First SOLO!

This is a catch up post.

I did my first SOLO in AUG, 2006.
That is EXCITING!

Air is very smooth up on the 3500 feet Kagel mountain.
I will be on radio with my instructor Joe all the time during the SOLO.

It is getting late, and I must finish the lanuch and landing before sunset, otherwise it will vialate the club rule and local residence will complain about it.

Take off is a little nervous but very smooth, I was in the air after around 5 steps of running down the sloop.

Joe told me the take off looks good and I replied that I feel good in the air also.

After talking back forward for around a minute, I can't hear Joe in the radio anymore!
I am on my own!

The good thing is, Joe practiced with me what to do if we have 'radio emergency', means if the radio is not working when I am in the air.
So, I feel more exciting instead of nervous.

I canceled the 90 degree left turn practice and go toward the gearing area directly. (Gearing area is where the gliders wait and then begin to do the landing process, pretty much like how air planes land at airport.)
Air is smooth, it is quiet 2500 feet above ground.

Then I saw Joe running toward the number, which is my eye target before landing.
So I am more confirmed that the radio is off and Joe is aware of it.




After reaching gearing area and circulating several circles, I saw Joe is waiving hands, that's the signal that my altitude is approperate to begin the landing process.

I fly alone the downwind leg, and keep my eye on Joe. He will give me next hand signal to begin end leg.
After that, Joe waived hands again, I turn left to do the final landing approach.

I am a little off to the my right side, which cause me to fly over a bush, Joe waive hand to tell me to correct it a little bit. I didn't do much, because making turn in low altitude is more dangerous than high above in the air.

I flied over the bush, and land come to me fast.
I keep my eye ahead all the time, not looking down the ground even in one second. I learned not to look down hard way, crashed twice at the beach training site.

My body position is not upright enough, and I don't have time to correct it.
So I did a wheel landing, and some small grass scrached one of my arm, don't remember which arm now.

As my first SOLO, it is pretty good, especially the radio is off.

I called Paul, my instructor at Dockweiler beach training site, tell him I did it successfully.

Without Paul, Joe, Lynden's help, I can't finish this SOLO in just 4 month time. There is another instructor, I forgot his name, a good one too, did the last tandem with me, give me full control during almost all the Tandem process, helped me lot too.

There are several Tandem training session I didn't describe here, some day I will come back to put them here.

Learning hang gliding is fun, you can feel the progress you are making, and it is pretty safe due to the experience of the instructor and well designed training process.

Hope some day later I will do more of it and get my H2.

Harry Liu
Jan 24th, 2007

Gliding site and some basic idea of hang gliding

The hang gliding course I am taking has two gliding sites.
One is near the beach, Dockweiler Beach.

maps
The map shows you the physical location with satelite view.
Here is the link for the traing center: http://windsports.com/index2.html
Another site they have, is at the mountain, for next step learning.

The beach site is for beginners, which is where I am learning my first 5 training sessions. around $500 for 5 days.
It is a 25 feet high slop facing the beach.
Each time, you will fly around 100 feet far and maybe 40 feet high depending on the wind and how fast you run to launch.

You are hanging down the glider by the hang string.
the trangle thing you see is not what you put weight on.
It is for controling the glider, like the steering wheel for a car.
We will call it control bar here. See the chart, you will understand more about it.
Shift the control bar left and right to turn left and right.
Push or pull the bar to climb or dive/speeding up.
Easy like that?
Well, I am simplifying it here so you have the idea how it works.
Otherwise why should we attend a course to learn just this four different maneuvers?

That's it for this post.
We will talk about my second day course and my third CRASH happened on that day in next post.

Don't be scared by my CRASHES.
It is not typical(It is just me.) and they don't hurt much.


April 2006, Los Angeles, California

Harry

Continue of the crash for first day

Ok, in last post we talked about the first CRASH at the first day of my hang gliding in Los Angeles, California.

Now the second CRASH.

After the first crash, I feel more confident, because I know what will cause it and how to avoid it. And I feel safe now.
Trying to be smart again.
And it went pretty good. I can pull in and push out the control bar as I want and the glider just do what I like it to do: climb or dive.
It works fine for several times.
Then the second CRASH comes: after I climb a little bit, the wings became unbalanced, left wing is low.
My instructor Paul didn't tell me how to handle this yet. (which is good, too much information will overflood beginner insead of helping them.)
So, I push the bar trying to slow down the glider. (Push bar out will make the glider climb and slow down.)
The glider did climb and slow down. But, in the mean time, the wings are way out of balance and one wingtip is pointing to the ground and glider CRASHING onto the ground, from around maybe 9 feet high.

My arms and legs hit the medal bar and hurt a little bit. No broken bone and not so painful.
Later on Paul and another glider Bob said they were worried about me since it might hurt more.
The wingtip hit ground first and absorbed most of the energy.

I learned my second experience: when wings are not balanced, do NOT push out, it will make things worse.
Pull in instead, will give you more air speed and more control.

So, pull in and look down gave me fist CRASH, push out when wings are not balanced gave me second CRASH.
Both crashes are very positive: no damage and leared knowledge.
Crash is not always bad thing, it let you know and remeber where is the edge.
Without crash, you only know the knowledge, but don't know the edge, and don't know how far you can push it up to.

Next post, I will take about the gliding site and some basic idea of hang gliding.

April, 2006, Los Angeles, California

Harry

Ok, here is what I did in my first day!

I CRASHED twice!

And I am happy with both of the crash!

My instructor Paul told me two things before I bigin the first flight:
1. Look forward at your target. (which is a wind sock, about 50 meters away, down the slop.)
NEVER look down at the ground! it is worse than closing your eyes!
2. Relax, don't grab the control bar too hard.

I will explain to you what the control bar is for and how the gliding site is like.
Let's talk about the CRASH first.

I followed what Paul told precisely, treat his word like bible, because I don't want to risk myself into trouble.
The first two flights are nice and easy, I will describe how good it feels after the crash.

The third flight, I was trying to be smart, and pulled in the control bar to gain speed after took off, three seconds later, before I know what is going on, I just feel my hamlet hit the sand ( the gliding site is at beach), and my face and glasses embedded into sand.
I have no idea what happened, and why I am in the sand, I was flying perfectly three seconds ago?!

Paul rushed to me and ask me how do I feel.
I took off my glasses, which is full of sand, and told him I am fine.
The glider and hamlet took most of the hitting energy and I only feel a little bit of scrach pain from my face. There is no blood and scrach though.

Paul told me, that I must have been looking down.
I don't remeber where was I looking, but I believe I looked down, otherwise I can tell that I was rushing downward too much. Looking down on the sand, make me can not tell my position, speed, and altitude.

NEVER look down! I learned it hard way, and will never forget it!

Too late for today, I will continue next time.

This hang gliding experience happend at April 15th, 2006, a Saturday.

Harry Liu

The first day of my hang gliding adventure

Hang gliding, something I thought about for several years, but didn't get chance to try yet.

Now, in Los Angeles, finally, I will try it this Saturday!
For the people who might try it out later on, or just curious how it is, keep looking down, and come back here every week, I will share my personal experience with you!

The planned hang gliding will happen at April 15th, 2006, Saturday!

Harry Liu