Very Funny.......But True!

Just a pic from the archives.

The following courtesy of Sherry Williams.

Only two blacks were newly elected to congress this cycle, and both are Republican. Ret. Army Lt. Colonel Allen West is from southern Florida, a bastion of the Democratic Party. He won in a walk. Check this out.

This new Congressman was an extremely popular commander in Iraq. He was forced to retire because during an intense combat action a few of his men were captured. At the same time his men had captured one of the guys who were with the Iraqis who captured his men.

Knowing that time was crucial and his interrogators were not getting anywhere with the prisoner, Colonel West took matters into his own hands. He burst into the room and demanded through an interpreter that the prisoner tell him where his men were being taken. The prisoner refused so Colonel West took out his pistol and placed it into the prisoner's crotch and fired. Then, the Colonel told the prisoner that the next shot would not miss. So the prisoner said he would show where the American service members were being taken. The Americans were rescued. Someone filed a report on incorrect handling of prisoners. Colonel West was forced to retire. Colonel West was just elected in November 2010 to Congress from Florida. During the elections he was part of a panel on how to handle or how to relate to Muslims. You will see his answer here.

Here is one of the new congressmen from Florida explaining very definitively in just over a minute the truth about Islam.

Wills Wing Poster Boy

A surprise last month when I received a text from Lisa V, "wow, great full page spread!". Turns out Wills Wing used a pic Ryan Voight took of me at Heber this past summer. The ad is a nice full page spread. The pic was also used for the USHPA annual hang glider calender.

December at the South Side

I usually don't fly after the middle of November. It's just to cold and the motivation isn't there. In fact, the last few years the end of October has been the end of the flying season for me.

This year's been different. We've had some unseasonably warm weather that's given the opportunity for some late season flying. Yesterday and today the abnormally warm temps got my flying juices moving. Yesterday, John L., Sam, Cal and myself flew in great conditions at the SS. Today it was stronger. I did the unfathomable and actually got set up before the sun came up. The sunrise was amazing! Sam, John and I managed an hour of sorties with multiple top landings in reasonably smooth air. I even climbed up even with Blue Balls in the pre-nuking conditions. By 9:30 it was over with gusts pegging over 35mph. Very worth the effort.


Sam gets an unwanted obstacle on one of his landings.


Notice Sam in the upper right hand corner.



John L. was heard saying, "at least we can say we flew".

Flock Of Birds

A lil' vid of flying in Salt Lake 2010

The New CPR

A very interesting development in the delivery of CPR. As a member of the PCMR Ski Patrol, I wonder if or when proffesional rescuers will adopt this new technique?

11/02/10

Yesterday Dan Moser and I drove out to Randolph. The conditions were a bit iffy, with most wind forecasts calling for light west. We were joined by Matt Shoemaker and his parents (potential tandems). Later on Shadd, Ryan and Carl showed up. As we set up the wind slowly clocked around from NNW to WNW and the Glass once again faithfully turned on. Everyone got over an hour of smooth evening soaring, even Matt with a passenger - his mom.


Matts Mom.

Hmmm!

Randivous

A little movie from yesterdays activities. One note of interest, Cody is back flying and is seen launching first on the vid. Wes, Cal, Matt, Greg, Dan, Casey and I, also flew. It was a strong day wind wise with thermals topping out over 12g. Casey Ben had a gain to 12.5g. Greg and I had fun coring up in one of the stronger thermals of the day. The lift was consistent over the valley later in the day. Matt penetrated all the way out to the highway and was still high returning to the LZ. Shadd and Liz were also present at launch, but opted not to fly because of the wind strength. Great day.

Randvous 10/15/10 from Bruce Hibbard on Vimeo.

Centerfold

The recent August issue of HangGlider ParaGliding magazine, featured an unknown pilot in the centerspread. I actually had the mag a few days before realizing it was me in the pic. My first reaction was - what a bad pic for the centerspr..... oh god it's me!

Duran Swooping a Hotel

Randolphing

Tuesday 25 hangs made the drive to Randolph from SLC and the surounding areas. I believe, 25 hangs had great soaring flights over the Crawfords.

I launched around 4pm and soon after a litteral swarm of hangs followed into a premium Autumn sky. The wind was perfectly T-boning the hill at 18 to 20mph, with nice thermals that topped out around 9000asl.



Dave Holmgren passes beneath me.



Flying out over the flats.




Looking down at launch.



The LZ after most everyone is down.

Fantastic Video

A great base jumping vid. Thought I'd share.........enjoy!

Last Walk Around Mirror Lake - Boom Bip (Boards of Canada Remix) from FroschYankee on Vimeo.

Just Good Fun (part 2)

Once again, the Crawford's produced! Eight pilots converged on one of Utah's favorite and most scenic flying sites. The day began with less than great looking conditions, with light winds and almost 80% cloud coverage. Once set up on top, the wind picked up and the clouds began to dissipate. Dave Chapman launched first in light winds and immediately climbed out. One by one, all eight of us launched and found great soaring conditions. I ended up spending most of my flight over the flats. The lift was just abundant everywhere. I climbed to cloud base on three occasions, one of which was right over the the town of Randolph. I had to fly south of Randolph a few miles, and away from the cloud coverage just to get out of the lift.......cold!!


