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Flight Report 2/19/09
Drakes Beach

Tracking the wind this morning via MesoWest, buoys, & NPS it was SE12 gusting to 18mph. By the time I left Sonoma it was showing SE 14g19. Arrived ~1:30pm the wind was 16mph and steadily building. By the time I got the gear sussed out I was seeing 20 mph fairly regularly. This was when I wished for a Hang Glider. Oh to be bi-wingual. So I hiked back down, stowed the gear in the car, grabbed my cooler, and headed back up for a hike, a picnic, and a nap.

It was a beautiful, sunny day in the mid 60s. There were scads of locals about; flocks of gulls (thanks for the shit), several vultures, four Red-Tailed Hawks, and a pair of courting grey/white/blk raptors, slightly smaller than the RTs. As I cat-napped the wind was still solidly SE 18g21mph. By prior arrangement a murder of crows informed me of changing conditions. They squawked and performed barrel rolls till I sat up and started paying attention. Thanks guys. I noticed there were fewer white caps on the water (this is when I first spotted the pair of raptors.) Quickly I hiked back down to the parking lot to gear up and retrieve my wing.

I decide to launch fairly low-down, near the wooden rail, as it's blowing 13-15mph. My first attempt, with a father & two boys looking on, ends (before it even begins) in a rotored mess with my wing balled up and the lines tangled in the clawing bushes. Half hour of sweaty untangling later and with the addition of a dozen man-apes, representing three generations, I am ready for my second attempt. Contrary to the prevailing wind direction I lay out facing East. I can see the wind on the grass and surprisingly I can build a wall and check my lines facing in this direction. I apply pressure to the A-risers and the canopy inflates, as it ascends it weather vanes to the South East and I now have a viable aircraft. I assume the "torpedo" position and moonwalk a few short steps to the precipice.

I'm flying, and still after all these years (17), I'm struck with a kind of awe that I can do so. A slight turn to the right and I'm rising quickly, gaining altitude above the ascending terrain, running parallel to the cliff. My Cheshire-cat grin widens as I marvel in this invisible medium into which I've cast myself. The wind is my Mother and every creature (especially the winged ones my brothers & sisters. I'm now in the mix with the locals- above, below, beside me. Hovering a wingspan (mine) away from a Buteo jamaicensis. Splitting flocks of sea gulls, witnessing the ariel courtship of the grey raptors.

Plenty of altitude now to jump the terrain gap below me and head farther West along the ridgeline. The three smaller gaps are also as easily bridged and as I become more comfortable with this buttery laminar flow I notice two small groups of man-apes below me on the beach. They in turn are observing a group of about six sea lions of various sizes and in various stages of beach repose.

It seems as if the wind might be getting a tad lighter so to circumvent a long beach walk I head back up to higher altitude above the peak of the ridge. Here with plenty of air room I practice a series of maneuvers. Wing-overs, pitch oscillations, asymmetric folds, and single 360s. The sun is so warm and enlivening, it's almost as if I can feel the vitamin-D infusing my body. The sound of the surf is rhythmic and lulling, the cries of the birds, poignant and sharp. The air is so smooth that for many minutes I use only weight-shift to work the ridge back and forth. No control input by hands just my body moving in three dimensions through space. I am connected to the Earth, separate and One.

I land after an hour and a half using a standard LH aircraft pattern. There are only two vehicles remaining in the parking lot. What a day!

Soft Landings
Anthony

More of the same on tap for today?