December-2015

The Skydog Report

Friday December 4, I drive to Rochester and meet Oded and JK and we load up the two Atos and my T-2 and we will start the 20 hour drive Saturday morning.

Monday December 7 - OK so we made it and after stopping to visit friends at Quest Air we arrived at Wallaby ranch around 3pm on Sunday and now have rested and will be setting up our gliders shortly. The forecast says good flying Tuesday on so I will let you know how it goes.

Photos Below

James Kolynich and Oded Kalir Ready for the Big Drive - Bob Shoots

The Skydog Report

Tuesday December 8, OK so our gliders are ready for flight but the wind this morning is 20 mph at 2,000 feet at 8 am so we will have to wait for a better day. We have sunny skies with temps in the high seventies but windy. The present forecast says a good day Thursday so we will wait and see.

Wednesday December 9th the three of us take morning flights of 18 minutes and then Malcolm asks us if we would like to go for a spin on his 41 foot sailboat in Tampa bay and we gladly accepted and we had a wonderful day on the water.

Lots of Flying Video Here

Photos Below

Our Hooch for December

Walt and Jenn

James Kolynich

Oded Kalir and Oliver

Mike Adjusts Jen's New Harness

Malcolm's Sailboat

Malcolm, Oded and Jim McNamara

JK, Jim and Malcolm

Bob

The Skydog Report

Thursday December 10, Oded and I take morning flights and I try my T-2-C and all goes well and I log 18 minutes. Around noon a line forms and I scurry to get my stuff together and I take off around 1 pm with Oded, JK, Jason Williams, John Armstrong, Chuck Stoner and Cory Barnwell all following Mike Barber. Oded logged 45 minutes on this one and I stayed up 32 minutes. JK also stuck for 30 minutes or so. Cory and Mike stuck to a cloud while the rest of us went to lunch. After lunch we all got back into the air and I was first hooking a good thermal and staying with it over the warehouses while Oded, JK and Jason came in under me and after 30 minutes Oded and JK finally passed me and stayed above me until the lift slowed up and we all headed to the landing area at Wallaby. Mike and Cory logged over three hours while Oded and I got 1:02 each and JK stuck for 45 minutes. The highest that I got was 3,580 feet above the Ranch. Cory reported getting to 4,500 feet earlier. It was a good day after 3 days of waiting for the weather to co-operate.

December 2015 Fun at Wallaby

Bob Has Two Gliders For A While

Bob to the Left of JK

Jimmy and Oded

Cory Coming Up On JK

James Kolynich and Bob Franklin

Skydog Bob to The Left of JK

Melanie Armstrong

Oded Coming Up

John Armstrong

Cory Barnwell - Comp Pilot

Greg Linanea

Oded Down Low

Cory

Paul Harrison - Wallaby Tug Pilot

Jason Williams

JK Staying High

Oded Kalir

Jason and JK

Oded and JK

The Skydog Report

Friday December 11, blue skies and light wind so we get ready for a start time of 12:30 ad I am second off right after Chris from Atlanta Ga. Fay Barber puts me into a nice thermal and I stay with it moving o the south as it goes slowly. I see about four other gliders being towed up and then JK is towed up and after working it JK gets up to my height at 3 grand. Oded get towed up next and soon joins us. Jason Williams and Aric Paulson also had good flights. The three of us flew south to Hyw. 4 and the lift was lighter down there so we headed back to the orange groves where the lift was more substantial. The three of us got up to 4,300 feet above Wallaby Ranch and JK had the longest flight of two hours and thirty four minutes and Oded had two hours and seven minutes and I had 2 hours 22 minutes. John Armstrong and Mike Barber also flew today. This was our best day so far this December.

Photos Below

Skydog Bob

Jim Nordle and Students

Tug

Malcolm Takes Jenn Kelly for Her Last Tandem Before a Solo Flight

Oded

JK On Approach

First Solo Pilot

JK Above Oded

The James Kolynich Report

Saturday December 12, 2015

Today began with the wakeup alarm of dragonfly tugs flying into towing position by the oak tree. It was a clear morning with light easterly wind which increased to 18 mph in thermal gusts later in the day.

Many tandem rides were given by Malcolm and Aric to the delight of their thrilled passengers. David and Jenn local pilots took refresher and training flights respectively.

Skydog flew twice in the early morning sunshine to get the feel of his new Woody Valley Tenax 3 harness which looks great in the air. It is nice to see so much activity in the morning to get you motivated to fly.

The winds picked up with low cumulus cloud streets by 11 AM. I estimated the wind to be 10-15 mph.

We waited until 1:30 PM hoping for thermal blocking to decrease the wind by it never happened.

Bob was the first to load his glider on a cart and push out to the take off. He was followed by Jason Williams, Mike Barber, Brian Jackson, me and Walt Harrison.

Bumpy tows were the norm but Fay and Paul our tug pilots kept us in line.

