Flight #111

24 February 2024 • Marshall Peak • Hang I - Beginner

Took a tandem with Dan on the Wills Wing Tandem 225 off Marshall Peak. Winds were a steady 8mph or thereabouts and directly into the hill, so it was nice. I was quite shocked by how steep the Marshall Peak wooden launch ramp is. Photos and videos do not do it justice. I was nervous, but with a strong wind and that steep of a hill, I knew we'd get flying quickly and we did. It was a simple flight over to the 750' launch to the starboard side. We hung out around there and over the ranch. Dan showed me all the ground marks for the approach. I did S-turns until I was below the 750' and above the 400' launch. Then I flew over the pond to the obstruction-marked water tank. Once I passed the tank, I turned starboard and aligned straight to the two big thermal energy storage (TES) tanks at the university. I got aligned with the Visual Approach Slope Indicator (VASI) diamonds and flew back toward the mountain. At that point, Dan was ready to take over and land. We had a bit of a problem when Dan caught his arm in my harness lines and was unable to reach the downtubes. I realized I may be forced to belly-and the aircraft myself if he couldn't get his arm out, but he eventually got free and we came in to land. As we ran out the landing, we tripped over each other and whacked a little, but we were both safe and uninjured and the glider was not damaged. That gives me a total of about 272+ foot launch flights.