Lucas Ridley

Happy Easter

2010-04-05T12:09:00.003-04:00

Visit my new blog: http://LUCASRIDLEY.com

Hope everyone had a happy easter, and didn't get peeled . . . if you're an orange:

You still here?

2010-03-24T15:11:00.003-04:00

This is my old blog check out my new one here:

http://lucasridley.com

I also started my business website:

http://lucasridleystudios.com

and I post a picture every day here!
http://lucasridley.tumblr.com

Avatar Goes Hang Gliding

2010-02-22T18:10:00.001-05:00

Also this is my old blog, check out my new website: http://lucasridley.com

Don't forget to subscribe to me on youtube too!
Click this link to do so:
http://www.youtube.com/subscription_center?add_user=alta8bird

You're still looking here?

2009-12-20T17:34:00.003-05:00

Go on over to http://lucasridley.com, that's where all the new stuff is at! I've made 3 new videos since the Nikon one, check them out over there.

Nikon Festival Video

2009-12-15T11:48:00.003-05:00

Make comments and watch it here:
http://www.nikonfestival.com/blog/2009/12/14/step-into-air/

Or go over to my new website and see what I have to say about it, and watch it there too:
http://lucasridley.com/2009/12/14/step-into-a-i-r-nikon-festival/

New Blog Post (Dec. 5)

2009-12-05T17:38:00.001-05:00

There's a new blog post with pics over at:

LUCASRIDLEY.com

2 New Videos

2009-12-02T11:27:00.002-05:00

Since my last post here I've completed two other videos for contests.

You can see them at my new website:

http://lucasridley.com

Also, voting has begun for the Mountain Dew contest, go to the link below to vote for my video 3 times a day until Dec. 13th. I could have a chance at producing a real Mountain Dew commercial with a budget of $200,000 ! ! !

http://12seconds.tv/v/NZMUH

_____

Mountain Dew Commercial

2009-11-21T11:58:00.001-05:00

Check out my latest Hang Gliding commercial on my new website. It's for Mountain Dew.

Nov 19th flight | Video

2009-11-20T00:32:00.003-05:00

Check out the new website for more details:
http://lucasridley.com

Speed Run and the 7D at night

2009-11-17T17:53:00.002-05:00

Check out the new blog HERE to see more pictures.

Did a speed run yesterday to get some footage for a project I'm working on and used the Canon 7D last night around a fire to see what it could do in low light. I was pretty impressed and am excited to keep using it!
________________
http://lucasridley.com

New Blog! lucasridley.com

2009-11-15T10:51:00.004-05:00

www.LucasRidley.com is my new website and blog. I still have a lot of work to do on it, but thought I'd go ahead and announce it.

I will still be keeping this blog and will probably double post for a little while here and over there. Once I make the move over there, this blog will still be up so you can see all the past entries.

I have posted a poll to the right there for you to vote which one you like better.

See my twitter feed to the right as well for updates - back to working on the new blog, and a couple other project! (I was out yesterday capturing some time-lapse sequences in Chattanoooga to put into a time lapse video - stay tuned!)

one scene that was timelapsed yesterday

Upcoming New Site | HP Laptop Review

2009-11-12T23:54:00.005-05:00

Very quickly: you may have noticed that you were redirected to www.lucasridley.com (edit: I changed it back for now). I am working on making the switch to Wordpress and that website address. It might be a little while before I do this, but wanted to give you a heads up.

I'm looking forward to having multiple pages, like 'Blog,' 'Photos,' 'Videos,' etc. so that it will be a little more organized and easy to see the content. Also, it will be a good showcase and contact point for my business, which I am tentatively calling Lucas Ridley Studios.

In addition, I'm going to be reposting all my videos to a new Vimeo account because of the functionality and quality that they provide.

My new laptop (read below for a quick review!)

Both photos are of one of my dogs, Dudley, both taken with the Canon 7D and 15mm-85mm lens

So part of my HP winnings was an Artist Edition laptop, a Pavilion dv6 to be specific. And here are my impressions of it.

I thought all laptops were created equal, but this thing has a lot of little surprises on it!

For example:

HDMI output
built-in webcam
eSATA connection (for external hard drives)
button to turn off the touch pad mouse
altec lansing speakers
desktop theme that matches exterior artwork on case
wireless remote control that has a storage compartment on the side of the laptop
a full keyboard, with numlock pad to the right
very smooth material used on the mouse touch pad and keys
glossy screen
smart battery design - lifts the rear of the computer up to help keep it cool and provide air circulation for the fans

It has a Duo Core 2.3 GHz processor and 4GB of RAM. I'm really happy with it and was able to get the free upgrade to Windows 7 for it, that is in the mail and coming soon. Once I recieve that I will be uploading all my software to it and putting it to the test with the Adobe Creative Suite and Cinema 4D.

Right now my current projects include working on 3 new video contests, migrating to a new blogging software and personal domain name, time-lapse videos with the Canon 7D, still photography, and a ton of tutorials I have piled up in my bookmarks that I need to get through.

Tomorrow morning I hope to be flying! Follow me on twitter or see the widget for my tweets in the right side bar in this blog for little updates, like a picture of launch tomorrow before I go fly and stuff like that.

A Soaring Life on Youtube | Updates

2009-11-11T10:45:00.004-05:00

I posted my submission into the Stella Artois Film contest to Youtube so it would provide for easier viewing now that the contest is over.

There are pictures on Life magazine's website of the announcement of the winner. I was so close to being that guy in the picture with Kevin Spacey holding a check for $50,000! But, I am very happy with my Top 10 finish in the contest and am looking forward to hearing about this next short film project that I did for the LG contest. (see that video HERE)

The Doritos contest submission period is over and it looks like there is about 4,000 entries. I've seen some that are really bad, and I've seen some that are really freaking well shot and probably had a budget of thousands of dollars just for props, costumes, etc. See mine HERE.

Although views and comments don't technically count for anything - I'm currently standing at number 204 of most viewed with 2,059 views. Pass this link around to get other's to watch: http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/video/1445/

Both the LG and Dorito's contest will announce it's finalists in early January. Until then I have a couple of other smaller projects I'm working on.

Oh, and if you need a laugh, a friend sent this to me and I thought it was pretty funny - click HERE.

Recent Pictures and Higher Res Doritos Vid

2009-11-08T11:34:00.006-05:00

Thanks to Eric for sending me this pic of him and me (I'm to his right). I look a lot further away than I was because of the fisheye lens.

Driving to launch with the sunsetting and the glider on top of the car.

Scott flying his bag

Scott again at sunset.

My dog drying off, after hiking at Cloudland Canyon.

Cloudland Canyon State Park waterfall.

Here's a higher resolution version of my Doritos entry. I would still encourage you to check it out on the contest page so it will up my views and make a comment if you feel like it on the contest video page here: http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/video/1445/

Super Bowl Here I Come!

2009-11-05T18:39:00.005-05:00

It's official - I'm in the Doritos Crash the Super Bowl contest!

Fresh off a submission into the LG Film Fest (see yesterday's post) I knew I couldn't pass up this year's Doritos contest, especially after the Herbert Brothers won a million dollars last year.

So here's the setup - there is no public voting unless/until the judges pick me as one of the 6 finalists in January. If I make it to the top 6 I'm going to need all the votes I can get so stay tuned here (subscribe using the gadget in the sidebar to the right) to see if I'm a finalist. The voting then chooses the top 3 of those 6 to be played during the Super Bowl and the chance at some huge money if it's rated on USA Today's Ad Meter to be in the top 3 of all the Super Bowl Commercials.

I hope you enjoy it, leave comments here, or even better, over at the contest website at this address: http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/#/video/1445/

Any views watching it through the player below won't register in their view counter on the contest website, so head over there to rack up my numbers, make comments, and make me look good to the judges!

Thanks to David, Scott, Eric, Kurt, Sarah, Pablo, Yuki, Diana, and Angela for helping me make this idea come to life.

