Highland, Friday July 24

[Ward Odenwald]

Tomorrow and Saturday are both looking good! Not sure that I can fly on Saturday so Friday is the day for me.

Ward

[Lucky_Chevy]

Hey Ward,

I lost track of you. Hope you had a good flight. It was a bit windy and turbulent so I decided to call it a day.

Still, it was better than spending the day at work.

See you next time,

Dan

[Ward Odenwald]

Great day! Dan and I were the only solo pilots and we were ready to fly at ~1:30 but after towing up several tandom flights, Jim suggested that we wait as conditions were not ideal. After ~2:30, Rooney landed with the good news that the blue thermals were "fully baked" and ready for us to carve them up. Spent most of my flight (1hr 40 min) above 3K msl trying to stay in intense, tight thermal cores with 60 degree bank turns during most of my climbs (highest to just over 4.5K msl over the Choptank River). It was one of those days that you had to search for air that was not going up to land. I'll post some photos after my arms and shoulders stop complaining.

Ward

[Ward Odenwald]

The ordered photos show one of my climbs on Friday that started over a chicken farm. The thermal cores were small, strong (over 500 fpm up at times) and laced with the wonderful aroma of chicken manure. As you can see, the NNW winds aloft pushed the up air towards Denton and the Choptank. The last photo was taken on my way back to Highland.

Ward

[Ward Odenwald]

Last set of five.

[Lucky_Chevy]

Nice shots Ward. I had one tow. The lift I found was weak and I was quickly drifting away from the field. I was determined not to leave so I turned back and found some buoyant air on the glide back. I made an ok landing after 30 minutes and decided to call it a day.

I made it back to Highland on Sunday but there was a bad wind direction and flying was called off.