Looking back toward the Crawfords from the valley.



Dave, ready to go.



Jeff Sharp, a Colorado pilot, finishes setting up.

A few pics from my glider.

Just Good Fun

A shot Ryan Voight took of me launching at Heber.


I've been so pigeon holed with XC on the brain, I forgot how much fun it is to just go flying without the expectations of big miles.

Friday was a great day at Randolph. Liz, Berg, Greg, Steve and I had one of those days. Steve launched his new Atos, and what a beautiful wing. We all had great local flights. There was one mishap on launch (no injury), that prevented liz from flying. Liz came back Monday and had a good flight.

The new T2's are so nice, especially in stronger conditions. Greg, Steve and I penetrated up wind into a strong WSW flow at will. The abundant lift was topping out around 10.5. Steve and I shared one of the strongest cores of the day, averaging around 800 fpm. One minute Steve was there, the next he was a shimmering thin line a quarter of a mile out, then gone.

We all landed, then off to Don Pedros.

A Few Flights to Mention

This summer has been slow coming, with few great flying windows. However, there are some mentionable days to account for.

In August, A new sight called Red Cliffs produced a few spectacular flying days. On one particular day, I was the first to launch among five other pilots. In the first half hour of my flight, a nice organized cell landed me at 15k. With a brisk southerly component, I was able to cruise downrange toward Salt Lake and make Mt. Nebo in minutes. I have always wanted to soar Nebo. The mountains around the Nebo Area are some of the highest and most majestic peaks in Utah. There was a cloud street pushing northeast from Nebo all the way across the Spanish Fork area. The street looked like it dissected the Wasatch and extended into the next state. I ended up getting flushed and landing close to Pason for about 23 miles. My flight was eclipsed by John Glime and Shadd Heaston. They were able to fly back toward Salt Lake. Shadd flew to Provo for 50+ miles, and John almost made the point for 60. I was just happy to get on Nebo and enjoy the grand scale of the area.

Heber produced a few disappointments, as well as a few fun local flights. On one particular flight, I got the opportunity to fly a few miles east of launch to a mountain I have thought about pioneering. The lift on the mountain was workable and actually sustained my flight for ten minutes or so. I landed in a nice big field just below a possible launch.

Yesterday, Ryan V drove for a few of us. Kip, a pilot from the East Coast, Brian from SLC and myself had nice flights at the Crawfords. I was able to work some interesting wave type lift out front. After launching, I drove forward toward Randolph climbing through light patchy lift. As I continued there were short cycles of sink, then back into lift. This cyclic lift continued a few miles to the west. I dove back toward the ridge and enjoyed the rest of my flight thermaling on the Crawfords. After landing, Kip and Brian went back up top for a relight. The wind picked up a bit and we had to wait out until the anticipated glass off happened. They ended the day with rewarding sunset flights.

Concrete Counter Tops

Six years ago I built a 4'x5' concrete counter top for a kitchen island that I built. I somehow forgot the pain and what a complex process the whole affair was. So this summer I decided to replace all of our kitchen counter tops with polished concrete tops that match our island top.


This section has a under counter mounted sink. A sink pop-out is incorporated in the mold.



The pop-out is positioned and secured in the 3/4" melamine mold. All of the inside corners are sealed with silicone.



3/8" rebar is used for strength. The concrete will be a 2 1/2" pour! How could anyone afford to have this done? Just buy granite!

South Side 9/01/10

Pics from Saturday at the South Side.

Short Divide

Sunday as with every weekend this summer, the weather was hard to call. The day before was another skunk, so I was in no mood for any more bad calls - crap! Given the instability still present and possible over development lingering, we decided to drive north to the Short Divide, where there was less chance of OD.


Lisa V was set up and ready to go within the hour of arriving at launch. The wind at launch was strong but the site handles strong conditions amazingly well. However, after getting Lisa in the air I was a bit concerned about getting myself to launch, much less launching unassisted.


Cody called before I was set up to inform me that he was available for driving, and that he was on the road heading for launch. Since Cody lives pretty close, I was hoping he might be on top to help me into the air. He instead informed me he was an hour away and not to worry about the wind, "just inch your way down - you'll be OK".




It wasn't as bad as I thought, and soon I was launched and in the air with Lisa. To the south, in front of launch, the air was clear but over the back there were a few cells that were dropping virga - pre gust front conditions, not good. Once well established above 10 grand and well above Gunsight peak, Lisa headed north along the mountains on the east side of Malad Valley. I soon followed as it appeared the OD would stay NE of that area. We soon realized the wind at our altitude was out of the west, which typically makes for turbulent conditions. The air was quite textured with plenty of strong lift, as we made our way north under the building cloud development.

About as far as I got was Portage, about seven miles north of Gunsight. Lisa flew a bit further crossing into Idaho. In lieu of the strong conditions and fear of getting swamped by the OD, we both decided to call it and head back to the Short Divide. We drove back south and had nice landings in a field close to the Plymouth Chevron Station, thanks to Cody's guidence. As soon as we landed the clouds above Malad Valley were dropping Virga!

Even though it wasn't a long flight, the fun conditions made up for the lack of miles.