Tandem

Skydog Approach

Greg Linanea

Bob Franklin and Jim McNamara

Rick Bremer

Tandem Landing

Tandem Landing

Tug Coming In

Tandem Take Off

Two on Approach

Skydog

Rick

Scott L.

Mick Robson

Skydog Bob

Rick Bremer - Cloudbase

Rick Bremer - Ghostbuster

Approach

Sailplane and Hawk

Paul Flying R/C Sailplane

Skydog Landing

Rick Bremer - Ghostbuster

Jamie Sheldon and Linda Salamone Relaxing After a Great Day of Flying

Scott, Fay and Greg

Jamie, Linda and Mitch

The Skydog Report

Monday February 9th is Sunny until noon and then rain by 1 pm so we get some shopping done and I have a chance to update this webpage and then I can get at yesterday's video.

OK so Video is done and here it is Friday and another windy day and it looks like flying may happen Monday. We have been biking a lot with all the windy days and luckily it has been sunny.

Monday February 16 and the tandems get going early. Oded brings his son Darien and a friend Sophia for tandem rides and they really enjoy it. By noon the wind is strong again so no flying today.

 Malcolm and Paige

 Dorian

 Dorian Flying With Malcolm

Sophia and Malcolm - Take Off

Malcolm and Sophia

The Skydog Report

Friday February 20, 2015 - finally two flights after not flying for twelve days of high winds. Jim Kolynich and I took of at 2:30 and then again at 4:15. Jimmy had a 32 minute flight and later a 17 minute flight. I had 29 minutes and then 27 minutes and we both had blue sky thermals, one that took me up to 3,200 feet. It felt good to have some lift although I did not find another thermal after my second one on each flight. Sure does help to have some cummies to show the lift. After flying JK goes for a five mile run with Bob Franklin. Sunday looks really good and maybe even Saturday if we are lucky.

Saturday the tandems get off at 8 am and  Damien and Bertrand from Switzerland get into the air. In the afternoon the wind gusts up and no one flies so Sunday is looking especially good.

Aric Paulson and Miranda Kamphues

 JK Landing

 Tandem

JK Being Towed

Aric and Miranda

Bob Franklin, Maureen Grant and James Kolynich

Bertrand Snowmountain - Switzerland

Bertrand Being Towed

The Skydog Report

Sunday February 22, 2014 and Finally another great lift day at the Ranch. Lots of tandems in the morning and by one pm we have a line of gliders being walked to the end of the driveway for launch. Scott l. and I are first in line and Paul Harrison tows Scott into a good one and Fay Barber tows me up into a thermal that takes me up to Scott at about four grand just north of the warehouses. We play together in the lift and get close to base as I am shooting the Gopro and get some good shots of Scott. I see John Pettinato flying his Atos and he is high and well above me. Mike Barber and the Moyes team head out on XC adventures and many other hang around over the Ranch. After an hour I see Jimmy Kolynich up close to me and having a great time shooting his GoPros. Lots of great fun here today and some went to Fantasy of flight and back.  My Flight time was 2 hours and 13 minutes and highest altitude was 5,300 feet. Talking-to Steve Arndt in the evening he said that it was a very good day for his sailplane and that he flew for over four hours and did a great coarse. We are hoping for more lift on Monday.

Monday is Sunny with large cummies but the boys say it is too windy so I wait until after the 3 pm lunch break and take off around four pm. Fay Barber towed me to 3,200 feet without so much as a bump so I pinned off and headed to the front of a dark cloud and I found no lift so I headed over Tom's home and farther north still finding nothing and I landed after 21 minutes. I enjoyed my last flight of this trip as it was a 85 degree day with lots of sun.

My total time this month is only Ten hours and fourteen minutes.

Khstiane Bratlie

Marthe Oeverland

 Edwin

Edwin Karphues

Silge Mocn

Approach

 Steve Arndt After Another Great Day

Aric Takes Edwin Tandem

Sunday Feb, 22 - Video

Let's Fly

 Scott L.  Surrounded by "The Birds"

 Jason Williams - Beautiful Glider

James Kolynich

Linda Salamone - SkyQueen

Mitch Shipley

?

Aric Paulson

JK - Elmira, NY.

