[Bob Kuczewski]

December 26th, 2012 - This was the "After Christmas Sail" at Torrey. It was a great day, and I don't remember off hand how long I flew, but I'm guessing it was hours. This photo gives you a sense of how high we flew that day.

DSCF2279s.JPG (100.46 KiB) Viewed 3051 times

[Bill Cummings]

Hawks,
I “Turtled my glider to the left of launch at Dry Canyon, 8-21-13 Wed.
My 2004 Wills Wing Sport 2 155 sq ‘ received it’s first damage of torn leading edge sail cloth due to an improper landing. This is somewhat unique since the landing was not proceeded with a launch. I’ll get back to that.

I still have the original downtubes on this glider but I do have some under surface sail cloth damage from improper packing.

The VG pulley on the top of the right downtube rubbed a hole in the right wing undersurface while in the glider bag and on the vehicle rack. (Rack Rash).

I turned down side wire launch assistance and only went with a noseman assist.

A thermal started lifting my right wing while the base tube was still on the ramp. I told Shamek my noseman, “Down and toward the high wing.” I had discussed this with him earlier that while on the nose he could assist me in keeping control of the glider once a wing tip lifted by pulling the nose down and toward the high wing. The thermal proved to be too much for Shamek and it drug him toward the east side of our SW facing launch ramp. I am very thankful that Shamek gave it his all and never let go of the nose wires. If he had lost hold I would have catapulted over my left wingtip and been blown higher up the slight rise behind the ramp and hit going down wind with force great enough to do some horrific damage to glider and pilot (me). What happened was the glider pivoted around the left side of the control bar and then tried to go upside down after the glider had turned 180 degrees.

I unhooked and with Lee Boone on the nose and Shamek on the rear flying wires we were able to get the tail down and spin the glider around 180 degrees into the wind and step back up onto the ramp. I checked the tubes and they were okay but the sailcloth near the nose was scuffed up. (Time for my sail tape.)

After looking over the glider I hooked in and joined Robin Hastings in the air.
Some pilots would have let go rather than be flung on their back and pinned by the nose of a glider but not Shamek. He saved the day from a possible totaling of a glider and a pilot. YOU-DA-MAN SHAMEK! THANK YOU
So there you have it. A day that gave me two landings and one launch.
P.S. I won’t be turning down extra launch assistance in the future. That‘s all it would have taken to not get turtled.

[Bob Kuczewski]

YOU-DA-MAN SHAMEK! THANK YOU

So there you have it. A day that gave me two landings and one launch.

P.S. I won’t be turning down extra launch assistance in the future. That‘s all it would have taken to not get turtled.

It's always feels good to offer help, but it takes a very wise man ... to accept it.   

[SamKellner]

YOU-DA-MAN SHAMEK! THANK YOU

It sure helps to have others to fly with. Thanks Shamek for hangin' on. Was that an instructional demonstration of the upper envelope of launch VNE.

Wish I could get out there and fly with you guys.

,
Sam

[Bill Cummings]

Ore carrier.JPG (13.34 KiB) Viewed 2612 times

April is a good thermal month in Minnesota. I met with Yellow Dog at the Superior tow road, won the coin toss, and he towed me up. The tow road was southeast of Superior Wisconsin at the tip of Lake Superior. The South West winds were sure to net me a short XC flight because the south shore of Lake Superior was only about 12 miles down wind. As I approached the shoreline I noticed the thermal I was in really turned on and lift went from 600’/min. to 1,100’/min. I figured that climbing that fast I could stay with it awhile and have plenty of altitude to hold the shoreline and penetrate into the wind back to the sheep farm half a mile from shore. I was at 8,000’ msl with the lake elevation a little over 600 feet msl.
I had only been carried a quarter mile out over the lake. Even though I was so high still the big body of water down wind was scary. I decided to head for the sheep farm.

I stuffed the bar but couldn’t find the edge of the thermal. I was still going up at about 500’/min. No clouds at all anywhere. Finally I started dropping some altitude.

Then it hit me. The warm SW wind was rising up over the cold air above the lake which was acting like an invisible or glass hill. Every where was going up over the cold air over Lake Superior. Sea gulls were boating around and none were flapping. I kept the bar stuffed aimed at the shore line and fought it down to 5,500’ but noticed that I was now farther out over the water. I was sure that when I got down lower I would start making headway back to shore. At 4,400’ msl I was at least a mile out over the water. It was hopeless. Wisconsin was out of reach. Even though I knew it was too far to cross to the Minnesota side I couldn’t help but look down wind. Then I saw the only hope left for me. A big Taconite Ore carrier was coming back to Duluth for more steel pellets to take to Burns Harbor Michigan steel plant. The decision was easy because it was the only thing I had left. The ore carriers were over a thousand feet long and very flat in between the wheel house at the back and the bow. These 1,000’ boats/ships will never see the Atlantic since the locks beyond Lake Erie are only seven hundred some odd feet long. The hatch covers would simply have to be the bulls eye or die.

As I set up to land anywhere along the probably 800’ of flat hatch covers someone saw me and started to lean on the boat horn. My ears hurt like hell.
Men were running from the wheel house forward holding their ears as they ran.
The width of the boat was a little over 100’ wide and I would be making a cross wind landing but mostly lining up with the length of the boat into the SW wind.
I was laughing that this was actually going to work and that I’d be pulling off another survivable arrival.
I was using up too much of the length due to the wind hitting the port side of the boat working like ridge lift. Just before touch down I got smacked by the rotor in mid boat and crashed hard on a hatch cover that made a big hollow sound. I totally crunched the control frame and left aluminum skid marks and blood on the hatch cover as the wind slid me up against the starboard hand cable. The glider flipped over the cable but I managed to hang onto a cable post on the people side of the hand cable until crew members arrived. Try as the could they could not over power the wind to get the glider back on our side of the hand cable. They had to cut my hang strap and let the glider go down and hit the water. The first aid guy bandaged me up and I rode back to Saint Louis Bay and finally stepped off 5 hours later.
Ship to shore radio had Yellow Dog waiting for me in the loading dock parking lot. That was twenty five years ago today. April 1, 1990.