Well, actually, most of it was on the Fifth. Our daily deluges decided to give us a break this weekend and we got in some decent flying. Last week, Lauren had a new sail installed on her Litespeed S3 with Mike Barber doing the honors so we spent several days at Wallaby where Lauren flew numerous test flights while Mike adjusted her glider. After a final adjustment on the 4th, we headed home to Quest for flying and fun on Saturday the 5th. Lots of pilots showed up and Lauren, Dustin, Steve (from the UK), Mitch Shipley and I headed south to Fantasy of Flight and back for a 50 mile out and back. Lauren and I got stuck low early in the flight and had to play catch up with Dustin and Steve after we both had saves from around 1100'. Lauren was fighting a nasty turn in her LS that was due to a last minute adjustment that hadn't worked out and decided to go home after about 15 miles netting her 30 miles out and back. I was also having a minor tuning issue with a slight left turn when I pulled lots of VG but it wasn't too bad so I continued on. When I was about 3 miles from Fantasy, Dustin radioed that Steve had landed and he was going to extend the task on to Wallaby before heading home to Quest. I told him I'd stop short of Fantasy and meet him at Wallaby which gave me about a 50 mile triangle. I cruised into Wallaby with lots of altitude and then climbed even higher under a spectacular cloud chock full of Wallaby pilots while I waited for Dustin who I later found out had nearly decked it between Fantasy and Wallaby. We finally hooked up and flew the 22 miles home staying high and cool. Mitch, who had launched some time after all of us, landed a half hour later wondering where we had all been, he went straight to Fantasy and back and saw no one but Lauren along the route. Being a good Navy Man, he had followed orders and was unaware of our change in course.
We finished off a great day with a feast prepared by Connie Bailey (Bobbies wife). They were celebrating 33 years together. We also got to see Bobbie test fly a "flying machine" that he is building for the Red Bull Flugtag day coming up in Tampa. The guy's a complete genius! How many of you would throw together some aluminum and clear plastic sheeting and then go trust your life to it in the air?
We flew again yesterday but conditions were worse than they looked and our big plans didn't work so well. I managed about 12 miles south while most everyone else landed back at Quest after a couple attempts at leaving. Looks as though I should have done the same. I got picked up about 10 feet and then dumped onto my right corner bracket by something kicking off the field just as I was about to flare. No injuries but I took out the right DT. Oh well, at least you can replace that stuff.
Paul
Florida Flying on the Fourth
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