Flyfunston

Filming a hang gliding segment for Good Morning America!; or; The trials and tribulations of a tandem instructor.

Last Sunday I took Good Morning America! Anchorman Bill Weir http://abcnews.go.com/GMA/story?id=124422 for a tandem flight at Fort Funston!

I was first contacted by Good Morning America about six weeks ago to film a bit of flying and do a short interview about how hang glider pilots interact with nature. A couple days later the wind was light but promising, so I set up my Tandem Falcon to take the GMA producer for a flight at the Fort. The film crew was running all over the Bay Area getting different shots, and I was supposed to call them if I thought it would get flyable. By mid-afternoon it was still light at the cliff but I could see monster white caps marching in from the north. I started calling the producer urging them to wrap their location and get the crew to Funston ASAP. By the time they arrived the huge white caps were at the front door and the conditions were just too northerly for a safe tandem, so I opted to go solo. It was pumping over 25 and after launching the big Falcon off the base bar, I found myself barely penetrating on the north leg and really zooming downwind on the southerly run. It was definitely blowing out, so after three passes I signaled the camera to reset in the LZ and I did a smooth elevator landing on the chips from about 50’ high. Sweet! It blew 30+ shortly thereafter and we were stoked to have the shot in the can.

Fast forward to this last Sunday when GMA Anchorman Bill Weir would be flying in from New York and not landing at SFO until 2:20 PM. I was having déjà vu because the wind was building and we couldn’t shoot until late afternoon. I tried not to worry as I helped the camera crew rig my mini DV cam on a boom attached to the base bar, and a lipstick cam on the helmet that Bill was going to wear. I then took Chris Bolfings' girlfriend Rachael for a tandem flight to test the equipment and show her what our aerial obsession was all about. It was about 1:30 PM. and the air was perfect; straight in at 25, another easy launch off the base bar. We got high and enjoyed watching Chris fly circles around us on a little Laminar he had borrowed from Urs. Chris was diving and having all kinds of fun showing off for his gal and making comfortably close passes for the cameras. After buzzing launch ourselves a couple of times, Rachael and I had a perfect floater landing right on the chips. As it turns out, the boom cam worked fine, but the helmet cam had shut down. The crew swapped in a different recorder and I took a solo flight to insure the new set up was working. The cameras were set but I was envisioning a carbon copy blow out like the first day of filming so I got all the gear staged, even down to the pen and waiver on my clipboard!

By the time Bill arrived the wind was getting bad. It had picked up to 26-27 with a south component, and was “holey” by the accounts of other pilots who recently landed. Nobody was flying and while huge white caps were trying to push in from the NW, the wind at the cliff was strong from the SW. Many Funston pilots know what pre-shear is like, and it’s not the best conditions for a first time tandem passenger who is 6’2”, 190 lbs plus, with two cameras rigged on the glider! But Bill is adventurous, having had some skydiving experience, and I had pioneered a bail-out LZ on the cliff top just the day before so I wasn’t worried. I had Bill blast out the waiver and got him into a harness and the helmet with the lipstick cam and fanny pack with the recorder. We were also both rigged with wireless mikes’. Chris and Rachael made a great ground crew helping us move out front, but once near the lip of the cliff I could ground handle from the base bar and the launch was easy. The camera crew was set up on the observation deck and we managed to get in three or four passes. It was exciting to hear Bill yell down “Good Morning America!” as we passed directly over their heads! In spite of the impressive velocity, the wind direction was bad and the mixing air had us dropping almost to cliff top level while flying north and barely gaining 50’ on the south leg. I was feeling every notch in the cliff, and with two big guys inside the control frame, I didn’t have much room to work.
GMA really wanted to film both the launch AND the landing, so I didn’t want to go to the beach if we didn’t have to; I signaled the camera man to re-set in the LZ. I had hoped to do the standard south approach by drifting left over the top of the bush and cutting the corner of the parking lot to turn into the wind, but we just couldn’t get high enough to clear the entire bush. Fortunately I’m pretty dialed in, having spent many days at the cliff lately, so I took us over the south side of the bush, banked to the right, and had a nice landing heading SW on the ice plant. YeeHaw! We were both very stoked with the flight. I told Bill that the air had been pretty bad, but he said he hadn’t known any better and thought it was great! Once again we were happy to have the shot in the can. Good thing since it pumped up past 30 not long after we landed.

I finally got the video edited, check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zw0vq_3y8vE