Ken Howells Hang Gliding & Paragliding Flight Log

Log from video. Blowing in lightly between Santa Anas. Easy soaring above the main ridge. Flew around. Video got stuck again. Glider good.

Log from video. Good launch next to PG. 8 FUN minutes of scratching. Switchy at LZ. Sweet no-wind no-stepper heading W.

Log from video. Clear, sunny. Pure sledder. OK no-wind landing.

Log from video. Soarable. Video froze again. Flew around, got up.

Log from video. Warm, clear. High clouds. Good launch, many passes but still a sledder. Good landing.

Log from video. Sunny. Long launch run. Pure sledder. Nice landing.

Log from video. UM in clouds (just). Easy soaring, none too high. Good landing in SSW 3.

Log from a couple of jpgs. Fire near CRS.

Log from video. Mylar sail. GoPro Hero 8 and Remote stopped communicating again 20 minutes into flight. Went to CRS, smooth top landing.

Log from video. No vario. Flew around successfully. Video hung before landing, only have audio. Sounded fine.

Log from video. Got up over Marshall. Hiked to get truck.

Log from video. No vario. Inverted. Waited 5 min. on launch for a cycle. Got up. Video hung 5 min before landing, only have audio. Sounded fine.

Log from video. Got up and flew around the Marshall area. Glider fine. Normal SW approach, a bit high. Dropped hard to the grass and took out Rt downtube.

Log from KMZ and video. Yet another typical sledder. Great no-step flare that I made a video of.

Log from video. Good soaring, no talking. Video ran out before landing.

Log from video. Glider bought from Kevin Williams, barely used. Pure sledder, sink over Ranch. Good landing.

Log from KMZ and video. Your basic sledder with just a few S turns to set up approach.

Log from KMZ and video. Late in the day. Worked to get up and go to Last Chance, then worked and worked to go up spine, eventually UM, Then dove down to land.

Log from video only. Quick sledder to a good landing.

Test flight of a production Sport 3 155 from the Marshall 750 launch at 2 in the afternoon. Overnight North with slightly-delayed onshore made for very clear and warm and still conditions with gust cycles increasing in frequency. Got up easily, glider flew great. Dove hard to land into a nice SW cycle. Got it on video :) [AI/OCR] Circling time made up 72% of the flight, with an average vario of 0.2 m/s. Landed after experiencing a 600 ft altitude loss during descent.

Log from video. Good launch. Didn't get up but flew around aggressively. Too close to M750 after spin recovery and gust. Splat on the wall. Tubage. No injuries.
Replace dtubes.

Log from video. No vario. Good launch, up below RGNLS in 7 min or so. Stuck below Cloud Peak altitude around 20 minutes before getting above UM. Occasionally made beeping sounds in lift; it helps sometimes. Dove to land and had an aggressive approach to landing on the 750 from WNW. Just a foot or so high. Had to push out to "float" just before going over SW edge. Came down vertically, dropping right wing, corner, and knee. Rt dtube bent & broken, Lt sheared at base when nose hit. No injuries.
Replace dtubes.

Log from video. No vario. Some clouds, soarable. Planned to fly around for about half an hour and then top land and that appears to be what I did. Except only about 10 minutes. Stayed right near UM.

Log from kmz & video. Great low save to (eventually) CRS.

Sunny. Your basic sledder with a few E-W passes. Video on high speed time lapse, no audio. Good landing.

(based on flight track, video and memory from 2024) First PG flight in a while. Almost sank out right away but had a low save up to the 750 and after traversing for a while I gained 250 briefly. Fely goo but that was enough. Ironically, had to find sink to land because the whole area of the LZ was lifting gently. Good Enough landing. Digifly Air and dangling GoPro.

Good launch, upper. Lots of active thermalling up and down the spines. Many pilots. Ok top landing, basetube down but no whack. Log from kmz & video. Two GoPros and music playing.

A little work to get up then less work. Got above UM. Log from kmz & video.

Good. VdVGT=52. Cloudy day after it was supposed to rain the day before. Late burn of the cloud layer, good lift. Touched cloudbase at Crestline and did some wangs. Blew-off first top landing approach due to hovering PGs. Second one good in breezy conditions. Touched the nose but not really a whack. GoPro was in some kind of zoomed Activity mode with extra smoothing. Looks like the camera pans sometimes but bumps on glider are cool. Lots of people out, mostly PG.

