After the Iceman mountain bike race, I took the gamble and drove the extra hour to Green Point on November 5th. The weather forecast was S gusting to 25mph, so chances of flying were not great. But the Lake Michigan beaches are so beautiful there that at the very least I would get a walk on a deserted beach befor the four hour drive back home.
4:35 pm At Frankfort, I walked out onto the pier and looked towards the big sand dune five miles distant. No one flying of course. But then again, the wind was not too cross. About 45 degrees to the hill. What the hell, it might just be flyable.
4:50 pm Fifteen minutes later, I was on launch, looking down at the waves to read wind direction, a gull or two maintaining into wind, no whitecaps, sun setting... Well, at the very worst, I'll be on a two minute glide sinking out and then a four hundred foot climb up a sand dune, with legs still really tired from 27 miles of mountain bike racing.
5:05pm Gear out, grateful for my my new Kari Castle competition inspired packing technique, which quickly let me build a wall with no assistance on the tight, steep and loose sand dune take off. The Green point dune is more of a gravel hill, so it's very steep, much more than a normal sand-dune.
5:10 pm I pulled up first time, turned into wind then started climbing immediately almost directly along the dune. Perfectly smooth air, endless lift 500ft up and 500ft out over the water, utterly perfect coastal dune flying. Then I realized I didn't have my vario or GPS. Never mind, so much lift everywhere that I wouldn't need either.
I went about a kilometer down the coast, to the little gazebo that sits in a clearing on the lip of the dune. When I turned downwind, I realized how cross the wind was. I estimate my downwind speed was perhaps 55 km/h, so I would quickly run out of soaring space. Green Bay has about 3 miles of flyable coast if you have someone to pick you up at the Frankfort harbor entrance, but I was alone, it was about 5 degrees centigrade, the sun was setting, so I wasn't planning on heading downwind and ending up in a small Michigan coastal town on a chilly autumn evening in the dark looking for a lift.
I cruised around in the sunset for 40 minutes admiring the fantastic autumn colors of the forest that stretches as far as you can see inland. This really is a utterly beautiful soaring site, and I was reminded how special our sport can be. There wasn't anyone else in the air, no one on the 5 miles of beach I could see, and just one other human being visible for a few minutes, the whole time. I decided that I would stay up and land in time to get in the car by 6pm for the drive home.
5:50pm Effortless top landing on the steep dune. I'd never top landed here before because when the wind is straight in, there is too much compression close to the top of the dune, and the trees behind the lip cause rotor just meters over the top of the dune. Last time I was here we had to extract someone from the trees for exactly that reason. But with the strong sidewind component, I just cruised at walking speed along the dune 50ft from the top, and crabed sideways at the last minute.
6:00 Started the 4 hour drive back home, right on time
Perfection...
4:35 pm At Frankfort, I walked out onto the pier and looked towards the big sand dune five miles distant. No one flying of course. But then again, the wind was not too cross. About 45 degrees to the hill. What the hell, it might just be flyable.
4:50 pm Fifteen minutes later, I was on launch, looking down at the waves to read wind direction, a gull or two maintaining into wind, no whitecaps, sun setting... Well, at the very worst, I'll be on a two minute glide sinking out and then a four hundred foot climb up a sand dune, with legs still really tired from 27 miles of mountain bike racing.
5:05pm Gear out, grateful for my my new Kari Castle competition inspired packing technique, which quickly let me build a wall with no assistance on the tight, steep and loose sand dune take off. The Green point dune is more of a gravel hill, so it's very steep, much more than a normal sand-dune.
5:10 pm I pulled up first time, turned into wind then started climbing immediately almost directly along the dune. Perfectly smooth air, endless lift 500ft up and 500ft out over the water, utterly perfect coastal dune flying. Then I realized I didn't have my vario or GPS. Never mind, so much lift everywhere that I wouldn't need either.
I went about a kilometer down the coast, to the little gazebo that sits in a clearing on the lip of the dune. When I turned downwind, I realized how cross the wind was. I estimate my downwind speed was perhaps 55 km/h, so I would quickly run out of soaring space. Green Bay has about 3 miles of flyable coast if you have someone to pick you up at the Frankfort harbor entrance, but I was alone, it was about 5 degrees centigrade, the sun was setting, so I wasn't planning on heading downwind and ending up in a small Michigan coastal town on a chilly autumn evening in the dark looking for a lift.
I cruised around in the sunset for 40 minutes admiring the fantastic autumn colors of the forest that stretches as far as you can see inland. This really is a utterly beautiful soaring site, and I was reminded how special our sport can be. There wasn't anyone else in the air, no one on the 5 miles of beach I could see, and just one other human being visible for a few minutes, the whole time. I decided that I would stay up and land in time to get in the car by 6pm for the drive home.
5:50pm Effortless top landing on the steep dune. I'd never top landed here before because when the wind is straight in, there is too much compression close to the top of the dune, and the trees behind the lip cause rotor just meters over the top of the dune. Last time I was here we had to extract someone from the trees for exactly that reason. But with the strong sidewind component, I just cruised at walking speed along the dune 50ft from the top, and crabed sideways at the last minute.
6:00 Started the 4 hour drive back home, right on time
Perfection...