A Leg To Fly On Short Film

2009-11-04T07:05:00.004-05:00

(Watch the video at the bottom of this post or HERE)
So I emailed the contest people and asked if I could just upload this video to my personal youtube account so I didn't have to wait to show it to people - and they said that was fine. It was kind of surprising they allowed it because it is usually a no-no.

Here's some background/behind the scenes info on the film. It is for the LGfilmfest.com contest (their youtube page). There are four categories and this one is in the sports category. There is no public voting for this video so celebrity judges like Jamie Foxx are going to be picking the winners, only one from each of the four categories. 3 will receive $10,000 and one will receive $100,000 (Canadian dollars).

I got home on a Monday morning from the Santa Cruz Flats Race and found out about this contest that same night. Slept on the idea, which the theme for the contest is an inspiring human story and/or pertaining to LG's logo of 'Life is Good.' So I thought about Tip Rogers who is a really nice guy and since the Treetopper's Team Challenge was going on that week I thought he might be down this way flying with everyone so it would make it easier to film him. I contacted him and he agreed to let me film him for this so I went the very next day to film. He was only down for that Tuesday, Wed., and Thursday, so it was as quick of a turn around as it could be. One of my college buddies Matt Phelan created the music for it after just some quick messages to him about the kind of feel I was going for and I think he did a great job.

Please leave your comments here and especially on the youtube page for this video, please go there and rate it and make comments on it. While this doesn't have any public voting I think it couldn't hurt if I had a bunch of comments and good ratings on the youtube page of this video.

Feel free to pass it around, copy and paste this address and email it around:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cykHENutlkI

Also stay tuned in here, bookmark this blog or whatever, for updates on my upcoming projects. I should be posting my Doritos contest commercial within the next few days as well. In addition, I think I will be reposting my other short film "A Soaring Life" on youtube, now that the Stella Artois contest is over, for easier viewing.

Enjoy!

More, New photos | update

2009-11-03T10:47:00.008-05:00

Below are some more photos I took the day before yesterday from the keel with the Canon 7d. I have more but I'm going to save them to see if I can get them in the National magazine.

Yesterday I tried using my spare downtube coming out of the nose for a camera mount, but with the 7D out there it just seemed so heavy. I had ankle weights on the back of the keel to counter balance. I took it all apart and I'm glad because by the time I launched there was a slight tail wind.

It would have been some great pics though because I just did a speed run right on the trees at sunset. Oh well, today I might try the same camera mount setup, but with my point and shoot, so it won't be as heavy.

The Doritos commercial is essentially done. I should be submitting it to the contest within the next day or two and then I'm thinking it will take at least 5 days or so for it to show up on the contest site. So stay tuned for that.

Oh, and Stella Artois finally announced who won their contest (not me) - HERE.

Getting ready to launch (see the newer pilot that had just launched to my right).

Getting in my harness after launching

Lookout Mountain Flight Park's ramp, looking towards the end of Lookout Mountain.

Moon in the background.

My favorite way to land - fast on final.

Photo-Extravaganza

2009-11-01T14:21:00.007-05:00

The Doritos commercial is almost finished, but wanted to give a quick photographic overview of what I've done with the Canon 7D so far (besides shoot the Doritos commercial with it).

It's a great camera and really worked well for my purposes of filming the Doritos commercial. Stay tuned for that, I'm pretty happy with how it is turning out. And keep watching here to see when my short film 'A Leg to Fly On' is post on the LG contest - and you'll be able to watch that from here too.

Doritos Filming Finished

2009-10-29T09:49:00.002-04:00

Just a quick update to let you know the filming for Doritos commercial went great, thanks to Diana, Scott, Eric, Kurt, Pablo, Yuki, and Angela.

It was a fun time and now it's on to editing . . .

Stay tuned for more updates and the finished video within the next week.

Doritos Video Still Shot

2009-10-27T09:15:00.003-04:00

I like to keep you guys up to date on what I'm doing and below is a still shot from the Doritos commercial I'm working on for the 'Crash the Super Bowl' contest.

This contest is huge, you may have heard last year that the Herbert Brothers who entered this contest with their video, was played during the Super Bowl, and was rated the best commercial so Doritos gave them a million dollars! Same deal this year, except if you come in 2nd or 3rd on the USA Today Ad meter you get $600,000 and $400,000 respectively (last year you only got money for 1st on the Ad meter).

I am using Magic Bullet Looks to color grade the footage taken, I did a little split screen on the image below of before (right) and after (left) color grading. You can see it gives a little more professional look and feel to it (it's hard to tell by looking at this small image, click on it to see it bigger).

I also just wanted to add for the techie people that I'm using a trial version of Cineform NeoScene to transcode my video before I start editing. I heard it would make previews in the software run smoother and export easier while maintaining quality - and that's exactly what it does, it is going to change the way I edit! Now I can actually see a preview of what I'm editing instead of jerky still frames! I was a little concerned at first because playing the transcoded file by itself it made any motion in the footage seem interlaced and had these pink lines where motion was, but once in editing it's not there and I export to WMV files from the editing software and it works great

Ridge Soaring Fun

2009-10-24T22:36:00.003-04:00

Took the 7D on a little ridge soaring flight today. I had given my Joby gorillapod mount to Tip for letting me make a film on him so I just taped the camera down around the keel wires.

7D First Impressions

2009-10-23T19:09:00.006-04:00

It came!

I've had the camera only a few hours, the most of which the battery was charging. But I am really excited about this camera!

I'm happy with my lens choice of the 15-85mm, it seems like that is going to be a good range for me to use for an all-purpose lens. Luckily, I have a nikon to canon lens adapter so my Nikon 50mm f/1.8 will work on it, but I have to be dead on for the focus. The Canon lens' zoom and focus rings were a little stiffer than I was expecting, but I think its just something to get used to.

It isn't a light camera, and trying to use the zoom or focus ring while filming video is near impossible to prevent camera shake. I may invest in some rods and a focus puller. All those accessories add up quick though. Zacuto looks like they make some great products, but buying a kit would be way more expensive than the camera itself! We'll see.

I need to get used to the setup of the manual features but I like the two dials, one for the thumb and one for the pointy finger. You basically press a button for say ISO, shutter speed, or aperture and then use the dials to adjust.

Now on to trying to get the Doritos commercial together and get this camera dialed in so I can film maybe this coming Wednesday. I also got the Zoom H4n to supplement the poor audio quality that is on the dslr's these days, but I haven't had a chance to play with it yet much.

Lost Contest

2009-10-22T12:58:00.006-04:00

My new brainstorming team - I might fire them though, I think I caught one of them eating their own poop during a break-time.

Well I made it as an 'honorable mention' but did not place in the top 3 (for money prizes) on the EPA Video Contest. HERE was my entry.

I just received my copy of Action Essentials 2 today, so I should be blowing stuff up in no time.

Get ready for a slew of photographs on this blog from my Canon 7D arriving in the mail tomorrow.

Lastly, I have come up with an idea for the Doritos Super Bowl Commercial contest and will be filming it using the Canon 7D, so watch out other video contesters! My brainstorming team was speechless when I told them my idea, so that's a good sign, but I'm still trying to think of more since you can submit up to 10 entries.

Stay tuned!

Edit: I just received an email from the LG contest saying they won't be posting any new videos (including my "A Leg to Fly On") for a "while" while they process the entries. So hopefully it won't be too much longer before you can watch that one.

New Camera in the mail!

2009-10-21T09:49:00.006-04:00

This isn't from the new camera, that's coming Friday, just a shot from this morning.

(Warning: This could be a very boring post to people who don't care.)

After much deliberation between me, myself, and I, I've decided and bought a Digital SLR: the Canon EOS 7D with the new 15-85mm lens (or really like 24 to 138mm on a 35mm camera, so a wide tele photo lens). It should get here Friday.

It was either that ($1,700 for the body only) or a prosumer camcorder (like a Sony HDR FX100 at like $3,100), and I felt a DSLR would better suit my needs between crossing over between hang gliding things and video contests as opposed to something more expensive and heavy.

