Highland Saturday 27th

[John Simon]

Looks like 4500' plus and 600fpm. Light winds... I am hoping to setup a nice triangle... anyone interested?


John

[amykyta3]

New pilot (H2) to the area. I'll be there.
-Alex

[FlyingFelix]

Hope to make it to Highland tomorrow. John, feel like taking an XC newbie along with you?
Should be a nice day for flying.

[Lostgriz]

I will likely be there.

[Lostgriz]

I will likely be there.

Matt

[callen]

Wish i could join but will be stuck working.

[John Simon]

Newbies and all welcome... I'll be there a bit late as usual, but plenty of time to setup a nice little run. East winds are tough but we'll figure something out.

Regards,

John

[FlyingFelix]

Awesome day at Highland, LOTS of pilots out, busy flight park with visitors, students, tandems, etc; lift was everywhere - a gorgeous day for flying.
I got the highest I've ever been (6475' AGL) and did my FIRST XC flight ever. What a great feeling, HG is ever new and exciting.
Many thanks to John Simon for leading the XC and picking me up after I landed after making first waypoint at Wye Mills, also thanks Matt for the help and advice. XC sure is great, I see lots of that in my future
Here's a pic when I arrived at the Wye Mills goal - I got there plenty high to make it back to a nearby boomer and back on track but my 6030 never dinged or made any sound acknowledging I made it, so I went straight on top of goal and kept circling in 600' down on top of the waypoint to make sure it registers - I was thinking "this is dumb, I should move on, it'll be fine, I made it here" but I kept at it and circled all the way down to the ground I learned afterwards that to have the 400 meter cylinder at goal the 6030 has to be in "competition-route mode", I had it as a regular route.
You live you learn! Though I kinda liked landing out, talked to the farmer that came to check me out (nice fellow) then waited on a ride back - made it feel like a real XC flight.

[mingram]

Sweet! Congrats on you first XC! It's addicting! That view looks amazing!

[Lostgriz]

What a beautiful day to kick off the season at Highland Aerosports. The beautiful weather brought lots of pilots out to the park and all were rewarded with nice flights. I was excited about the prospect of flying a task with John Simon and Felix. My son Taylor and I arrived early and I decided to take a quick flight to see what the air was doing while John pulled a task together for us. I released at 2500' to find lift everywhere and actually had to work pretty hard to get back down, turning away from lift and circling in sink. When I finally made it back to the ground, I was optimistic about the prospect of having a fun little XC flight. John put together a nice little 24.8 mile triangle task for us from Ridgely to Wye Mills, North to another point which I don't remember the name of off hand and back to Ridgely. I have only done one other significant out and back task, so I was pretty excited about flying a triangle. There is something awesome about venturing out away from the flight park and landing back at the field that is extra rewarding. I headed toward Wye Mills at around 5200AGl with Felix behind me. Unfortunately it wasn't far into that first leg that I lost track of Felix and was on my own until John I spotted John, as he launched last, with a tandem in between he and I. As we worked our way to Wye Mills, I started struggling and got drilled down to around 1500'. I clawed around for what seemed like 20 minutes trying to get back above 2K. Around a mile Northeast of Wye Mills, I got back to 2500' and it was getting easier.....at 3500' the lift was pretty wide spread an around 4K I am guessing, I was in a screamer at sustained 1000'/minute according to my averager. At 6K I went on the short glide to tag the waypoint and headed back to may last thermal. By the time I got back there, I was down to around 4500' or so and it was still working well and I topped out at around 6300' before heading to the next waypoint. By this time, I figured John had completed the task and was back at the park, but just after topping out, I spot John, who had been watching me flounder and waiting for me the whole time, what a stud. It was cool to go on glide with him to the next waypoint and work together a little, as I have usually been at it alone when flying XC. After tagging the last waypoint I hung around trying to top out in whatever lift there was, just to be sure that I had enough in the tank to make it back to Ridgely..... I may have been a little overly conservative there, as I had Ridgely on about a 5 to 1 by the time I went on my final glide. After the flight, John gave me some good constructive criticism on team flying and working together a little better, so I look forward to more practice soon.

My son Taylor joined me for the day and after things settled down, he got to take his first tandem flight with Sunny. He was super excited of course and was buzzing about it the whole way home. Mom has not been super excited about the idea of him doing a tandem, so I am trying to find the right time to break the news to her...... Needless to say, I will probably be in a little hot water.

It was great to meet Bruce and his wife (I apologize, I am terrible with names, but I know it starts with an "A.") Super nice people and a great addition to the local flying community.

Good Times!

[Lostgriz]

[Lostgriz]

My son Taylor enjoying his first flight.

[mingram]

Awesome pic! Sounds like a really fun day.

[kcarra]

Hooray for Taylor!