Sunday 11/18

[Chris G]

We were all hopeful for the mountains in the AM but sadly today's weather was brought to us by Low-Base-R-Us. We headed to the training hill instead and found nice kiting conditions for an hour or two but it quickly got rowdy and with the exception of Chad on his new single surface glider and a few other experienced pilots, everyone backed away from the edge. Alli, Robin's sister, was 2 days into her lessons and rocking it in a big way and Bates was looking like a possibility so we rolled that direction with nothing to lose. Upon arrival however, it was extremely light. A few intrepid pilots took quick runs to the beach with barely a turn thrown it at the end, including Alli for her first flights away from the hill. We stood around for a few hours, chatting with the usual Bates crowd, and several folks came and went, clearly disappointed with the conditions. At 3:30 it picked up just slightly though still well below what we would call epic. I encouraged Robin to take a flight and she actually stuck, just above launch height. 5 minutes later, she was 100 over. Everyone scrambled for gear including Alli and within 20 minutes there were 4+ pilots up and WELL over launch. It was still 5-10 if even that at launch. Alli got 30 minutes for her first flight, rocking the top of the stack for 95% of it. Nice work! And to top it off ended with a brilliant top landing back at launch. Those who kept flying were treated to one of the most brilliant and magical evenings at Bates I've ever seen. VERY light wind, with very slow climbs, to some of the highest altitudes I've ever had there. Had I been flying with a reserve, the jump to Ventura would have been a cakewalk. Sadly, the sun was setting and we ended with huge grins, right at our legal sunset limit. Sometimes, just sometimes, standing around at Bates pays off.


This picture doesn't do it justice as I failed to catch the best of it on camera.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid ... =1&theater