Tuesday, May 29, 2012

Late spring at Marina

Funky weather kicked off Memorial weekend. Strong winds, low cloudbases and snow in the high mountains, where many pilots usually head this particular weekend. Most stayed local at the coast.
The winds were still a bit unpredictable. And we ended up relaunching down the dunes a bit.
Chris, Eric, Trey myself opted for Marina.
I borrowed Eric fixed up Willswing Spectrum 167. It makes a decent dune glider (its for sale by the way).
Eric now has the ultimate beach glider... the Northwing Freedom. Well that is my opinion anyway ;)
We flew Sunday too, as I was already there and the convenience of flying there is hard to beat.
Its been a while since I flew here and the erosion is very apparent. It doesn't appear that the prevention measures have any effect on the beach. Only on the cliff edge at the top, which once it reaches vertical erodes back at the same pace. This is my observation at least. For nature this isn't a problem, but for property lines and infrastructure, there is much bureaucracy.
Eric and Julia having fun with the retrieve.
Eric invited us over for a BBQ after flying. Good times :) Thanks Eric.

Monday, May 21, 2012

Dunlap

Its been ages since my last visit to Dunlap, with only a few excuses I was persuaded to go ;)
There was a good showing of pilots from different clubs.
Both days had considerable sink between the broken thermals, I think this is mainly due to the high pressure 1024mBar.
Saturday turned out to be a nice flying day to take a nice short tour of the valley. Rob joined me for most of it.
Sunday was more of a ridge flying day. It wasn't even that easy to stay up on the ridge.
We all had fun flying around anyway :)
And then at 6:30pm the sun elcipsed. I had not expected to see it at this lattitude, but It was quite close to full.
Interestingly after 30 mins of weak sun, the air went catabatic (the air started decending down the hills) and the valley cooled dramatically that was quite unexpected. I suppose the shadow cast is much bigger than most clouds, but the light change was subtle... Here a paper plate pin hole(s) camera.

Big thanks to Carm and Ann for persuading me to go ;) and Chris for bringing me back.

Wednesday, May 16, 2012

Back in the SFBA

Back in the SF Bay area. Home for the foreseeable future. Why here ? Well... I am a techie and eventually I plan to get back into electronics, Silicon Valley is still a good place to be for this, and also has a decent selection of places to to fly and recreate. The downsides of expensive to live and perpetually busy are out-wieghed by my great friends, the beautiful coast and mountains nearby. 
 I haven't seem to have found time to do my laundry yet, but had to get out of the house a couple of days ago.
 I jumped on my bike and rode a round for a few hours.
 I love the shades of fresh green up here, this time of year especially.
I found the Helliyer velodrome, a spot I've been meaning to check out. Who knows maybe I'll even ride on it some time. Looks fun. Also got to hang out at the fort yesterday, and contemplate life. First flight there this year.


Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Tubing the Guadalupe

Another quick stop on the return journey :) A visit with my friend Heidi.
 The river is quite a bit muddier than around the start of the year, and considerably more people floating around. It was great fun and a nice way to catch up with Heidi in the Texas heat.
 At same point there was a pretty big snake swimming around in the water. I saw it from 30 feet away or so, I didn't get a good look at it swimming on the surface, certainly heard the commotion though :) It was around 4 1/2 feet I'd say.
 Konrad and Mike enjoyed the float too.
After a quick visit to Daisy Dukes we went into Gruene for a look around and a bite to eat.

T'was a nice visit indeed.

New Orleans

Another stop on the return westward - New Orleans.
Konrad, Mike and I strolled around taking in the sights. Here's Musical Legends Park
And along the entrance to the Mississippi, a shallow river paddle boat, from yesteryear.
Typical scene on Bourbon Street. Konrad was able to procure many beads... but not nearly as many as a few girls across the street.
This police horse was checking out the show in the Swamp. It seemed much funnier at the time.
And of course the famous French Quarter architecture.

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Emerald Coast

I've driven passed the north-west Florida coast a few times with intrigue not having seen it. On the way west we stopped there to check it out.
Its called the Emerald coast, because of the color of the water.
Jonny and Joni had also stopped there and we met up with them for a sunset and swim, some frisbee...
And a good amount of sunburn ;)
Apparently there were Man-O-War Jellys around so I took off too see if I could find one. Just found the regualar Jellys.

And some fish, the goPro Hero is not such a good underwater camera. I wonder if the Hero2 is any better ?
Konrad tried some Kite-boarding but the wind was a little too light.
Now we are near New Orleans, courtesey of Joni, thanks for putting us up - and putting up with us :)