I lumbered out of bed and glanced out my window expecting clouds, wind and maybe some light rain. Nothing... just blue. By 2pm Heather and I could wait no longer for the deluge and headed to Highland. Suprised I wasn't doing house chores and was actually heading for my first flight of the year in Ridgely, I arrived just before 3pm to find 4 or so pilots setup and ready to go.
No one had flown yet but the wind was quite modest and continued to abate and the sky looked very good indeed. Steve K, Christian, Mauricio, Heather, Bob and Victor and myself are now setup and ready to go. A few launch near 3:30 or so?? and get 30+ minutes... and then 2 or 3 land. Christian defies gravity and stays up a while longer... must be the brand new sail on his Millenium... sweet. He finally comes down from the cold at 4000+ feet.
I launched around 4 and against my normal practice of towing to 2501' regardless of lift... I got off early in promising rising air at 1900 feet. I of course, immediately found myself at 1400' cursing my arrogance. I eventually squeaked up to 2000' and Bob joined me off tow at 2500'. I hooked a nice on with 430 fpm and began a nice elevator ride. Bob had no problem climbing with me in his beautiful Discus and stayed above me for most of the day. His Discus flies as well as mine I see. Worked up near cloudbase, I was at 4600 and climbing slowly when I decided to drive out for warm air. Went down to 1400' and back up to 4000' twice, flying with Steve and Mauricio and generally getting schooled. Finally decided I needed some warm air and wingover'd my way back to Highland for my first lousy landing of the year. Hopefully my last lousy one. I got a bit downwind in some very switchy air and whacked nicely. No harm.
Heather flew here first flight of the year and had the best landing of the day... she was just jazzed to be back up in the air.
It was an amazing opening day with incredible blue skies and gentle 200fpm everywhere and more than that if you tried. Many folks got an hour and some quite a bit more. Beers and stories at the temple ensued and it was great to be back with everyone in the air and on the ground.
Best opening day I've seen at Highland ever and bodes well for an awesome year!!! See you next week!
John
Highland Saturday... Yowsa!
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