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Buffalo Mountain Fly-in
July 4th, 2003
by
Warren Puckett The gathering of pilots
for the annual freedom celebration was the
first time Mel's slope launch had seen such a large number of
flyers. Probably due to the holiday falling on
Friday and
making it a long weekend. We had nearly 20 pilots
from
destinations as far as Kansas City and Dallas to as near as Oklahoma
City and Tulsa. There was one pilot from South Africa with an
engineering worker's visa. I (halfway) jokingly
said he got
the award for the farthest traveled pilot. There
was no
organized contest this year partially due to the incomplete nature of
the new slope launch. The slot through the trees is
going
well and allows for safe launches, but it is still narrow enough that
turbulence is very common and coupled with the rocky / uneven running
slope with weeds made it a hang 4 launch in normal
conditions.
This weekend confirmed that launch-rating requirement.
The variety of wings was the broadest ever. We had examples of everything from the traditional prone flexwings to a rigid wing and one of the new generation of supine fliers. The Ghostbuster was the rigid wing flown by Mike from KC. There was a new German FunFlex supine glider that came in a nifty 6 foot bag. Granted the setup time was long partially due to the new learning curve, but the advantages of the packing would be great for a traveling pilot. Keith even brought his Lookout Mountain Sky Cycle Trike / Airborne Sting combination to enjoy the air anyway that was necessary.
The weather Thursday and Friday was less than enthusiastic due to winds ranging from light tail to a blustery 4 mph cross. No launches were attempted on Thursday. Occasionally on Friday it would cycle in less than 5 mph and only two launches were tried the whole day. The first resulted in a bent downtube from running like crazy past the end of the mowed slope into the thigh high weeds and a resulting basetube grabbing short flight by myself.
Later, after doubling the length of mowed slope Oklahoman Roy Mahoney showed everyone how fast you could run down the slope and still skim the weeds for another 20 yards into a sled ride. We were so impressed that we all got camp setup and went to dinner to prepare for the fireworks that night. The Veterans' hospital at the end of the mountain had their usual fireworks display. Some of us decided to park on launch in lawn chairs and watch as 2 ranches and 2 communities in the next valley over in front had their own celebrations. It was cool watching 4 fireworks displays from the mountain top going simultaneously and having the stars up above in a non-crowded relaxed setting with good beer and good friends. The Milky Way was out in glorious form with occasional shooting stars. Winds started picking up Friday night and almost seemed cool - a direct contrast to most previous years with normal 100 degree days.
Saturday morning dawned with a surprising fog on the mountain top and cool temperatures. This is Oklahoma in the summer !! Strange !! After going down to breakfast we returned to find it blowing in at about 10 mph with almost constant directional switching-minimum good launching conditions. Keith Brown went to the Talihina airport and put the trike together and flew over the mountain for over an hour- thermaling when he could and powering when it was not happening. He showed us where it was happening. I got excited and took an extended sled ride to get the cobwebs out and literally get back upon the horse that bucked me off the day before. The flight was peaceful and fun… but almost no lift. Keith also landed down at the bottom of the hill with his power off. Just about that time, the Dallas crew of John, Pete and Tre pulled up. After a ride back to the top I knew I wanted some more airtime for the day was young. Keith packed up and later flew the Sting wing as a hang glider from the top. He was total grin ear to ear.
Upon getting back to top I found the conditions getting a little better and set back up quickly. 2 of us lined up for launch. Mike on the rigid Ghostbuster was first to stage. This was the first time I had seen a rigid slope launch. The wing seems to have only the center attachment point and the wing banks almost freely above the pilot. In switching conditions it was concerning to watch a staged - well balanced wing go to severely banked in one second intervals and the pilot could not control it. Granted the spoilers deployed, but the control seemed very time lagged. I was very relieved to see him get a good steady cycle and get off the hill. To say the performance after launch was impressive would be a gross understatement. About the difference in a Switzer 2-33 sailplane and a 2 seat Grobe fiberglass ship. Kinda logical…
I was off second in my
Formula during an adequate cycle and was nearly
half-way down when I caught a small light thermal and I cored it for
everything I was worth. This almost totally thermal
routine
continued for about 2 hours. I have not been flying
enough
lately to do that much thermaling without suffering the pangs of
overstressed muscles. My smile also was
overstressed from
the permanent grinning effect that flying always
brings. I
had a blast !! I did get to thermal back up through the
launch
slot several times and get close enough for the launch crowd to give me
directions to obvious areas of lift - the birds. I think they
were also telling me to stop spontaneously singing while flying
around. I saw more hawks and buzzards that day than
I have
in years. I cheated several times using the birds
as
thermal markers and intruding into their world.