 Chaudi Under Tow - Carbon Dragon

Chaudi Landing

What a Sunset

The Skydog Report

Thursday March 12, 2015

Here we go again. We took off around 2 pm with 16 gliders including four rigids. At first lift was good but sink was also big so I got sucked to the ground and took another tow and by now the lift was closer together. Oded was up at base and I joined him at 5,300 feet. During our three hour flights at least two sailplanes joined us over the orange groves. My buddies from Cloud 9 showed up Thursday morning and Chris Christopherson and Tom Niblock both were thermalling at base with us. Later in my flight I joined up with Eric Paulson and Griffin from NH and they led me close Hyw. # 4 where there was a good line of lift up to 5 grand. I finally got out of my comfort zone being to far away from the landing field so I headed back and noticed Oded landing just before me and shortly after Griffin and the Eric came zooming in for nice landings. It was a great day with some monster climbs and easy to stay just below the clouds. My flight times were 20 minutes and 2 hours and 53 minutes and I topped out at 5,470 feet ato. Oded had  one flight for 3 hours and 17 minutes.

Friday Windsurfing at Cocoa Beach 3 hours.

Saturday morning starts out windy but by 2 pm it has calmed down some so I take off and get a 40 minute flight p to 3,704 feet. By the time I land others are getting towed up and I get in line and go again for a 24 minute flight and I find lots of sink and land. After lunch break Fay tows me into a good one in the blue and I follow it back to the northeast and it really turns on. I get to thermal with Kevin from Alberta, Canada and then Oded joins us for a bit and next I am alone for a while but then I see Rick Bremer on his Ghostbuster farther North close to Publix which is 5 miles out so I core my way up and join Rick and we thermal together for a half hour. A big dark cloud approaches and we split and I head for a sunny field to the south and when I get there I get a little beeping and work my way toward Wallaby Ranch for a nice landing after a 1 hour and 46 minute flight. Oded has a nice 2 hour flight and tom Niblock got up to 6,300 feet and the best I showed was 5,088 feet ato. More tomorrow.

Sunday has a forecast for light winds but when noon comes around it seems windy enough that the pilots are not eager to be first so around two PM I get some enthusiasm going and pilots start heading for the east launch. Griffin and I get off after a couple of others and get into some good lift over the warehouses. The rigid wings including Oded are leery as it seems gusty on launch but a half hour after I launch Oded takes a tow and gets up with the others that are staying high. There is a sailplane competition from Sandhill soaring Club so we must keep an eye out for them as they pass through. I found the best lift over and past the warehouses to the east. Oded on his VQ and a sailplane piloted by Steve Arndt come up below me for a video shot that I will post on Youtube later. After an hour I am in sink and get down to 1,100 feet ato and prepare to land but I find some lift east of launch and take it back up to 4,500 feet and feel as though I am back in the game. After finding sink again I land with a 2 hour flight. I am back in line and up again in ten minutes and this time I last for 30 minutes and sink out again and Oded and Rick Bremer are staying high like 4,700 feet ato. Oded lands after 3 hours and 22 minutes and Rick lands close to 7 pm as usual. It was a great day for many and some of us found the sink too often.

Monday is a spectacular day of Hang Gliding. Tom Nejame had the bug to fly to Quest Air and meet up with Larry Bunner and Davis Straub who had plans for a big triangle and so Tom took an early tow out of here at 11 am. We all thought that he would likely sink out as the cummies were just starting to show but sure enough Tom was at base before we knew it and heading north. Later in the day Tom was back with a story of a great flight where he chased Larry and Davis and finally caught up with them and soon left them on his journey around the swamp and other locations totalling a distance of eighty-eight miles calculated by Larry Bunner. Tom had his usual happy face after landing back here at Wallaby Ranch. Griffin, Oded and I got out to the oak tree launch around one o'clock and Griffin took off first and me next then Oded and many others followed. Lift was great with lots of 1,000 fpm up so base was a cinch. Oded came in close for some good video shots. Also I had a Bald Eagle come within 30 feet from my tip and he smiled as he posed for the camera. My favourite part of this flight is thermalling with the birds and that lasted for a minute or so. I like the way they keep jerking their heads around to check me out. Later in the day Mikey Barber and I thermalled together as he was working his way south to Bok tower. Aric Paulson joined us and went to Bok with Mickey and they returned around 5:30 with big smiles. I think that is about a forty mile return trip. Chris Christopherson had a shoulder injury muscle injury so he was unable to fly today but his travelling buddy Tom Niblick had a wonderful flight with all of us. Another very special event in my flight was that while I was climbing above base the magic circle glow appeared on the side of a cloud and there was a shadow of my glider pasted in the center of the Glow. As I flew toward the circle the shadow became very large and looked like my glider was two hundred feet wide as I dove into it. OK so let's try that again so I circled around and made another pass and sure enough there it was again even more distinct. It was fun adjusting my glider angle so that the shadow changed shape. I circled around four more times getting different effects. The Glory happened after two hours into my flight so the GoPro was exhausted by then so no photo or video. Darn it again!! There is so much more to tell about this flight but my memory is wearing thin so I will try to get others to fill in the blanks. My one tow flight time today was 4 hours and 22 minutes and up to 5,800 feet. A spectacular day.

