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By Bob Anderson
Hammer's Record Flight: Pine Mountain to the Panamint Valley. Flying 5-1/2 hours from 1:30-7:00 PM, 152 GPS miles, averaging a 28 mph ground speed. Total day trip time, 8 AM to 2 AM...on Saturday, Aug. 8, 1998. As I prod Hammer for a description, he can't contain himself, as he is visibly and emotionally charged from the epic flight he lead himself and Little John on, from Pine Mountain to the Desert Valleys beyond Mojave. Read along as I try to retrace the flight with him. YNA: What were the conditions like at Pine that day? Hammer: "It was the best Pine Mountain conditions I have flown in. No turbulence, super smooth air, as sweet as I have ever seen it. And it (the cross country flying) was all downwind, 35 air speed, and a 58 mph ground track!" YNA: Did you know it was going to be a 100 mile day from Pine ? Hammer: No. Originally, we set out for Plowshares. But "the Plowshares' indicators were onshore winds blowing through the gap, and around the corner!" The convergence would set up farther down the road, likely from Pine Mountain, some 50 more miles farther down the road... "A mental preparation is needed," to continue on such a drive from Santa Barbara in search of a Cross Country Flight, especially when the 33 is closed... YNA: But you were committed... Hammer: We made the commitment and headed to Pine. At Pine there were no cues close by, the closest were beyond Pinos Mountain. At first, some SLO pilots were flying around in the South wind, but they were only ridge soaring, and for quite a while they were not getting up. An HP1 pilot named Chris, a good pilot, was boating around for 15 minutes before we launched. Later he went low OTB, never to be seen again. YNA: When did you first suspect it was going to be a happening day ? Hammer: After we all launched into the ridge lift conditions, it wasn't long, 10-15 minutes or so that "something changed," as we got up in lift near the Knob. Later at 8700' Bat went OTB, and at 9200' Little John and Hammer went OTB. On the other side, Hammer and Little John spied out the Bat. "His nose went up, and he started to circle. We jumped on his Kingpost, and it was smooth lift," drifting over the Reyes Ranch, into the Badlands, toward Lockwood Valley." The Bat notes, "those Scumbos stole my thermal! They squashed me out the bottom!" The drifting thermal had bubbled off, and Hammer and Little John climbed out just slightly downwind of the Bat in a separate core that held together, while the Bat's core broke up at 8800'. When the Bat realized it was breaking up, he searched downwind but, he found nothing, initiating a retreat back to Dry Canyon. YNA: When did you commit to crossing the Badlands into Lockwood Valley? Hammer: I said to myself, "I won't attempt to cross without at least 10 grand, then I look down and I'm nearing 11 grand!" YNA: Which track did you take from that point? Hammer: I topped out at 13 grand over the Badlands, South of Wagon Wheel Road, and I headed straight to Frazier Mountain. A route bypassing Pinos to the North. There were clouds just North over Pinos. I was cold so I didn't want to get higher, while Little John headed toward Pinos quietly, later announcing to be at 14.2 grand, and at cloudbase! YNA: What did you reach Frazier Mountain with? Hammer: I cleared it by a thousand over the top. There I hooked a Blue Thermal to 13.2 grand. There were clouds near Gorman, so headed to the Truck Stop where I climbed to 13.5, with a sailplane, who headed South. There was a huge Blue Hole from Gorman extending to 25 miles down the Tehachapies along the Antelope Valley. YNA: How about the play into the Antelope Valley? Hammer: I crossed I5 and headed to the Cement Plant, reaching it at 10k. It wasn't happening. It took a couple of dribblers to get through the Antelope Valley. With a SW wind, I headed East along the Aqueduct, and to the Brushfire. Between Rosamond St. and Ave A, upwind of the Brushfire, I found clean air and lift; climbed up, "to 8100, and rowdy." Meanwhile, Little John hit sink at Frazier Park on the way to Gorman. Subsequently, he had to grovel along in dribblers to the Cement Plant, where he reported 8100 and rowdy. At the Brushfire, he met up with Hammer, only the lift Little John got was inside the smoke column; he choked up to 8700', complaining of illegal backyard fires. YNA: Where to next? Hammer: I left onto the Cactus Mines, 10 miles Southwest of Mojave. (On a previous flight, Rotor had beamed out from off the deck at the Mines to 17000', allowing a glide to Jawbone Canyon, while Hammer groveled into Mojave for a landing.) "At the Mines to my dismay, the Cactus Mines were not cracking, so thing to do was to keep on going, with the 25 mph tail, a glide to Mojave was attainable. Made a play for a cloud shadow line ," more North of the line to Mojave. "At six thousand, hooked it, 800 fpm up, the smoothest lift to 13.8k." The bank of clouds North of the Mines provided the best lift of the day. "The whole day there was no trub, not a fight at all, everything was smooth and easy!" YNA: What route did you take from Mojave? Hammer: This is where it got interesting. NE of Mojave, which way do we go. A cloud street forming, just over the 14, extending North. Another over the Tehachapies, clouds over Mojave itself. I was within reach of the southerly end of the cloud street heading up the 14. I turned "up the 14, dead over the top, in the right lane, and all the passing lanes," under the cloud street. I went up to 13.5-13.7, junctioned onto the Redrock Ransburg Road, to the NE, passing by Redrock Canyon, crossing the Southern edge of the Fremont Valley, on to the Rand Mountains, climbing the whole way, 25+ miles without a turn! "It is not often that