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Sunday Turned Sweet

By Mike_Zeller at 2008-03-30 19:55

I’ll try to break this gently but after the Saturday Massacre when so many valiant pilots stood at launch braving the cold and the bad luck, a few of us went up Sunday and were treated to a day of “magic air.” It was a steady 10-12 in the LZ and the same up on Marshall, cloud base just below Crestline. Mike B, John W and I arrived and found Dave was already up there preparing for two tandem flights.
Mellow lift almost everywhere, no turbulence at all. When I got to 5100 I noticed it seemed foggy…I was getting into the clouds, but even there the cloud suck was gentle and I just had to pull in to go down. Went part way to the Freeway and encountered the only sink of the day so I gave that up. Went down to the 750 to warm up and was lolled back up to 4600 without even trying. It seemed pretty much like a steady 12-15 mph SW wind every where. But it was cold enough that we all called it quits after about 75 minutes. (Yes, I actually had to coax the glider a bit to get down.)
At one point I heard someone chuckling. I looked up and Mike B was passing overhead in his new U2. That’s where he was all day, overhead. Well that’s OK, but there is such a thing as being to happy. Does anyone know how to tune down a U2?
At another point I flew gentle circles with a toy balloon. I couldn’t help but think of that movie, The Red Balloon. This one was orange.
I heard Dave even top landed one of his tandem flights on Marshall the winds were so consistent. His two passengers had the best first flights anyone could have hoped for.
But it was pretty cold. Come on Summer!
Mike Z


‹ Monday 3-31-2008?Elsinore Fri Mar 28 ›

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good day for a double surface

By John W at Sun, 2008-03-30 20:11

Today was fun, indeed. The lift was gentle and pervasive.

Watching the Mikes zoom around, boy Mike B's new U2 is purty, I felt like a pylon. I zoomed in a bit (again ungh) and therefore missed some footage of Mike's new wing (still got some), but I got a good shot of the tandem going by. Sure was something to watch that top landing. It was pretty windy. He came in perpendicular to the hill, cracked a 90, went up the slope a bit, and landed on his wheels (wheels on Marshall?). I did a fly-by right after that and found the air very smooth and quite buoyant there.

I came down after an hour to warm up. It wasn't the coldest I've been this year, but it was cold enough. Throw in the fact that I couldn't get far in the Falcon, I just had fun experimenting with turns and the kind of stuff you don't want to do when you are worried about altitude.

Anyone flying Tuesday?


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