Beach-Web for August 2008 late August -
nearing the end of the month - what's to report - not very much - we're
home in Stuart, of course, and the shoulder continues to 'mend' but not
nearly as fast as I'd like... However, I now have enough 'opinions'
from both medically-trained types and non, AND I'm doing this and that
and the other exercises, AND seeing a physio-therapist (until the money
and the patience runs out), that I suspect I'll be 'ready to go' by the
end of September in Georgia. - We'll see - only time will tell...
Around the home-front-though, we've 'been adopted by' this creature; whom we think his 'burrow' might have been flooded-out during the recent Fay-induced rain(s) of about 15" over a 3-4 day period... In addition to being seen on the porch screen (where Ms. Siew Mei ( who now has a new status in life (according to Ms. May's dreams))) was VERY INTERESTED in him, he's been seen crossing the north-yard (where there are a lot of fire-ants) - maybe he'll eat them all for lunch, huh?
We saw this contraption on someone's web-blog - and it's in Australia. Supposedly going to do more than about 130 mph across some dry lake bed and attempt to break the world land speed record for wind powered vehicles - we'll see?!?!
on the Hang-Gliding-Front:
Our friend (on "Team Colorado") from Big Spring, Texas, Mr. Benjamin Herring (sometimes known simply as "BJ") who set the new Rigid Wing Hang Glider "Declared Goal" record on Saturday, 9th August, at 237 miles (from Big Spring, northward to another airport, east of Amarillo) has some of the (HD - digital) video footage from that record-setting-flight up at / on his blog-site: http://blog/fourherrings.com He is also writing an article about his flight - that will eventually be published in the US Hang Gliding Association magazine...
Mr. Bill just HAPPENED to have taken a picture 'right before' BJ launched for this historic flight.
Friday 15th: At the Toyota dealership awaiting servicing of our trusty Sienna mini-van... - we are HOME in Stuart, and it is great to return "HOME" _ especially with a cat who seems to have an INFINITE capacity for both 'cat-attention' and for 'hacksawing'... Wind looks VERY GOOD early - mid next week - and a couple of potential hurricanes looming nearby... - excitement is running high... Total trip was 'about' 3,800 miles in our mini-van and about 1,100 miles in the Monster Truk - equalling almost 5,000 miles in just a bit more than 2 weeks. On the way home, (on the 13th) we did about 15 hours in the car - of which about 12 hours was in RAIN RAIN RAIN... - We also visited the 'scenic' parts of New Orleans (and had dinner). Then visited the 'scenic' parts of both the Mississippi coast and the Pensacola-Beach area.
Tuesday, 5th August, 2008: this is MORNING, and we are definitely not awake, yet...
but - our 'mascot' - our 'chauffer' - our 'escort' - our 'helper' deserves special mention:
if you want a larger (MUCH MUCH larger) image - just e-mail to: bill@vikingasia.org
Monday, 4th August, 2008: Today was a shorter 'task' - goal set after 1 turn point at a total distance of just over 100 miles... Everyone in our Truk made goal, and almost the entire launched-contingent made-goal also...
Sunday - LONG DAY in the 'saddle' - 580 miles / 11 hours of driving (what we are really here for) - 1 guy makes today's "goal" (216 miles, a new record for both him and a new 'in a competition - longest goal ever') (he was high-enough to go over the 'major obstacle'. One guy went 80% more than his old personal best (Sunday his new personal best is now 180 miles (decided to stop BEFORE the major obstacle in the way)).
After picking-up pilots and gliders, gas-stops and dinner (Subway) and driving and such we were in bed and asleep at 01:30 a.m. this morning.
Saturday afternoon, (2nd August) at Goal pictures (at the Terry County Airport near Brownville, Texas (about 70 miles NNW of Big Spring)
Saturday morning (2 August, 2008); before the activities start. Mr._Johnny tries out Mr._Jim/Tim's tug and likes it a LOT!
Saturday morning's sunrise - our mini-van in lower-middle-right...
Today is Friday, the first of August - we're in Big Spring, Texas... for the "Internationals" Hang Gliding Championships ...
We're here to drive / do retrievals for some "Rigid Wing" hang glider pilots, one of whom we met a couple of years ago in Florida. It's doubful we'll fly, but we might. Mr. Bill is still recovering his shoulder, though he's been invited to fly a glider which is very very similar to his own, but 'tuned' a bit differently. This MIGHT happen if the shoulder continues to recover - which it may or may not - so that future is 'open'.
AWESOME place to fly - but they had a 'storm gust front' this afternoon - 20 mph plus or minus (mostly plus) at the surface, we watched, closely, 2 people land and about 4-6 people to hold the glider the instant they landed...
