Backlogging - September 9, 2008 - First Flight at The Pulpit

I got my first flight at the Pulpit yesterday. I had to go by work for a couple hours in the morning so I was late on the clean-up effort but it looks great! It was my 25th mountain launch and the fifth site that I've flown now and I only got a sledder but it was still a milestone for me. When I started training last year this was the first mountain launch that John M showed me. So the Pulpit became my goal and while I've flown 4 other mountains a bunch of times, this one was special. Now I've finally flown all of the "big three" mountain sites in our area - Woodstock, the Pulpit, and High Rock. The wind was actually quite light when I launched. It was crossing a little bit from the left and I waited for a straight in cycle but it was only a few mph. When I got up to launch and it was light, I decided that unless I went straight up, I was going to head right out to land. So I ran all the way down the ramp for a good launch, didn't really try to work the tiny bumps that I was feeling, and headed out to the secondary. I did run into a few bumps on the way out that a better pilot could have probably worked but I'll have plenty of opportunities to soar there and wanted to have lots of altitude to set up my approach.When I got over the LZ, Bacil gave me the signal on which approach to make. I had it all visualized in my head and did my best to make it happen. Well, I think it worked out pretty good. I'm extremely happy to have finally flown there. Like I said, it was just a sled ride but it was big for me. Thank you sooo much Shawn and Cragin for walking the fields with me a perfectly describing the approach patterns and also Bacil for the LZ signal. I couldn't have asked for more. I was especially happy to get my first one there before the fly-in.Of course, Cragin taught us that patience is a virtue. He waited, conditions improved big time, and he had a nice soaring flight later in the day. Here's the short video of my flight - http://www.vimeo.com/1687348