You will be excited to learn more. Get your 2020 Funston sticker by mail. When senior pilots see you looking, even staring, at them, they will be impressed. If you are diligently listening to it, you will be ready to do your part when it quits flying, i.e., flare. When you pick up your glider, concentrate on having it balanced - not level. You can sleep in your bed at home and you don't need a driver for retrieval. Its content is produced independently of USA TODAY. On strong days wind speeds are over 25 mph at fifty feet. By opening the window of your flying abilities, you have opened many more available days to your flying time. Those who believe they know how to fly after ten hours air time do not have the proper attitude to come to the Fort. Yet another unwelcome component adds misery to this deteriorating state of affairs: the left wing is closer to or over the cliff edge, encountering lift, which further banks the glider and accelerates the turn. We need not say that flying through it is perilous. Make sure you have a clear understanding of the beach landing before you ever launch. There is another way to counter and control the natural forces generated on the glider for those who insist on going off wings-level: get wire "help." What time is high tide? Landing at the Fort in strong crosswinds is another matter altogether. You should have taken some time to walk around the LZ with an experienced pilot. Most blown launches at the Fort happen in NW conditions. For first timers, we advise wind speeds around 15-18 mph and not more than 15 degrees cross. Consistently flyable winds year round, easy access from all over the SF Bay Area, a variety of challenging and rewarding weather conditions, convenient top landing, and the near-mythical Funston Shear make it an all-around favorite. Practice high-speed flying - with no PIO. This is strange because the average pilot, when he goes to the mountains will not launch if it is cross because he can't hold the glider level and pointing down the fall line. Check out this list of common questions. Home | BBS Discussions | | Site Guide | Rules, Bylaws, and Forms That's the kindergarten stuff. The bottom line is that your Funston schooling may be the best preparation available to put you at the top of the pack in every respect, especially in safety and proficiency. You use the time to learn to turn and fly in high-volume traffic, keeping your awareness of every glider in the air. At the coast, we are ready for the flare at any time in our ground skim. Many pilots believe that there can be nothing at the coast that can help them in their thermal flying. We cannot over-emphasize: you must have a proper understanding of airspeed as it relates to gradient and rotors. For the first day, your only task is to fly at the top of the band, back-and-forth fashion - the way some pilots say is the only thing to do there. If you do not want to push your margin, make the decision before coming out. Suddenly all your airspeed is gone in the rotor and you are hanging from sixty-some pounds of dead weight. Funston is a school where you may learn about and practice from basic to the most advanced techniques. It is even narrower if the velocity (remember that velocity is speed and direction) changes more north. Now that you have completed your basic training - launch, ridge soaring, awareness and landing for about 20 hours - you are ready to begin your education. 1), restoring it into the relative airflow. You may have to land there. In addition, you must be under the direct supervision of a Funston Tandem Instructor or the Fellow Feathers Tandem Administrator. We now have some extra lockers in the clubhouse.Contact the Clubhouse Manager if you're interested in one. This primer may help prepare you to make the most of the Funston Experience and place you ahead of those who won't come out. (Below 15 mph requires scratching close to the cliff and high skills to be able to squeak the glider in for a top landing. Chasing Funston. Over half the flying is outside the comfort window for new pilots. You can drive one hour and fly for six, instead of the reverse, as when you go to a mountain site. By the same token, learning is about constantly pushing at the window frame. History.... Site Geography.... Club Overview. If you enjoy flying in large doses, the Fort is where it happens. Practice looking at every pilot - not just his or her glider. You see why hang glider training is best in no-wind or light, straight-in wind conditions. If you have three people, one on the nose and one on each wing, they can control the glider because they have their feet on the ground and they are out far enough from the CG to have sufficient leverage to muscle the forces. Home | BBS Discussions | | Site Guide | Rules, Bylaws, and Forms Club Calendar | Meeting Minutes and Reports | Contact Us/Club Officers| Photo History Archive | Photo Gallery | Flying Funston Mentors Thus, the relative flow is the combined effect of the actual wind and the flow caused by the movement of the glider. That horizon stuff is for those who will forever be stuck in a wings-level mindset. With a III, you have the basic skills of launching, turning and landing the glider, and that's about it. All forces on the glider are balanced, and you are not using muscle and sinew to try to counter natural forces. If there is a nice rotor between your ground skim and the intended spot, your plan will be in the toilet when the glider meets the rotor. You are accustomed to skimming over the ground to your spot when you land. You will find that you may almost put the keel parallel to the cliff on your final. We in the San Francisco Bay Area have a rare privilege. 