Note 1

Here's Hank's story in his own words:

If you ever add footnotes, here's mine to the Usal tree trip -- I can tell the whole story of that big new Comet, how it got me high enough to fly way back to the ridge, go up another thousand feet, get cold, fly out to the ocean, down to warm up, bad judgment, cold, and overreaching, going back to the ridge again and uh, oh, no lift this time, flying backwards, Dutch rolling when trying to speed up, better turn downwind while I still have some altitude and try for the highway above the rotor ....

The "wreck" of the Comet at Usal was pretty inexpensive -- the tree landing only cost me a new control triangle -- one broken and one bent down tube, and the bolt holes gone oval in the base tube, and bent brackets at the corners. Well, and my pride (grin).

I got out right to the highway with hundreds of feet to spare and nowhere to go, decided being near the road at sunset was the best choice, headed for the widest part of that narrow long valley the road is in, and aimed for the softest tree I could see next to the road. Got gusted, popped up over the nice little round broadleaf tree I'd hoped to plop onto, floated across the highway and the next tree was a big conifer, which I dived at. About 50 feet away, time slowed to a crawl and I had all the time I needed to go from bar-at-knees speed to upright and do a fast full flare right at the tree, let go and reach into the branches as the base tube hit them. I lit about halfway up, maybe 40 feet above the highway, but the tree was at the top of a cutbank, so the ground wasn't more than 30 feet below the nose of the glider. I had done a full flare and "belly landed" with me and the kite pointed completely nose up, going into the side of the tree, grabbed branches as the down tubes folded, and lowered myself hand over hand about 20 feet. The keel touched the ground at the base of the tree, vertically; the glider was unhurt, standing there on its keel right at the top of the road bank and stayed there. I let myself down another couple of feet til my feet touched, unhooked, picked the glider up, carried it down the bank and across the highway, set it in a wide pullout/gravel space and put my thumb out.

The first car by was a big Lincoln with an elderly couple who slowed down, looked, looked aghast, and roared off. The next vehicle was a pickup truck with a man and three kids and dirt bikes -- they knew Usal and were the ones who went in to tell you all where I was.

I'd packed the kite up, taping up the sharp edges of the down tubes, by the time you all got there. Bones looked it over thoroughly, but didn't find anything else to fix, didn't even tear the sail but for a couple of scratches; just replaced the down tubes and base tube (holes were a bit oval) and corner metal brackets were a little bent.

Cheap, considering.

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