Plowshare was ON!

[JimmyZ]

Well, despite the negative trend over the last few days on the Perry Meter, I decided to chance a trip to Plowshare on Sunday with the overcast skies of Santa Barbara turning me northward. I really wanted to test out some of the glider tuning I've been doing to prepare for the Owens trip this weekend.

I managed to get Aaron Luckett to make the ominous trip up there with me and give it a shot. We had a late start and arrived at 12:30 at launch. Suprisingly, we were blessed with a clear road, clear launch, and cylces coming in at 10 - 12 mph. SWEET!!! There is construction going on, but it didn't hamper setup and actually helped with having a nice concrete slab at the rear of the setup area to place things without them getting too dirty. Construction isn't really hindering setup and we should still be able to set up 5 or so gliders up there.

I launched at 1:30 into a pretty strong cycle and played around on the front ridges until I hit the MOTHERLODE of a thermal. My vario pins at 1000 fpm and I was between 800 and ?? for several minutes. Before I knew it I was over 7000 and still going up. Played around over the campground and launch for a while then flew out over the valley to see if a convergence was coming through. It was.... but not moving really at all so I wasn't going to be going anywhere. After an hour or so I decided it was time to head down. Beer was calling...

Fun flight, good times, and it was great to fly Plowshare again.