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Kitty HawK Kitesspectacular2009

May 15-17

I wasn’t sure I was going to enter or if I was just going to start trying to work. After talking with Bruce and Andy and other pilots I decided

to, why not? It was a really good experience, dune ying is a specialkind of ying. I’d hiked my falcon up the south side a number of times

and knew it was hard work, and it’s just as hard in the sand. I had to

learn some new ground handling techniques and how to set up andbreak down my glider laying it at. I didn’t ever think some one couldhike a glider by themselfs sideways up a hill in a cross wind but you

can. lots of folks did. It was a heck of a work out and the toughest

part for me was seeing how much sand gets in everything.The rst day we had to switch hills once and on my rst ight I got help from an instructor who’d worked there before, I learned rst hand what it means to “Chuck” a student because I didn’t run enough andhe caught and re-launched me. (it was pretty cool actually) I ran a lot more everytime after that, probably more than I really needed to but I just wanted to be safe. In the competition I was number 10 in the or

der and ew after Paul Voight.We were on the front dune and the south west face ying into a west mostly south wind. The task was to y through certain cones andthen try to spot land. There were also objects to knock down or a ring to grab to get extra points. But the most entertainment came from

people turtle-ing.

I had some decent launches and then just tried to penetrate as

high and and turtled. Luckily there was no damage, besides it was Bo’s wife’s glider anyways. :)I started out using my harness but quickly switched over to one of the school’s because I could seeI might be in the sand a lot. (which is kinda fun) I’m not really used to ying so close to the ground, Iusually Like to get up and as far away from it as I can. Here sometimes you have to stay close to stay inlift but also be ready to land at any moment. It’s amazing how much we can get away with ying over

sand.

On the second day conditions were about the same and then it began to rain. We kept ying andthen after the second storm cell was sure to come the comp was postponed. I was really sad to haveto pack up a wet glider but it was own again later and is dry now. Thor, from wisconsin was alsobummed to get mud in his glider especially since he’ll be using it to compete in the East Coast Comp.He actually did very well and won the spectacular. That night there was a party at the KHK store park

ing lot with a live band and everything.I didn’t think the weather was going to be good on Sunday and didn’t come in inthe morning, so Imissed the end of the comp. I think I took last place. It was tons of fun and I learned a lot, from other pilots, about my glider and my ying. It was a good experience. I did make it to the closing ceremoniescarefully as possible to make it to the spot.Like most of the falcons I wasn’t making it.Some were able to get into some groundeffect and got very close. The guys with big pulses and double surface gliders weredoing really well. A guy named George ina pink Double surface was ying amaz

ing, hit the spot two times the rst day and

then again on the second day.

Jim Prahl had a great ight when he

didn’t notice that his luff lines were tan-

gled in his left wing. he took off ok but when he went to air the right wing went and the end of Rob’s lecture. Then Someof the instructors loaded a glider on my car and we wento to the beach and I watchedthem soar the dunes in the rain. That was

theh high light of the whole spectacular.

I’ll probably do a whole another entry for the all the beach ying I saw that week. Johnny came out and watched , then took a turn, then said he’d meet us at tortugas.So after packing up the kite we headedover to tortugas and it it was packed. the

food was great the stories were great,

we looked at the videos we took. It was ablast. -