Giovanni and Hanna Marie were here on Saturday with their hang gliding dad, Shane Moreland, basically because they showed that they had an interest in hang gliding (unlike some of the other kids in the eleven kid family). They had already been dune skimming at Jockey's Ridge, at Kitty Hawk Kites, and now were ready to take the next step, getting scooter tow instruction from Steve Wendt at Blue Sky Hang Gliding.
The wind was blowing a bit too strong before 7 AM when I went out to help Steve set up the Wills Wing Condor 330 and pull out the Wills Falcon 195 and Falcon 170, which were already setup in their little hangar that they share with the zero radius riding lawn mower. Steve has trouble providing adequate lessons by himself on a Condor 330, especially with light kids and new pilots, when there is wind over 5 mph.
Steve has to operate the scooter tow and he can't run with the pilot at the same time and help them control the glider. Glider control is an issue with such a big glider in any winds. This kind of instruction greatly benefits from having both a scooter tow operator and an instructor to run with the student in these conditions. BTW, how can anyone instruct with a winch or scooter tow operation and not be next to the student when they launch (even with assistants)?
But today he had a bunch of helpers. First of all Shane and secondly Rich Cizauskas, who was playing the role of apprentice instructor. With the extra help it would be possible to overcome the control problems and keep the kids safe.
Still, at first, Steve was concerned about the breeze. He's not used to having the help. So he chose to tow the kids himself with Rich and Shane holding onto the wires. Instead of scooter towing it was Steve towing into a nice breeze, right on the north/south runway, away from the trees.
After a while the winds backed off a bit and we started scooter towing (this seemed to coincide with both Steve and Rich getting tired). Rich and Shane would still run with the young pilot to make sure that they were safe, but a few times they weren't able to stay with the pilot and still Steve kept the pilot quite safe keeping them very low to the ground and watching their progress as he throttled them back a bit on the Honda 50.
The kids got plenty of practice and we got to see the Condor 330 fly in slightly windy conditions with light pilots when the proper safety mechanism were in place. Low and slow instruction in action.