The disadvantages of course is that it is a bit big for a DSLR, and it is not a 'full-frame', but it's sensor is still large for doing video (this sensor is multiple times larger than the one in my dedicated HD camcorder, the Canon HF100, which is smaller than the smallest square in this picture compared to the APS-C sized sensor that's in the 7D). It can only shoot in 4GB increments of video (or about 12 minute clips). So no hour long interviews with this one, unless I just start and stop it a bunch.

With all the negative stuff out of the way, I'm really excited about this. It shoots 8 frames per second (fps) photographs and most importantly for me - HD video. I won't go into all the specifics, but a couple things I'm excited about is getting away from my depth of field adapter on my normal camcorder which makes the footage have a pretty bad vignette and very noisy bokeh (the unfocused portion of an image) because of the ground glass in it.

With this 15-85mm lens I think I'm going to be able to get some great pics at comps next year and of some Fall foliage while flying this year. Kraig Coombar is sending me an extra nose cone for my glider so I can make a nose camera mount and use this new camera!

The HD video has the option to shoot 60 fps (double what cameras normally do) in the 720p mode, which translates into doing some super sweet slow motions, like foot launches and landings (or whacks).

Yesterday I took a sled run with about 10 other people, felt good. Then I replaced part of the vg cord in my glider and put in a short hang strap because I removed a spacer in my Matrix Race harness in Arizona, and with the hang strap I had, my chest was on the basetube when heads down.
This shows the difference between the frayed cord and the one I was replacing it with. (Don't worry mom, I don't hang by that part).

My first 3D animation

2009-10-20T12:45:00.005-04:00

After only a few days of watching tutorials, I came up with the few second video below. This opens up so many possibilities. I'm really looking forward to playing with this a lot more, but it is very time consuming.

I used Boujou 4 for the motion matching, and Cinema 4D for the 3D orb - notice the reflections in the orb, and it's shadow, really happy with how it turned out. That orb could be replaced by any number of things from 3d logos or text or any type of 3d animation.

This is something I am really interested in for visual effects and am inspired by the work Neill Blomkamp did in the movie District 9.

Learning 3D software

2009-10-18T16:08:00.003-04:00

Today is the first day I've begun learning 3D software and here's a still image of what I've done so far. It's a pretty slow process, but very fun and it opens up a lot of possibilities. I am using Cinema 4D.

The Fat Check Came Today

2009-10-17T00:20:00.002-04:00

I wish they sent me a check that big, below is the real thing.

I pretty much went straight to the bank as soon as FedEx dropped this off. Again a huge 'thank you' to everyone for their votes.

Just another update: My short film was received by the LG people in Canada and I'm assuming that they'll post my video up on their youtube channel in the near future, but I will repost the video here, so check back.

Right now there are only 37 videos uploaded and only a handful of them are in the 'sports' category, which is who I would be exclusively competing against in this competition. This means my odds are pretty decent so far, but I'm sure there was plenty of last minute submissions like mine. (Grand prize for this contest is $100,000 canadian dollars and there is no public voting.)

A month and a half after Stella was supposed to announce a winner for their contest and still no word. I just know I did not win (they sent me an email a few weeks ago telling me, but I still want to know who did win.)

I am wracking my brain this weekend for an idea for a Doritos Super Bowl commercial - if anyone has any great ideas but can't produce it yourself, send me a shout. It is due on 11/9 so only 3 weeks away . . . (this one has millions of dollars at stake too)

Update | New Computer

2009-10-14T13:22:00.003-04:00

Well, I thought I was being on top of things with the 'A Leg to Fly On' video, but everything has slowed down big time and I am mailing it off today and it's due Friday in Canada - it will have to be overnighted.

Basically, I was ready to mail it on Monday, but it was Columbus Day so the post office was closed. Then I had a little time to analyze the video further and there were some scenes I wanted to re-render out, and here we are two days later waiting on the last render, and I'm still not totally happy with it, the image quality, but I think as far as putting everything together it went okay.

I just customized two fairly comparable computers on Mac (MacPro Desktop) and HP's (e9180t series) website. And here is the price difference I found:
Mac = $6,280.00
HP = $1,939.98

I could buy three HP computers for the price of one Mac and they are both of similar configurations and components. I'm probably going to go with a new HP computer once I have time to sit down and look at it a little further.

Check out this video on the photographer who worked with Jonny on the Morning Glory cloud in Australia HERE.

First Video Blog (Vlog) Post

2009-10-12T16:01:00.003-04:00

I'm not sure if I'll keep doing these, but I just wanted an excuse to play around and reenact a scene from Twilight that I think is funny (when it's not supposed to be).

Documentary Update

2009-10-10T15:51:00.003-04:00

Above is a photo from yesterday created using Photomatix to combine three separate images together.

I just finished waiting an hour for a 16-second clip to render after I slowed it down and added some color. More and more this entire process seems to be like pointillism painting in that I can't see the big picture of what I'm doing most times since my computer is so slow and just to render 16 seconds takes an hour, and then oops, I needed to tweak that 16 second clip again since I couldn't play it full speed I didn't see changes that needed to be made, then there's another hour.

I should be finishing up in the next day or two.

I'm having a hard time deciding on a new computer. HP is a great buy, not expensive and good components, but Dell has better motherboard options and liquid cooling and is more expensive. Then Mac is the most expensive and I could finally get to use Final Cut Pro, but it doesn't have the option for a bluray burner or use the newest i7 processor, and did I mention it's the most expensive? Any advice? Make comments to this post and please help me decide.

Random Pics

2009-10-08T17:58:00.003-04:00

Ever been cardboard surfing? Chattanooga has a couple good spots. This was at Renaissance Park. It's exactly how it sounds, you basically go sledding with some cardboard on a grassy slope, very fun!

Seriously? Has anyone else ever seen a sink like this? I could barely get my hands in the water the faucet was so close to the edge of the sink, but the sink is huge . . .

Hensons launch from last week

Documentary Still

2009-10-06T11:12:00.003-04:00

Here's just a quick still shot from the short documentary I'm currently working on.

It will probably be about 4 minutes long, and I have a friend working on some music for it. It's just really slow going right now with the computer. It drops out the audio randomly during editing (I guess because of memory issues) so I have to render out a full clip (that takes waiting an hour or so) then listen to it, tweak it, and repeat.

Still no check from HP yet. I sent in a W9 last week, and they said it would take a little while since this was an international contest they have to send laptops and other prizes all around the world so it might take a little while. Until then I'm stuck with this computer, that does the job, but slowly.

Update

2009-10-05T01:04:00.002-04:00

This phrase changed my life today (is that sad?):

run a command prompt as Administrator and enter the following:
bcdedit /set IncreaseUserVa 3072

Basically I added RAM to my computer a while back but my computer and software was not taking advantage of it until I did the above. Basically I was having to render things out at 2 seconds at a time and then combine them later - that is pretty time consuming for a 5 minute long short film.

I'm still reading reviews of the Canon 7D that just came out, but am pretty sure that is going to be my next equipment purchase.

I'll be working on Tip's documentary short all this week . . .

Team Challenge

2009-10-01T23:58:00.003-04:00

Whitwell launching today

The church steeple was off of the church that lets us land in its back yard at Whitwell

I launched maybe 3rd (the two in front of me were both free flyers), right before the launch opening for everyone that was in the meet. Flew for about an hour and a half before landing, many people had sled runs, it wasn't easy to get up today, but I think some competitors made their goals for the day.

Team Challenge is awesome, just two years ago was my first one and I remember what a blast it was doing my first xc flight and having so many people to talk and share that experience with.

I really hope the USHPA sees the value of these events and promotes them with other clubs throughout the country, but keeps them separate from sanctioned competitions so that Team Challenges are clearly learning-centered events and not competitions.

Landing sequence

2009-10-01T09:04:00.003-04:00

(Click it to see it larger)

Thanks to Jamie, here are pics put together from one day I made goal in Arizona and landed on the driving range next to the resort.

