Lookout Mountain (hang-gliding) Flight Park
located in / at Lookout Mountain, Georgia
for some foot-launching / foot-landing training and other new skills
27 September 2006 (Wednesday) thru 3 October 2006 (Tuesday)
This page - is a separate web-page from
our regular September 2006 page... Herein - you will find
'mostly' pictures of our trip, if you are NOT INTO hang-gliding - then
you'll probably NOT be interested (except - perhaps - in the very last
tiny bit) - But you may still find some
'tid-bits' of interest in either text or images (of which there are a
LOT!).
anyway - <<<< 'most' of these images will have a blue-border - that means you can click on the image for a larger version >>>>
We stopped in Groveland, Florida, at Quest Air to pick-up Ms. May's glider and put it on top of our mini-van. Quest-Air is 'about' 45 minutes (round-trip) off of the Florida State Turnpike - where we were travelling towards northwest Georgia anyway...
Please to note: beautiful lady by mini-van in left picture and nice-looking hood-rack (version 3 of our front-support-gadget, this version designed with a large input from artist & "it must be beautiful" May Wong... There's no question this version is better looking, more sturdy, and more aerodynamic. In right picture, please ignore trashy looking guy, and concentrate on rack and hang-glider in hang-glider-bag - this bag's colors are characteristic of a company called "Wills Wing" (It's not clear to me who "Will" is) but they build great gliders. All OVER Lookout Mountain there are bags like this on top of cars. Some cars (especially pick-up-trucks are the same shade of red - the dealer(s) must wonder at why red sells so well, huh?
More detailed pictures of our new version-3 hood-top - hang-glider rack can be seen by visiting the Nov06 web-page - there are some detailed shots about 2/3 the way down the web-page.
We drove to the area, here, around Lookout Mountain (extreme NW Georgia) on 27 September, 2006 (a Wednesday) over a 12 hour period, taking 'about' 11 hours of actual driving - 'about' 680 miles, including gas-stops, pit-stops, and re-do the suction-cup mounts for the front hood hang-glider-support-rack.
Just to 'orient' you to how things look around Lookout Mountain & the 'Flight Park' business - here's three 'stitched-together' images - Ms.May is quite good at this process with Photoshop - she's a real 'gurette' - but she's teaching me...
This is a 'stitched' image of their "LZ (Landing Zone)" - a grass runway about 2,000 feet long - oriented 'roughly' NNW to SSE - or so - the 'Launching Area' can just (Barely) be seen at the top of the hill in the distance, right about in the middle of the above image...
This is the 'view from the top' (the launching-area (in the middle and the right two pictures - this is where we both launched from - nice view, huh?
The "Lookout Mountain Flight Park" Office is in the left-hand-image - and beyond their office is a couple of 40 foot containers where they store customer's gliders (for a small fee) and a big warehouse where they build things, and then, yet another parking lot. Behind the photographer in this picture, less than 8 feet away is a busy two-lane road... - the 'set-up-area' for gliders is not that big - but about 20-40 people can set-up at once here, so even though the space is small they still do a booming business when the wind is good... I've watched 20 people launch in an hour here. The use of the ramp is 'free' if we understand things completely (and there is no indication that we do... We hear-tell that the launch-ramp is 'about' 1,400 feet above the 'valley-floor' (LZ). You can detect or see the 'Landing Zone' (LZ), it is the 'middle-field' in the middle of the middle image in the above 'stitched image'...
This is the North end of their runway / LZ (to the extreme right in this picture)... to the Extreme Left you'll see a very very dirty Toyota Mini-Van parked next to our 'cabin' (S2), and someone has left the door open?) - anyway - the cabins are for 'transients' like us the 'Condos' (with the funny roof configuration (to the right in this picture) are for people to buy and then to come down / up / over / about for the weekend or whatever?
Then Thursday through Monday morning(s) (at 07:45 a.m. each day!) we'll have spent time (on average 'about' 3 hours per day) on their training-hills (first a small-hill for two mornings then a BIGger hill for 2-3 more mornings - learning, at first; the skill-set needed to - basically - run down a hill and get airborne... (foot-launching) and then on the bigger-hill how to land 'on one's feet' and 'flare' the glider at the end of a flight (this is typically called 'foot-landing' and is a skill-set we need to have in order to go cross-country. WHY you ask, well, because in cross-county you typically must land in a field or cow-pasture and you can't always 'count-on a smooth-grass-surface' to roll-in-and-then-land-on-wheels. So for us to "graduate" to the cross-country world (where we might stay in the air 1-2-3-4 hours at a time and go 25- to - say -100 miles and 'land-out') we can't 'go-there (cross-country)' until we learn foot-landing. SO --- it's a skill we need to learn in order to go-further and accomplish more...
Here's a picture of our 'main' training-hill instructor / coach, Mr. "Thor" with both of us, and his signature yellow-truck, and then another picture of
Ms. May with Ms. Lauren (another of our 'training-hill instructors', and Ms. Lauren's hang-glider) at the top of the mountain, where Ms. Lauren was getting ready to take the 2-4 steps into 'thin-air' and fly down to the 'landing-zone' area (where our small cabin is next-to).
Here's some pictures that were taken by Ms. Jackie, - who's husband was also on the training hill with us for a while... - there are some pictures of Ms. May and some pictures of Mr. Bill - there are more on their web-site (thumbnails)....
We met quite a few new friends here in Lookout Mountain. AND _ as is frequently the case, I'm sure some relationships will be long-term and lasting - -
however, - a shorter relationship was developed between Mr. Bill and Mr. Cat one afternoon...
a MUCH LONGER term relationship exists, here, though...
- We first met Ms. Diana in Kitty-Hawk - just about a year ago this week and she helped introduce us to Hang Gliding in that famous location. Then, this past spring Ms. Diana was working in Quest Air in Groveland, Florida, where we have spent most of our hang-gliding time and dollars. We are now further up the learning curve, and Ms. Diana is here at Lookout Mountain - moving up her own learning curve, working here, and being, now, qualified as an 'instructor'... - It's interesting to have seen her in 3 different Hang Gliding businesses and continue to have her support, we continue to enjoy her friendship and her professional support.
Then on Saturday afternoon, after our training-hill-session we couldn't go off the 'mountain' (no one was going off the 'mountain' because the wind was in the wrong direction), we followed some newly-met friends to a little (tiny-tiny-tiny) promontory about 800-900 feet above a 'valley' floor where several people launched 'off into nothing-ness' at roughly 240 degrees (compass-direction) and we went simply to watch - we were impressed with the skill of these people one of whom stayed-airborne about 3 hours just as we watched... The others landed in a field that had previously been thought to be 'friendly' but we later found-out (through the grape-vine) it wasn't so friendly - however we were at the 'top' - so we didn't know this (until much later in the day) and neither did the people flying into that field. (this is one of the hazards of cross-country flying (flying into a field where the land-owner is not big on hang-gliders / pilots just 'dropping in' on them?)...
This 'pair' of pictures shows (left) a glider-pilot 'ready' to step about 2-4 steps into 'thin-air' - you'll see the pilot, (standing under the 'kingpost' on top of the glider) but you'll also see three people 'helping' - these three people are key to both a successful and a 'living' launch. Without these helpers a pilot could easily fall / slip and that would not result in a pretty picture. In the right or second picture the same glider about 5-15 seconds after launch - notice the pilot is still at roughly the same 'altitude' as the launch-site.
Here's another picture - (blue / red) - is a lady (married to a guy (left in the picture) who launched a bit later) - she gets 'tilted' on launch "most probably" the result of an errant puff of wind and/or lift under her right-wing (but we'll never 'really' know!!!). She rapidly recovered and had the second best flight of the day - finding pretty good LIFT quite a bit east of the launch-site and a bit lower - very impressive performance, especially for someone in the sport just a bit less than 3 years...
And - here's yet another launch from this tiny promontory - where we learned so much by just watching, and as the last two people left we were introduced - by them - into the 'basics' of helping as 'wire-crew' to help steady the glider before the pilot takes off...
We watched about 5 people launch from here - the first had been waiting for the right wind-direction and puff-gust as well as for the right LIFT for over two hours - a very patient person! I wish I could develop this kind of patience...
This is a picture of that pilot - about an hour after launch - and about - say - 2,000-3,000 feet almost due north of launch and about 800 - 1,500 feet above the launch-site's altitude, he's got good LIFT and he knows what to do with it, a pair of characteristics we hope to develop, over time.
