FlyinBarker

It has been a long time since I last posted…sorry to the few of you reading this!  So lets dive right in shall we….

This past April 17th – 23rd was the 2nd Annual Rob Kells Hang Gliding comp in southern Florida…way Southern FL at The Florida Ridge Flight Park in a little town called LaBelle.  Frances and I arrived the morning of the 16th hoping to fly but it was blown out.  The next 2 days were canceled due to rain but the last five days of the comp were on!  For those of you new to this stuff the comp works like this.  We (the pilots) are given a specific course to fly depending on the days weather and conditions.  We follow this course with a GPS in the air, making sure to “tag” all the turn points, which are various size “virtual” cylinders at each turn point.  The pilot with the fastest time for the task wins the day based on an elaborate scoring system…don’t ask me how it works!

There are 3 classes for the comp; Open, Sport, and Rigid wing.  Open is all the best pilots, Sport is for pilots new to comps with generally lesser performing wings, and Rigid wings are a different type of hang glider than what you might imagine.  They are wider and thinner than typical “flex” wing hang gliders.  So, I was in sport class as this was my first comp.  Sport class is also set up so we can learn a lot from the more experienced pilots and man I learned a lot.  There were pilots from around the world including the tip #1 and #2 guys along with some of the best in the US.  I really enjoyed meeting, hanging and flying with them.  Well, when I say flying with, I mean the few minutes they were thermaling with me  and then watching them race off in front of me!

Ok the flying…like I said we flew the last 5 days and I ended up 5th in Sport class out of 16 or 17 ppl.  I made some mistakes that held me back but I learned a bunch form them.  My 2 worst days went like this…

Day 1 – I made GOOOOOOAAAAAALLLLL! but I didn’t record my tracklog so I didn’t get the full amount of points.  Lesson — Turn on your instruments and make sure they are ready when you launch.

Day 4 – I only went 10km.  I was overly anxious to get out front and in doing so I flew myself right to the ground.  Lesson — Patience on tough days or sections.  Need to switch gears when the conditions demand it.

Over all it was an awesome experience.  I got to fly 5 days in a row and I had 2 flights over 20 miles.  My previous personal best was about 25 miles and on the last day I have a 31.5 mile flight!  I was pumped!  Frances had a great time driving retrieve for the pilots , made killer $$ doing that too.  She also got 5 instructional tandems towards here Hang 1 rating.  One with Jonny Durrand and the other with Jeff Shapiro.  She was stoked to get to fly with those guys as they are both incredible pilots and great people.  Check out her post about the comp HERE.

Ok enough…Pics.  First check these out taken by others…I’m in a few.

Day 1 GOAL – (before I figured out my GPS didn’t record the flight…dooooh).  Whatever, I was stoked!

Day 3 landing spot with Brandon.

5 mins after the pic above…Most Expensive umbrella ever!

Who just flew a personal best…this guy!  31.5 miles WoooHooo

My track log for my Day 5 Flight.  31.5 miles  1:57 hrs Flight time

Blue is high (4700′) and Red is low (50′).

Not more than 30 mins on the way home…guess sometimes you gotta pay to play.

Now that I have 1 big comp under my belt I’m totally hooked!  Frances and I are looking forward to Big Spring, TX in August.  I’ve been told its great air, long flights and big miles!  Who knows…maybe I will go 100 miles, I got a new best to beat!

Flights: 5

Flight time: 7 hrs

So its been a while since I posted anything.  The winter blues had me stuck on the ground here in SC.  But…the warm winds are returning and I have been out flying!!  Amazing what getting the feet off the ground does for the spirit!  Had a couple of good flights in Feb.  Both got me 4000′ over launch at Glassy.  The glassy ramp is  at 2560′ so I was at 6500′…a bit chilly in Feb.

The video is from my first flight.  Scratched around ridge height for 30 mins before I finally caught the thermal that took me to cloud base.  By the time I was up I couldn’t feel my fingers so I had to go land.  Once I was down my fingers felt like they were on Fire!   I need some warmer gloves next winter.

Flight time: 1 hr

Got to fly again on the the 20th and had some friends come out to watch.  My buddy Dave and his family came as did my friend Brian Walton.  Brian is a talented photographer and you can view his website and work HERE.  I’m glad he got to come out.  Here are some of the shots he took.  Click on the pics for the bigger version.  If you have Google Earth you can click on the HERE to download and see my flight in 3D.  This was recorded by the GPS I fly with.  You can download Google Earth here for free.

Ready to go!

Off the Ramp and right into a Thermal!

Just off launch and climbing.