One Leg to Fly On - Short Film

2009-09-30T18:58:00.002-04:00

The film I was shooting for today, yesterday and tomorrow is for a very short (<5 minutes) video about Tip Rogers who is a fantastic and enthusiastic hang glider pilot who happens to have lost one of his legs in a boating accident many years back. It is great to get to hang around him with his very outgoing and fun personality. Stay tuned to see the short film on him.

Until then check out this sick video of Jonny flying the Morning Glory - Congrats Jonny, that looks awesome!

Road Again

2009-09-30T00:41:00.003-04:00

I just found a new contest last night, first night back, and now I'm filming like a mad man to get it done before the deadline. Stay tuned! It's another hang gliding related one.

I'm going to Henson's tomorrow to fly with all the Team Challenge people, as well as, filming for this project. Karaoke was tonight (Tues.) at the Mexican place for all the Team Challenge people and it was a great time. Regional Director Dick Heckman had some raunchy sailor tunes he belched out acapella, lyrics too R rated to mention here...

(Picture is of sunset from Hensons ramp tonight - Tues)

Home Again

2009-09-28T17:20:00.004-04:00

First photo taken with iphone (it's random but wanted to post it here at some point) - that is a dog in the back with a raincoat, helmet, and glasses

Google Earth view of my track log from thermaling in the start circle, and then looking on towards the first turnpoint.

In 5 days of competition flying at the Santa Cruz Flats race I flew about 272 miles and had about 18 hours in the air.

I just got done spending about 32 hours in a car non-stop driving all the way back from Arizona. Now that I'm back home it's time to start working again.

As mentioned earlier I'm probably going to be starting my own business, buying a new desktop computer and a DSLR, maybe the Canon 5d Mark2 (any thoughts or suggestions on that?).

Then I'm going to try and keep cranking out some videos and try a little more still photography.

I will probably also be heading over to Hensons to free fly with the Team Challenge people over there in the next couple of days.

Last day pics

2009-09-26T21:04:00.001-04:00

Sending these from from phone so sry for the short post. I totally
messed up the start, missed going with the good guys, caught up with
Eric and Ricker, not sure where Ricker ended up but Eric and I had a
hard time after the first turnpoint. I landed about 8 mi short of the
second turnpoint (finishing half the course).

This was a great meet and I learned a lot and got to know some folks a
lot better, looking forward to the next one! I landed at like a
garbage dumpster cemetary today. Enjoy the pics. When I landed I had
about 150 emails of notification about comments on the hp video. I
still can't believe there's a link to it from youtubes home page!

I've got to fill out a w9 to recieve the prize too, once I get the
laptop I'll post pics and a short review too.

Here's a link to my track log from today:
http://maps.google.com/?t=p&z=15&ll=32.88157653808594,-111.85237121582031&q=http://api.motionxlive.com/motionx-remote/api/gps/host/bfa2d896-d335-40a5-b77c-e47e24b618f2

AZ Flats Day 6

2009-09-26T02:10:00.005-04:00

The HP contest is on the main page of Youtube with a link to my video!!!!!!!!!!!!

I just wanted to give a quick thanks to all the people making such encouraging remarks on my HP youtube video - I've gotten like 20 comments a day on that video since I won the grand prize. Thanks again everyone - and stay tuned for more! I plan on buying some better equipment and devoting more time to photography and video work, which I will continue to post up on this blog.

Eric walking towards the launch line, past the driving range to the right of the image (that's where I landed today)

My glider is still set up and ready for tomorrow since I made goal!

SO today (results HERE) was the second to last day of the Santa Cruz hang gliding competition and I'm in 9th right now overall! I came in 11th for the day today as well. I hope I can hold on and finish the meet in the top 10. It was a 91km triangle task today.

I almost lost it today though, the resort was acting like a beer-magnet during the start circle. I had been thermaling for an hour and a half in tight gaggles and was only at 4,000'. I was really thinking about landing and going and start drinking some beer at the resort and give up on the day.

But about 10 minutes after that thought the day turned on, and I was up to about 8,000' and so I was high enough to start the course, albeit behind the lead guys, but I caught them after the first glide, but then they left me again after the first turn point. I got slow at the last turnpoint, but managed to get into goal. Several people landed just short of goal today - I feel their pain but did not want to be one of them, so I slowed down a little to make sure I could make it in, took a slow climb until my 6030 told me I had goal made by 1,200' and I burned it in.

Below is my track log (feel free to zoom and pan around to check it out) - Sorry no inflight photos from today, too busy racing!

View Larger Map

Tomorrow is the last day of the competition and we've got a 27 hr drive home, not including losing 3 hours to time change to make. So I've filled up my new iPhone (my present to myself for winning the HP contest) with some tv shows and games to pass the time in the car (so far I really like JellyCar and Doodle Jump - they're games).

Win some and you lose some | Day 4 pics

2009-09-23T20:35:00.008-04:00

Just recieved an email that I did not win the Stella Artois Short Film contest . . . you can't win them all I guess (and I don't know who did win yet) . That one was a great learning experience and I know I have improved since completing that project only a few months ago. It was an accomplishment just to make the top 10 and I'm very happy about that.

I really appreciate everyone's effort and help on that one from everyone in the film (especially Eric), to the musical composer, to everyone who took the time to figure out how that confounded voting system worked. It was a great experience and I would do it again even knowing the outcome now.

Today, as mentioned in my last post, was blown out (wind is too strong) - so Dustin, Jeff, and I headed off to Picacho Peak for a little hike (pictured below with some other photos). It was a good quick hike and once on top we watched three peregine falcons cruise around, once there was two of them spiraling down together, very cool to see.

The top left peak is where we hiked to

Trevor gets serious during our paper airplane competition today

A little desert dust on the national organizations bumpersticker

Too windy | Day 4

2009-09-23T12:54:00.001-04:00

Too windy to fly, maybe going for a hike. Tomorrow is looking better,
stay tuned...

I WON the HP Contest!!!! | AZ Flats Day 2

2009-09-21T22:51:00.016-04:00

Edit: Results for the day are up here - I matched my best day placement at 8th for the day, and am 10th overall - there's a lot of comp left though...

Okay so this is going to be a long post. A lot has happened today.

I won $40,000 and flew 70 miles to complete the task for today, maybe even finished in the top 10 or 15 for the day.

Here is the video I took at goal today and twittered it:

First I wanted say thank you to everyone who participated in the HP contest (HERE is their official press release). I know a lot of people really helped circulate this video and garner many more votes than I could by myself. This is a really overwhelming experience but wanted everyone to know their efforts are incredibly appreciated!

I hope not to fall prey to the stereotype of lottery winners where they spend all the money and get into debt and wish they had never recieved it. I do plan to donate some of the money to organizations to be determined, but mainly let it help fuel my passion of film and starting my own business. I'm still quite speechless with the whole thing...

Here's an update about today's flying with pictures (click on them for larger versions and captions are beneath).

View Larger Map
Above is my track log. It was a 70 mile task with 3 turnpoints. My track log says I went 142 mi since it counts all the turning in thermals and things - also an average speed of 33 mph and maxed out at 81 mph (on final glide) - also I reached 9,800' ft in altitude today. (The task was mainly downwind - maybe 12-18 mph - with a crosswing leg, the hardest one, in the middle on the route.)

I was one of two people who took the first start clock and then I flew by myself for about 50 miles until Dustin, Zippy, Dereck, Kraig, and some others caught up to me (so now I'm 15 minutes behind the leaders since the two start times were 15 minutes apart and they took the second one after me). Three guys from this lead group that caught me and were just a little below me and driving hard towards goal, but we didn't have it made so I slowed down and found another climb at only about 1,500' off the ground and had been falling fast! I got back up to over 5,000' about 4 or 5 miles from goal and went in! I was maybe 7th or 8th to land (but probably finished well lower than that because of the two different start times).

I took the first start time because I knew I wanted to get on in front and have the fast guys chasing me so I could try and hang with them later in the day, and that's exactly how it worked out.