Set-Up

Sandhill Cranes

Griffin - NH.

 Griffin Lands

Sailplane Below

Oded Kalir and Steve Arndt Coming Up

 Oded  and Steve

The Chris Christopherson Report

Wallaby Ranch March 2015

Friday the 13th, we did not fly. Bob and Oded went wind surfing and Tom and TW went to Wekiva Island for canoeing, scenery, burgers and beer.

Thursday the 12th Tom and TW arrived at Wallaby Ranch noon-ish and begin setting up. Bob “Skydog” Grant was among the first pilots to launch. TW was among if not the last. Tows were “keep on it” rowdy up to the first several hundred feet AGL. There was lots of lift but uncollected up to the higher altitudes above the mini inversion around 2800'. Cummies abundant and lift to 5500+' with light wind and drift from SE to NW. Skydog and TW topped out about 5 miles from the ranch and went on glide toward the ranch. With about 1000' AGL the only 'up' was found over the ranch. TW was in search and stick-it mode in hopes of going back up. “Thermal wrestling” up and down to only 400' but finding birds in the SW corner and Skydog circling, TW joins and makes several 360s with the buzzards and a bald eagle in close proximity. Skydog goes back up with it but TW decks. Note: The U2 and the T2 basically had the same glide from 5500” back up wind to the ranch.

Saturday, a few pilots launched before 3:00. TW pushes out to launch first at 3:00. It's 88 deg, HOT! on the ground. A few other pilots including Tom Niblick get towed, then the ranch hands quit for 10' lunch. After “lunch” the remaining pilots, all lined up baking in the sun, are excited to get to cloudbase.

Tom and TW topped out together at 6145.'From there they split up with Tom heading back toward the ranch while TW sprints for the next cloud north and west of highway 27. Long glides between thermals while up this high. The before seemingly excellent cloud street running parallel to the highway north has diminished but another thermal was discovered before TW got below the mini inversion. TW continued north while Tom soared two hours over the ranch then went to dinner with his brother John, his wife and their children. Hang gliding can bring families together :)!

The route TW took kept him basically following 27 up and over “The Mickey Mouse Forest” to the southern outskirts of Clermont, FL (much population & fewer LZ options.) TW then went east-north east in the drift that had changed as the westerly sea-breeze began to move in. The LZs options diminished again in the southwest corner of “South Turnpike” and HWY 429 and apparently zero east or north of either. With sufficient altitude to enjoy the view and play along with the birds TW ultimately swooped into a 40 acre alfalfa field. Maybe 16 miles NE of The Ranch. Ian Hostetter picked him up at “The Dump” (t-dubbed 3/16/15) WM landfill 5400 Rex Rd. Winter Garden, FL.

Sunday was “rock n roll” with a 15 knot induced drift aloft from the NW. Many pilots take more than one tow. Cloudbase made around 4600' AGL for both Tom and TW.

Notes
Thermal wrestling:
Tow or sink to 1000'-1200' and get off in the midst of squirrelly, narrow, punchy and abundant thermals.
TW gets off tow twice, once on Thursday and once on Sunday. TW now stands for Twoo-tows.
Soars With Eagles!

Lock out:
Get hit at 300', pop to 45 degree bank and hit the release.
Tom's first tow of three on Sunday.
Time to change plan (quickly.)

Skyout:
“Skydog” (x N)
 

 Oded Kalir Working His Way Up

More Thermalling

Looks like Oded Will Pass Me

Biking Florida 2015 - 1

Biking Florida 2015 - 2