August 2007 115
THE WHOLE OBJECT of travel is not to set foot on foreign land;
it is at last to set foot on one’s own country as a foreign land.
—G.K. Chesterton
Travel invigorates the soul. Travelers get to see what is on the
other side of the mountain, to meet new people, and to take a break
from their day-to-day routines. Slope Soaring travelers have a
chance to sample new topography and different winds, and they may
have a chance to advance their flying skill by learning from local
fliers they meet on the trip.
Even those fortunate souls who have primo Slope Soaring sites
close to home can enjoy the benefits of trying new and distant
slopes. Even if you live in Kennewick, Washington—a half hour
from Eagle Butte (which some call the best slope-flying site in the
lower 48 states)—you might find a trip to Point of the Mountain in
Sandy, Utah (a Soar Utah site), or Port Orford, Oregon (the Cape
Blanco Slope Fest site), worth your while.
Jan Carstangen lives on Cape Cod, Massachusetts (which Dave
[[email protected]]
Radio Control Slope Soaring Dave Garwood
The joy of travel for Slope Soaring
Dave Garwood flies a Pat Bowman Comanche at the Davenport
Slope Racing venue during the February Slope Safari to Northern
California. Dave Reese photo.
Reed Sherman, a designer from San Francisco CA, launches his
own-design JART over the mighty Pacific Ocean. He has been an
energy-plane flier for years.
Jim Harrigan (Rensslaer NY) flies a Dave Sanders Schweizer 1-26
at Goat Rock State Park at one of four flying sites he and the
author found there that day.
Dave Reese (Santa Cruz CA), a gifted sailplane pilot, flies a
DSmodel Ocelot at Fort Ord Dunes. He gave Dave and Jim a DS
lesson on the backside at Sunset Beach.
Sanders has called “a skateboard park for Slope Soarers”), and he’s
happy he made the trip to the Midwest Slope Challenge in central
Kansas. Brian Courtice’s home lift is the tradewinds of Hawaii, and
he travels to fly in the inland desert for the Southern California PSS
Festival year after year.
Events are a natural focus for Slope Soaring trips, but vacations
planned around exploring new hills and flying new places can be
some of the more memorable experiences in the sport. A pair of
New York Slope Dogs took a mid-February trip to Northern
California to get a break from winter. That mission was
accomplished because we evaded the 2007 Valentine’s Day
snowstorm that nailed the Great Northeast.
I have found out there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you
like people or hate them than to travel with them.
—Mark Twain
Jim Harrigan and I flew into the San Jose International Airport
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116 MODEL AVIATION
Right: Jim, the pair of 1-26s, and a Chevy
HHR rental car: an excellent glider hauler.
Reese photo.
Above: Dave Garwood flies his Dave
Sanders Schweizer 1-26 at Fort Ord
Dunes. He and Jim flew the 1-26s more
than the other models they took; they
were well suited to the February wind
conditions.
on a Saturday in February for a week of driving up and down the
Northern California coast in search of slope sites, and we found
plenty of them. We knew February does not bring huge winds for
NorCal, but the air temperature was 40° warmer than in Albany,
New York.
Sure, I know some experienced readers will be chuckling at the
“quality” of some of the sites we flew, but to us they were wonderful
when compared to the tree-covered hills and mountains we have in
New York and New England. Especially with three feet of snow
covering the access trails.
We flew every day but one, and we flew at approximately 12
sites that week, from Fort Ord Dunes and Sunset Beach State Park
south of Santa Cruz to Davenport between Santa Cruz and San
Francisco. We spent the bulk of our time north of the San Francisco
International Airport in the Sonoma Coast State Beach and Goat
Rock State Park.
My OFB (old flying buddy) Jim did a wonderful job of picking
the week for our trip, for the weather we left and the weather we
experienced. He did it 12 weeks in advance.
Jim will pick your week for a 25¢ fee, and if you’re not pleased
with the weather you encounter he’ll refund the fee. Send him your
list of possible dates, your intended destination, and the fee via
postal mail to [email protected].
This itinerary passed 20 or more places where we could park the
car, walk to the ridge, and toss off into the sea breezes—perfect for
a low-key driving vacation. That’s something we don’t have in New
York or New England, but Greg Smith tells us it’s true about
Wyoming and Terry Dwyer plotted 40 flyable sites along the
Skyline Drive in the Shenandoah National Park in Virginia.
