neonleonb

My family was kind enough to spend a whole day letting me fly at Lookout Mountain in northern Georgia, near Chattanooga. I'll tell the story with pictures.

For starters, they have a giant concrete ramp--much fancier than the (still sturdy and impressive) wooden ramp at Dunlap.


The ramp has a pretty nice view, even if the mountains are small and green.


I saw aerotowing for the first time. It looked like it has some conveniences--not waiting around for the downhill wind to die, for instance.


I rented a nice new Falcon 3--unfortunately, it was still a single-surfaced glider, so it wasn't as efficient as my customary Mark IV.


I took two flights--a morning sledder, and a late afternoon (nearly 5pm) heat-of-the-day launch.


Unfortunately, I didn't fly terribly well, and I sank out quickly. Since the hill is so short, only 1300 feet, I didn't spend much time at all in the air. But it was still a worthwhile experience, and hopefully I'll soon learn to soar properly.

Even though it was fun, Lookout Mountain's rental service was substantially disappointing. First, they didn't have any intermediate gliders, though they had said they did on the phone. Next, they tried to rent me a harness without a parachute. Finally, they left me stranded at the bottom of the hill after my second flight, and, when I called their office asking about my options for getting my equipment back up to their office, they didn't help me get back up--they just told me about the penalties for not returning my glider by 6pm if I didn't manage to make it up in time. In the end, everything was fine, but I have to say I wasn't impressed.

But, the best part was that my family finally got to see me fly. I wish I could have done a better job of it, but it'll put all my other flying news in context for them. They even got video, but I'm not sure if I'll go to the bother of posting it or not. I guess I should, but it takes a while to upload several minutes of video over DSL.