals joined and things got a lot easier. All the regulars join me and we get some great climbs throughout the afternoon. This flight lasted 2 hours and 22 minutes and the highest that I got to was 4,760 feet. I finally got low and took a second tow and I lasted 1 hour and 22 minutes up to 4,557 feet. It as a great day for all of us but a long drive for me for a one day trip.

 Sunset at Cloud 9

Trevor Glidersleeve with Mark's Family

The Chris Bratsis Report

Monday July 21, 2014

Monday was looking pretty good according to Tracy. Lift up to 5000 ft AGL. I was just starting my vacation week so I thought I'd better redeem myself after having 2 sled rides in a row while everyone else was skiing out. How demoralizing! I figured I better do better than recently so I arrived at the field around 2:30. Lisa was first off at 3:15 then me around 3:35. Lisa was doing good as usual, and guess what? I F@#*ing sunk out again! I have completed the triple sweep of sled runs and was not happy! I ran and grabbed the cart and saddled up again...probably my fastest turnaround from landing to launching. I gave Tracy the "get me the hell up there look" and we were off. I think Tracy felt bad for me and gave me a "Honey Tow" up to 3000ft. I pinned off, found some lift, finally, and was off to the races. Since Lisa had a 30 minute head start, I could not find her. Jim Dedes was towing up as I was climbing up to base...,again, finally! There were clouds but they were slow forming. At this time I was south of the field and struggling between 2500 & 3500ft. I finally spotted Lisa who was at cloud base around 4800ft. I saw Jim a bit below and also I noticed Marty was to the east of me under Lisa. I scooted over to Marty and we flew together for the first time. "Way to go Marty"!  I circled up above Marty and made it to base around 4750ft but I had lost Lisa who scooted off to the east. I decided to play it safe and stay high as long as I could while drifting from south to north of the field. 2 hours into the flight I finally spotted Lisa who joined me in a weak thermal for a bit then she bolted east again. I stayed north of the field and climbed back to about 4000ft over Parkers Corners. I decided to head back towards the field as I was satisfied with a good flight. The air was very buoyant now as I boxed the field. At about 1200ft at the south end of the field I hit a pretty strong small thermal. I was able to maintain lift throughout the turn and worked this thermal up to 3700ft to back over Parkers Corners again. It took me about 40 minutes to get to 3700ft from 1200 where I started. It was a lot of fun. My arms were getting tired of all this "hand gliding" so I headed back to the field. and boated around until I had to land, which was just a stride passed the spot. So I finally "appeased" the sled ride gods (I hope) and  had a great flight. Lisa must have had over 3 hours, Jim had an hour and Marty I think had 40 minutes. A great day at Cloud 9.

The Skydog Report

Friday July 18, 2014 turns out to be another good day and Lisa gets up to 5,500 feet. I took off first and slowly lost lift and got down to 900 feet at the twenty minute mark but luckily I caught a thermal just south of the field over a wheat field and I took it up to 3 grand. By this time Mark Dugan, Jim Dedes, Lisa Colletti, Owen McDermott and Marty had launched. When I climbed back up to 3 grand Lisa was at well over four grand and Owen was just above me so I worked the lift for a half hour and finally I only had Lisa above me and Mark Dugan had gone XC. I chased Lisa around the sky for another hour and finally caught up to her and by then most were landing and Lisa went in for a good landing and then Jim slipped in just in front of me and I landed on the target right behind Jim so we were both sitting in the circle. I had a 1 hour and 54 minute flight and up to 4,885 feet ato. Around six pm Mark called and Jim went to pick him up about ten miles out. Mark had gone 20 miles north and was on his way back when he landed.

Friday July 19, overcast at 8 am but by eleven am there are lots of cummies showing up so Scot Maue is setting up his Exxtacy. Clouds move in again and then at 4 pm it clears some so Trevor and Marty take flights but neither stay up so on to the tandems for the evening and they go well.