We had spotted promising topography in the Goat Rock State
Park using the online California Coastal Records Project Web site,
and we spent the better part of a day there flying different sailplanes
from four different hills. That Web site is a superb resource for
flying-site searches, as are the Google Earth Internet service and the
DeLorme Topo USA software for an individual personal computer.
During our travels we met up and flew with Reed Sherman. He
gave us a superb demonstration of energy flying.
We also swapped stories, tips, and techniques with Dave Reese,
who gave us a dynamic soaring (DS) lesson at Sunset Beach in
Watsonville. The site is on the backside of a ridge that did not look
DSable until Dave demonstrated how to do it in a small area
between trees.
Another benefit of traveling is the opportunity to meet new and
interesting people. Dave Reese is a top-gun flier, photographer, and
videographer who brought us the Lift Ticket Slope Soaring, and travel
video. Reed designed, flies, and promotes the JART slope model.
08sig4.QXD 6/22/07 1:36 PM Page 116
decade ago at Sunset Beach in Watsonville,
and I met and flew with Reed many years
ago in the San Bernardino National Forest at
the Southern California PSS Festival. Those
guys know something about the joy of
traveling to fly slope.
It was a fine trip and I’d certainly do it or
something similar again—I hope before too
much time passes. Some ideas to make your
trip more convenient and productive follow.
• Selecting a destination: Start with Slope
Soaring events such as the Tri-Slope Six-
Pack in Washington, the Cape Blanco Slope
Fest in Oregon, the Southern California PSS
Festival, Soar Utah, or the Midwest Slope
Challenge in Kansas.
Add a few days to your trip for exploring
nearby flying sites. Ask event directors and
local fliers where additional worthy flying
sites are.
Use Internet resources to locate flying
sites, starting with avid traveler Greg
Smith’s slopeflyer.com and Soaring-club
Web sites. Use the “Flying Sites” section of
slopeflyer.com to see photos and
descriptions of more than 100 proven sites.
The “Links” section contains Soaringclub
sites, which often list flying sites. Club
Web sites tend to link to each other, and
you’ll easily find plenty of potential
destinations.
• Choosing a sailplane: It’s good to have
light, medium, and heavy gliders on your
trip to make use of a range of wind
conditions and to fly from large and small
hills. Consider building sailplanes with
removable wings and tail parts because they
pack smaller and you can take more with
you.
Bring EPP-foam sailplanes. These tough
models shrug off collision or landing
damage and allow you to spend more time
flying and less time repairing. Do bring a
repair and parts kit, though. There is no
sense in having an unflyable airplane for
want of a control horn or a clevis.
• Picking transportation: Purchasing airline
tickets in advance often allows lower fares
and more flexible flight-schedule selection.
Renting a minivan is economical and
provides plenty of hauling capacity for
sailplanes and luggage. National Car Rental
offers the Chevy HHR, and that cool retro
vehicle has lots of interior space.
Some fliers are happy to take their
sailplanes in SporTubes as airline checked
luggage. Jim and I shipped our models out in
advance by UPS to avoid the potential
problem of arriving at the destination with lost
luggage. Consider shipping in advance to a
local flier’s home or to a Mail and More
packing-and-shipping store.
I have flown sailplanes in nine states, and I
hope to double or triple that number before
I’m done. I have yet to fly at Sleeping Bear
Dunes in Michigan, the Indiana Dunes
National Lakeshore, the Shenandoah National
Park in Virginia, the buttes of Montana and
Idaho, or the plentiful hills of Wyoming.
Voyage, travel, and change of place
impart vigor.
—Seneca MA
Sources:
Dave Sanders’ Schweizer 1-26:
SkyKing R/C Products
www.skykingrcproducts.com
DSmodel Ocelot
www.dsmodel.cz/english/index.htm
Imported by SoaringUSA
www.soaringusa.com
JART (Reed Sherman)
www.jartworld.com
Pat Bowman Comanche
www.bowmanshobbies.com
Lift Ticket video
www.reeseproductions.com
Slope Soarer’s resource:
slopeflyer.com (Greg Smith)
www.slopeflyer.com
SporTube hard-case transportation systems
http://sportube.com
Aerial photographic survey