Alternator 9/16

[Kabir]

Caught a ride with Rob in the Eagle van on its way on east camino cielo.
it's always so nice to see the Eagle van drivin up the road.
Even though it's already loaded to the max you know that there is always more room for another pilot (being small helps too!)

About 15 pilots (2 tandems) showed up to fly today on what proved a similar day to yesterday, only a bit better
I guess mother nature had to through some more thermals in the mix so that everyone felt happy.

SA suggested to get laid out and ready ASAP if the direction was good and so we did.

Got to launch first (its funny how 1st off is not a very contended position in the line-up) on the longest cycle I have seen in a while. Thought to wait for the next one but it just kept on coming in;so i went for it.
It was around 11:30

felt like one big ice bubble was releasing right on launch.

went for that spot on the last ridge and found some action but i was not as lucky as Y/day.
Boated around a bit but decided to try my luck on the landslide since nothing seemed to be really happening where i was.

Whn i got there I kept feeling some thermals but i could not stay w/ them
They seemed to just be moving up w/ the spine towards the peak. So after falling out over and over i decided to give it a shot and fly straight at min simnk.
Ja! it worked! It was like a conveyour belt that took me straight to the top of wesbowl and and then upwards.

It kinda just disapeared so i kept trying to hook something that would give me a nice boost.
But whatever was coming in i could not stay in it.

After taking a couple of small wacks I decided to get some more ground clearance since the edges where getting a bit sharper as the time passed.

By then Dave was thermaling nicely on the south face so i decided to join him
He marked this nice spot that kept goinf off.

Stayed there for a while watching pilots go by
I saw parma Chris on his "new" tecno (1st mt flight w/ it) going over towrds his house or something, but he ended at the coco-puffs (nice wing dude!)

Then eventually headed out myself. Headed for the "dirt spot" but dint stay long enough to see if it was working today.

Since i had no car on any LZ I opted to go to the coco-puffs since most pilots where there already.

While setting up for landing i saw this white thing close to the ground that at first looked like a dog running really fast along the terrain, then realized that it had no shadow.
As I kept looking trying to figure out what it was I looked further back and saw a bunch of turkey vultures climbing up so decided to try and join them.
That is when i realized that it was a ballon flying with the draw of the thermal i was trying to join.

It was pretty neat to see it flying close to the terrain, tracking it, then shooting up as it got sucked into the thermal.

After not catching anything i decided to land.
It was a bit more "technical" than i thought; but all is well that ends well.

Thanks again SA for the ride up!

16 went up
15 flew down
1 drove down

[Jeffy]

Kabir,
Nice flight! I was sitting at my girlfriends house on Foothill. I had a great view of everyones flights. I was wondering what the hell that white ball was .... From where I was it first looked like one of you droped it. It sure looked like it was boaty at the LZ. Who was it that was throwing down above the LZ? Thanks for the show.

Any Time Spent Off thee Ground,
Is Better than Any Time Spent On thee Ground ....

Jeffy

[Kabir]

The guy doing some acro is a guy originaly from colorado, living in bakersfield, but I cant remeber his name.