Saturday July 20, is a sunny morning that appears to be a good day coming. Tracy takes the Alatis down and prepares it for flight and at 2 o'clock Lisa tows Tracy up and Tracy sticks nicely. Brian Deimling, Scot Maue Brian Ridder, Mark Dugan, Chris Bratsis, Trevor Glidersleeve and myself head to the south east corner of the field and Lisa tows us up into a cummie filled sky. I am third off and Brian and Scot are ahead of me, Scot with my GoPro camera. I drop off at 2,500 feet and find good lift and work it up to Scot and we fly together for a few minutes and then Brian Ridder joins me and Brian Deimling is way above us at base. Mark Dugan catches up to us a few minutes later and I chase Mark around for a while and then Mark heads off to the south and I decide to head west. I find a good line to the west and soon I see Tracy in the Alatis coming toward me in a thermal so I join in and we take it to base. Tracy takes off to the north and I head over hwy. 52 to get a photo of the R/C field and in doing so I find strong sink and head back toward Cloud 9 field. I just make it back and get down to 500 feet above the field when I hit a bubble above a freshly combined wheat field and I am able to work it up to 1,100 feet but I don't follow it back far enough and soon I am down to the landing process coming in and just past the spot with a flight of 2 hours and two minutes and a best height of 5,091 feet above the field. Now I see that three pilots are still  high so I ask Lisa to tow me up again and I get off at 2,500 again and go searching and find myself a way off to the south and I barely make it back to the field for a 23 minute flight. A half hour later Brian Deimling is landing and then Tracy Tillman comes in and almost stops the sailplane on the spot. What a fantastic day of flying and Tracy has a 4 hour flight and Brian Deimling a three hour flight.

The Video Click Here

Lisa Colletti - Litespeed

Angie Lands Owen's Wills Wing U-2

 Scot Maue - Traverse City, Michigan

The Target is Getting Busy - Bob and Jim

Mark Dugan

The Skydog Report

Thursday June 30th Patrick O'Donnell and I drove to Cloud 9 with a forecast for partly cloudy with wind speeds up to 10 mph. Well, half way there near Flint Mi. it rained really hard for a half hour and then cloudy skies. As we approached cloud 9 field we could see clear skies coming close by so we felt less dejected. We organized our stuff and set up our gliders, Patrick with his new Wills Wing Sport 2-135 and me with the seven year old T-2. We finished setting up by 1:30 and by now the wind had picked up to 12 gusting to 18 so we parked the gliders in the shelter and made the best of what was now a sunny day. Around four o'clock Bill and Marylyn Soderquist, California pilots drove in and set up their beautiful motor home and we chatted with them and heard so many wonderful flying stories from Bill.

Friday July 04, 2014 in the morning we have a forecast for north winds of 10 mph and sunny skies and by 10 am the wind is blowing up to 15 mph so we are pissed. Lots of pilots show up for the fourth of July so we are all set up and finally at 2:30 I see the wind is settling down to 10 with thermal gusts to 15 so I get my glider out and go the south end of the field with about ten others following me. Lisa comes down with the tug and tows Mark Dugan up first as I am waiting for Patrick so that I can start the GoPro camera. I am next and I have a have a weak link break at 15 feet so I hurry back to take off and Pat Winther goes next and then I get back in line and Lisa tows me up and I make it through the first rough patch but at 1,200 feet I break the weak link again but find a decent thermal and after eleven minutes I am at five grand and so happy to have got up from 1,200 fee ato. The air was rasty but the climbs were strong and very enjoyable. Brian Deimling came up next and joined me for a bit while I was searching for Mark Dugan who is usually on the top of the stack and after a half hour I finally see Mark way above me close to base and I spend a good half hour trying to get up to his weight and throughout the flight I never did quite catch up to Mark. I did get to about two hundred feet below Mark at one point but never above him. We had followed the clouds south toward Stockbridge and beat back upwind a few times when I saw Pat Winther down below me about two grand so I cruised over top of him and after a while Pat was up with me and we spent a good half hour thermalling together sometimes getting down to two grand and then back up to five grand. I was trying to get a shot of Pat with my hand held Canon but it looks like I missed him most of the time. Pat and I were thermalling a little to close on occasion and at one point the top of Pat's sail was really close, a little to close for my liking. All the other pilots were towed up but I did not see many in the air so they must have stayed upwind far from my sight. Patrick had a nice one hour flight and had a personal best climb up to 5,600 feet. I watched as many pilots landed and now it was getting late like 6:30 and Pat and I were getting down to 1,000 feet ato and we headed for the landing field and I could see Mark Dugan a grand above us heading north over the field as I landed on the spot and Pat came in two minutes behind me. We watched as Mark caught yet another good thermal and stayed up for another half hour landing with a three hour and forty five minute flight. I am not sure but I expect that Pat got 3 hours and my flight was 2 hours and 50 minutes and I topped out at 5,808 feet. Mark tells me that he bumped to just over six grand on this really strong day at Cloud 9. Bill Soderquist did a forty mile square around the area for his first flight at Cloud 9. Dave, a new pilot took his first three tandems in the evening and it looks like Dave is going to be one of our new super pilots. Hopefully more fun on Saturday.