Day 3 of shelter-at-home for COVID-19. Went to LZ Saturday but wasn't really gonna fly. Rain forecast for the afternoon but utterly gorgeous morning. A few minutes on the bike. Decided during the ride that I'd fly-and-hike the 750 with the PG. Got camera and selfie-stick ready for first real use. Vario jostled off charger but truck and solar got me enough for the flight. At the LZ there was a little activity. Nacho Peresson has sunk from the 750. Dusty flew for the first time since surgery. I gave Nacho a ride to the 750 with the windows down. Wind cycles. Guy getting to 4k+ west of the LZ. He launched and was just maintaining above the 350. I got set-up with deliberation and care, waited out some strong cycles. First inflation I had to step sideways a bit and went to one knee, dropping the wing cleanly; later had a trickle of blood from the knee. The second inflation was square to the breeze and I ran off cleanly. Lift right there and I saw Nacho still at the bluffs. I climbed slowly while traversing and nacho started climbing from below. Felt GREAT! Didn't leave the strong lift (a modern first) and climbed on up to 3150' with Nacho gaining. Parked and climbed a couple of times. I had the GoPro on, tucked near my thigh, at this time. Stopped it and flew out a little as Nacho soared past.

Good. Frontal flow and low clouds arrived about 12 hours earlier than forecast. Good breeze in the LZ so I drove to the 750 and the breeze was good there also. By the time I had the glider set up the breeze had backed off to where it looked like a gamble. Ardent scratching in the gust collecting areas was fun until finally a core got me above launch after 10 minutes. Easy but not a gimme after that. Chilly at 4k, could have gone to base at 6k. Was ready to land and went West low,ctoc to the start of 2N40. Worked an expanding puff from there to Regionals. Dove in to land. Overshot PG cone to a no-stepper in light SW. GoPro on sprog, vario dead before launch.

Triple root zipper. Good. Scratched close to the hill above the 750 for a long time in tiny cores. The good list was away from the hill. Good SW breeze veered S as I was on final. A little awkward but ok landing.

Good. VT=21->23. Difficult little cores again. Pre--flared a little and killed much airspeed. Had to shove the bar out heroically. Got a foot forward and under me so no whack. Video. One mild wingover.

Good. Vt=24 VGL ->+ Moved hang pillar to aft hole. GoPro on sprog. Air felt moister than earlier. T3s without ACLER trimming fast? Old PG did really slow approach to HG side while I was setting up to land. He ground-handled across the LZ whole I tried to figure out where to land. I yelled for him to drop his wing but his stereo was too loud. Chuckled when I yelled at him.
Chunk missing out of right raked ttip.

Good all around. More of a steady SW flow, even moister feeling. Buoyant but no big climbs. No camera. Some wingovers and a good spin. Slower and flatter entries are so much better. Good landing into WSW. Hemmed and hawed and when I finally picked thew PG cone it was too far away.

Good. Luc Messier. Soarable but wasn't into it. Good landing. No instruments or camera.

Great. Vt=21. Clear, warm, and soarable. Gopro on left sprog. Swooped on Zac a couple of times.

Good. Vt=23->21. Soarable but mild inversion 3k. God's landing zero wind, dropped basetube. GoPro on keel.

Good. Vd=53 Vt=23->21

Good.Vt=22->21. Sank to Ranch at 350' and then milked a little bubble for all I was worth. It drifted into the hill eventually and turned on. Got above Marshall, barely. Did first ever intentional loop. Felt it slowing near the top (as expected) and pulled my weight toward the bar a little. It dove out clean. Might have yawed a little at the top (based on sprog video). Declined at the last second putting my old Hero2 camera on the keel looking forward. Dang. Good trot-out landing in S zero with lift in the middle of the LZ.

Good. Strong sink in front of launch but easy soaring to launch height. Good landing into light S. Hero10 on keel.

Good. Lots of sink. Zero wind at LZ. Flared hard with 1/4 VG but bellied-in and broke left downtube. On film.
Replace left downtube.

Good. Vt=23->22. Fuckin' zero wins at the LZ while trying to not work-out. Got lifted on final and ended up out by the PG ground handling area. Slid prone, no tube. No video.

Raked Tips. Good. Vt=21->21! Cooling off very rapidly, glad I flew with the gloves. Some bumps to work but tiny and drifty. Wind absent from LZ again. Flared hard with 1/4 VG but still had fwd momentum and put it down hard on the basetube.

Great. Vt=24->21. No climbs. GoPro on sprog.

Good. Vd cert video. No climbs, did two speed runs. Good landing. Right hand approach to break down area. GoPro on keel.

Good. A little scratching. Right hand approach to landing right at the PG cone ( stood it back up with my foot). No cameras.

Good. Good flare 10 feet short of HG cone.

Good. 1 hole left turn (twisted).