A great day from Skyport

[Marge]

The Eagle van met at Parma at 10:30 yesterday for what turned out to be a great day of flying for everyone. We had nice cycles as soon as we arrived but with no birds in sight no one was in too much of hurry to be first off launch. Aaron needed to get going and decided to make a move. He was quickly rewarded with a thermal in front of launch, climbed out and headed to the R&R. He got up over the R&R and was out of sight, flying all the way to No Name. I think he flew for close to 2 hours. At one point, I saw him diving into Montecito peak and not getting much love. Then I saw him racing back and got up at the antennas. Not sure how he can fly starfish in that bad-a** pod but he sure makes flying look easy. I think Andy, Bob and Brendan launched soon after Aaron and headed to the R&R. Not sure where they ended up but I did see Brendan getting low and then finding something that got him back in the game. One of our visiting Eagle alumni Ryan launched early in the pack and got a great climb out at launch. He went on glide and made it over the antennas and then spent time thermalling between the antennas and the round house. He had a great flight and a nice Parma landing. Drew, Rich Lear, John M. and David all had great launches and got to work the lift out front. OJ was last off launch after getting every stick on launch caught in his wing. I don’t think he got much love at launch and seemed low coming out to the round house but in typical OJ style, he pulled one out and was able to get some good climbs. Not sure where he ended up. Kevin and I flew tandem and launched right before OJ. Kevin was the pilot today. We didn’t get much at launch and had to really seek out the thermals but Kev did a great job of getting us up to about 4000. We flew for about an hour and 45 minutes and had a nice landing in Parma (well if I ran a couple more steps it would have been perfect). All the eaglet’s had great flights, in fact Dahveed said it was his best flight yet, close to 2 hours I think. It was the first time he got high enough at launch to make a play for the R&R. He got to the R&R, climbed out over it and was out of sight in no time. You’d never know it was John’s first time gaggle flying. He worked a nice thermal with Kev and I on tandem and another hang glider. He was aware of the other pilots and seemed very comfortable thermalling together. Drew had a great flight too and I saw him flying high over the Thermal Factory and then holding the high ground. There were smiles all around the LZ. Kev and I drove up with Cort to retrieve the van. I think Cort took a flight and Kev drove his car down but I had to get back to the hill and left before he launched. How’d ya do Cort?