Flying / Training 5/17/08
<b>Flying / Training 5/17/08</b><p - Flying / Training 5/17/08
After getting to bed at 1am, I was up at 6am and grabbed training gliders on the way to the hill. Chad G. was out along with Kevin S. from Cedar City for his first lesson. Both lessons went very well. Both pilots are right where they need to be at this point in their training. We wrapped up just before noon.
LZ maintenance 2. I rented a weed wacker thinking it would take about two hours to clear a section of the bailout LZ. Eight hours later I finished up a football field size section. Before I left, I cut giant letters spelling F-L-Y in the long grass. It looks fantastic from the air. Gotta get a photo from the sky.
8 hours later.
I ran home ate and rested, and met pilots out at the cemetery LZ @ 2pm. We were six pilots in all as well as a couple of drivers. Headed up to launch where wind was light.
The crew loading up.
By the time we were set up, the wind was threatening to switch north, so Bruce suited up fast and launched. After 20minutes of hard work scratching around, he ended up in the Heritage (bailout) LZ. I was next, and before I got the chance to launch, a dust devil came through pulling Gary's glider quite a way down the hill. After looking the glider over and bending two battens back into shape, Gary had a nice flight eventually landing at the cemetery LZ.
Setting up in the parking lot.
Gary set up on launch.
Eventually I took off and worked broken, high pressure thermals for twenty minutes. Greg inadvertently got sucked off the hill by another strong dust devil that rolled through launch, and after calming down, started riding a bucking thermal just north of launch. We were searching for something to get us up and away, and eventually Greg found one that I slid into and took up almost to 13,000ft. The meat of it was 1100fpm on the averager and pretty smooth. Two cu's briefly formed out front of Cascade and I tried unsuccessfully to get up into the wispys. As Greg and I boated around chatting on the radio, I watched each pilot launch and subsequently get up pretty high. The day was stunning. An azure sky with little cu's atop the mountains. Clear visibility allowing for a sweet vista in all directions. The substantial snow atop the peaks was just beautiful. I desperately need to get a point and shoot digital camera to take photos in flight.
East Coast Mark set up on launch with a great looking sky.
I eventually went out in the valley over the interstate and just did some sight seeing throughout town. Every now and then I'd see someone else coming in for a landing or flying up high on the range. East Coast Mark had a great flight, and I flew up near Craig around 10,000 on cascade. Greg and I continued to chat and eventually after a valley tour and some hanging out on the Timp foothills, I did a blazing final glide to the LZ. Had to run out my landing in somewhat strong NW winds. With the exception of Bruce, everyone had high rewarding flights. (you'll get it next time Bruce) Dave Gibson was out on a bike ride and visited with us while we broke down. The imposing snow capped peaks were the highlight of the day.
Timp in the evening. Amazing surrounding scenery.
Airtime: 2:03. Flights: 2. 