This is Ms. May with Ms. Molly - who's beau, Mr. Carl, was the last to launch, the LIFT had quit by then and he just flew-on-down to the landing zone, however, we heard from more than one source that he was quite a good pilot - but this just goes to show that regardless of the quality of the pilot - if the LIFT is not 'working' then one does not stay aloft very long?!
_
_
Here's a couple of more pictures we took after the last hang-glider(s) had left - showing the ramp, the view, and 'us' In the picture of Mr. Bill the 'landing zone' (sometimes called the "LZ") is over Mr. Bill's left shoulder...
THEN, - we did 'well' - and 'overcame our built-in fears' (well - at least for Mr. Bill, apparently Ms. May did not have these fears that kept Mr. Bill awake for 2-3 hours a couple of nights ago...)
We have both 'jumped-off-the-mountain' - (as the general public would say) in 'Hang-Gliding parlance, though, it's more a controlled couple of steps into 'thin-air' with a 'reliable, trustworthy hang-glider on your back (and you HOPE that 3 hang-checks are 'enough'!)
This 'walking off the cliff' thing, though is something that takes a bit of 'guts' and a bit of 'reliance on others (you trust)' and faith in your equipment and so-on and so-forth..
UNFORTUNATELY, though, Mr. Bill has "zero" pictures of Ms. Wong's momentous event, here because he was helping her
launch (with very wet eyes he might add)... BUT _ Ms. May did extremely well (and we both did this with harnesses that were not necessarily 'designed' to do this (walking-running off of a cliff...) - but we persevered!
Ms. May, though didn't help Mr. Bill - he had a 'true' wire-crew (noted in the picture-below -you'll see Mr. Bill, 'IN' the glider - with his helmet on, but there are three people 'helping' one is on the left 'flying-wire' one on the right flying wire and one (the business owner) on the 'keel' (the tube sticking out the back) - this is called a 'wire-crew' - and these people help make your launching life both safer and more efficient. In this picture, below, you can also just barely see the wind sock sticking-out straight - meaning there's more wind than, perhaps, one might like, but it is 'straight-on' and so that is very good...
Ms. May, being the wonderful hunny-huggly-bunch she is, also took one small digital-video-movie of this momentous event when Mr. Bill did IT.
click here to download the ...mpg video file of Bill's first mountain launch - it's 'about' 1.7 megabytes, - 20 seconds long...
you can download and view with your "QuickTime Player".
last-updated: Friday, 11 October 2013; revID: 1t
anyway - <<<< 'most' of these images will have a blue-border - that means you can click on the image for a larger version >>>>
We stopped in Groveland, Florida, at Quest Air to pick-up Ms. May's glider and put it on top of our mini-van. Quest-Air is 'about' 45 minutes (round-trip) off of the Florida State Turnpike - where we were travelling towards northwest Georgia anyway...
Please to note: beautiful lady by mini-van in left picture and nice-looking hood-rack (version 3 of our front-support-gadget, this version designed with a large input from artist & "it must be beautiful" May Wong... There's no question this version is better looking, more sturdy, and more aerodynamic. In right picture, please ignore trashy looking guy, and concentrate on rack and hang-glider in hang-glider-bag - this bag's colors are characteristic of a company called "Wills Wing" (It's not clear to me who "Will" is) but they build great gliders. All OVER Lookout Mountain there are bags like this on top of cars. Some cars (especially pick-up-trucks are the same shade of red - the dealer(s) must wonder at why red sells so well, huh?
More detailed pictures of our new version-3 hood-top - hang-glider rack can be seen by visiting the Nov06 web-page - there are some detailed shots about 2/3 the way down the web-page.
We drove to the area, here, around Lookout Mountain (extreme NW Georgia) on 27 September, 2006 (a Wednesday) over a 12 hour period, taking 'about' 11 hours of actual driving - 'about' 680 miles, including gas-stops, pit-stops, and re-do the suction-cup mounts for the front hood hang-glider-support-rack.
Just to 'orient' you to how things look around Lookout Mountain & the 'Flight Park' business - here's three 'stitched-together' images - Ms.May is quite good at this process with Photoshop - she's a real 'gurette' - but she's teaching me...
This is a 'stitched' image of their "LZ (Landing Zone)" - a grass runway about 2,000 feet long - oriented 'roughly' NNW to SSE - or so - the 'Launching Area' can just (Barely) be seen at the top of the hill in the distance, right about in the middle of the above image...