Some of the highlights from today are climbing at about 1,000 fpm (feet per minute) above a dust devil (pictured below), cruising above the mountians with a peregrine falcon, and flying fast into goal! I really enjoyed the scenery and having a chance to fly by myself for a while.

Click for larger versions!

Dust devil in bottom left corner with white glider next to it

Close up of dust devil and pilot (Charles on Icaro)

Jeff O'Brien in start cirlce

Beautiful scenery! (this is at the end of the crosswind leg at turnpoint 2)

Eric Donaldson landing at goal

GOAL!

Stay tuned for more!

AZ Flats | Day 1

2009-09-21T00:39:00.008-04:00

Click on pictures for larger versions (captions are below each picture).

Between turnpoints one and two

Resort and take off (its the V in bottom right)

Desert vs. mylar

Dustin Martin

Launch Line

Landing Short . . .

Jeff O'Brien making goal

The misquitos are bad.

Today was a blue day (no clouds to mark thermals) - everyone took the last (second) start time since it was kind of a later day. There was a HUGE gaggle in the start circle - all 32 pilots where in one thermal together at one point.

After the first start everyone went for it and it was a great time - going on glide with a ton of people at like 7,000' overlooking the desert and mountains of Arizona - beautiful!

Today's task was a box with goal back at start - 5 people made goal with the last leg being pretty difficult since it seemed to be a lighter day and in to the wind on the last leg. Results are HERE.

Of the Treetoppers that flew - Stinnet kicked butt (8th for the day) as well as Ricker (12th) who came in later behind Eric (19th) and I (17th), we already landed and Ricker edged us out a by a few miles - Trevor (25th) landed after the first or second turnpoint, and Stinnet had made it with the front guys when everything slowed down after the last turnpoint.

Overall a good day - I had been flying with the lead guys (the few who made it into goal, until I made one wrong decision that landed me 25 miles short of the 68 mile task).

Tomorrow I find out about the HP Video Contest - stay tuned - I could be $40,000 richer tomorrow (before taxes ;) ).

Practice day

2009-09-19T22:42:00.001-04:00

Some people flew today and had good flights then a dust storm came in
later (pictured). Tomorrow is the first day of the comp, it looks like
we should have good weather. It feels good to be back in the
atmosphere of fun and flying. The resort is nice and I look forward
drinking some margaritas poolside after a good day of flying.

Check the Twitter updates to the right for the most recent happenings.

Road Trip to AZ

2009-09-19T01:17:00.000-04:00

Only 1.5 hrs left! And then we arrive at the resort in Arizona where
us and 40 or 50 other pilots will be stationed at for a hang gliding
competition.

I left my laptop at home this trip and will be using my new iPhone 3gs
for most everything - for example I'm using it to write this post
right now and took the pictures below with it. I'm also going to be
twittering so check me out on Twitter or see the Twitter posts in the
right side bar on this blog.

I hear on Monday if I am one of the top 3 winners for the HP contest-
which I'll hear about before the Stella Artois contest which ended
weeks before the HP one, oh well.

What would you do if you won $40,000? (of course after paying taxes on
it) - make comments to this post.

Last Day to Vote! | Sunrise

2009-09-13T11:59:00.004-04:00

Sunrise this morning (click for a larger image)

Today is the last day to vote for the HP contest. They will announce the results "on or around" the 21st of September.

Also getting geared up for the Santa Cruz Flats Race comp in Arizona, leaving next week. Hopefully will increase my national standing by a little bit with this comp. Stay tuned as I will be updating this blog and twittering during the comp.

First Tweet | Day 6 of Voting

2009-09-12T08:36:00.004-04:00

Yesterday I set up a Twitter account (http://twitter.com/lucasridley), mainly to use for the Santa Cruz Flats race coming up so I can provide updates more frequently.

On the right sidebar of this blog there is a window for the tweets so you can come here to see them too, and not go straight to twitter.
__________
Today and tomorrow are the last days to vote for my HP video.
__________
I also set up a Google Reader account yesterday, which was intimidating at first, but it is going to save me a lot of time and make things easier, I recommend people give it a try. It is especially useful for blogs like mine.

Check out the video below, but its basically one place to go to get updates from all different websites that you choose to be updated about, only when there is new content. So no more going to a many websites, wasting time, just to be dissapointed there's nothing new to look at. You can go to one place, Google Reader, and see what's new. To subscribe to my blog with it, just choose the Google option under "Subscribe To" in the top right sidebar of this blog, a new window will open and choose the Add to Google Reader option.

EPA Video | HP day 5 vote

2009-09-11T00:43:00.002-04:00

Here's a video I've been working on for the past couple of days. It is in a contest, but this one doesn't involve any voting from the public.

But my HP Video is still alive and kicking in the contest and needs your vote each day. I'm not sure how they do it, but about half of the other videos in the contest have twice as many views as my video, like upwards of 20,000 views with me at 11,000 - so keep getting the word out, there's still a few days to catch up!

I also updated the background on my youtube channel.

Rainbow | Day 4 Voting

2009-09-10T08:40:00.002-04:00

Here's a stitched together panoramic photo I took of the LZ yesterday after if finished raining (click it to see a larger version). Notice the rainbow on the left side.

Day 4 for the HP contest - a big thanks to everyone who is going the extra mile and passing this on to their friends and family - that helps by an exponential factor!

My video has gotten a lot of comments too, some are kind of funny because they try to knock it. One guy started with "This is so gay..." - I could remove these kinds of comments but I think they're funny when people show what an a** they are (then again that last comment probably came from a 12 year old, so maybe they'll grow out of it). Another one last night just said how mine is so unoriginal and not creative and if I wanted to see that I should come and watch and vote for his - not the best strategy to garner more votes if you ask me.

Day 3 Voting

2009-09-09T12:01:00.003-04:00

Got a 45 minute flight yesterday, it was tough to get up, worked maybe 50 fpm for a while, but then it became easier, but cloud base was low, maybe around 4,000'.

Above is a picture of the sky yesterday, it looked like it would over develop and I needed to get back to work on another video - possibly will be viewable in a few days. So I landed after some wingovers.

Today is the third day of voting for the HP contest.
I still haven't heard anything from the Stella contest.

Thanks for everyone's continued support and spreading the word about these contests, I think that's what is going to make the difference in the outcome!

Mammatus | Healthy Community

2009-09-08T09:33:00.005-04:00

Some nice little mammatus clouds were at sunset yesterday as some of us were hanging out.

This place, the flight park and surrounding area and it's community, reminds me of a passage I just heard (got the audio book) from Malcolm Gladwell's 'Outliers.'

In it, he describes a town that has no heart attacks, everyone is relatively healthy, although most get little to no excersize and even suffer from obesity, but that people were dieing from nothing but old age. What was discovered there was the importance of community and its health benefits. Here's a passage:

The townspeople in Roseta had built a “powerful protective social structure capable of insulating them from the pressures of the modern world. The Rosetans were healthy because of where they were from, because of the world they had created for themselves in their tiny little town in the hills.”

Sounds like the place I live.

||MADE HP FINALS||

2009-09-07T12:30:00.006-04:00

What a coincidence: I found out I was in the finals and I wanted to raise my hands up and shout for joy and at that same moment happened to be flying my hang glider and needed to flare to land anyways - WOOHOO!!! ;)

WHOOOHOOO!!!!

I made the HP finals!!!!!!!!!!

What this means is: as a finalist I have won $2,500!!!

But now I have the chance at the top 3 prizes which are determined by YOUR VOTES! (1st $40,000, 2nd $25,000, and 3rd $15,000)

PLEASE vote once a day, starting today (labor day, 7th) until this coming Sunday (13th).

>>You can vote by going to HP's page or by going straight to the video and use the little pop-up voting window that comes up after several seconds in to watching the video

Day 5 Voting

2009-09-04T09:30:00.006-04:00

Sunrise

Day 5 of voting: Don't forget you can vote once a day - and if I make it past this round, then voting resets, and I start all over on my votes for the final round that should start next week.

