More Random thoughts on gliding
Posted: Fri Nov 16, 2007 9:29 amThe problem with gliding is that it takes away from my sleep. It always seems to pop into my head right when I am trying to fall asleep. I feel that surge of adrenaline and fear, that numb tinglingly feeling that activates your mind into full awareness.
The footage of Fairfield, ID in Cloud 9 was unreal. What an awesome place for gliding both challenging and scary at the same time. By the way, we have a spot at Strawberry River that looks a lot like the footage of Fairfield where Chasta was floating over the road. It is the hill on the east end about 1/4 mile downwind from the parking area, you can glide on either the south or north side of the hill. The north side is pretty tame. The south side has volcanic rocks near the top and drops off rapidly, since it is south facing it is covered with sage brush. Like the hill in the movie, you tend to follow the terrain fairly closely on a glide and then sweep out high above the ground near the bottom. I chickened out on floating the road. I was worred about coming in too low and getting taken out by a semi going by at 70 mph, but it can be done.
Near the end of last year, I discovered that you can add a lot of height to your glide when coming off of Chasta's Launch Pad at Skyline if you initiate the glide 30 feet before you reach the drop off (I usually go airborne right at the drop-off) What happens is that since you are already in the air, when you go over the abrupt drop-off the updraft can (it doesn't always) take you up another 20 - 30 feet high or more. Scares the crap out of me thinking about how high a few glides were using this method.
Paying attention to the wind direction is key. The most floaty, controlled glides are when you take the kite directly into the wind. If you try to fly cross to the wind, you have less lift. When the wind is coming from behind, it just doesn't work at all. The cool thing about Skyline and Strawberry is that you can find a hillside for every wind direction.
Sorry, for using this forum as my personal blog on gliding, but I had to get this stuff out of my head.
Kenny
The footage of Fairfield, ID in Cloud 9 was unreal. What an awesome place for gliding both challenging and scary at the same time. By the way, we have a spot at Strawberry River that looks a lot like the footage of Fairfield where Chasta was floating over the road. It is the hill on the east end about 1/4 mile downwind from the parking area, you can glide on either the south or north side of the hill. The north side is pretty tame. The south side has volcanic rocks near the top and drops off rapidly, since it is south facing it is covered with sage brush. Like the hill in the movie, you tend to follow the terrain fairly closely on a glide and then sweep out high above the ground near the bottom. I chickened out on floating the road. I was worred about coming in too low and getting taken out by a semi going by at 70 mph, but it can be done.
Near the end of last year, I discovered that you can add a lot of height to your glide when coming off of Chasta's Launch Pad at Skyline if you initiate the glide 30 feet before you reach the drop off (I usually go airborne right at the drop-off) What happens is that since you are already in the air, when you go over the abrupt drop-off the updraft can (it doesn't always) take you up another 20 - 30 feet high or more. Scares the crap out of me thinking about how high a few glides were using this method.
Paying attention to the wind direction is key. The most floaty, controlled glides are when you take the kite directly into the wind. If you try to fly cross to the wind, you have less lift. When the wind is coming from behind, it just doesn't work at all. The cool thing about Skyline and Strawberry is that you can find a hillside for every wind direction.
Sorry, for using this forum as my personal blog on gliding, but I had to get this stuff out of my head.
Kenny