July 13, 2002
Early Afternoon Run

Two of us drove up to Brace Mountain and hung out with the visitors to and owners, teachers and students of the Mt. Brace Outdoor Club and Flight Park. I would highly recommend this location with the right winds (Southwest to Northwest) as the whole setup of the club, the site amenities and the grassy launch and landing zone were very conducive to flying. My only qualifier to this comment would be that the launch is slightly dicey in crosswinds, and you may end up sliding into or not getting enough lift over the bushes below launch if you do not have enough launch speed.

The ride up to the launch by means of the usual 4-wheel drive pickup truck was not possible due to a flat tire. However, fortunately, we and the other 6 there at the time piled our gear into the bucket of a large tractor and then sat ourselves on the mowing apparatus hanging off of the back of the tractor for the ride up to launch. The ride ($10 per ride) was approximately 1/2 hour and took us most of the way to the top. I give them a lot of credit for getting us up there one way or another. That left us with a 20 minute hike up to the West launch (launchable in Sorthwest to Northwest winds).

We became a little nervous as we watched a "P4" get dragged all of over the launch area (3 or 4 times) in only slight cross winds. However, we both took off fine and had 15 minute sled rides to the landing zone.

You can see the launch in the notch of the treeline in the first two pictures, the launch site in the third picture, the landing zone/farm in the fourth picture and Peter's perfect landing in the LZ in the fifth picture.

Peter tried out his powered paraglider again, flew all over the place and probably only landed because of darkness and a low fuel level.

We ended up camping out like everyone else on the club's/farm's landing zone. They have built showers and a bathroom in the back of the farmhouse for anyone who stays there over night. The fee to camp is $10 per night per person. There are also numerous motels, B&B's and inns in the area (Millerton and Salisbury).

We decided to hike up to launch this time and arrived at the top 1 hour and 15 minutes later. The flights lasted about 30 minutes, and could have lasted longer, as the thermals were starting to kick in and were fairly consistently spaced.

If you're going to hike, I would recommend leaving the vehicle at the farm and finding a ride from the farm to the beginning of the trail (about 1 mile). I've heard that there is a shorter hike around the back side of the mountain. I believe you have to park your car somewhere near Salisbury, CT and then hike about 20 minutes to the same launch from there. Unfortunately, the landing is the same also, which means you would have to hitch a ride back to your vehicle on the other side of the mountain. It's supposedly not as logistically difficult as it sounds.

The following files are freely distributable DRG's (scanned digital raster graphics) of USGS topographic maps. The New York files (left two) were obtained from this New York State GIS Clearing House site, and the Connecticut files (right two) were obtained from this UConn Map And Geographic Information Center site.

Brace Mountain is located in Quad A4 - Ashley Falls (of Block 42073) at the extreme left and towards the bottom of the map. The landing zone / farm is located in Quad A5 - Copake just north of the road White Horse Crossing (to the East of highway 22) which is at the extreme right and towards the bottom of the map.

Blocks 42073 & 41073
	5	4
A	Copake TIF | TFW | TAB	Ashley Falls TIF | TFW
H	Millerton TIF | TFW | TAB	Sharon TIF | TFW