Date: 25 Apr 1995 13:50:24 -0500 (EST)
From: Deane Williams 203-677-3095 <WILLIAD@hsdwl.utc.com>
Subject: VACATION REPORT: The Wallaby Ranch, Florida
To: hang-gliding@lists.utah.edu

I'm back and I've got a lot to tell you about last week.
A group of pilots from the Connecticut Hang Gliding Association
went down to the Wallaby Ranch in Florida to learn aerotowing 
and maybe do some soaring. We had planned this trip last Fall 
after Malcom Jones told us the best time of the year is April 
there.  The weather cooperated better than any HG trip before 
and we soared more than any previous HG adventure!! 
(Sorry, Jim Palmieri.)

My first two aerotowing flights were a disaster.... yawing 
all over the place.  Then an instructor (Dave) told us "Don't 
fly it like a hang glider". This turned out to make the 
difference. Yaw oscillations are NOT to be countered with a 
powerful response as in free flight. It's better to just be 
still and let them dampen out, which they did rapidly once I 
let them. Also pushing out will dampen them quickly. Keeping 
the tug's wheels on the horizon was easy with a little 
practice. The second day we all did much better.

Every day we got up and soared. Every day except the first 
we went XC!  The air was DELIGHTFUL! Winds were under 10 mph 
even at 6000 feet (cloudbase).  This made for easy landings 
and launches and easy soaring for those who did not want to 
go XC but it made XC quite a bit slower. Being an Eastern US 
pilot I'm used to having wind to push me along. Despite this 
lack of wind one pilot Mike (nickname:Hollywood) broke the 
site record by flying to Daytona for a 72 mile flight.
[Hollywood set the new record of 100.3 miles also]

Climb rates were slow (100 to 300) on a few days but on the 
other days there were good cores up to 800 fpm. Two days 
were cloudless and the rest of the week had beautiful cus 
with bases starting at 5000 ft and moving up to 6200 by the 
end of the soaring day. Soaring began around noon or 1pm and
ended around 6pm most days.

The most amazing thing was that we were enjoying the best HG 
vacation in years in a state with NO MOUNTAINS. It was very 
strange not having the mts. as landmarks. We flew within a 
few miles of Disney World on our XC trips to the north along 
route 27.

The staff at Wallaby was quite professional and was very 
concerned about our comfort and saftey. We saw several 
interesting craft visiting after the Sun N' Fun meet was 
over. The SuperFloater made many flights. It's a nice
ship to have if you are able to be towed. Also saw the Swifts, 
powered and unpowered, and the Cosmos and Airborne Edge towing 
trikes.

I suspect we'll be going back next April.

                         Deane Williams
                         Farmington, CT