Time for a new look

At Uncle Joes barber shop.

Its going to be 101'F, sorry Leighann I couldn't wait.

Chelan - Day1

It was fun at Chelan today
I managed to find myself at launch first, it was nice to get up into some cooler air. I flew with Chris a bit, and even saw him at a turnpoint 20 miles out (I wonder if he was waiting for me?) I lost sight of him after that as I headed to the next turn point.
I flew for a bit over 5 hours, thinking I was the last in Tom came in right after me followed by Rob and Fiona.

Off to Chelan

Its been a busy week, trying to fix things up and get organised for the long trip. Most of my time was spent fixing up this camper trailer. The project is not complete but it was time to leave.
Made to Chelan in time to check in, catch up with a few friends and take a dip in the lake.

Tomorrow is the first day of the comp.
Leighann I wish you were here :)

Flying Marina with Lance

I had a couple of things I needed to do down near Monterey, and hey look at that, it soarable at Marina, and my glider need airing out from yesterday anyway...
Here is Lance flying in his cowboy boots. Nice and aerodynamic.

View of the new park entrance, that is unopened because of Ca funding cut backs. Even though it is finished and fully staffed. Got to love the government. Hope someone with influence sees the stupidity and opens it up.

Tons of fun at Funston

Sunday was a fun day at Funston, there were too many gliders to count so I'll just say there were probably 40 gliders. The wind was WSW at 12-18 all day (perfect). Steve was flying an old school but ahead of its time Stratus-5. I got to see my gloy too! The low clouds (600 feet) lifted during the day and made possible a really nice sunset ontop of the Marine layer.
Here's a video of a couple of highlights from the day.

Mirages on the coast

Its been hot in Santa Cruz, and more fires allegedly deliberate. We saw the fire start today start while we were on the water. It went from small bonfire to a 700 acre blaze filling a 1/3 of the sky. As I left over 17 I passed 38 fire trucks. I wonder how big the fire is now. With the heat an interesting effect on the water is this mirage that makes the beach look like a 200 foot cliff. Some times the waves look 200 feet too. Here is Sanjiv. Moon jellyfish. Sea otter with its' baby. and some surfing along surfing along steamers lane.

Mt Tam on fire

Saturday I was scheduled to fly to Tandem students from Mt Tam. We had to wait a little while for the clouds to disapate below. Then off we went. After a short but fun flight I turned around and the grass around launch was on fire !!
We waited to see if we could be allowed back up to do the scond flight. It was under control quickly but it took 3 planes and helicopter 7 fire trucks and many fire and park staff.
Playing ball on a grassy knoll above the Pacific.

Walking around and taking pictures we gave up on the second flight at 5pm.

Sunday I tried a new site. The wind was just not quite strong enough on the bluffs and I got some launch and landing practice. Maybe 25 minutes in 5 flights.

A relaxing day at the beach - well except for the half mile carry.

It was great to see Dallas, here he is with Whiskey on his front porch.

In the back "yard" working on the payout winch tow system. Looks pretty slick.

On to Savannah Georgia, a cute litle colonian town with lots of open squares, appearantly to slow fire down. It would make for a nice town to live in.

One such square, where Forest gump opened his boax of chouklaites.

I was a complete tourist in this town, I took the town tour bus as I had limited time.

The Cathedral was one of a few to escape distruction in the civil war.

After a short turn around in Florida I'm back in California, where new fires are burning, this is what the sun looked like at 3pm from my front door.

On The Bus.

Yesterday I started off in Petersburg, one of the more significant towns in the civil war. I visited the national battlefields there.


Then I headed south to meet up with Dallas and Nicole, who as luck would have it were going scuba diving that evening at :
fantasy lake scuba park
It was really cool they let me tag along. I'd never dived in a lake before. With the fresh water I only needed 8 pounds of weight instead of the usual 22Ibs, learned that one pretty quick...

Under water there is a aeroplane, a few cars, boats and a school bus.

We actually went inside and sat down 20 feet under water. What a trip! The water was really clear with a surprizing number of fish.

a day in D.C.

Here are some of the sites everybody sees when here in D.C.
House of Congress on Capitol Hill.

The Washington monument. Lincoln memorial behind.

The White House.

From the Lincoln memorial toward Capitol Hill. The "reflecting pond is green.

The Jefferson Memorial at sunset.

Sunset over the District of Columbia.

Now I head south, to Florida and visit Dallas on the way :)

Well done Dustin !

The final day was an exciting race. Dustin was a few points ahead of Jonny making the competition for the number 1 place hot. The task was a downwind race to the beach ~38miles. Cloudbase was twice the high of yesterday at 4500'.

Dustin was able to stick with Jonny until final glide and made one better choice, to take the day and the meet. Well done Dustin !

I seemed to start only a few minutes after the priority guys but had a slow tow, end each thermal I lost a couple of minutes on the gaggle just ahead of me. Pretty soon I was flying alone. At 10 miles from goal I unwittingly flew into the stable coastal flow and glided to the ground 8 miles short. I was happy with most of the decisions I made during the flight, but of course wanted to bee at goal.

Here are the final standings...

day 5

The task for Day 5 was a 24 mile downwind to the south goal. Dustin came close and won the day. Many including myself did not make it out of the start circle. Interestingly this puts Dustin in the number one spot now, so the race is on.

In the afternoon, many of us learned to wakeboard behind the scooter tow golf cart.



Sunset over lake Ridgely.



Dr Jack is calling for 1000 foot top of lift today, so I don't even know what might be possible. We will see.

Day 3 cancelled, Day 4 too.

Yesterdays task was cancelled, today's too.
We ended up going to a nearby swimming hole.

Probably around 30feet high. Thanks to Jonny Thompson for this clip.
Today will be a laundry day, and maybe some beach ?

Day3 will count

Here is the course today, the wind will be coming up strong south this afternnon.

Today we count especially because tomorrow looks pretty iffy in my opinion.

We'll be launching in a couple of hours here.

Day 2 - Goal

Most pilots made it into goal today.
Here I am, sporting the speed sleeve Dad gave me for Christmas 2006 ?
Thanks to Jonny for the picture. (and the glider:)

The task was a 41mile straight downwind race to Salisbury.
I did fairly well - consistantly at least.

todays results here
day2

The overall results
totals after day2

Fun Day :)

Day1 of the east coast championships

I sank out after pinning off early the first attempt. Second time around I flew 1 hour 40. The coast was a crosswind task, but as soon as I left lift I would sank out. I ended up taking a huge detour and sank out before the first turnpoint. The lift was better by the coast, but the first turnpoint was 15 miles inland.