No word on Stella contest yet.

Got a short flight in today, worked below ridge height for about 30 minutes before flying and landing near the drive-in, not as good of a day as I was hoping for, but very fun to have to work hard for altitude and get outside the flight park!

Flytec 6030

2009-09-03T10:15:00.004-04:00

For a little while now I've been working on an instructional DVD for the Flytec 6030 GPS/Vario instrument.

Mine has been an incredible device to give me as much information as is possible so I can make the most informed decisions - then its up to me to try and make the right one. It's really a geeks dream come true for flying, but that's not to say that it's overly complicated.

Also check out Eric's new hang gliding artwork that's going off to raffle this weekend HERE.

Today is day 4 of voting for the HP Contest.

Also I took a commenter's advice from yesterday's post about a better attitude and so I began the day with THIS, which is a good alternative to THIS.

Also there's a petition going around, you can sign it here for a vote of no confindence in how USHPA handles competition, 92 pilots have signed it so far.

Thanks!

2009-09-02T10:10:00.003-04:00

Just wanted to say thanks for everyone's support of my HP contest video. Don't forget you can vote once a day, and feel free to email it around to your friends too! Especially if I make it past this round after Sunday - for the final round of voting.

There were one thousand views in just one day yesterday - and a lot of positive feedback. This one is looking good so far!

Unfortunately, I still have not heard anything about the Stella contest and they have yet to update their website as of this morning (even though its 7am there right now).

The contest rules (for Stella) stated they would notify the winner "on or around" the 31st, so I have basically written this one off as a loss, but would still like to see who won if they would update their website. Thanks for everyone's support of that documentary, top 10 for me was a huge accomplishment!

New HD Hang Gliding Video | Voting!

2009-08-31T01:07:00.008-04:00

Today voting starts on the HP Semi-Finals.

You can vote once a day starting today until Sunday the 6th, then if I make it past this round of voting there will be one more round to determine the grand prize winner.

Here's how to vote:
-Go to: http://www.youtube.com/hp
-Click the "View + Vote" button (but it should already be up)
-20 videos will appear, click mine ('Life is an Adventure - Lucas')
-Then a thumbs up and down will appear to the right of the video. Click thumbs up ;) they only count thumbs up so it won't help to vote down other videos.

Below isn't the contest video, it's one I made yesterday with a bunch of extra footage I've accumulated over the past 8 months, I hope you enjoy it and I hope you have time to support my video making efforts by voting for my contest videos - Thanks!

Old School

2009-08-28T13:28:00.005-04:00

With the possibility of making a living creating videos, its fun to think where I started.

I originally got a kick out of filming rock climbing which I started around age 15. I won my first video contest around 2001 with a rock climbing video I made and received a long sleeved pull-over and a set of indoor climbing holds. Now, I'm hoping to win $50,000 on Monday. And if not, I'll have another chance at big money with my HP video (voting starts Monday - Monday is a big day).

I filmed this video in 10 second increments on hand-fulls of floppy disks, because one floppy could only hold 10 seconds, so we had to time everything just right. Here is that camera I used. It was for a website that eventually went down, and looks like it's back up though: climbxmedia.com

Edit: I had originally posted one of the first videos I uploaded to youtube, but then I realized that wasn't the right video - I'll try to find it but I think it's on a hard drive that failed...

Semi-Finals! | 30 miler

2009-08-26T16:35:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I landed after flying 30 miles from Lookout Mountain to 'Dunlap International.' It wasn't too difficult getting over Nickajack lake (pictured), but once in the sequatchie valley things were a bit more difficult: rough thermals, blue holes, and getting blown down wind.

While waiting for a ride I checked my email on my phone where I had an email from the HP contest saying I made the semifinals!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What this means is a new round of voting begins this coming Monday, between me and 19 other people, to try and get the top 4 spots out of those. IF I do, then it will be down to one last round of voting between each top 4 people from the 6 weeks, which makes 24 people.

So get those mouse fingers ready for some voting starting this Monday, you will be able to vote once a day for a week. Also, on Monday (or "on or about" as the rules say) I will hear if I wont the Stella Artois contest.

Click images to see larger versions.

Flying over Nickajack Lake.

Claire and I breaking down our Moyes Litespeeds

Eric Graper coming in for a landing.

Tuesday - 25th

2009-08-25T10:10:00.003-04:00

I think the HP contest is a week behind in their schedule, they just posted the top 4 from Week 3, when they should be on Week 4, so that this week would be voting for the top 20 in week 5.

I don't know, it's kind of confusing, their rules are the longest I've seen yet.

Yesterday I got in 2 hours of flying - here's a picture of the lz.

Voting Revealed

2009-08-24T12:09:00.005-04:00

I figured out the voting for this contest:

Tomorrow I will find out if I made the top 20 for the 5th round of finalists. If I do, the voting so far will mean nothing, because that has been for the 'community award,' which is for those that aren't chosen as finalists (by judges).

If I am chosen as a finalist for my round, then voting will begin between us 20 of that round to determine top 4 and I will be removed from eligibility of the 'community award' and will now be going for the grand prize. So the votes I'm getting right now won't count and would start fresh for this new finalist voting. This is done for all the 6 rounds. So in the end there are 4 for each round so then there's 24 finalists.

If I make it to the 24 then voting starts all over again and that determines who wins $40,000 is the grand prize. We'll see if this works that way. On their 'channel' there are a ton of comments saying how theirs isn't showing up, and this isn't working. They still only have the week 2 finalists up when it should be on to like week 4 or so.

Thanks for staying tuned and seeing if I am a finalist tomorrow . . .

New Video - HP Computers

2009-08-23T10:06:00.004-04:00

click the image to enlarge it.
This explains two ways of voting.

To vote using directions of 1, click HERE
For method 2, click HERE

You can Vote once a day!

My New Favorite T-Shirt

2009-08-20T15:18:00.003-04:00

This was a wedding present from our neighbor, Scott, who's an awesome airbrush artist.
Angela got one too, with her glider colors.

Today is my first day of unemployment, I'm happy and proud of my decision to leave that job and pursue what I'm actually passionate about: films and hang gliding.

Stay tuned I'm working on 2 and maybe 3 new videos coming soon.

Unemployed

2009-08-19T09:16:00.003-04:00

Today is my last day of work.

Which means I can start making films more!

I'm filming one tomorrow night and I also have a slew of hang gliding footage I need to stick together in another video, so stay tuned.

Our next door neighbor on our honeymoon.

Top 10!!!!

2009-08-13T20:51:00.002-04:00

We did it! - a big thanks to everyone for voting on the documentary film, "A Soaring Life."

It has been picked out of 140 films to be in the top 10! That means some hollywood folks are going to watch my video, with the other 9, and decide who gets $50,000!
http://stellaartois.triggerstreet.com/ShortFilmProject/Intro

Please head over and vote for my other contest as well, you don't even have to register, and you can vote once a day!
http://hiremytvad.com/video-detail.php?videoID=TKlfvnOw73A

Dustin Martin Interview

2009-07-29T08:45:00.003-04:00

Here is extra footage of an interview with Dustin Martin from my documentary, "A Soaring Life." There's only a couple days left to vote for it too.

I still have extra flying footage and an interview with Jonny Durand to post some time - stay tuned.

Here is an example of photo retouching work I've done - click the image to see a bigger version.

South Park Pic

2009-07-28T01:14:00.000-04:00

A pic of the South Park of LMFP LZ, from a tandem I took today.

Cloudstreet

2009-07-25T10:07:00.005-04:00

This is the data from my last flight/post, thought some might be interested in it.

This is from using my Flytec 6030 and the program Flychart that comes with it.

I was just showing what flying under a cloudstreet looks like here. Between point 1 and 2 are 8 miles of just gliding, but you can see the first half I don't loose any altitude! That's because I was flying right under a cloudstreet. After that I loose about 900 feet in the next 4 miles. But since I didn't loose any in the first 4 miles, thats only loosing 900 feet in 8 miles which is a 47:1 glide ratio!

