Yesterday morning we were out the door and on the road to town heading to SFCC for the Junior Bloomsday run. Since I was going flying after I drove separately in the sled which was a good test of the thing to see if it has any range to it.

OMG SO MANY PEOPLE! It was a crush of people all around the track as the kids got sent off in waves for their 1 mile runs.

The 3 of us waited along the track watching for him to make the turn.

He was huffing but kept a good pace and ended up with an 8:11 and was in the top 25% of times.

I took off once he was done and headed south for Tekoa.

I got parked at about 10:30 and waited for Isaac to show up who I caught a ride to the top with.

It seems that everyone else was there already and on top. It was quite the gathering of us.

After the pilot meeting on top we started moving to the launch and getting into the air. I ended up the 4th one to launch and had to time it just right to hit the lull between big wind blows. I futzed around nervously for a while in attempts to get launched but then finally calmed down enough to focus and go.

As soon as I was in my harness I started going up. The lift was super good and I popped right up in solid lift.

Damarris was doing huge turns below me as I gained altitude. She is an acro pilot so has the experience for such things.

Chris got this shot of myself and Damarris, I'm the rear wing.

I was pretty nervous for much of the flight and held a lot of tension in my shoulders which ended up my limiting time factor for staying up.

I just kept going up and found myself at over 5k elevation. My highest flight yet at over 2500 feet agl to the lz.

I was flying along with my vario beeping consistently as I climbed then suddenly it would scream at me as I flew through a thermal and my ass would be pushed into my harness. Then the vario would sing slowly again. It was a bit unnerving and my shoulders were really feeling the effort. All the engine work has done a number on my back.

The air did not want to let me land it was just so buoyant. I flew out away from the hill in search of sink and FINALLY found it as the vario blew raspberries and I slowly lost altitude.

Just above the lz I flew back and forth along the foot of the hill and kept getting popped up on lift.

It took a number of passes before I was low enough to try to land.

It seemed like I was going to land so I slid out of the harness.

I got lined up to the road and stood on my speed bar to drop me faster.

I was 1 foot above the ground with my feet JUST about to touch when the wind popped my wing up and I was in the air still.

I managed the turn to the road and was able to get landed, albeit a bit fast.

Pretty good to land the road.

My shoulders were WORKED. It was a constantly active piloting day where there was no letting go of the brakes or easy mellow flying, it all took focus and effort.

Flight 95 garmin.JPG

Flight 95 vario.JPG

Flight 95 xctrack.JPG

This is the weather station data for yesterday. The winds were constantly switching from south to west and gusting. It made the landing rather tough since I was watching the sock as it swung from side to side. I ended up guessing direction on landing and managed to just land into the west as it spun the the south.

tekoa wind.JPG

So then I sat at my car and watched others fly. Gerard gave Megan a ride back to the top while there were 5 wings up over the hill.

Levi got super high and headed out east where I ended up losing sight of him after a while.

Somewhere to the left of the peak he was thermalling under a cloud.

Josh was sitting over the lz thermalling up deciding what he wanted to do.

He was a few thousand feet up.

He radioed he was going towards Tekoa so I headed out in the car to go on retrieve.

He made it about 4 miles south of Tekoa and landed alongside the road in the field.

We headed back to the hill and people were at the gate. We were hanging out talking when out of the sky came Levi gliding back to the lz.

He managed a slick landing and had a pretty long flight.

I headed for home around 3pm and managed the drive easily. Once home I showed everyone the pics and videos of my flight then pretty much zoned and tried to absorb the experience of the day. Ordered pizza from up the road for dinner then were out to soak earlier. The muscle relaxer REALLY helped last night.

Today the boys are back at school but regularly scheduled programming can't begin yet for me as they have appointments, I have to continue working on the truck, double check the sled fluids after the drive, try tilling, pick R up from school then J up from running club, and try to get more done around the farm.