Sweet Florida!

[lbunner]

Of late, I have been doing some part-time work in Charlotte (to supplement my flying habit) and last week left there for Quest to pick up my new diver. Quest was hosting the Wills
Wing Daze from the 26th through the 30th. I arrived on Saturday morning and picked up my T2C144. I got to test it out on Sunday and had a nice 3 hour flight pushing east into a stiff 15 mph breeze and getting as high as 5500'. The handling on this glider is really sweet and it has an awesome glide as well. The WW boys and Steve Pierson in particular have pulled all the stops in making this the best flying glider to date! There is no comparison to the Airborne C4 that I flew in January at Forbes, NSW. That glider was a bit of a truck and after competing on it for 10 days (41+ hours), I couldn't wait to get back on a T2C. The rest of the days at Quest were rained or blown out so on Tuesday night I headed to Wallaby for the second half of the WW Daze. The weather had turned by Wednesday and I got four more days of flying in mellow light conditions. There were quite a few comp pilots there so each day we picked a task and went for it. I ended up with ~150 miles and 15 hours for the trip. What a great start to the flying season. I head back to Charlotte tonight and then spend a week in the Chicago area before heading back to Florida for the Rob Kells Memorial and the Flyec Race & Rally. I will be back in Pa in early May just when the conditions are ripe for some big miles. Let's see; Woodstock to the coast SE of Blue Sky, Highland north to New York or The Sac to Campbell Airfield, anyone want to come with?

[Dan T]

Yeah I want to come with you Larry! I don't know how I'd keep up with you on my U2 but I'd certainly try.

How about a run along the wave from Woodstock to North Carolina? I think it can be done. We have to win that keg of beer for Highland too. I think we should set that run as a task at the ECC.

Dan T

[silverwings]

As Larry indicated, flying in Florida during Wills Wing demo days was pretty good this year. I arrived on Monday afternoon and expected it might be blown out on both Monday and Tuesday at Quest which turned out as expected. Sorry Lauren and Paul that it wasn't better during the time at Quest. Starting Wednesday at Wallaby the weather improved greatly. I thought both Wednesday and Thursday were quite good, Friday fairly good and Saturday OK for me. Some pilots probably found Saturday even good but depending on when you got towed and how well you worked lift has a great effect on your success. I did 6 tows and got over 7 hours after release and one of the tows was mostly a sled and one an extended sled. Saw a lot of the usual demo crowd. Temps were in the 70's and low 80's and cool above 3000. I topped out at 4200 on one flight. The party on Saturday night hosted by Wills Wing was great with BarBQ, live band, videos, etc. I wish more of the D.C. pilots had come.