Flying 9.3.08

Shapiro was planning on attending Rob Kells' memorial this past weekend, so he picked me up on his way through town. We were driving through Hurricane at the right time, so we stopped for a fly.

Jeff was pretty fried from lack of sleep, but I encouraged him to put a camera mount on his glider and we took off. It was hard going for some time as we worked sharp bubbles of lift next to the cliffs. It turned out we were just early for the glass off.

Soon there was lift everywhere, and eventually I found myself 4000ft. over launch. I boated around taking in the sights of distant Zion National Park and the surrounding red rock mesas. Off to the south east it looked empty and desolate.

Jeff used the altitude to get some inverted photos with some wingovers and a couple of loops. We were on the radio together and I laughed and commented as he did his maneuvers directly below me.

I eventually took off to the south east getting on the next set of mesas to the east. After a while I came back to see Jeff land near the truck after flying through the rotor. He mentioned it was sporty but manageable.

I did some maneuvers of my own down to launch and came in for a landing. Indeed there was some rotor, and the bottom dropped out at the last minute, but I flared aggressively and all was fine.

We enjoyed the hot wind and setting sun as we broke down and headed on our way. We could have flown well after sunset. As we drove off the mesa, we were mesmerized by the western sky's transition from orange at the horizon to deep blue above. The new moon was low in the west, our dust trail hung in the air, and the warm wind felt great through the windows.

Jeff did the last pull driving to get us into the L.A. basin by 1:30am. We quietly adjourned to our rooms at Peter and Dexa's house and promptly fell asleep. It was a 21 hour day for Jeff.

Airtime: 1:10. Flights: 1.