All you can eat Wednesdays

Another Wednesday, another 2 1/2 hour flight.



Launched at 2:45, right as the winds were picking up... good thing my wireman has 31 years in the sport. They were about 20 then, on the way to 30... it was blowing out the thermals, it felt like the pockets of lift were based on the funky geography of Marshall... capped off by a tidy inversion layer at 5500 or so, shoving wind right down the canyons, resulting in insane sink for that much wind.

My flying friend, who's leaving soon for Missouri, wah, and I had a hard time penetrating against the wind. We did get a fun fly by where I was about 30 feet over him, sliding right, while he slid left. He should have stuck right, because he sunk out and landed around an hour and change. I caught lift off my lucky spot, the 750 launch, worked my way up, and basically flew wherever I wanted for the rest of the time.

I buzzed a Hummer that was shiny and new and testing out its four wheel drive... on a road I later drove my old Nissan Quest up. They stopped, opened the sunroof, and waved... and I got up the hill faster than they.

A crazy ass Spanish paraglider launched from the 750 and worked his way up the hill... flying backwards, before finally penetrating out and spinning down to the LZ. Wacky bastard.

I got tired around 150 minutes and came in for a running landing. I had to keep the airspeed high just to fly forward, so I figured the landing would be a bit of a barn burner. I ran about three steps before my feet actually made contact with the ground. It was a clean, unusual landing.

After a coldie I saw a nice biwingwal guy at the club (H4 P2) kiting around the the LZ because he didnt' get off work in time to get his wing out. So, I drove him to the 750 to enjoy the sunset.

Then, my passenger bought me pizza and a Sam Adams at a stone fired pizza joint.

A good day.