This is the 'view from the top' (the launching-area (in the middle and the right two pictures - this is where we both launched from - nice view, huh?
The "Lookout Mountain Flight Park" Office is in the left-hand-image - and beyond their office is a couple of 40 foot containers where they store customer's gliders (for a small fee) and a big warehouse where they build things, and then, yet another parking lot. Behind the photographer in this picture, less than 8 feet away is a busy two-lane road... - the 'set-up-area' for gliders is not that big - but about 20-40 people can set-up at once here, so even though the space is small they still do a booming business when the wind is good... I've watched 20 people launch in an hour here. The use of the ramp is 'free' if we understand things completely (and there is no indication that we do... We hear-tell that the launch-ramp is 'about' 1,400 feet above the 'valley-floor' (LZ). You can detect or see the 'Landing Zone' (LZ), it is the 'middle-field' in the middle of the middle image in the above 'stitched image'...
This is the North end of their runway / LZ (to the extreme right in this picture)... to the Extreme Left you'll see a very very dirty Toyota Mini-Van parked next to our 'cabin' (S2), and someone has left the door open?) - anyway - the cabins are for 'transients' like us the 'Condos' (with the funny roof configuration (to the right in this picture) are for people to buy and then to come down / up / over / about for the weekend or whatever?
Then Thursday through Monday morning(s) (at 07:45 a.m. each day!) we'll have spent time (on average 'about' 3 hours per day) on their training-hills (first a small-hill for two mornings then a BIGger hill for 2-3 more mornings - learning, at first; the skill-set needed to - basically - run down a hill and get airborne... (foot-launching) and then on the bigger-hill how to land 'on one's feet' and 'flare' the glider at the end of a flight (this is typically called 'foot-landing' and is a skill-set we need to have in order to go cross-country. WHY you ask, well, because in cross-county you typically must land in a field or cow-pasture and you can't always 'count-on a smooth-grass-surface' to roll-in-and-then-land-on-wheels. So for us to "graduate" to the cross-country world (where we might stay in the air 1-2-3-4 hours at a time and go 25- to - say -100 miles and 'land-out') we can't 'go-there (cross-country)' until we learn foot-landing. SO --- it's a skill we need to learn in order to go-further and accomplish more...
Here's a picture of our 'main' training-hill instructor / coach, Mr. "Thor" with both of us, and his signature yellow-truck, and then another picture of
Ms. May with Ms. Lauren (another of our 'training-hill instructors', and Ms. Lauren's hang-glider) at the top of the mountain, where Ms. Lauren was getting ready to take the 2-4 steps into 'thin-air' and fly down to the 'landing-zone' area (where our small cabin is next-to).
Here's some pictures that were taken by Ms. Jackie, - who's husband was also on the training hill with us for a while... - there are some pictures of Ms. May and some pictures of Mr. Bill - there are more on their web-site (thumbnails)....
We met quite a few new friends here in Lookout Mountain. AND _ as is frequently the case, I'm sure some relationships will be long-term and lasting - -
however, - a shorter relationship was developed between Mr. Bill and Mr. Cat one afternoon...
a MUCH LONGER term relationship exists, here, though...
- We first met Ms. Diana in Kitty-Hawk - just about a year ago this week and she helped introduce us to Hang Gliding in that famous location. Then, this past spring Ms. Diana was working in Quest Air in Groveland, Florida, where we have spent most of our hang-gliding time and dollars. We are now further up the learning curve, and Ms. Diana is here at Lookout Mountain - moving up her own learning curve, working here, and being, now, qualified as an 'instructor'... - It's interesting to have seen her in 3 different Hang Gliding businesses and continue to have her support, we continue to enjoy her friendship and her professional support.
Then on Saturday afternoon, after our training-hill-session we couldn't go off the 'mountain' (no one was going off the 'mountain' because the wind was in the wrong direction), we followed some newly-met friends to a little (tiny-tiny-tiny) promontory about 800-900 feet above a 'valley' floor where several people launched 'off into nothing-ness' at roughly 240 degrees (compass-direction) and we went simply to watch - we were impressed with the skill of these people one of whom stayed-airborne about 3 hours just as we watched... The others landed in a field that had previously been thought to be 'friendly' but we later found-out (through the grape-vine) it wasn't so friendly - however we were at the 'top' - so we didn't know this (until much later in the day) and neither did the people flying into that field. (this is one of the hazards of cross-country flying (flying into a field where the land-owner is not big on hang-gliders / pilots just 'dropping in' on them?)...