We also 'helped' put-together a number of planes and gliders - a lot of friends and acquaintences are here for the competition which starts tomorrw.
We drove out to Austin, Texas, and visited my sister, most of the drive from Stuart to Austin is (Florida) Turnpike and Interstates and Texas 71 (all 4 lane divided roads / speed-limit(s) 60-70 mph).... However, from Austin to Big Spring it's all back-roads / mostly 4 lanes - but some 2 lanes... The useful, productive, and reliable Toyota Mini-Van (Sienna) - got 21 plus mpg on the 'flats' in Florida and along the Gulf-coast, and then 18 plus mpg in the hills and headwinds of Texas. This all at roughly 70 mph with 2 gliders on the roof... - So - the Toyota continues to be a wonderful vehicle and the right choice for us...
Pictures of this first day (only a very very few):
Mr. Bill's best hang-gliding-flight (Ever) - see the FlightLog.Org web-page, here...
Around the home-front-though, we've 'been adopted by' this creature; whom we think his 'burrow' might have been flooded-out during the recent Fay-induced rain(s) of about 15" over a 3-4 day period... In addition to being seen on the porch screen (where Ms. Siew Mei ( who now has a new status in life (according to Ms. May's dreams))) was VERY INTERESTED in him, he's been seen crossing the north-yard (where there are a lot of fire-ants) - maybe he'll eat them all for lunch, huh?
We saw this contraption on someone's web-blog - and it's in Australia. Supposedly going to do more than about 130 mph across some dry lake bed and attempt to break the world land speed record for wind powered vehicles - we'll see?!?!
on the Hang-Gliding-Front:
Our friend (on "Team Colorado") from Big Spring, Texas, Mr. Benjamin Herring (sometimes known simply as "BJ") who set the new Rigid Wing Hang Glider "Declared Goal" record on Saturday, 9th August, at 237 miles (from Big Spring, northward to another airport, east of Amarillo) has some of the (HD - digital) video footage from that record-setting-flight up at / on his blog-site: http://blog/fourherrings.com He is also writing an article about his flight - that will eventually be published in the US Hang Gliding Association magazine...
Mr. Bill just HAPPENED to have taken a picture 'right before' BJ launched for this historic flight.
Friday 15th: At the Toyota dealership awaiting servicing of our trusty Sienna mini-van... - we are HOME in Stuart, and it is great to return "HOME" _ especially with a cat who seems to have an INFINITE capacity for both 'cat-attention' and for 'hacksawing'... Wind looks VERY GOOD early - mid next week - and a couple of potential hurricanes looming nearby... - excitement is running high... Total trip was 'about' 3,800 miles in our mini-van and about 1,100 miles in the Monster Truk - equalling almost 5,000 miles in just a bit more than 2 weeks. On the way home, (on the 13th) we did about 15 hours in the car - of which about 12 hours was in RAIN RAIN RAIN... - We also visited the 'scenic' parts of New Orleans (and had dinner). Then visited the 'scenic' parts of both the Mississippi coast and the Pensacola-Beach area.
Tuesday, 5th August, 2008: this is MORNING, and we are definitely not awake, yet...
but - our 'mascot' - our 'chauffer' - our 'escort' - our 'helper' deserves special mention:
if you want a larger (MUCH MUCH larger) image - just e-mail to: bill@vikingasia.org
Monday, 4th August, 2008: Today was a shorter 'task' - goal set after 1 turn point at a total distance of just over 100 miles... Everyone in our Truk made goal, and almost the entire launched-contingent made-goal also...
- Mr. Kim in his "tug-plane" - pretty decent picture by Mr._Bill even if I do say so...
- An almost NEW crop-spraying plane at the 'goal' airport near "Levelland, Texas"... - major BIG airplane carries a LOT of load in liquids
- A small detail of the pump, tank, piping on the above mentioned crop-spraying plane...
- A pretty useless picture of some of the glider-pilots 'de-rigging' their gliders in the small grassy area with more sandspurs than grass
Sunday - LONG DAY in the 'saddle' - 580 miles / 11 hours of driving (what we are really here for) - 1 guy makes today's "goal" (216 miles, a new record for both him and a new 'in a competition - longest goal ever') (he was high-enough to go over the 'major obstacle'. One guy went 80% more than his old personal best (Sunday his new personal best is now 180 miles (decided to stop BEFORE the major obstacle in the way)).
After picking-up pilots and gliders, gas-stops and dinner (Subway) and driving and such we were in bed and asleep at 01:30 a.m. this morning.