Saturday starts out cloudy but is forecast to clear by 2 pm but does not clear up until 4:30 and Mark Dugan and Bill Soderquist and Tom get towed up and seem to be staying high as I leave for home. I had taken two tows earlier but only survived for 20 minutes and 14 minutes so the later flights worked out much better. I have not heard yet how much airtime the pilots got. Will let you know later.

 Bill and Marilyn Soderquist - California

Lisa Flying Tug

Tom and Patrick

Bill Getting Ready to Launch

 Tandem Landing

Mark Dugan on Approach

Flash Retrieves the Tandems

Flash at Mirror Lake

The Skydog Report

Thursday June 26th I meet Brian Ridder at Cloud 9 and we have a sunny day with monster cummies. By 2 pm the cummies have overdeveloped and we take off at 3 pm. I go first and Tracy tows me to 3 grand and I go searching but the ground is mostly covered in cloud so I head for a patch of sun to the southeast of Cloud 9 field and sure enough at 2 grand I hit a bubble and slowly turn in it and finally it turns on and I get up to 3 grand. I am watching as Tracy tows Brian up to 3,200 feet but Brian does not find any lift and after twenty minutes he is on the ground and I am left on my own to search for lift. Just after Brian lands I hit a good one and take it up to 3,800 feet and take it back to the southeast a couple of miles and from there on it got easier as the clouds began to open up and let the sun shine through. Finally after one hour and twenty minutes I hit a boomer that took me up to 4,200 ato feet and from there I could cruise around and I headed west over Hyw 52 and back east over the oil tanks and then on to Cloud 9 East sailplane port and then back to that good old southeast corner of Cloud 9 field where I again went to base. Hey, I had a wonderful flight but only one pilot to fly with. I sure do hope that more pilots come out on Friday. I landed with 2 hours and 45 minutes and a big smile. Oh Ya, I hit the spot too. My Lucky day.

Friday June 27, 2014 did not look good in the morning but by noon cummies were forming and moving in and I wanted to get an earlier start so as to do a longer flight. I got off first at 2:10 pm and managed to survive for 45 minutes getting down to 2 grand and back up to 3 grand at one time but finally I lost the lift and landed on the target and no one else had taken off so we waited a half hour and Lisa decided to have a go at it. I got in line right behind Lisa and chased her around for a bit but I never got up to Lisa's altitude of 3,500 feet and then I saw her heading farther to the south as I was still circling in some good lift so I stayed back with it along with Pat Winther who was also above me. Next I saw Pat head off to the east as the lift was dying and I looked ahead and it looked like the lift may be better to the west so I tried that and it worked out well for me as I found a good one at 2 grand that got me up to over 3 grand as I watched Pat sink out and land a half hour into his flight. For the rest of my second flight I did not see anyone flying close to me but a couple down low and it must have been Brian Ridder and Doyle Johnson. Ok so next I decide to fly south toward Stockbridge and I get about a mile from the town and I decided to come back as I am getting down to 2 grand and half way back I hit a boomer that takes me up to 4,700 feet and I was on my way again so I headed back to Stockbridge and chickened out at about the same place and head back again and find another good one as I follow Hyw 52 north and soon I am over the R/C field so I stop and take some photos to show the radio control guys next time I see them. Finally at 5:30 I can't find lift anymore and I head back to Cloud 9 field and have a good landing but 50 feet short of the spot. This flight lasted 1 hour and 50 minutes and was lots of fun. Chris Bratsis stopped by for a visit after his work today and we had a good visit. I am Breaking down to go home in the morning. It has been a great two days.

