Skyport Redemption 3-4

[oj]

Interesting day. Picked up Ron at his house and then collected Robb, Dean, Hansford, and Kevin at Parma before following the Eagle rig up to launch. It was slightly overcast with bands of clouds and cirrus periodically blotting out what limited sun was getting through.

Ron went third after a couple of Eaglets and surprised us by actually going up over the Antenna Farm, even though it was mostly shaded in. I launched about mid-pack and took the house thermal to 300 over before heading out. Things looked a bit busy towards the Roundhouse by that time so I decided to be a smart guy and head for some sun that was illuminating the top of the Holy Hills. I wasn't concerned about the poor glide over there, I just knew it was gonna' pay off. All I needed to do was hit that sunline and... voila, instead of sinking at 400 fpm I'm now sinking at 700 fpm. I didn't really have a plan B at that point, so I just rode the sink-fest into the Snakepit. Had to come in downwind so I let the back protection take the first jolt before putting down the landing gear.

After packing up, I let Ron know I was hiking out and he was gracious enough to come down and get me since he had already gotten a ride up the hill. Now I've heard from several people that you hike up the hill from the pit since it's shorter. Ron, on the other hand, knowing that I'm a non hiking guy with bad knees, assumed I would go with gravity and pop out at St. Mary's. So he's sitting at the South end of the trail and I'm sitting at the North end, both of us wondering what the hell was taking the other guy so long.

After we figured out was going on, and Ron commented something like "Only Amazon neanderthals climb UP the trail," ( Hmm, check my avatar) he drove back up the road and picked me up. Now I was pretty spent at that point, still huffing and wheezing from the hike, but Robb was taking his second flight and making it look too good to pass up. Ron had left his gear at Parma so he dropped me off and drove down.

Second flight went much better. Found some smooth 200 fpm lift over the AF and just kept climbing. I was at about 4k when Ron comes over the radio and says to hold on, he's driving back up and we'll fly to the beach. I held on for as long as I could but the clouds had come back with a vengence, shutting off the lift. The sky had mammata clouds hanging down, which I've never seen in SB before, and it felt like the day was done so I took the glide to the beach.

Ever persistent, Ron sets up anyways and stands there, hoping for one more cycle to come through. It never did and he ended up driving down, again proving to be a good friend by coming out to the beach to pick me up.

Flight 1: 480 fpm up, 720 dn, max alt. 3251, 27 minutes.
Flight 2: 640 up, 720 dn, max alt. 4475, 58 minutes.

[Robb]

A fun day: two flights despite some washing machine action over the antenna farm. Ron is definatly the hero for getting the suburban down from launch, then back up to launch, and back down, and back up, and down...

I looked up those clouds on Wiki; I knew I had seen them back east but not here. This caught my eye since I had not followed this advice either flight: It is very common for storms producing mammatus clouds also to produce wind shear, and possibly—though less likely—Ball lightning; therefore, aviators are strongly cautioned to avoid cumulonimbus with mammatus.

[Kabir]

Hey, I got some shots from sunday and I'd like to post them but Im not sure where to do this
Hopefully somewhere free and mac compatible.
Any suggestions?

Thanks
Kabir