Wednesday, July 25, 2007

3 days in Taitung: day 2

Day 2
We drove out to some of our old favorite haunts. Du Lan San in Du Lan, where I got a sled ride out to the harbor.



Landed in the park this time, instead of the roof of someones house , like last time.




Jin Dzun cafe in Dong Huh. The wind was too soft.


But Yuri tried to inflate from the parking lot anyway, a feat I had accomplished with this very same glider, Apco Allegra, 3 years ago, much to my amazement. The actual take off zone was so over grown it would take 2 hours of 4 people stomping to make it flyable.

After the best coffee in Taitung county, we were back to Lu Yeh.


Doris and Alma kited on the training hill while the boys played in the bumpy thermal at Kaotai.

It was late in the day and I watched Yuri fly his Allegra back from the Kaotai hill to the training hill at low altitude, 50 agl. Hmmm… either knowledgeable and good skill or crazy and reckless. I haven't figured it out yet. But I have seen over a dozen people get rotored flying low back there behind the tea house and go home in an ambulance.

Yuri and Alma popped off to the hot spring for a splash. Heard them on the radio 2 hours later something about a water hose on the van. Sure enough they drove back up steaming.
I called my friend Danny in Taitung, " Do me a favor…"
"No sweat man. How big is the hose? "
" About 10 cm long, 3 cm diameter and straight. "
"How big ?!?! "
"It's a heater hose not a radiator hose. Just match it up with your c..k."

3 hours later, Dan showed up with 2 hoses each over half a meter long and 5 cm in diameter, bent at a right angle. I SWEAR he did that on purpose!!!
" Well, you said to match it up with my c…k."
Dan drove downtown and came back with beers, 7-11 Nuke 'Em meals and the right hose AND the tools to put it in. Bless that man and double bless 'em.

We neglected the car repair in favor of the nice thermal which lasted until TEN THIRTY AT NIGHT.
The following excerpt is from some Looney Tune who shall forever remain 'Anon':

There is something very sobering about kiting in the pitch black night, checking your lines by feel, the tension on the risers, a side step left, then right, lean, tug, ... the buddy standing on the edge singing "99 bottles of beer on the wall, " so you know where the edge IS, ...plunging head first into the abyss, ...then comes the part when you start talking to yourself, " Hmmm, last time I did this I had a full moon to guide me. This little sliver doesn't help at all. I can line up the edge of the landing zone with the street lights half a km away. Good. I am over the edge of the landing zone. But...what is my elevation? Hmmm,.. I can soon see the tree tops when I am about ...THERE they are! Where's the wind sock? Can't see it. hope they didn't take it down. My eyesight is getting bad. Flat wide slow figure 8's until I am on the,… 10 meters, 9, 8, 7 OK… should be coming up soon… BUMP! Ha hahahahahaha!"
"The ground is the one thing you DON'T have to look for. It will find you. Everytime.
Kaotai has the smallest take off zone in Taiwan. But, thank God and Lee Rensen that it has THE LARGEST LANDING ZONE!!! "
Silly bastard, Anon. We could hear him laughing from the take off zone above.

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