Crestline Soaring Society

Nice vid! That's the guy who installed the cell phone repeater in the Sylmar LZ: Sebastion the Atos-inator. It really shows off the amazing sink rate of 120 FPM.

An E-Team Claw!

Thanks for the update, Ken. I'll take a downwind belly slide on damp sand over this any day. Wolfie can commiserate with our guest from Phoenix who re-broke his arm on Mt McKenzie a few weekends ago. Luckily this happened off-season so his FAI ranking shouldn't be affected too much. http://civlrankings.fai.org/FL.aspx?a=322&person_id=7961&

And touche, Knumb!

I spent enough time with the lad on that day to know that he's just a kid with lots of exuberance and spunk. I found him to be modest and soft spoken as well. His competition record is excellent for his age and experience and he has consistently moved up in the FAI rankings year after year. I don't think he was showing off as much as he was just enjoying himself when he got a little too enthusiastic. Wolfie's father has 30-years of HG experience and I'm sure he'll counsel him well. I've witnessed plenty of unnecessary errors by pilots twice his age.

Now that I have also flown a T2 144 I can attest that the glider has an awful lot of energy retention which is why I chose to run out my second landing rather than flare hard too soon and zoom up. Eventually, I'll develop enough feel so I can give it a hard flare without zooming.

Cheers, Jonathan

Hey Don, I do not think he meant to climb as high as he did. I bet he was as surprised as anyone else.

Why don't you ask him face to face and get the facts first? Huh?

Mark

John H. tried to get a pic of his hand in the water years ago. I expect to see more u-tubie action soon. I guess the Marina is back.

Stan,

I'd put it back if I could, all I remember was a slight disclaimer about how everyone is different and "what a MORON."

I deleted my response to you and now am apologizing for crossing boundaries that upset you so much, more I am sure than anyone would have been upset by the original comments.

This is a moderated forum, it says so in the intro. John's edit was the first I can recall this year; there MIGHT have been one post removed last year. Hardly merits name-calling and vitriol, Stan. I didn't see the original post. John made a judgment call and I stand by him.

Calling a complete stranger a moron in a public forum where one didn't even witness the event is, well, moronic, but it can be done in a convivial way or it can be done in a mean-spirited way. My understanding is that it was the latter.

To add another data point, Wolfie said that he had made a quick stab at releasing the VG early on (while over the water, I think) but the cord stuck back in the cleat and he didn't feel he had time to mess with it further. He was quite surprised by the amount of headwind as he neared the spot; it had been much lighter as he was setting up. With the VG off he wouldn't have retained nearly as much energy during ground-skim.

Good Flying,
Ken Howells

This Forum is after all hosted by CSS, we can’t just allow anything. So it seems to me it has to be moderated, moderately, which I trust it has been.

An exception would be political commentary. For example if someone wrote “The CSS Vice President is a pathetic dumb stupid incompetent MORON and should be in jail” I would not only defend to the death his right to post it, I would share his assessment as well.

Mike Z
CSS V.P.

I would find such a comment not in order.

SCHHHHHUUULLLLLLLLLLLLTZ!

I could care less either way..... Mod or Not...

Just Fly, Soaring Is Pure

{soapbox}

I thought I saw Don there along with a bunch of other Sylmartians, of which I am one. He should have seen Wolfie's landing in person if he was looking. IIFC, Don has been whacking a lot of his landings lately on his LiteSport with his recently acquired backplate harness and he seems to have been grumpier than usual too. Hell if I know why. Since he lives about 5 blocks from me I could go over and ask him, but my plate is already full. Hopefully, his hemorrhoids will clear up.

Since Wolfgang didn't post here about his flight, Don's post cannot be deemed a personal attack according to the rules of good netiquette and forum decorum. It was simply an editorial statement of no special significance. If anything, it would have merely rallied support on the side of Wolfgang.

The only adult authority figure who should have anything to say to Wolfgang should be his father who has 30 years of HG experience. To that end, I tracked him down in Austria and sent an email with a link to the video. When I was Wolfie's age my father had a few things to say about my HG exploits which I respected.

I may be partially responsible for getting Wolfie's fires stoked when I approached him after his first aerobatic display and landing and complimented him on his spectacular performance. He took it very humbly and mentioned that Zippy (Zack Majors) could have done at least as good a landing show. So maybe I should be censured as well as Don for having the temerity to give naches (that's Yiddish for accolades) to Wolfie's face which inspired him to give it another go.

I'd be more concerned with people's conduct on launch and in the air. On the day that Scotty had his crash and I was trying to juggle a 2-meter radio, a cell phone, a group of drunk wuffos, and get the SBFD medi-vac helicopter to him. During this time some flaming asshole HG pilot kept coming up to me and interrupting my communications. Later, when Chiam had broken a tip wand and a downtube, this same crass individual had some choice, biting humous wit to lay on an already somewhat dejected Chiam. The real cous de gras came as I was preparing to launch off the top of Marshall and just when I began my run the stupid fucker, yelled out, "you're going to die"or some equally offensive potentially distracting remark that caused me to abort my launch run. I turned around an made eye contact to give this puke head the message. Then launched without further interruption.

At the CSS board meeting the issue of enforcing club rules was bandied about and I offered to back up Diane, who lamented being stuck in the role of playing the 'bad cop' at Crestline/Marshall. Now, here is where my post goes full circle. If I thought that Don's editorial comments about our guest pilot were likely to interfere with his safe operation of his aircraft for whatever reason, I'd say go ahead and edit it as needed. And if someone were to insult a pilot to his face in a manner that any reasonable person would deem likely to ultimately interfere with the safe operation of his aircraft, I would deal with the matter a little more bluntly.

Let's face it--good natured teasing is part and parcel of being in this sport. In the land of Sylmartians it gets pretty down and personal too, but everyone I've come into contact with just takes it in stride. On the planet Sylmarz there is a different ethos than in the genteel dominion of the 909s. It is possible that it just spilled over into a forum post which has an entirely different effect than when done face-to-face where the other person can see by your facial expressions and speech inflections that it's all just good natured teasing and nothing more. In Don's defense, I would give him the benefit of the doubt and a little of the old shark's fin oil in the pucker factor region of his toches (that’s more Yiddish. Get used to it).

My doorbell just rang and it was my neighbor, Don. He cautioned me to retain one copy of the unedited post for myself and PM another to my lawyer, Stan. {wink}

{/soapbox}

I, for one, support the right of each of us to make an a** (self-moderated) of themselves.

Bravo