Still no word if I made the top 10 in the careerbuilder.com contest: http://www.hiremytvad.com/

And only 7 days left to vote for me in the Stella Artois Contest

LMFP - Hensons - Marion Co Airport

2009-07-22T11:10:00.006-04:00

I thought I had the never-before-done flight in the bag yesterday, of going to LMFP, Hensons and back to LMFP, until high clouds destroyed my chances.

At one point I could have gone over the gorge area, and towards the 'point' on lookout mountain where it was still sunny, but risk sinking out over the gorge with no lz's and unknown terrain.

It was tempting, but decided for the safe route and land at marion co airport (pictured below).

Flight time maybe 3.5 hours, around 58 miles, highest cloudbase was 7,200' (very good!), and best climb was one 900 fpm. Trevor flew and got to Henson's, other folks went towards Chilhowee. (edit: Had about a 7mph headwind coming back from Hensons)

I've done this flight one other time.

Batten Pattern

2009-07-20T15:10:00.002-04:00

Check yours - I had one that was pretty messed up.

News clip from last night - Hiremytv ad

2009-07-17T10:29:00.003-04:00

Trenton, GA Man Wins Environmental Protection Agency Video Contest | WDEF News 12 | News, Weather and Sports for Chattanooga and the Tennessee Valley

Written part is also HERE.

No word yet on the $100,000 contest that's mentioned in the news cast above. The top 10 finalists are supposed to be notified by July 24th and will be chosen by this criteria: Entertainment Value (0-20 points); Humor (0-20 points); Originality (0-20 points); Feasibility to record as an advertisement (0-20 points); and alignment with the CareerBuilder brand (0-20 points).

I really like the video I made for that one, hope it makes it. There should be public voting if I do make the top 10 - so Stay Tuned!

WDEF News at 6pm - channel 12

2009-07-16T14:39:00.005-04:00

Just got done with an interview for the news tonight about the EPA Video Contest win. Should be on the 6pm news, channel 12. I hope I don't sound/look silly, we'll see - I don't even remember what I said now.

Congrats to the USA's top finisher, Zac Majors, who finished 4th at Worlds the other week - the picture was taken there (not by me, but HERE)

Haiti

2009-07-14T10:01:00.009-04:00

Click on the pictures to see bigger versions, but you have to hit the back button to get back to the blog then)

Haiti is a beautiful, albeit incredibly poor country (the poorest in the western hemisphere). I am glad we made a visit and reminds me how much traveling makes you appreciate what you have and happiness isn't measured in money or possessions.

Angela on ride to Mountrouis. There was definately a UN presence and the word on the street is it is much safer, no more kidnappings.

Ice Truck

Photocopie anyone?

Cooking Oil. In the market in Mountrouis - this old lady poured it into an old plastic bottle, she also sold motor oil, which is in the orange bucket in the lower right of the picture.

The sisters on the beach.

_________________

Hang gliding potential: One good thing about the deforestation would be the amount of lz's and top landable places. One bad thing is the number and quality of roads. It would be a fun country to explore by hang gliding - this is what makes me want to learn to paraglide so I could hike up and launch. Has anyone ever flown across and entire country before in one flight? I think Haiti would be like a 120 miler or so on first glance. (The highest point in the country is almost 8,800').

I drew in a quick possible route.

Long ridge line between Saint-Marc and Port-au-Prince (see foreground for wide-open lz's)

Closer up mountains

Looking North of the bay that's near Port-au-Prince

Drive-in movie

2009-07-04T20:00:00.003-04:00

Here's a pic of the drive-in movie theatre from yesterdays hour flight.

Test flew a 144 T2C today, first impression is that it's not as stiff as my Litespeed S. It was very interesting to fly a different wing. I think the larger size is a better fit for me (139 vs 144).

Tonight is the ice-cream-off for the 4th here at the flight park, better get cranking.

Congrats to the US team's finish at Worlds!

Short Article

2009-07-03T11:54:00.003-04:00

Chattanooga paper: http://www.timesfreepress.com/news/2009/jul/03/trenton-man-wins-epa-video-contest/

Angela got her first soaring flight yesterday!

I don't have any photos now because I got out the old FM10 and am using slide film (Fujichrome Sensia 100) to see how the quality of that compares.

Apparently it would take something like a 24 megapixel digital camera to do the same resolution as a 35mm - here. I'll be curious to see the results.

Uploaded my new video to the careerbuilder.com contest yesterday. Hopefully it will be available for viewing soon. Today is the dealine for submission.
http://www.hiremytvad.com/index.php
Voting begins August 1st.

Leaving for Haiti Sunday, gone about 10 days.

4 hours yesterday

2009-06-30T11:15:00.002-04:00

Here are a couple of the sights from my 4h20m flight from yesterday. Went to the end of Rising Fawn and then to the Point, just kind of played around.

Am finishing up another contest video this week, will post on it when its watchable.

"The Point" - James Wesh and Bob Simmons, and some kind of business jet

Ice Breakers at some summer camp at Covenant College

"If you build it . . ." I will fly over it. Nice little personal baseball field near Cloudland Canyon

Contest Win Press Release

2009-06-29T11:22:00.000-04:00

See the official page here:
http://www.epa.gov/owow/videocontest.html

EPA Contest - count it!

2009-06-26T21:27:00.005-04:00

They haven't posted a press release yet, but I've won the EPA video contest they just put on. Here is my video:

Yesterday I flew 32 miles from Henson's to Lookout, very fun flight, but I didn't take any video or photos.

I'm working on: another contest video, Flytec 6030 instructional DVD, the surplus footage from the comps, and I'm learning about retouching photos - I didn't take this photo, it's just one I used to learn about retouching photos (click it to see the differences):

I'm still refining some things, but that gives you an idea.

Andre Wolf Interview

2009-06-24T13:42:00.008-04:00

Congrats to OB for probably winning the day!

This is the extra footage from the Andre Wolf Interview. I'll have similar interviews coming from Jonny and Dustin. Instructions on voting HERE.

Here's that DIY dolly track that I built the day before yesterday:

Ramp Dive

2009-06-22T11:36:00.003-04:00

Eric Donaldson is the pilot, Ricker Goldsborough took the photo.

Don't forget to keep trying to get my video up there to be able to rate it!

Got my 300th flight this past weekend, very fun. Today I'm building a diy track dolly for an upcoming contest. Stay tuned.

2009-06-18T10:45:00.002-04:00

Using my camera mount from this past weekend. That's Ricker to my right in his new Moyes Litespeed S 4, which he is raving about. I love my little Litespeed S 3 - Moyes gliders just rock.

___________________________________________

See below on how to vote for my new hang gliding documentary!

________________________________________

Steps to Vote

2009-06-16T20:19:00.009-04:00

Here are the steps to be able to vote for my video:

I have made a short documentary about a friend of mine and about hang gliding competitions. I am hoping to make it in to the top 10, but I need all the votes I can get!

Here's how to vote:
1. Go to http://stellaartois.triggerstreet.com/ShortFilmProject/Intro
2. Click "Request Rating Assignment"
3. It will then ask you to register with their site to be assigned one to rate.
4. After registering, your assigned video should display, if it is not mine ("A Soaring Life"), then watch the one you are assigned all the way through.
5. After the video is done playing it will ask you to rate it with 1-5 stars.
6. Once rated you can click "Continue Rating" for another film to rate.
7. You can repeat steps 5 and 6 until you are eventually assigned mine to rate.
8. It may sound like a long process, but it would really make a difference since you can only rate a movie once for the entire contest.
~ note: you can rate only 8 at a time and then start again after 24 hours.

To just watch it without voting (please vote!) click HERE.

This could be a great promotional opportunity for hang gliding. Thanks for your help!

Feel free to copy and paste or link to this post to your friends and family. As I did last time I will be donating some money back into the sport if I were to win. Thanks.

Voting Update

2009-06-16T10:41:00.003-04:00

Update: You can rate any video only once during the entire contest.

