Pulpit, July 19, 2009

It was almost a repeat of last Sunday. I got there and it was way beyond falconable but I still set up with with my optimist hat on for later in the day. After Carlos and Janni launched, Tony and I decided to drop a car and put a windsock in the primary. Carlos landed while we were down there so we threw him in and headed back up. On the way up we got the call that Janni had landed out in the valley so we headed towards 30 & 522. After a short search we found him (good eye Tony) and he and Carlos snuggled up in the backseat and we were on our way. Back at launch the sky had decked over and the velocity had about halved. Tough decision whether to launch before things completely shut down or wait for it to maybe turn on again. Opted for the former and launched from the new pad at around 2:30. Found bits if lift here and there, highest I got was 175' over launch. I was really tucked in to stay in what tiny lift band was there and pretty much stayed down near 16 so I could make the primary if and when I got flushed. Slowly I started to sink and when I crossed 16, I found another tiny little lift band that worked for another few minutes before shutting down. Landed in the primary for a whopping 30 minutes. Good scratching practice (again) but I'm looking forward to a new glider.