happens, I was trying to keep it down, being underdressed," with an air speed of 45 to 50 mph, and a 62+ mph ground speed. YNA: At the end of the Street, what did you do? Hammer: The Street was getting raggedy so, turned back North, across Fremont Valley, to the Paso Mountains, finding lift right over the Radio Facilities at Laurel Mountain, just North of the Redrock Ransburg Road. I followed Searles Station Road, South of China Lake, West of the Searles Valley, NE up to Poison Canyon (right over where Hammer landed before, on a previous 125 mile flight, when Rotor was left in the Badlands...). YNA: Where did you get the next thermal? Hammer: I hooked the last thermal just South of Poison Canyon to 12.5k, a blue one, drifting NE to the South of Trona, sweeping along, to the North end of Searles Valley, passing over the Slate Range (10k) into the Panamint Valley. I hit big sink just over the Slate Range in the rotor drafting into Pamamint Valley. During which, " I can't see the roads, which side of the valley to fly, it was very, very difficult to see, not that I was getting stupid or anything after being in the air for over 5 hours." But the shadowing from the mountains made it hard to see the roads, as they would blend in with the terrain under shadow. And, "the scope of things is so big, it is hard to get used to, adjust to, compared to the mountains we fly in." I needed Bat's help in directing me to remain flying within glide of a retrievable road. About the time Hammer was passing Trona, Little John was just coming within sight of Trona. He called for a Truce. He begged Hammer to land there and claimed that he'd follow since he was down to 4 grand, tired, and his back hurt. Hammer held on to his thermal up the Valley and claimed he'd got a little something and that he would push on a little farther. Just about that time, Little John had made Trona with 14 grand ! John followed Hammer to his LZ, into the next Valley, one Valley short of Death Valley. In the Panamint Valley, Hammer picked out a Ghost Town, just below Telescope Peak, Ballerat. He describes it as "a couple of structures, no one came out, no critters, no living souls there, along a tiny skinny dirt road. And talk about hot it was incredibly hot !" He landed there, at 450 ft above sea level. YNA: How was the landing? Hammer: I landed on a huge alluvial fan, down slope, into the wind, on sand, just like landing at the Wilcox. Only it was hot, and it took 20 minutes to come down from altitude. YNA: What was your overall impression of the flight? Hammer: "It was too easy, it was like a dream flight." YNA: What is your Dream Flight? Hammer: To have you, EJ, Double D, Simon, Scotty, ... along on the same flight, the more the merrier!" Driver Notes: The flyers outpaced the drivers by quite a bit once they crossed I5. By the time Hammer reached Mojave, Raimey was retrieved and a race of another started. Earl volunteered to drive the new Little John Rig, a rig built for comfort at high speed; however, Earl is a 55-kind of guy. So on the run, Bat rallied Earl to drive faster, while Raimey exclaimed Yahoos from the back seat. This group logged a round trip mileage of 650 on the odometer - what a way to break in Little John's new Toyota Van...Yet, the Bat did an exceptional job identifying the terrain, intersections and roads Hammer and Little John could not recognize from their lofty viewpoint. Earl was hungry, but he wasn't allowed food 'til after 10 at Denny's in Mojave, on the way home. And for Raimey's landing in the Badlands, East of the 50/50, in a small canyon, Bat named the new site "the Raimey Memorial Landing Zone," because it was such a small ravine that it barley fit the glider tip to tip... Miraculously, he and his glider were unscathed. Inside Hammer: YNA: Introduce yourself. Hammer: Joe Blow. YNA: How long have you been flying Hang Gliders ? Hammer: Since the Summer of 1974. YNA: How did you get started in Hang Gliding ? Hammer: Bought a Glider through the mail. All Visqueen and Bamboo. Built it in the van I was living in, under the Fig Tree...not. Surfing was starting to get crowded. And, after getting drunk with a friend, we decided to buy a Hang Glider to get into flying. I'd heard of a guy with one for sale, so I went surfing with the guy and he seemed like a good guy; so I decided to buy. The guy, Chuck Crisp, sold me a Standard. I went in halves with Norm Krone. Norm still lives in town, but doesn't fly anymore... YNA: Your first Glider ? Hammer: An Eipper-Performance, by Dick Eipper, the first Hang Glider Manufacturer in the world, located in Torrance, CA. The glider was a Standard fitted with Polypropylene lines, and a Swing Seat. It was developed at Dock Wailer Beach Sand Dune, in Playa del Ray. Dave Cronk actually designed it, and the Quicksliver, which evolved into a popular Ultra Light. YNA: Where did you learn ? Hammer: We went to the Training Hill, in Santa Barbara, "and started thrashing around. There were other people flying, but nobody knew what they were doing." Then DeRussy showed up, but he didn't know what he was doing then, either. YNA: How long was your hair then? Hammer: Really long hair, Puka Shell Necklace, and a Handlebar Mustache. YNA: What do you enjoy most about Hang Gliding? Hammer: "Camaraderie. Special people fly hang gliders. I feel I'm privileged to know them, due to the activity." YNA: List your three most enjoyable flights? Hammer:
Hammer adds, "I'm so fortunate, I've had so many great flights I can't even tell ya. I can't remember all them, many were less monumental, shorter, but more soulful, more spiritual." Pine Notes: Other notable long distance flights from Pine have been made by Rotor and TQ (170 miles), Tom Truax (Pine to far up the Panamint Valley), and Fast Eddie (Pine to Olancha). |