This 'pair' of pictures shows (left) a glider-pilot 'ready' to step about 2-4 steps into 'thin-air' - you'll see the pilot, (standing under the 'kingpost' on top of the glider) but you'll also see three people 'helping' - these three people are key to both a successful and a 'living' launch. Without these helpers a pilot could easily fall / slip and that would not result in a pretty picture. In the right or second picture the same glider about 5-15 seconds after launch - notice the pilot is still at roughly the same 'altitude' as the launch-site.
Here's another picture - (blue / red) - is a lady (married to a guy (left in the picture) who launched a bit later) - she gets 'tilted' on launch "most probably" the result of an errant puff of wind and/or lift under her right-wing (but we'll never 'really' know!!!). She rapidly recovered and had the second best flight of the day - finding pretty good LIFT quite a bit east of the launch-site and a bit lower - very impressive performance, especially for someone in the sport just a bit less than 3 years...
And - here's yet another launch from this tiny promontory - where we learned so much by just watching, and as the last two people left we were introduced - by them - into the 'basics' of helping as 'wire-crew' to help steady the glider before the pilot takes off...
We watched about 5 people launch from here - the first had been waiting for the right wind-direction and puff-gust as well as for the right LIFT for over two hours - a very patient person! I wish I could develop this kind of patience...
This is a picture of that pilot - about an hour after launch - and about - say - 2,000-3,000 feet almost due north of launch and about 800 - 1,500 feet above the launch-site's altitude, he's got good LIFT and he knows what to do with it, a pair of characteristics we hope to develop, over time.
This is Ms. May with Ms. Molly - who's beau, Mr. Carl, was the last to launch, the LIFT had quit by then and he just flew-on-down to the landing zone, however, we heard from more than one source that he was quite a good pilot - but this just goes to show that regardless of the quality of the pilot - if the LIFT is not 'working' then one does not stay aloft very long?!
_
_Here's a couple of more pictures we took after the last hang-glider(s) had left - showing the ramp, the view, and 'us' In the picture of Mr. Bill the 'landing zone' (sometimes called the "LZ") is over Mr. Bill's left shoulder...
THEN, - we did 'well' - and 'overcame our built-in fears' (well - at least for Mr. Bill, apparently Ms. May did not have these fears that kept Mr. Bill awake for 2-3 hours a couple of nights ago...)
We have both 'jumped-off-the-mountain' - (as the general public would say) in 'Hang-Gliding parlance, though, it's more a controlled couple of steps into 'thin-air' with a 'reliable, trustworthy hang-glider on your back (and you HOPE that 3 hang-checks are 'enough'!)
This 'walking off the cliff' thing, though is something that takes a bit of 'guts' and a bit of 'reliance on others (you trust)' and faith in your equipment and so-on and so-forth..
UNFORTUNATELY, though, Mr. Bill has "zero" pictures of Ms. Wong's momentous event, here because he was helping her
launch (with very wet eyes he might add)... BUT _ Ms. May did extremely well (and we both did this with harnesses that were not necessarily 'designed' to do this (walking-running off of a cliff...) - but we persevered!
Ms. May, though didn't help Mr. Bill - he had a 'true' wire-crew (noted in the picture-below -you'll see Mr. Bill, 'IN' the glider - with his helmet on, but there are three people 'helping' one is on the left 'flying-wire' one on the right flying wire and one (the business owner) on the 'keel' (the tube sticking out the back) - this is called a 'wire-crew' - and these people help make your launching life both safer and more efficient. In this picture, below, you can also just barely see the wind sock sticking-out straight - meaning there's more wind than, perhaps, one might like, but it is 'straight-on' and so that is very good...
Ms. May, being the wonderful hunny-huggly-bunch she is, also took one small digital-video-movie of this momentous event when Mr. Bill did IT.
click here to download the ...mpg video file of Bill's first mountain launch - it's 'about' 1.7 megabytes, - 20 seconds long...
you can download and view with your "QuickTime Player".
last-updated: Friday, 11 October 2013; revID: 1t