First flatland soaring!!! 7/11/08

[tdilisio]

Friday was a GREAT day for flying at BlueSky. It wasn't a constant "on", but 4 of us, (Bob, PeterK, Dave and myself) were lucky enough to catch good cycles. The 4 of us were soaring at the same time. I had 3 flights. The first: I towed up and released at about 800 ft. Then searched for a thermal, and found one at about 600 ft, that took me to over 2200 ft. That was way cool. Depending on nothing but thermals to soar. That flight lasted 32 min. The second flight was a sled ride... released at about 700 ft and tried to find a thermal... nothing, so I landed. The Third flight was the best. PeterK was specked out, Dave wasn't far below and Bob was on his way up. I towed up and released at about 800ft, and searched for a thermal... nothing... then at about 500ft when I was thinking about setting up my landing approach, a wing lifted and my vario started singing. So, I cranked into a turn and was granted lift that eventually took me to over 4600ft!!! I farted around and got down to about 3200ft (it was a little cool at 4600ft with nothing but a t-shirt)... then caught another up to 4000ft... and did that a few times. That was a blast. Totally exhausted... I decided to land after flying about 1.5 hrs. This one day made all the other days of landing practice, a broken downtube and skinned knees worth it. (Now.. I need to practice calm wind landings ... if it's not one thing, it's another). I'm still feeling the high from that. Sure wish I discovered hang gliding in the 70's.... coulda saved a lot of brain cells. Looking forward to next time!!

[bustedwing2]

I see you've discovered my secret to getting stinking high,always wear a t-shirt and get up and cold.Dress for the cold and you'll sinkout everytime! I'm of the opinion that if I still had all those brain cells hang-gliding would be out of the question.RichB