M ay 17 - 2 0 2 0 0 9 KHK OBX

MAY 17 2009,
I was late to the closing ceremony and thought I
missed everything. Then I overheard some of the pi-
lots talking about flying at the beach. It was overcast,
rainy, and a gusty north west, so I thought they were
joking. I heard someone ask who had a glider rack on
their car, and playing along I spoke up and said I did.
In no time I was parked behind the shop tying down a
glider. There was no way I wasn’t going to witness this.
We headed to a public beach access not too far away and
we set up the falcon 195. It was wet and cold and soarable.
Lazer was the first to take off. slowly he bumped his way
up the ridge and once we knew it could be done it was

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on. TJ got some flights in. Then Brian and John. Johnny
showed up and took a ride and showed us some true dune
gooning moves. More pilots showed up and I can’t remem-
ber everyones names. I was just watching and learning
(and taking pics and shivering). Everyone was pretty much
just crabing north the only person who was doing down
wind turns was Lazer. He was doing awesome. Lazer is the

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Tug Pilot out at Currituck and all the experience shows.
He always seems stoked to be in the air. He was fun to
watch especially when he zoomed by turning down wind.

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MAY 18 2009,
Monday I went to the ICP clinic Paul Voight was giving
and the weather was still wet with northwest wind. No one
was planning on trying to fly the dune after and I need to
pay rent and take care of paper work anyway. After I left
the warehouse I thought I head over to the beach just to see
if it were soarable. I
caught a glimpse of a
wing and sure enough
there were some pilots
at the hotels. Mark
was flying the big new
Moyes glider and Bri-
an had his Pulse. TJ
was taking turns on
both. At first the wind
was gusty and pretty
cross from the north,
but as the sunset it
started to smooth out
and even staighten
up a little. Mark and
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 TJ were getting to where they were
soaring as high as the fifth floor.
The sky started to look beautiful
and then my battery died. Again
I was just watching and trying to

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learn all I could be-
fore I took my glid-
er to the beach. All
the people in the ho-
tels were out watch-
ing and taking pho-
tos. Some people
were even getting
into it, shooting and
hooting when the
made the gap over
a boardwalk, and
when they were making passes and getting higher. Brian
was getting tons of flights in working on his H3. So as
soon as he landed he was hiking back up to launch again.
Beach Flying isn’t prohibited or anything but it is usu-
ally kept on the “down lo”. Biggest rule is NO CRASHING.

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 MAY 19 2009,
Of course everyone at the ICP clin-
ic found out about the Flying that
happened the day before and we were
all happy to finish early and head
out to the beach. I loaded my glider and was ready to go.
We had a bigger group show up and Paul Voight and Jim
Prahl even came. They had their own harnesses and I
let them fly my Falcon. It may have been a little small for
them but they flew it very well. I probably flew 7 or eight
times. For me Thats a lot of times to launch and land in
one day. I’m starting to get used to launching that much or
more now. For me and a few others it was the first time to
ever fly at the beach. I
learned some good tips
from others and had a
great time. I only tried
a down wind turn once
and chickened out too soon,
turned back and was headed
out to sea, I came down with
speed and did a POM slider
right at the waters edge. I’m
sure it looked cool but it wasn’t
on purpose. It was getting dark-
er and my lens was all wet and
foggy, but I kept shooting. At
about this time I realized, with
such a mix of pilots, we were
having a soaring “session”. Not
a comp, it wasn’t a Fly in. Some
were locals but most weren’t, but
nothing official or organized. We
weren’t trying to pass anything
off. We were just...Flying. Condi-
tions were good (enough), we had
gliders, and it was tons of fun.
Nicole from Quest had some
of her first foot launching that

night on the beach.

The next day,

MAY 20 2009,
she got her Foot
Launch and land-
ing pass offs and
had about 25 or
more flights. Start-
ing in the flats and
then working her
way all the way to the top off Jockeys Ridge. We all did
a little bit soaring that day too. I’ve been here about 3
weeks and have been flying almost everyday. I’m start-
ing to really like the eaglets and Im so stoked to be flying
with others. Especially because most of them are amaz-
ing YOUNG Pilots. Anytme the conditions get good were
out pushing each other and keeping each other safe.
The greatest part of being here is getting the chance to
teach people to Hang glide. Even if I’m dead tired, whenever I
see some one catch on and feel the same Joy I get flying, I get
super stoked. Every day I’m smilling and laughing like I was
10 years old and flying a kite for the fisrt time. Life is good.
-EM