Another successful landing.
After a long hiatus, I decided to get back into hang gliding. I paid for all of the lessons and bought the equipment, it’s a shame to let it sit unused. But, before I’m ready for Kagel again, I’m going to need to practice at the sand dunes of Dockweiler.
Decent launches and landings are the name of the game in hang gliding. The rest is relatively safe. A common remark I get is “Isn’t it scary being so high up in the air?” To which I reply, “There’s nothing to hit up there. The ground is what hurts!” To practice launches and landings, it’s fun to go down to Dockweiler State Beach, and fly in the steady breeze over soft sand. Greg DeWolfe, one of my instructors, was there to give me some pointers in between giving lessons to a few other students. But mostly I was left to my own devices. I took 11 flights off of the dunes. All of my launches were great, but I had one awkward landing. The successes were enough to give me the confidence to head back to Sylmar and fly off of Kagel mountain again.
You're next, Kagel!
The landing zone (LZ) managed by the Sylmar Hang Gliding Association is a great place to hang out and watch the other pilots come in. I’m going to schedule another solo flight with Windsports, just to make sure I don’t get in any trouble during the landing approach. Now I just need to clear up the schedule a bit.
The photos in this post are all from previous flights, as I try not to bring my camera to the beach if I can avoid it.