Skydog Report

Indian Cliffs October 1, to 4, 2010

We drove Thursday evening and woke Friday morning to blue skies and strong NW winds so we hiked and hoped that the wind would slow down later in the day but no luck there as it was still blowing 15 to 20 mph at 6 pm at Hammondsport so we gave up and hoped for better air on Saturday and sure enough another sunny day and the wind was coming from the NE but light so we drove to Indian Cliffs and set up waiting for a good cycle and finally around three pm Florian took off with his paraglider and immediately climbed to over one thousand feet so we all got excited and ready to get off the cliffs. Bill Vickery and then Dan Walter took off and worked at getting up and then another three paragliders took of and slowly climbed out. Then it was my turn so I got on launch and watched the windsock slow down and then pick up a little so I ran off in what turned out to be the end of a great cycle and within seven minutes I was in the Landing area watching as all the others soared at cloudbase except for Ed Jowett who took off after me and survived for about fifteen minutes. A half hour later Scott Wise took off and got to about 1,000 feet above  and stayed aloft for one hour and twelve minutes. All the pilots eventually landed telling me stories about how they could not get down and how smooth the air was near the clouds so I was feeling a lot left out but oh well there will be another day, I Hope.

Sunday dawned sunny again and off to Indian cliffs I went again with Maureen, my wife and our friends, Eric and Mary. We arrived at Indian Cliffs take off to find Bill Vickery already mostly set up and the wind was blowing in pretty good and sometimes from the left at 20 degrees. I set up while Bill went down to get a helmet which he left at home and was able to borrow another from a store at the bottom. Florian and friends showed up with their paragliders and decided not to launch as the wind speed had picked up to about 15 mph on launch. I decided to go first when Florian assured me that I could stay up and sure enough my take - off was out and straight up to about six hundred feet. I cruised the ridge for a while and was happy to be airborne after my poor showing on Saturday. The wind speed seemed to be about twelve to sixteen mph above launch and for the first forty minutes I was considering going down for a landing as the air was very rasty (rough and nasty) but then I saw Bill take off so I thought that I would see how we would do together and I felt better having Bill up there and then Jamie McGuire came up to join us. I was watching the time and figured that the rough air would get better after three pm and the longer I waited the smoother it got. Bill, Jamie and myself thermalled together in the textured air and I got up to 3,700 feet in a good thermal and later Bill said that he got up to 4,100 feet ato. Ed Jowett and then Scott Wise joined me in the air and we all enjoyed some good thermals. Around five o'clock a wonder wind filled in and by moving out in front of the ridge about five hundred feet I found that I could sit at 1,300 feet and I watched as the others all landed and then I thought that I had better get down so that I could break down before dark. My flight time was four hours and twenty minutes and in the end I really enjoyed my flight.