Crestline Soaring Society

Can't say much about Marshall today. I arrived a bit after 2 PM with Helene, Mark, Mark, and Gene. Peter called from the LZ and said JR did indeed want to do an HG tandem, so I flew the Falcon down in 3 minutes. That was fun and ensured our getting to Crestline while it was still going strong.

It was 15-18 at Crestline, with very little variation. We did a two-step launch at 16:48 and soared easily in the ridge lift, with JR doing about average in first-time control ability. At Billboard the thermals that rolled through were a bit torn up and we circled a lot but never got up to the gliders 400 or so above the ridge. Nice glide to Regionals and we decided to head for the LZ, but lingered over the bluffs a bit before diving in to a decent landing at 17:30. My first tandem in almost exactly 2 years, it happens (when my wallet, keys and cellphone fell out of my harness - see 6 June 2004 ). Lots of fun and a perfect day for getting back into tandems.

There was a huge contingent of PGs that took off from Marshall when we were getting ready to land. They looked really cool bunched up and then spread out all over the mountain. JR was really liking HG. He has about 6 solos in PG.