- Obstacle 1 - taken with the 4 year old mini-Sony(DSC-U30) - while attempting not to run the truk off the road!
- Obstacle 2 - same as above (the river-bed in the middle of the obstacle (one guy landed very near here!))
- Obstacle 3 - 3rd view - looking SW from NE side
- I have some video on the video camera of some prarie dogs, but don't have the 'Firewire' (big to little) cable to download it. - - - UGH UGH...
- Ms. May has way better pictures of several things (being that she was a passenger and had more time, I was mostly driving) - - - so - visit her blog-site at some point...
- OH, PS, I had not yet admitted (in public) that I WASHED my beloved Apple iPhone on Wednesday evening, 30th July - definitely no one's fault but my own. However, - though it never dried-out and recovered, the SIM card was removed and put in my old Motorola V551J cell-phone (which I'd unlocked in January) and seems to work pretty darned well for a 'clean' SIM card... I don't get the iPhone / Apple 'Features' (such as contacts, calendar, etc.) but I can make and receive calls and text messages so that's pretty good.
Saturday afternoon, (2nd August) at Goal pictures (at the Terry County Airport near Brownville, Texas (about 70 miles NNW of Big Spring)
- Ms._May taking care of the shaded area
- Mr._JY who's our 'boss and organizer' for this trip (and part-owner of the Jim/Tim tug)
- Mr._JL who's a very experienced rigid wing hang glider and sailplane pilot (and importer of rigid wing gliders)
- Ms._Belinda who's the major support group for Mr._Davis, who's a 'key player' in this small but important sport
Saturday morning (2 August, 2008); before the activities start. Mr._Johnny tries out Mr._Jim/Tim's tug and likes it a LOT!
Saturday morning's sunrise - our mini-van in lower-middle-right...
Today is Friday, the first of August - we're in Big Spring, Texas... for the "Internationals" Hang Gliding Championships ...
We're here to drive / do retrievals for some "Rigid Wing" hang glider pilots, one of whom we met a couple of years ago in Florida. It's doubful we'll fly, but we might. Mr. Bill is still recovering his shoulder, though he's been invited to fly a glider which is very very similar to his own, but 'tuned' a bit differently. This MIGHT happen if the shoulder continues to recover - which it may or may not - so that future is 'open'.
AWESOME place to fly - but they had a 'storm gust front' this afternoon - 20 mph plus or minus (mostly plus) at the surface, we watched, closely, 2 people land and about 4-6 people to hold the glider the instant they landed...
We also 'helped' put-together a number of planes and gliders - a lot of friends and acquaintences are here for the competition which starts tomorrw.
We drove out to Austin, Texas, and visited my sister, most of the drive from Stuart to Austin is (Florida) Turnpike and Interstates and Texas 71 (all 4 lane divided roads / speed-limit(s) 60-70 mph).... However, from Austin to Big Spring it's all back-roads / mostly 4 lanes - but some 2 lanes... The useful, productive, and reliable Toyota Mini-Van (Sienna) - got 21 plus mpg on the 'flats' in Florida and along the Gulf-coast, and then 18 plus mpg in the hills and headwinds of Texas. This all at roughly 70 mph with 2 gliders on the roof... - So - the Toyota continues to be a wonderful vehicle and the right choice for us...
Pictures of this first day (only a very very few):
- BJ's Big HONKING Truk we will drive
- Working on Jim_Y's and Tim's tug-plane (Hirth (German) 3-cylinder / 2-cycle) engine
- here's a (vendor's) link directly to the Hirth engine (noted above) the web-site-page
- Jim_L's new VQ rigid wing glider rigs in less than 20 minutes due to this new 'tensioning' methodology (yellow-string)
- just ONE of a very very few 'practice' flights / tows
- Campbell_ explains something at dinner - sorry - not a GREAT picture
Mr. Bill's best hang-gliding-flight (Ever) - see the FlightLog.Org web-page, here...
and-or see the track-log over Google Earth Image(s), here... small_image larger_image (1 megabyte)
If you want MORE left-overs from June, 2008 - here's the link to that WHOLE web-page: http://www.vikingasia.org/BeachWeb/BeachWeb2008/Jun08/Jun08.html
Archived BeachWeb monthly site(s): Click here for a list of the archived months
If you want MORE left-overs from June, 2008 - here's the link to that WHOLE web-page: http://www.vikingasia.org/BeachWeb/BeachWeb2008/Jun08/Jun08.html
Archived BeachWeb monthly site(s): Click here for a list of the archived months
7last updated: 12:24 p.m. (EDT) on Tuesday 26th August, 2008 revID: 1m