Well, the winds were H O W L I N G in the San Fransisco Bay
area today. I went up to Coyote, along with all the other
slope-deprived drooling fans of slice & dice today (Sunday).
I will remember that Winter 2000 went out with a flurry.
As usual, no one has a @#$*!&%)@*#$ clue where to launch and
land there, except me and my buddies and a few other diehard regulars.
Do you want do know where the landing pattern is at Coyote on the
weekend? As my friend Mark says, "Just look where everyone is standing
lays their backpacks and equipment." No concensus or regard or
forethought about where to stand and land whatsoever!
I fly there a lot during the week because I work 10 minutes away.
All the regulars know where to launch and where runway "28 left" is.
But try landing a glider there on the weekend. If you don't decapitate
someone, you'll be lucky to find a decent landing strip. That's
right, no IFR or control tower, and no one knows the rules of the road.
This buffoon consortium was there last weekend, and I damaged a plane
as a result. I'm used to be able to land in the obvious and generally
understood place. I was coming in high, bringing the plane around so I
could survey the scene without taking my eyes off my sky-squirrel, and
noticed people standing everywhere I needed to land, so I tried landing
a little to the left of them (ie. the only open spot). Of course my glider
is coming about from 30 ft up, I'm looking up, thinking everything's cool
for a flap-controlled descent. By the time my line of sight dropped low
enough and I saw the big rock in the glide path on the ground, it was too late,
and I damaged the glider. Hit the rock, glazed the wing and snapped the
fuse.
So forever screw Coyote on the weekends. For all the 'expertise'
out there, sometimes there isn't a brain in sight, starting with me,
for even thinking Coyote is acceptable on the weekend. Define weekend
at Coyote as the time when all the self-proclaimed experts all stand in
the landing path talking about wind direction and rotor and how
if a glider makes noise that means it has drag.
Here's another example of the caliber of individual that graces Coyote
on the weekend: Today, with wind screaming at 25-35 MPH today, making
flying pure endurance and little fun, with my glider redefining
the word "ceiling," some guy comes right up to me and starts blabbering
right in my face trying to get me to look at him. He was shocked when
I explained I couldn't take my eyes off the plane and didn't know who
he was. Duh. Nice to know you, whoever you were, and wherever you went.
Is there some sort of conspiracy I don't know about on weekends where
everyone wants you to crash?
-Paul
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