• The photo above is me launching at the 1974 USHGA Lilienthal meet in Sylmar California - you can click on the photo to get more info.  It's a borrowed glider and there's something not quite right about my situation.  Can you guess what?  The answer is here.
• Started flying in January of 1974.  First flights were with SailWing Sky School of Redding California.  My instructor was Kenny Waranious, lessons were west of Redding California at a place aptly called 'Ono Hills'.  First glider was a Eipper-formance 19' Standard Rogallo, homebuilt from a kit.  I was 18 years old.
• 1360 logged flights - the majority of these flights are mountain/thermal flights in extreme Northern California, including Hat Creek Rim.
• Member of USHGA since 1974 with a hang 5 rating since 1984.  Founding member of the Shasta Sky Sailors.
• Flight #281 - 12/22/74.  My worst "Oh Sh__! I'm going to die" ever.  My OVERCONFIDENCE (AKA; Intermediate Syndrome) earned me a screaming downwind stall fueled by a 20mph tailwind ending with a dramatic impact on the beach below Fort Funston, in San Francisco.  The result was two broken wrists, lacerations, bruises, a totaled glider, and a week in the hospital.  Bay Area news crews were filming as I was airlifted off the beach to an awaiting ambulance. My accident regrettably made prime-time news that evening,   Had I hit the nearby outcropping of rocks I would have surely become the 41st fatality in hang gliding for 1974.  In hindsight, this "lesson" likely saved my life.  In the short 12 months that I'd been flying I had become extremely complacent with the risks related to the sport and the unforgiving certainty of gravity. 
• Most extreme flying was in the Owens Valley, on the White Mountain side.  I was turned 'every which way but loose' on my second trip there and decided to never go back - that was over twenty years ago.  I did earn a whole new respect for the structural integrity of hang gliders though - I wasn't tumbled but I damn sure stress tested every part of my glider! 
• I owned and operated the Hang Gliding Connection in Redding from 1980 to 1995, offered were lessons, sales and service.  I always had a real job along with the hang gliding business, 'cause the HG business sure wasn't going to pay the bills.
• My nickname, Big Bird, came about decades ago when we started using CB radios on our gliders - the 'handle' stuck.
• Most rewarding thing about learning to fly in 1974?  I was young and my dream of bird-like flight had become reality...nothing else mattered.

History at Hat Creek Rim

• Privileged to be one of the pioneers of the site back in the mid-seventies.  I've been involved with development of the site since then. 
• One of the first pilots who ventured 2 miles south along the rim to explore the potential of the highest part of the Hat Creek Rim.  This was way before there was a anyplace to land below this section of ridge.
• In 1993, I was instrumental in securing permission and funding to create the 'Buttonhook LZ' below the highest section of the Rim.  This LZ greatly diminishes the risks for those flying this area of Hat Creek Rim.
• Donated the pilot bulletin board to the Shasta Sky Sailors so it could be placed at Fireside Village.
• Developed the Hat Creek Committee within our club to work directly with the Forest Service at Hat Creek Rim.  This was especially beneficial during the 1996 negotiations of the Special Use Permit that the site operates under.  The Use Permit is issued to our Hat Creek Committee.
• I've donated hundreds of dollars to the site and spent countless volunteer hours there. 
•  I've managed well over 100 flights at the site.  I've flown single-surface and double-surface gliders here.  I've yet to be blown back, blow a launch or end up in a tree - something that occurred more than it should have in the "old days".
• Most humbling experience was in 2005 when I received a plaque recognizing my contribution to Hat Creek Rim .  I was speechless and humbled by this act of thoughtfulness.  What made this even more special was it was presented by other outstanding Hat Creek volunteers, Hat Creek Committee members and good friends.  

• This web site is dedicated to those who live the dream of bird-like flight and to the many, many volunteers since 1975 who've made Hat Creek a place for that dream to become reality.  This site has been a labor of love and is my way of giving something back to the sport that has provided me so many years of unparalleled enjoyment and lifelong friends. 
• I enjoy hearing from visitors to this web site and receiving new material for posting here - pictures, articles, comments, etc.  
• One last thing, if the web site seems 'chunky' and/or a bit basic, I apologize.  I had no intention of ever building a web site but felt Hat Creek was worth the effort.  I purchased MS FrontPage in 1998 and just started experimenting.  I'm hoping the pertinent information found here overshadows my lack of web design skills.

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Look at the wind streamer on the front flying wire -- I'm stalled!

Like I mentioned, it was a borrowed glider.  Unbeknownst to me it was trimmed extremely aft of the CG.  I held the position you see me in, bar stuffed and as far left as the flying wires would allow, as the glider slowly rotated 180 degrees back into the hill.  After a quick 'on the hill' inspection for damage and a much needed trim adjustment, I launched again - this time successfully.

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