Welcome to BoomerFlight

Hi! Thanks for checking in. I'm Jim Lawrence, Light Sport Editor for Plane & Pilot magazine (www.planeandpilotmag.com).

After seeing Jaco Herbst's nice looking blog on this site (http://freeflyingintaiwan.blogspot.com) - thanks Jaco! - I decided I had to have one too!

Enjoy!

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Well, I haven't been a jolly good poster...a very busy summer. Photo shoots in Europe, Oshkosh 07, Rodeo New Mexico (Aerotrekkers, what a hoot).


I had a high old time out in California in June. Hit some of the old sites in California that I flew all through the 1970s, in my new Sport 2. What a sweet ship!

I started out at Dockweiler Beach, where it all began in the early '70s. Made 10 hops in my new bird...sweet and easy to launch, nice flat glide, eazzzzzy to land, which is the main thing I bought it for.

Joe Greblo's master instructor Andy Bennis gave me some pointers and in a couple hours I went from "Hmmm, wonder if I'll feel confident enough to fly Kagel," to "Bring it on, sucker!"

The next day, I made a couple big mistakes: It was very hot in the San Fernando Valley where I went to fly Kagel with Joe's gang. I didn't bring enough water and I didn't eat anything for hours before launch.

It was hot, way hot, up on top. I got dizzy and felt weak. Fortunately Joe's driver had a little sugar stuff from some sour hot candy. I poured that on my tongue which gave me just enough moxey to launch.

From there, the inflight breeze cooled me off and I had a nice soaring flight. I think I was the last one to land, as it had taken me so long to get off.

Also had a squeaker landing that, had I not dragged my toes hard through the dirt pile at the far end of the LZ runway, would have ended up in the boulders. Whew!

I got a round of applause for averting certain disaster. Joe gave me one of those friendly but clear "you idiot" looks a couple minutes later. "All you had to do on your final approach," he said with smiling reproach, "was suck in the bar."

Oh yeah. I kept thinking with the new ship that it would glide and glide, but it's not a rigid wing after all. I'd overshot my approach and wasn't confident enough to do a quick 360, so I tried to float it in, semi-parachute style, like we did in the old days. I did lose about 100 feet that way but was still a bit high and didn't want to be on the stall that close to the ground in a new glider.

Fortunately, I have a good instinct for survival. I left two grooves 10 feet long in that dirt pile!

Next I went up to that wonderful coastal soaring paradise, Fort Funston, right in the middle of San Francisco. Got about 2 hours as my daughter Bridget and her boyfriend shot pix and video of me. Great bunch of guys up there, as they have always been, starting off with Steve Rodriguez, who was a great host.

Then to Marina, CA, for some dune soaring. Wind played tease with me all day, too light, too strong, too light, too strong. Finally it stabilized. I got some help from one of the locals whose name escapes me to move up to the ramp, then a couple hard-running steps and lifted right up.

I shot the gap a couple minutes later, then soared the dunes until I belly landed in a lull, thinking, foolish old dude, that I could squeak back up. When I was down to 1 foot off the sand, I realized the wind weren't blowing down here, so I picked up the glider and my pride, hustled up to the highest dune around, being careful not to destroy any ice plants, waited for a bit of an upcycle, and in ten minutes was up for another hour.

I had a hell of a time folding the glider down because the wind stabilized at around 18 to 20 and blew salt brine and sand and the glider sail every which way. I hadn't broken down in wind in a long, long, (did I say long?) time. What a hassle, without any help. Flapped at least a couple hours of life out of the sail.

Then I took the glider to Wills Wing and they stuck it in a box full size and shipped it home to NY for $105! How about that?

Great folks at Wills, and I love the glider.

Now elbow and wrist pain problems and general lack of physical fitness (and lots of work actually) have kept me from flying since. Got to get back out before the end of the summer...it's almost over up here.
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AEROTREKKING...WHAT A CONCEPT...

Below you'll see a couple cool shots of the Aerotrekking experience. A pack of ultralight adventurers sets off on treks of a couple hundred miles. They may end up looping back to base, or landing at a pre-established outpost. Maybe the outpost has comfy beds and hangars...but at the least, it's got hangars. After all, these birds cost upwards of $50,000.

They aren't yesterday's trikes. These are a new breed of aircraft...capable of slow enough flight, but also can zip around over 90 knots...hugging the ground or up to 15 grand or so.

The whole operation is the vision and creation of the McAfee software founder, John McAfee. He's a passionate devotee of the sport and puts his money where his heart is, making sure the gliders are maintained and flown properly.

Quite a story, you can check it out in detail at www.aerotrek.us.

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Since my last post I've gotten my Sport Pilot license. Been flying all these years, I thought I'd make it official. Lots of fun and I had a great instructor, John Lampson of Manchester, CT (right next door to Hartford). I'll be writing up a three-story account of the experience for P&P soon.

Meanwhile, if you're looking for top notch flight instruction, you can't beat John. He's been teaching for years and is a lot of fun, patient as a saint, and even has his own rock band when he's not racing through the sky teaching others the joys of aviation.

Here's his email contact: jlampsoncfi@aol.com