Mountaineer HangGliding Association: Zirks - Business Meeting - Test Flights, Sled Rides and Brush Cutting

Meeting - We agreed to provide calendars and hams to the same set of landowners as last year. We also discussed the upcoming project to replace planks on the trestle into the Zirks LZ, although that project is on temporary hold as a portion of the road to the trestle is currently blocked by hay bales/rolls.

Club officers for 2015 are as follows:

President - Mark

Vice-President - LE

Secretary/Treasurer - Jim

Board of Director - Ben

Board of Director - Greg

Treasure's Report - Send In your DUES - To J.R

R, Ben, LE, Mark Gardner, Greg and Pete went to the hill on a beautiful, blue fall day, albeit one with very light left-crossed conditions.

Marc in the weeds

After trimming the high brush in front of launch, using ropes to keep from falling over the cliffs, the site is a lot safer.

John's New Glider

We may have erred by first clearing launch, but the launch was grown up badly enough that it really was needed.

Unfortunately, by the time we were finished working the winds had lightened further. It was nearly hopeless as the lemmings all approached the edge and jumped. Ben went first and had a short soaring flight, while LE had a somewhat longer one that included a thermal to an astounding two hundred feet over launch.

Then began a series of sled rides of varying duration, but sled rides all. Pete was last off, test flying John’s new U2-160 (Note: all gliders must be flown by the dealer before delivery to the customer) (but you probably knew that) and expecting a sled ride as well. But he masterfully eked out five minutes on the main ridge before losing it there and heading for the lower southwest cliffs. There I got another five minutes of desperate scratching below the top before being flushed off it. Flying out towards the inevitable landing, at 400 feet he ran into a thermal that got him back onto the SW cliffs where it was now easily soarable. He finally landed after fifty minutes. The U2 flew really well; John’s going to love it.