Demo Days Plus 2018 Video

The Skydog Report

Thursday April 5, 2018 and Wills Wing Demo Days at Wallaby Ranch begins. Steve Pearson, Dave Aldrich and Kendrick Stallard have a trailer loaded with new gliders. The wind this morning is too strong for tandems so there is lots of socializing taking place. Maureen and I go for a 25 mile bike ride and when we return a few people are getting ready to fly so I get my equipment together. Larry Bunner lands having flown in from Quest Air and Larry says there is lots of lift left, Brian Ridder and Tom Niblick get off first and I follow with Reed Sparks and Griffin behind me. Moritz Wagner from Rochester arrived today and had a good flight. Fay Barber puts me into a good thermal just north of Wallaby Ranch but I loose it and get down to 800 feet ato when I finally find lift coming out of launch at the south end of the Wallaby field. I work it back up to 2 grand when I see Griffin in some lift over the pasture to the south of Wallaby so I work my way into the lift and follow it to the west over the orange groves. Griffin doesn't want to follow the lift back as far as I did as he is flying a new WW Sport 3 and was not sure what to expect for penetration. I work the thermal close to Hyw 4 and get up to 3,850 feet ato and finally I decided to head back to the Ranch. The air was fairly buoyant so I played around in lift areas for a few more minutes and landed with a flight of 1 hour and 7 minutes. I noticed one of the new Demo glider landing just after me. Brian Ridder brought a cart and we pushed my T2C back to the staging area where there were lots of pilots hanging out. I see Davis Straub and Ken Kinzie there so they must have flown in from Quest also. There were lots of pilots checking out the new Wills Wing Gliders on display. Malcolm Jones had a Great vocalist and a guitarist for our entertainment while we had a wonderful meal. The forecast looks great for Friday so we are excited to get into the air again.

Steve Pearson - Wills Wing Sport 3

Bob - Tennessee

Steve Ready To Launch

Dave Aldrich - Wills Wing

The Skydog Report

Friday April , 2018 and another sunny day. Tandems and demo gliders are on the go this morning and we shoot some photos. The soaring forecast is great and shows an early start so I get ready by noon push out to the soccer field at the northwest end of Wallaby Ranch. Within minutes there is a line of gliders with their pilots ready to go. Fay Barber pulls me up first and oops but the engine on the Dragonfly is sputtering when we reach 800 feet and Fay waves me off. I am searching for lift and get down to 600 feet ato when I hit a bubble so I play with it for a bit and it turns into a great elevator ride up to over four grand in thirteen minutes. Oh I am so happy that I did not have to land and try again. There are a lot of gliders in the line now and I am waiting for them to get up here so that I can film my buddies. Greg Linneman is first to come in close and we thermal together for a few minutes as we drift to the west and finally I feel that heading upwind would be best so I pull the VG on and I am back to Wallaby in five minutes and still above 4 grand. I catch another elevator p and see that Greg has lost a lot of altitude coming back. By now there are maybe ten gliders in the air and soon Sebastian Domingo comes in close with his beautiful new Atos VR and we thermal up to 5,800 feet ato while both of us are filming so I am really excited about the footage that we likely have. Seb and I work together for a half hour and then head our separate ways. There are likely thirty glider in the air and there is lift almost everywhere. After a couple of hours Sebastian shows up again and we film together for a few minutes and then I decided to take a run south east to the cloverleaf and above tasty treat to the south. I sure with that they could have sent me up a cone. Next I head north along Hyw 27 to the warehouses and there is more lift over them. I am finally getting weary and head west for a landing. My airtime today was 3 hours and 4 minutes and I topped out at 5,800 feet ato. Moritz Wagner from Rochester NY had a great two hour flight up to six grand.

After lunch the later session was on and my Cloud 9 friends, Brian Ridder and Tom Niblick both get airborne quickly and they both have excellent 2 hour flights and up to 6, 700 feet landing after six pm. Friday was a stellar day and many pilots tried out the new Wills Wing Gliders. Later we had a great meal and wonderful entertainment.

Saturday was a no fly day with strong winds and there was plenty of socializing. The big party in the evening was great with a big eight piece band.

Sunday the Wills Wing boys Packed up and headed for Lookout Mountain to continue their tour.

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