Nick launched after me but didn’t find anything till he was low over the LZ.  He fought with it and gained 3-400′ back but it slipped away and he had to deck it.

Meanwhile, I was on my way up to 4050′ over launch.

Monty launched next and had some fun in front of launch for the cameras before thermaling up.

Frances was taking pics and filming launches.  I can’t wait till she is up there flying with us!

Monty wanted to say hello to the plane also!  Seriously, this was close.  I was 1km away but Monty was pretty much right there with the plane.  One of those “Holy Shit did you see that?!?!” moments!

Apparently I haven’t paid dues to the Aluminum gods lately.  The LZ was really tricky and I got knocked all over the place.  I think I was still knocking some of the winters rust off.

Flight Time: 1:30 hrs

I’ll be heading down to Wallaby Ranch in Florida next week.  Wills Wing is doing their 13th annual fly-in and party that I have been wanting to go to for years.  It will be good to go down and get some practice in before the Rob Kells comp in the middle of April.  I will have a lot going on for the next 2 months so I (hopefully) be posting more often.  Spring Time!!!  WOOOOHOOOO!

So having just spent the better part of 24 hours on planes yesterday I was feeling the need to do a little piloting of my own.  So after going into work this morning…yes I went even after getting in late from China…I went out to Glassy for what I hoped would be a bit of soaring.  I had checked the weather 48 hrs earlier in Hong Kong and this morning it still looked good.  I fired off some emails to entice anyone with the day off to join me.  Lucky for me my buddy Tim said he would meet me up top to help make sure I got off safely.  Also turned out that Frances got off work early and she came along as well.

When we got up to the top it was blowing pretty straight in during the thermal cycles.  I took a few moments to watch the cycles and see how long they lasted and how strong they were.  It all looked good so I set up and got ready to launch around 3pm.  I picked a nice cycle…”CLEAR”…and 3 seconds later I am free.   Flew for about an hour and gained 2000′ over the top of the mtn.

OK so everyone wants pics…here are some of the better ones today.

So I just got to China and I’m stoked that I can update my blog from here.  Facebook and Twitter are blocked over here.  The flight over and back is always the least enjoyable part of the journey with it being 15+ hours on a plane.  However this trip I actually got some good sleep and didn’t feel like a total zombie.  The driver who was waiting for us looked more wiped out than us.  Our plane was delayed 4 hours so he had a lot of time on his hands waiting for us to land.  Once outside we waited for him to go get the car and this little beauty was sitting outside for me to drool all over!

You see a lot of nice cars in Hong Kong!

The hotel I’m in is super nice and I have stayed here once before.  Last time they had the place all done up Disney ripoff style and they called it “Groovy Wonderland”.  It was pretty funny.  They had the staff dressed up in all kinds of knock off Disney characters.  In the morning Snow White would seat you at your table and in the evening,  Jasmine from Aladdin would serve drinks in the cocktail lounge upstairs.  We had quite a few laughs about it last time we were here.  This time…no theme.  The name of the Hotel is The Goodview.  Check it out here.  I can’t wait to go get in the pool tomorrow after we do some work first.  Here’s hoping I get some sleep tonight.  I’m 13 hours ahead of my body clock!

So this past weekend Frances and I went to Austin for her birthday to see her friends and family.  It was the big 30 for her and we had a great time. As always when visiting Austin the pace was non stop!

We arrived Thursday night and immediately went to Olive Garden with her parents and sister.  She loves that place and I must admit that I enjoy it too.  Saturday was spent seeing friends and taking care of some Texas specific business.  That evening we had a party at her sisters house for Frances, her dad, brother-in-law, and myself…we all have October birthdays.  Now to say that Jackie (Frances’ sis) went all out planning this little soiree is an understatement.  We had homemade hats specific to each of us (there were 8 of us there), M&M’s with print on them for the birthday boys and girl, a mix of all our favorite music playing, and our favorite dishes for dinner plus favorite cakes.  We had to send all this info to Jackie and she worked her magic.  Thanks Jackie!! It was a lot of fun.

Check out the red hang glider on my hat!

Saturday we went to go see the Michael Jackson movie “This Is It” in IMAX.  I loved it.  I have always liked MJ’s music and this was going to be an awesome tour.  Go see it and on IMAX if you can.  Halloween night we went to 6th street in Austin.

Reminds me of Mardi Gras!

Michael Phelps and Morning Wood

Handmade 'Max'. Best one all night. She was totally into it!

