Mike V. posting under Richard Viveros = Me confused. 😅

The figure 8 approach is meant to keep you away from all these obstacles you mentioned. You’ll get it eventually, and like I keep saying, the approach is not written in stone. First and foremost, the goal is always to avoid other pilots in the air with you, power lines, the trees, the shade structure and still have a safe, uneventful landing on the grass (or even the overshoot parking lot below the training hill, if that’s what you have to do).

If you make absolutely certain that you’re not getting into anyone’s way while landing, it’s not a big deal if you don’t land near the PG cone. The problem is that many say they ARE looking, and somehow still end up cutting off another pilot as they are making their final approach. That’s why IMO it’s safer to just stay on the PG side, because even if you don’t see an HG coming in to land, you’re on your own side, likely out of his/her way.

If you fly out in front of the house and trees a little bit, then slowly start turning between the white fence and somewhere before the hang glider training hill, you’ll slowly lose enough altitude to then make your final approach to the grass. If you’re landing earlier in the day, yeah, you’ll still get some lift as you’re landing (that’s why flying and landing in the early summer afternoon can be so dicey), but usually that becomes a non-issue in late afternoon at sunset.