 Brian Ridder

 Doyle

Brian and Doyle and Flash Too

Tracy and Mark Tandem

Tracy and Mark

Tandem Over the Tug

Set Up Friday Moring

Doyle Johnson

Dale Walker's  Radio Control Field 5 Miles West of Cloud 9 Field

The Skydog Report

June 14, 2014, another great day at Cloud 9. I had checked the forecast and decided that Cloud 9 would have lighter winds than my closer site at SOGA in Canada so arrived at Cloud 9 at noon and set up with others already there. There were high wispiest in a blue sky and winds of 10 mph so no one was eager and finally at two o'clock I went first and there was good lift but strong sink in between the thermals. I worked the lift watching the others being towed skyward. Brian Deimling joined me at 3 grand and we spent a few minutes working together and then Brian headed north and I did not see him again. I got into a sink cycle and was down to 1,200 feet and finally found a small bubble that turned into  great lift and I got back up to over 3 grand. Jim Dedes flew with me for a bit and skied out. Pat Winther was in a good one so I joined him and we had some good lift for a half hour or more and finally I stayed with the lift while Pat headed north and I lost track of him and then Chris Bratsis came in with me and we had some fun for a while and then he also left me and Chris Christopersen was close by and along with Pat they were working a patch of lift at 2 grand while I was still above 3 grand so I just stayed above them for a long time and it worked out well for me. finally I was getting down to 2,500 agl and Chris caught a good one and we were working it to the south of cloud 9 and finally Chris was above me and I was beat and it was getting late like six pm so I headed for the landing field and landed just six feet past the target edge with a flight of 3 hours and 17 minutes and I had topped out at 3,954 feet. Everyone had good flights today.

Lisa, Tracy, Jim, Brian, Tom, Pat, Chris and Chris

 Set Up

Lisa

Brian Deimling and New Student

The Brian Deimling Report

 Flight 5-24-2014

Finally the DFSC got the flying season started at Cloud 9. The landing field was punished with almost 5" of rain the second week of May. The joke was that we were going to start a canoe club instead. It took the next 10 days for the sun to dry the field out. Other than a wet field making it rough for club members to mow it was in good shape. Tracy spent many hours rolling the field to perfection this spring and had both tugs ready to go.

Towards the end of the third week nice Cu's started filling the skies for the first time this month. Saturdays forecast looked epic with strong lift to 6000 agl. and the field was finally dry enough for the tugs to safely take off and land. True to the forecast Cu's started forming early before noon with base around 4000'.

Bob Grant was first in line just after 2:00 pm. The Cu's had just started to mature with well defined edges. Trevor followed Bob then Brian Ridder and myself. Before launch I asked Tracy to call a task for me. He challenged  me to go 8 miles south to the Sandhill sail plane port then 20 miles to the north to a grass strip then back to the club. About a total of 40 miles.

My first climb off tow I quickly centered on 400 fpm as I zipped up and put away my bridle. Bob and Trevor were climbing above me on the other side of the field. As I climbed to 5000' agl the lift strengthened to 800 fpm. Time to make my first move as cloud base was coming fast.

I was quickly down to the sail plane port watching a sail plane working lift below. Conditions were awesome with great lift and good cloud streets. My previous best triangle was 43 miles. I figured I could take the scenic rout to the grass strip to the north and maybe get a new personal best.

I headed east 9 miles to Pinckney then 12 miles north up D19 to Howell. From Howell I headed west over I96 to Fowlerville. Now I needed to head 5 miles north to find the grass strip. There just happened to be a cloud street waiting for me. I flew north for 5 miles up the street and only lost 200 feet. I hung out at the end of the street for awhile looking for the grass strip that I never found.

I wanted to fly west to Webberville then back down M52 but it was all blue to the west. Time to head back down the cloud street to the club. The lift was becoming weaker as it was now 6:00. I had stayed above 5000' for almost the entire flight but now I was down to 3500' needing one more climb to make it back to the club. Finally I found lift to the west of the test track which gave me a 5:1 glide home.

Once back to the club I headed west halfway to Dansville then halfway to Onondaga. I landed at 6:30 after almost 4 hours in the air. Floyd, Pat, Mark, Trevor, Bob, and Chris where still in the air. Floyd was last to land his Atos at 8:00. There was a lot of smiling tired pilots telling stories of their flights around the club house. Trevor had made it to the sail plane port and Brian Ridder had his best altitude gain of 6700'. Most pilots landed because they choose to.

When I got home I down loaded my flight from my Flytec 6015 to s. Flychart scored my flight as a 50.6 mile triangle. A new personal best. Since I actually flew a rectangle I measured it in Google earth as a 61 mile flight.

What a great start for the 2014 season.

Brian Deimling

Brian Lands

The Skydog Report

 Trevor Up with Brian

Trevor Glidersleeve

Chris Bratsis - Lift Off

Marty

Tracy and Lisa

Return to Hang Gliding Index

Return to Front Page