May 31, 2008

One thermal wonder


Check out this sky!!

Jason and I went towing today. My plan was to tow him till he was sick of of towing/flying and then I would go cross country. His first tow he pinned off early into a thermal but couldn't hold onto it and groveled around in broken lift till he landed. I set him up and towed again. This tow the line broke. There are a few weak spots in the line do to the loose wrapping we did on the first tows and they are showing up now and again. I fixed the line and loaded him up and towed again. He released and found nothing but sink right to the ground. After loading him up a fourth time I noticed as we staged that he was missing his tip batten. After looking where he landed and along the road we called his day done.

I set up my wing and Jason tore down. Got my wing on the winch, and soon I was flying. I went through a couple small thermals to low to release into and then into some good sink. I was still going up but very slow. Then at 1500 I started to find some real rough air that knocked me around on tow. Then my vario started to sing wildly. Quick glance at my gps and I was going up at 1500 fpm. Time to release. Circled into a great thermal that took me to just over 9000'. I have dumb luck finding great thermals right off tow. But I have yet to find a second thermal. With Jason below on retrieve I went east. The sky looked awesome. I've never flown in such easy looking conditions. I was going to break my record xc easy. On glide I was hitting 800 feet down at times. I knew there would be a thermal in that somewhere...But I never found it. Landed 20 kilometers from where I released. I was a little disappointed but happy to have flown. Posted the flight HERE

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