Woodstock - March 31, 2010

Good ol' Woodstock Effect, baby. I had wanted to get there early this time but ended up pulling into the parking lot at 2:45. As I walked up to the slot, Krzysztof was hooking in so I helped him off. But.....he didn't really need me because it was LIGHT in the slot. Completely self-launchable. So I set up and right as I was finishing up Gary landed, and hitched a ride up to help me off (again). Thanks Gary! But as I made my way to the slot, I noticed that there were no more cycles coming through. There was a light breeze, maybe 3-5 mph, wafting in pretty constantly but there had been good 10-12 mph cycles until then. I waited and waited and nothing was happening. I let 10 minutes pass by with nothing more than an 8 mph West cycle. And I'm not the type to wait around on launch. Then, at about 3:45, Bacil got on the radio and told me there was a thermal to the left of launch. I figured what the hey. Maybe I'll find it, maybe I'll sled. Whatever, it wouldn't be the first time. Plus, this is probably the best chance I've got. I launched, turned left, and got a couple beeps. I turned in closer to the ridge and got a couple more. I made one turn and then I saw two vultures turning about 100' below me and a bit further out over the spine. So I flew out there over them and hooked into their thermal, the one that Bacil saw, climbing out 1,800' right over launch. Man, that was cool. I drifted back with it halfway to the second ridge, then scooted back out front with ease. After that it was good spring time thermal flying. Strong lift, strong sink, sharp edges and lots of birds! The highest I got was 2,100' over. I decided to cruise South and got down to the last big fat finger with lots and lots of trees and then turned back. I didn't find much lift in the Southern most part and got down to 500' over, but still easily made it back and found more good thermals closer to launch. Sometime a little after 5:00 conditions went magic. It was the first time I've been able to stuff the bar on the U2, just haul ass and not lose a foot of altitude. I screamed past the tower and banked it up a few times to the delight of the waving spectators. I played around in the butter smooth lift for some time and then headed out for a nice landing in the bridge field where Gary and Bacil were waiting. I flew for just under 2 hours.
http://vimeo.com/10816092