The rest of the night was spent watching LC Rocks.  Frances’ favorite 80’s cover band.  We closed the place down and then went to breakfast with a bunch of the band and crew.  They are a lot of fun and they sure miss Frances since I  ’stole’  her away.  We finally crawled into bed around 6:30 am.  Haven’t done that in a looong time.  If you get the chance to go to 6th street in Austin for Halloween, don’t miss it.  It was crazy fun.

Well it’s my Birthday too!  OK…Actually last Saturday the 10th was.    Its was a great weekend in Greenville.  The weather was nice most of the weekend and we also had our annual Fall for Greenville event.  It is a lot of fun with good music and food all weekend.  My friends OJ and Kat came down Friday night from Asheville for the night before taking off to Florida the next morning.  My buddy Nick who I fly with also came up from Clemson.  We caught the tail end of Shooter Jennings and then watched JJ Grey & Mofro.  It was smack your ass fun.

Shooter

JJ Grey & Mofro

The next day (birthday day) Frances and I went downtown to walk around and eat.  It was actually my first trolley ride into downtown G-ville.  The free Trolley into and around downtown is a really nice perk when you live close to the city center.  So, I was feeling a bit hazy from the night before but a few tasty beverages fixed that right up.  We met up with Richard who had his Aunt and some friends in town and showed them around a bit.

Here’s a pic of me a Richard being ourselves and pulling the statue’s finger.  I’m trying to make the “Oh my god what is that smell face”  but the little girl passing me was making me laugh at myself.

Setting good examples...

Well…I said I would write and I didn’t.  I have no delusions that you all have been waiting around for an update…or maybe you have!

Well then…Let’s get right to the meat of it.  Team Challenge was a blast.  Awesome people, fun format, and all around good time.  The TC is a “learning” competition for H3 Intermediate pilots who are new to cross country flying.  A number of top pilots were in attendance to help all of us fledglings who flounder below them.  Seminars were held daily on subjects ranging from weather, flight computer use, XC landing skills, soaring, and lots more.  It almost felt like Hang Gliding school for a week.  Yes I loved it…

I will have more to put up soon but here is a short video of me crossing over the powerlines south of Hensons Gap.  I get a bit of PIO but not bad.  It was bumpy crossing the lines and I should have slowed down and worked the lift that was kicking me around.  I guess I was just in GO mode.  Check out the pack of 4 gliders that passes under me.

Flight Time: 1:55hrs     Mileage: 17.1

Yup I’ve got everything packed up…In the car already.  We’re leaving tomorrow morning and the dogs are already not happy.  I am really excited  about this trip as it is my first competition.  Granted it is geared more towards teaching competition techniques and has a different format than other competitions, it is still a competition.  I’m looking forward to a great week of flying, learning, and meeting new friends.  Honestly, I’m a bit nervous too.  I want to do well, by my own standards.  I want to make the goal set for the day but I also realize that learning requires making mistakes.  I love that about this sport.  You can look back on a day when you bombed out while everybody else was at cloudbase and almost always pinpoint the decision that decked you.   I just hope I learn fast!!

The weather is looking pretty good for the week at this point and I can’t wait to get in the air!!

My flying gear below.

What’s that lying on my harness???  Is it…oh yes it is!!  Allman Brothers and Widespread Panic tickets for the day after the comp!!  I can’t think a much better way to wrap the week up.  I think I’m gonna have HAPPY FEET!

Hello World.  Matt Barker here and thanks for visiting from where ever you are!

So I’ve been wanting to get a blog going for some time now and thanks to my friend Jeff, I finally have it live.  SO…what is this all about?  Well everything I guess but mostly Hang Gliding.  Along the way I will undoubtedly get to talking about something other than flying but I love to fly and now I really get to share it with you!  So here’s to my first post and thanks for checking out my site!

This past August I picked up my brand spankin’ new WillsWing U2 160 hang glider from Lookout Mountain Flight Park.  Previously I was flying a 10M Pulse.  For those of you who don’t know…there is a BIG difference in the performance of a Pulse and a U2.  The U2 is faster, glides further, and gets a better sink rate.  Basically, lots more fun!!

Here is a clip of my second launch.  It was blowing in around 12-17mph and I gained 1000′ right off of launch.  “Elevator to the top floor please!”

Big Ups!!

Below is a pic right after my first landing.  I am in love with this new wing!

If your grinnin' your winnin'

So thanks for checking out the new site.  Stay tuned cuz there is gonna be lots more.  In fact this coming weekend is the beginning of the Tennesse Tree Toppers Team Challenge.  It is a hang gliding comp designed around the idea of teaching intermediate pilots XC (cross country) and competition skills.  I am stoked to go and learn and fly and learn and fly!!  Next year I am planning on attending some of the bigger comps around the country.

Can’t wait.