Date: Mon, 29 Jan 1996 13:55:30 -1000 From: lord@eskimo.com (David Lord) Message-Id: Organization: Eskimo North (206) For-Ever Subject: El-Mirage Buggy Thang Buggy Boogie Thang II The Buggy blast at El Mirage is history, a thing of the past. For those that attended the fond memory will linger on. I arrived on Saturday at about 12:30 to find only a handfull of Buggiers and no wind. Mike Eason was the first person I talked to, he had been there since the previous Thursday. The wind soon picked up and I put together my buggy and unleashed my Skytiger Hi 60 and was soon buggying across the huge expanse of dry lake. Later Fran Gramkoski and Dean Jordan pulled in. Dean was set up to camp out on the lake bed the whole week as was my friend Steve Bateman. We could leave our equipment assembled and at the lake bed as Steve and Dean guarded it every night. Dean brought some large Peels and a large Sputnik that were very good performers and were pretty besides. By Sunday there were quite a few Northwest Buggy Pilots on hand. There was Morrie and Kelci Williams, Mike Eason, Cal Yeuen, George Cameron and his son Zack and myself. We still had light winds requiring our large kites but it was fun. On Monday I arrived at the lake to find Andrew Beattie doing one of his favorite things, working on the bridle lines of his leviathan Sputnik. I introduced myself to Andrew and he promptly pulled out a bottle of single malt scotch whiskey. I had a good belt of it as a morning eye opener. Andrew is quite a personality with boundless energy, when he wasn,t working on bridles he was launching one of his large kites or taking somebody for a ride on his tandem unit. Steve Bateman was the lucky purchaser of a 8 meter white Sputnik with a black chevron design, one of the kites Andrew sold to finance his trip. Ed Chen brought a couple of their new prototype two line parafoil kites that seemed to fly very well. Also the new Quadrifoil Competetion series kites were there. I flew a 5.6 meter version but did not buggy with it. It has an interesting design for the leading edge vents. Before the kite inflates fully they are wide open but as the internal pressure builds they assume a shape similar to a human eye and partially close to give a much improved aerodynamic shape to the leading edge. The kite also is relatively Hi Aspect and has eliptical planform. In the lighter winds the Hi Aspect kites were dominant, I saw very few low aspect kites in the large category (5 meters and up). Later in the day on Monday the winds picked up to around 18 to 20 mph and Morrie Williams took me out to the pucker bumps. What a rush! The other great thing about El Mirage is the islands of sage brush that form some perfect slalom courses once you get off the huge flat featurless part of the dry lake. When the winds are up it is really easy to log a lot of miles. I did 69 miles in one day with out really trying. The fastest speed I attained was 43 mph using my Skytiger 18. This was in winds of around 26 mph. I never went out in the 35 mph and up wind speeds but the kite was near maxed out, I might have got another 4 to 6 mph out of it in the higher winds. George Cameron made a really nice scaled down buggy for his son Zack that fit the 11 year old perfectly. There were buggys >From several manufacturers as well as some homebuilts. The Wind Chariots that Steve Kent brought were nice buggys as were a couple of the European designs, although they all seemed heavier than the various Peter Lynn designs. A comment posted about Peter Lynn buggys getting loose and not holding up is utter nonsense. I have over a thousand miles on mine and I know of others with lots of use that are still solid and performing well. Anyway the El Mirage buggy blast was great fun with lots of fun people in attendance. One fellow from Lisbon, Ron Carlos, was really a fun guy to buggy with. I hope to attend the spring event at Ivanpaugh and then again at El Mirage during the AKA national convention. Dave Lord Sumner WA check out http://mail.eskimo.com/~lord lord@eskimo.com = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =