Fort Funston, November 22, 2018 (Flight 1)

Hang gliding at Fort Funston on Thanksgiving.

[@snakedike]

Missing you Chris. Fly high, go far.

[@garrykennedy5484]

You're my hero. Jumping those gaps and all. Great flight!!!!!!!!!This is on my bucket list. I've done 9 aerotows with instructor so far at Sonora Wings, AZ. Great place. Going for foot launch training after where I should have a solid H2 rating along with the areotow rating. After that I want to get the rating needed for this type of launch/landing. Cliff dwelling I call it. LOL

[@chadca]

Flying Funston is kinda like living as a cliff dwelling bird! The gaps are really nothing spectacular. In normal soaring conditions they produce copious lift. The only thing that is challenging this time of year is that soarable conditions only develop pre and post frontal, and often change throughout the day... good for 30, off for 40 good for 60 off for 20... So somedays you have to be very aware and maybe a bit lucky... otherwise you can end up with a long walk on the beach! :) . If you want to see Funston on a very unique day, check out my video titled "Epic Shear." Well, congratulations on your training, as you already know, this is an amazing form of aviation. Arizona has some very good flying, and is home to one of my favorite sites, Mingus! I look forward to seeing your progress and hope to see you out at Funston one of these days!

[@garrykennedy5484]

@@chadca Thanks. Instructor said this morning after my 2 flights that a couple more flights and I'll be ready to solo! Guess I'm doing something right. LOL I feel very good about my training. Got a workout today as he took the glider swinging to the outside edge of tow tolerance and had me recover. He forced me to hit the release on the last flight by locking me out on purpose. LOL it was great! My brother, who is taking the same lessons, had the weak link break just as he was touching the release. Fun stuff! Mingus is a ways down the road as I hear it can be tricky and I don't have H2 even. Should be an H3 to do Mingus. Greg Porter has some good videos and flights from there. But there's a lot of sights on my bucket list including Funston, Crestline, South Mountain,, Too many to list.

[@chadca]

@@garrykennedy5484 When I trained to get my aerotow rating, my instructor did the exact same thing. It was a game called "fix it" where I would have to take my hand off the control bar, he would put us out of alignment with the tow, and then he would say when I could take control and fix it. It was an exercise/test to failure, so we kept repeating it with him putting us more and more out of alignment until it was impossible to fix and the weak link broke. It was a very intense and useful exercise! There are so many great sites out there! I really want to fly South Mountain too as it's the first place I ever saw hang gliders as a kid. I'm looking forward to seeing the video from your first solo!

[@garrykennedy5484]

@@chadca South Mountain is where I saw my first hang glider too and I ended up taking a couple lessons from the guy when I was about 13 or 14. But my dad couldn't afford to let me keep going with them. I lived in Ahwatukee and was riding my dirt bike when his shadow passed right over me. Now I'm 52 and revisiting the dream making it come true this time.