Paul towed me over a thermaling Mikey Barber and dropped me off in the lift.

Mike and I worked the inconsistent small thermal for a few hundred feet until he took off upwind. I held back and reached cloud base at 3851'. There ain't No place like cloud base!

The scenery from CB was awesome with orange groves, light colored sand pits, highways, residential, and Disney resort views.

A blue hole sent us scrambling to find any lift available.

I headed South following Brian Jackson but decided at 1500 AGL to head back to the ranch. Brian ran into some thermaling vultures to get his best thermal of the day to 4 K cloud base with a flight time of 2 hrs.

Mean while back at he ranch I hit a rock and roll thermal making my aircraft approach which brought the wind into my face just before touch down and my flight time was 52 minutes.

A gourmet meal at the clubhouse was followed by the take off of a vintage MASH helicopter piloted by Kermit Weeks of "Fantasy of Flight museum" fame.

He also did a fly by of a vintage seaplane with one overhead radial engine.

Total air time for me this week is 5 hrs. Not bad for December.

I like staying at the ranch. The staff are courteous and helpful. Oh, did I mention it was 83 degrees!

That's all for now! JK

The Skydog Report

Saturday December 12, Has morning tandems and I take two flights of 30 minutes total with my new harness that Oliver packed with my parachute last evening. Although the wind had picked up to 15 to 18 mph by noon we got a group together at 1:30 and took to the sky and I had two flights of 21 minutes and 34 minutes and up to 3,300 feet while other got to base at 4 grand. JK told a more complete story above. It looks like we may not get to fly for a few days so stay tuned.

Photos Below

Jenn Kelly After First Solo Flight

Morning Balloon Rides

Skydog Bob

Jenn

Skydog Towed by Fay Barber

Tandem Students

Jim Nordle Take Guatemalan Family to the Take Off

Tandem

Jenn

Skydog

Tandem

Balloons

Jenn

Oded

Bob's T-2-C

Jenn Drives

Walt Harrison and Jenn Kelly

JK Films

Laurie with Tandem Group

Jenn

Tamara

Samantha Takes a Ride with Aric Paulson

Tandems

Bob and Mike Barber

JK Films

Tandem Students

Laurie and Samantha

Bob with Mike in the Distance

Jim Nordle

Malcolm Takes a Tandem Student Up

Paul Flies the Dragonfly

JK Films

Jenn and Walt

Malcolm Takes a Youngster Up

Jim

Paul

Laurie and Samantha

JK Over Flexi

Bob' New Harness

Jenn First Solo Flight

Jim

Skydog Bob

JK with Oded Below

Bob

JK Lovin His Atos VRS

Aric and Student

JK ON Approach

Skydog Bob and Oded

Students

JK and Oded

The Skydog Report

Tuesday December 15, a cloudy morning with a forecast of mostly cloudy so I am working on a video from our past flights this week. I have lots of video from five cameras and so far it is looking good.

Around 2pm Jason Williams comes by and asks if we are going to fly and it looks to be getting brighter so we get ready and Jason, Mick, Oded and I take off from the north launch at the end of the driveway. It is 70 % cloud cover but Oded and I squeak out some lift with Oded getting 45 minutes and I log 37 minutes. Jason and Mick have shorter flights. Oded and I take off again at 4:15 for sledders. 22 minutes for me. We were getting desperate as we are Leaving for home Thursday morning. Wednesday's forecast looks much better so we will try again for our last day here this trip.

Photos Below

Oded Kalir

JK Top View

The Skydog Report

Wednesday December 16, and a blue sky morning with lots of tandems and I get some good shots with the Canon camera. The sky does not look especially great but starts looking better by noon.

I get the GoPro mounted and ready to fly by noon. Oded also loads up his GoPros and we get off by one pm, Oded going first and I follow. Paul drops us off in good lift at 1,600 feet ato and it is no problem getting to base at 3 grand. Soon I see Rick Bremmer on his new Atos VQ climbing towards me and Rick comes in close for a photo moment. Aric Paulson and Jason Williams are in the air with us and Jenn Kelly takes her first thermal flight and she is right up there next to Oded at 3 grand. Mick Robson comes up in the Carbon Dragon and has a great flight. I am having a good time at base and as often happens after one hour I find sink and can't seem to escape as my buddies are skying out so I land with 1 hour and 09 minutes. After lunch I go for it again and it is real good again and near the end of this 59 minute flight Oded and I are working weak lift at 1,700 feet above the warehouses and to the north a bit until we finally land close to 5 pm. Rick Bremmer has the longest flight of the day with 3-1/2 hours followed by Oded Kalir with 3 hours and 10 minutes both on Atos VQ spaceships. We have lots of good video and I will have it online soon.

This was the best day off this trip and now we have to pack up and fly home Thursday morning. Ken and Mary Kinzie arrived in Florida today and asked us over for supper and it was a great Christmas evening.

Photos Below