Earlier I wrote about my adventures getting ready to travel with my glider to France. Perhaps you'd like to know how things turned out and what lessons I learned, so that you can learn them through me, without the pain.

The Jeff's on short packing: http://ozreport.com/12.080#2

My lament: http://ozreport.com/12.110#3

Jeff O'Brien picture of his unpacking from France: http://hang6.blogspot.com/2008/07/pre-world-reflections.html

I was able to get my glider from Washington, D.C. to Munich via Lufthansa for $210. I might have been able to get it to Nice also on a later flight in a bigger jet (one that they would let me book it on), but I already had it on the top of the rental Volkswagen Passat station wagon (thankfully a good sized car), so I drove it for thirteen hours straight (with two short naps) south to Grasse.

I had purchased a ticket on LTU (airberlin group) from Dusseldorf to Dulles airport (Washington, D.C.) abandoning my tickets on Austrian airlines from Nice to Vienna and Vienna to Dulles. I knew that LTU used United Express to get me from JFK (airport in New York) to Dulles, so I was skeptical about getting the glider on the shuttle.

Before I went to Europe, Dustin Martin helped me short pack the glider at Highland Aerosports in Ridgely, Maryland before I drove it to Dulles on top of my truck. Dustin was very careful to fully wrap the carbon outboard leading edges in thick foam (camping mats from Wal-Mart, at $5.88/each). I protected each possible area of wear with foam of sticky backed bubble wrap. The ends of the aluminum leading edge tubes got a double dose of the blue closed cell foam wrapped around them.

The ends of the inboard sprogs were wrapped in bubble wrap and foam placed atop the cross bar junction. The ends of the down tubes and ends of the base bar are wrapped. Dustin had me pull the Mylar and the carbon inserts.

I rolled the glider up tight, place the foam pads around it and tied it with numerous straps. I placed double thick foam at both ends, and then placed in the bag made especially for me to take this short packed glider to Europe in. The glider arrived in good shape.

On the way home I got assistance from Jeff O'Brien. I had already pulled the Mylar and carbon inserts but Jeff leaves his in and that looks like a good way to go. Less work and a smoother package.

I wrapped padding around all the previous parts, but Jeff doesn't pad the outboard leading edges, just wraps them in shrink wrap. I hadn't used shrink wrap on the way to Europe, but Jeff is a big fan and we bought some at the hardware store in Laragne. I loved the stuff.

I packed my glider up tight, then cinched 6 or 7 straps over it. Jeff has a bunch of Velcro straps that he uses to get a tight bundle. The ribs, base tube, and outboard leading leading edges are all packing "inside" the wings of the glider. The ribs go on top of the nose. The outboard leading edges just behind them. Jeff has two plastic caps that go over the ends of the aluminum leading edges and then a piece of foam over the caps.

Once the glider was all cinched down, we wrapped it in shrink wrap to really make a package that wouldn't shift around at all. Jeff will normally get his glider in his regular Wills Wing glider bag, but I had a much bigger bag to put it in. He also was using Jeff Shapiro's short pack bag (built by Nene Rotor) as Shapiro sold that glider in Europe.

Jeff O'Brien normally has a few extra straps on his bag which he removes as he puts on the shrink wrap, leaving just the Velcro ones. I wrapped all my straps inside the shrink wrap.

Once the glider was fully wrapped and tight as a drum, we placed the camping pads around it and taped around them with the brown plastic mailing tape that sticks to itself and not so much to the foam. I'd suggest using this tape as it comes off easily later.

We then applied shrink wrap to about a third of the foam package just to keep everything tight, especially at the ends where we placed the extra thick layers. This made for a nice nice and very well padded package in y special bag, at less than 100 pounds. I left very comfortable taking this with me assured that it was handle the flights.

There was no problem with LTU taking the glider in Dusseldorf as I had a reservation for it, but I soon became aware of the the fact that even though I had booked it through all the way to Dulles, I would have to transfer the glider from LTU to United myself.

When I got to JFK, my glider was there with just a little wear on the heavy duty short pack bag. I now had to carry it and my 100 pounds of duffle bags through customs and on to my connecting flight. Not a job for the faint hearted. Thankfully Mitch had placed a set of wheels on one end, so I could wheel the glider and push the cart at the same time, sort of.

When I got out of customs and went to the connecting airline desk, they told me that I couldn't place the glider with them as it was too big. In fact the duffel bag with my harness wouldn't go on the conveyor belt either, so I was stuck with my baggage cart, duffel bag and the glider. I had to get from terminal 4 to terminal 7.

I placed one end of the glider on the baggage cart, and pulled the cart with its duffel bag 13 feet behind me. Belinda was not around to help (or suffer) as she had taken our original flight back to Dulles and was there waiting for me.

I tried walking with my setup to terminal 7, but soon saw that with the construction going on I wouldn't make that, so I went back to try to take the inter terminal train. The train was up on the second level, and I had to get my glider, cart and duffel bag up there. I hauled the glider up the escalator, ran back down, put the cart/bag in the elevator and took it back upstairs, where I could put the whole thing back together again to haul out to the train.

Fortunately the doors of the train were wide enough so that I could get the glider in quickly and then haul the cart in also, with some help from those always friendly New Yorkers. The train was almost empty which also made it possible for me to travel between terminals with the glider.

At terminal 7 I had to do everything in reverse getting the glider down the escalator and the cart/bag down the elevator. It worked and I got to the United desk.

There I met some more friendly folks, and despite the fact that I and my glider had been booked through to Dulles and I had been assured after double checking at LTU that they had to take my glider, this was not the case when I got to United. The ticket agent was very helpful and willing to work with me, in spite of the fact that he knew I was going on a plane with 18 rows of seats (the Brazilian made EMBRAER 170).

I had a receipt for my glider for shipping on LTU, and I had to go back into United's offices to plug in my computer to show the receipt because they wanted to charge me a few hundred extra dollars. They had never heard of only charging $36 for a hang glider.

Thankfully the electronic PDF receipt worked and they got me on the plane and said the glider would be on the plane also. They also gave me a $100 travel voucher for being a good sport. Of course, the plane was delayed four hours because of thunderstorms between Dulles and JFK.

When I got on the plane I saw two baggage guys carrying my glider and trying to put it in the rear baggage compartment. That doesn't work. A minute later they moved to the front and placed it there. No worries.

When I arrived in Dulles, they brought out my duffel bags and glider just especially for me. It was great.

I've unpacked the glider and it is ready to go here in Zapata.

Lessons:

Shrink wrap, don't take out the Mylar or carbon inserts, brown plastic mailing tape, take LTU from end to end (Fort Meyer to Dusseldorf), heavy duty short pack bag with wheels, Wal-Mart camping pads, plastic caps for the tube ends, pad everything that could wear on the sail.