IF you are not assigned my film to rate the first time, let that video play the entire way through and you have the option to 'Continue Rating' and try to get mine again, and if you don't then you can let that one play through and request another till you get to mine...

I know this could be time consuming, but some time within the next 47 days I hope people will have a chance to do this.

Read below for the first post about voting. I'll continue to post clarifications if I find them. Please comment to these posts if you are having success or difficulty. THANKS!!!

Voting Begins!

2009-06-16T00:31:00.007-04:00

Well, it's midnight and it's up! A 10 minute (that was the max. allowable length) short documentary I created on a friend of mine, Eric, and on competition hang gliding.

This contest is for $50,000, so I tried to go all out on this one. Unfortunately, voting is not so easy.

To vote for mine, it seems right now, you have to register with the website and then click the "Request Rating Assignment" button, and hope the one they assign you to rate is my video. But I think they'll let you rate three or so, so if you have time, watch what they assign you and see if you can try again. (click this text to register and be assigned one to rate)

To just watch it, go HERE (but I really need your votes too!)

There are 47 days of voting to select the top 10, then a panel of judges/actors (like Kevin Spacey) will pick the ultimate winner of the cash prize.

Thanks for your help and taking the time to register with their site and hopefully be assigned my video to rate!

I hope you enjoy the film, I will post updates if I figure more out about how the voting works. More to come...

Tomorrow

2009-06-15T12:26:00.004-04:00

Tomorrow, or maybe even midnight tonight, you should be able to watch the documentary here. And register to vote for it.

This is the big one, I tried to go all out on this one. I hope it represents hang gliding well and inspires a few to try it. And those who do fly, to give competition flying a chance.

Saturday Pic

2009-06-13T23:21:00.005-04:00

Getting over 90 degrees!

Wingovers are so much fun to practice! Tomorrow looks like it might be a decent day for flying too.

One thought I had today, is that I've never heard anyone say "The movie was so much better than the book." It seems like movies can only ever be worse or maybe just as good as the books, but never better. Comment if you can think of a movie that was better than the book.

Friday Pic

2009-06-12T10:23:00.003-04:00

Thanks to Joel Davison (two s's?) for taking this picture of me on Tuesday.

I uploaded my short film "A Soaring Life" to the Stella Artois contest website yesterday. IT's DONE! But they haven't, and looks like there's no plan to send me a confirmation email that it uploaded, and there is no way to watch or even check to see that it uploaded correctly on their website. For a $50,000 contest I'm surprised about that. I sent them an email to ask, but will probably not hear back. I hope it uploaded! We'll find out on the 16th I guess.

This guy lands in trees at 3:20, not sure where the LZ was anyways.

Clear Ridge 5 24 09 from Peter Rosen on Vimeo.

A moment's hesitation cost me a(nother!) tree landing! It was soarable, but I missed the chance to fly above launch, and the headwind kept me from reaching the LZ.

Wednesday pic

2009-06-10T01:21:00.002-04:00

Nothing like landing right in front of your house . . .
Got an hour flight in yesterday.

2009-06-09T11:41:00.002-04:00

Photo from hotel soaring, that's a light bulb in the foreground, random beach trash.

Doc. update: Music is done, now just blurring out logos and adding titles to interviews.

Will probably skip out on work early today to go fly.

Lost

2009-06-04T11:48:00.003-04:00

See who did win the Taxslayer contest here. I JUST FOUND OUT THIS IS THE SAME GUY WHO WON THE $100,000 FOR THE KLONDIKE BAR CONTEST (I had a video in that one too)! ARGHHHHHH! THIS GUY HAS JUST WON ANOTHER $25,000! This was my entry.

I've got one left in a contest yet to be decided for the EPA. Here is my entry into that contest.

The documentary is being scored now and should be available for public viewing on the 16th here. I titled it "A Soaring Life."

58 miles - First Tandem

2009-06-03T10:29:00.008-04:00

Angela and I go tandem for the first time yesterday morning!

If a dream-come-true flight in the morning with Angela wasn't enough, that afternoon I flew 58 miles: Lookout to Hensons and back to Marion County Airport with Terry Presley. Eric Graper, Eric Donaldson, Greg Heckman, Claire Vassort, and Jeff Nibler were the other pilots in the crew who flew. Thanks to Wayne Walker for driving we all had fun flights. I maxed out at 7,300' MSL with 3 hours flying.

The goal was to do the, never-done-before flight of going from Lookout to Hensons and then back (or vice versa). After yesterday I think it is totally doable. Terry, Eric D., and I made it to Hensons and worked back and Eric D. was just short of the airport where Terry and I landed. Jeff landed at Big Daddy's near Nickajack, Heckman landed at Hensons, and Claire and Eric G. landed in the Sequatchie Valley before making it to Hensons.

Eric Donaldson on glide over the river almost to Inman's Point.

Jeff Nibler's rig

Final Glide (click for larger image) - Got one turn in before landing

New Video! Beach Soaring

2009-06-01T19:36:00.002-04:00

Enjoy - this is the footage I took the day we soared the abandoned hotel, during the Florida Ridge meet. Make sure to click the 'HD' version!

Saturday Flyin - May 30

2009-05-31T00:30:00.002-04:00

View of Chattanooga and TN River Gorge from Sequatchie Valley

Flew all day - 9:30am: tandem flight to get my T1 rating.
afternoon: 2 flights at Hensons, then sled run at LMFP.

Only got to the end of the ridge on 2nd Hensons flight, landed with Eric. Had fun, the sledder was cool doing wingovers and landing near the spot.

Good Flyin Finally

2009-05-29T22:59:00.004-04:00

It's weird to come home after flying 31 hours in 10 days and then not fly at all.

But finally the weather has turned and the ridge turned on today.

Flew 3 hours, went to the 'point' twice and also to the training hills, flew maybe 50 miles along the ridge. Very fun.

Photo is from earlier this week. The pilot is Mike Terwilliger.

Tomorrow, headed to Henson's with a crew of people. Not sure what the goal will be. Ollie's talking about a 105 mile out and back. I just got the idea to go to Lookout and then keep going. We'll see what happens. Sunday should be a similar story - weather is looking good.

Landings Video

2009-05-27T14:54:00.002-04:00

Nice little video by Jim Steele.

I've been working on the documentary about every day since the comps were over and am almost finished and think I've found someone to score it (music). Should be done in another two weeks.

I'll also be getting out maybe two or three more videos from footage from the comps - hotel soaring, interviews with some pro's, and anything else I didn't use in the doc.

US Rankings - Cloud Study

2009-05-20T14:10:00.004-04:00

See the US rankings after the Florida meets here.

I'm now 21st in the US after attending 3 competitions. Hope to improve upon that over the next few years. Anybody want to sponsor me? :)

Here is a friends blog who will be traveling around the world for the next year to study clouds. She received a Watson Fellowship to do so.

Video update

2009-05-17T22:45:00.004-04:00

Here are stills from some of the video to come - the pilot is Jeff Shapiro.

I haven't been able to work on much video besides the documentary video and I won't be able to until I finish it. That's because any video I use in the documentary I cannot use in anything else.

SO I want to keep all my footage open to my documentary and then use everything else for extra videos for youtube. Stay tuned!

TTT Article

2009-05-14T14:02:00.002-04:00

Just finished an article for the TTT Newsletter coming out next month: http://www.treetoppers.org/

At the end of this month I will find out about the Taxslayer and EPA video contests.

Accident Video

2009-05-13T11:04:00.002-04:00

Watch the pilot's right arm in the front view. The tow bridle was not properly aligned and caught his parachute release and pulled his right arm off of the downtube.

Whitwell

2009-05-12T23:50:00.002-04:00

Well, despite the 31.5 hours and 577 miles I flew during the two comps, I couldn't pass up the one good day out of the next week or so.

I headed to Whitwell, a SE site, and flew with about 11 other people. I went 11 miles out and back on the ridge so I could get home at a reasonable time so I can work on all the video I took at the comps.