3) The pilot is unaware of what forces are upon his glider. Be mentally prepared to initiate your turn seconds after launch. Only landing experience in large doses will bring the competence and confidence you need to fly successfully at Funston. Practice landings (you hope the same number as the launches). First priority: go out and look at the beach. Unhappily, most pilots who come out get stuck at the basics: launch, fly to the top of the band back and forth and land, all when conditions do not exceed 18 mph straight in. The intermediate rating is really the springboard to learning how to fly. This usually prompts mild panic and a beach landing. When wind speed increases at the Fort, it will be from the NW 90% of the time. Area #1 is safe but quite narrow. Now that you're in the band, you feel that sweet lift. Following a running launch you suspend yourself from a hang strap attached to the underside of the frame. Circa late 70's w/Antares over Funston. On the ground it may be as little as 5 mph. Apart from the rotors, the key to a safe, successful landing is understanding airspeed. To train, you must have at least an H1 rating with an observed turn and cross wind landing proficiency, sign waivers, participate in a site orientation and attach a hook knife to your harness so you can cut sail. The Next club meeting will be on Thursday, November 5th at 7:00 PM Dave Ruiz goes 'Karate Kid' on the hackey sack. Dog owners will be happy to know they can take leashes off here. In the case of the NW wind, the glider will yaw to the right. So why don't more of the new Hang III's come out to Funston? Very cross winds involve even more specialized launch skills.). Hang gliding dates back to Leonardo da Vinci, although it fell out of favor with the Wright Brothers as people became more interested in powered flight. For example, a left approach to area #2 flies over the rotor. Broken keels, leading edges and down tubes are the usual casualties. The safety of a longer walk is well worth it. Club Calendar | Meeting Minutes and Reports | Contact Us/Club Officers| Photo History Archive | Photo Gallery | Flying Funston Mentors Commercial training is prohibited, but you can find a trainer by contacting the Fellow Feathers of Fort Funston Hang Gliding Club (flyfunston.org) that manages hang gliding at the fort. You will learn how efficient it is to make a perfect turn. In fact, you have to pull in and increase your descent rate. As wind strength increases, the energy of the rotors increases and they last longer. If you land in it, it will only be dumb luck if you get out unscathed. Funston Primer Helmet Stickers | Tandem Flights | | For Sale/Wanted Photo by Chip. Fort Funston features 200-foot high sandy bluffs on San Francisco’s southwest coast where the winds blow reliably wildly. But be continuously aware. Funston Primer Helmet Stickers | Tandem Flights | | For Sale/Wanted The nose of the glider belongs heavenward when the glider quits flying. Take the glider out to launch and let it "find" its own keel line in the relative air flow. Fort Funston Hang Gliding The updrafts from the beach and the strong onshore airflow create the perfect lift for hang gliding when the conditions are right. 4) Each time the pilot uses this incorrect procedure, it reinforces his belief that the "method" is in fact correct and that one cannot be safe without wire assistance. Soaring doesn't begin until the glider is in the lift band. We never see him again. The 200ft high bluffs on the most western edge of San Francisco, Fort Funston is one of the premier hang-gliding spots in the country. Joe Murray began writing professionally in 1980. Fun with charcoal and meat at the Fort. Four more levels require increasingly difficult proficiencies. The function of wire help in this case is merely to help you get the glider balanced. If the glider is angled to the wind, sweep induces forces that will yaw the keel into the relative wind: the upwind wing sees more wind than the downwind wing. Learn to fly comfortably close to another glider. Just don't get stuck there, for there is more, much more to come. Paragliders, which are similar, do not have the frame and are more elliptical. Whenever the glider is in motion, air moves over the wing, and the glider "sees" it the same as if there were a wind blowing. Before we continue, let's define relative airflow. Practice scratching in the marginal lift. You should learn to begin your launch immediately when your wing is balanced: holding the glider longer allows slight buffeting to put you out of balance, and you will become fatigued ane more stressed. At the back of the LZ the wind is more north than it is on the cliff. © 2020 USATODAY, a division of Gannett Satellite Information Network, Inc. (Photo: Medioimages/Photodisc/Photodisc/Getty Images ), National Park Service: SF Parklands - Fort Funston, The United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association: Pilot Proficiency System, The United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association: About the Association, The United States Hang Gliding and Paragliding Association: Ratings and Special Skills, Fellow Feathers Fort Funston: Training Bowl Rules, Fellow Feathers Fort Funston: Tandem Regulations, Fellow Feathers Fort Funston: Helmet Stickers, Golden Gate National Parks Conservacy: Fort Funston, The Difference Between Airplanes & Gliders, Hang Gliding in Fort Funston, San Francisco, Privacy Notice/Your California Privacy Rights, Medioimages/Photodisc/Photodisc/Getty Images.

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