They did
not seem to appreciate me and left after short thermaling flights
together. I even talked sweetly to them
and tried to
give one a kiss…..didn't work - she dove and left me in my
tracks….
Just like girls in high school. 
Mel Hair and Martin Fisher also flew during this time and both had great soaring flights. We three thermaled together and helped each other by marking the good spots for quite awhile. I don't have an altimeter but estimate out efforts got us over 1500 above several times down near the east end of the mountain close to Talihina. Mel's harness was angled nose high and I thought he was just relaxing and playing around. Turned out that his internal leveler line broke and rotated him up for most of the flight. He was not in any danger because the leg straps were all secure, but his armpits took a lot of pressure and he did not have to do anything to come up to landing position.
Launch conditions must have laid down during this time because no one else took off immediately- even though there were gliders staged at launch almost the whole time. We only occasionally saw Mike in the Ghostbuster down at our level until landing time. Its landing seemed almost as slow as traditional flexwings. I can definitely see potential gains in the future of rigid wings, but I think aero towing with a cart would offer the needed stability on takeoff. But then you give up the scenery of the mountain that I find to be almost as beautiful as flying itself. -Kind of a package deal-.
When Mel, Martin and myself finally landed, it was getting later afternoon and no one else was in the sky. We sat in the landing area quite a while and wondered what was going on at launch. Suddenly a wind gust came through the landing field and a big cummie cloud started forming over launch. The guys on launch must have said the proper prayer to the wind Gods or sacrificed someone… because in a short 20 minute time over 8 gliders launched into the building cloud that transformed into a mild wonderwind. The sky was filled with gliders around the cloud that towered over launch and took some of them up to a reported 3000 above launch. One KC pilot that had not foot launched in several years dragged a wing tip and rotated back into launch without injury, other than a control bar busted, a couple leg scratches and a sprained ankle. The cloud continued to grow and got a dark bottom like it was OD'ing but never did dump. It just drifted off over the vast forest behind launch.
The gliders settled into a wonderwind cruse mode and after a while they floated down to landings. There were several great stories to be heard about the flying and one gentleman even flew that had not flown in 4 years. (I did not know I was going to write this piece up or I would have written a lot of names and details down). Mel really assisted this guy getting his landing direction indications into the field by mooning him with his arms spread in the official wind indicator fashion. Where is the camera when you need it??? Landing went fine with a last minute correction to avoid Mel's buttocks. I can understand that maneuver… Pete was one of the last to land and had to land uphill because the mountain went catabiatic. He set up the long flat approach on the Lightspeed to come in just over the tree tops in the overshoot area and turn up to the mountain. Those Moyes boys sure can glide flat !!
Saturday ended with everyone in the landing field and lots of stories, laughing, pats on the back, a beautiful sunset with high red cirrus clouds and 2 really large coolers of beer and wine opened to spread the smiles a little further. This is why I hang glide.
Sunday awoke to similar
cool conditions but stronger wind.
It was blowing 10 - 25 mostly straight in, but there swtichy
gusts that would just take the flags in near
circles.
The fellow on the FunFlex decided it was time to try supine
flying. He was an old time pilot with lots of prone flying
dating
back into the 70's but the supine thing was new to him. The
launch was a little hair raising but successful. Now I
remembered
from the early 80's why I don't fly that way… regardless of
the obvious
comfort of sitting down and flying. John Russell was next to
go
with a strong and determined run into a good wind.
He
mapped out the air and showed the potential. Once
he was
above and still climbing others got more active about setting
up.
The conditions were soarable, but kickbutt rough and
strong. Then Tre in his XC , Pete and Greg Chastain
staged
and launched in their Lightspeeds for some much needed airtime before
the competitions this summer.
Time is the enemy of flying for fun and mine was up. Besides, my shoulder was really sore from the copious flying the day before. I had to break camp and get back onto the crowded highway for Dallas. Sitting there driving back was much easier knowing that the Prime Directive ( Everyone Get your Knees in the Breeze ) had been achieved and all was well with the world. With much more work on Mel's new slope launch, I am sure that things will get better in the future and we will get back to a fun competition for several holidays to come.
Fly Safe,
Warren Puckett
NTHGPA Pres.
