Thursday afternoon Falconry

[Tony de Groot]

Ohhhhhh. Ummmmmmm. It feels so good to get into the air today. Man, I made a lot of calls to HG and paraglider pilots and no one, I mean no one could or would go. The last one I talked to said no so I gave up. Then around 1:15 P:M I checked and the peak was zero and it was such a nice day, I gave one last call to John Lyon and lo and behold he was in!

I was so pumped to be out of the house for the first time in two weeks I had the music up while setting up on launch. Then John was off and I was off a moment later. We were both in our Falcons and ready for some fun. I was climbing and falling out of them and kept getting lower and lower. If I make one more turn and don't hook it I won't have the glide out. I turned and didn't hook it. Ugh ohhhh. Dang, I can't land at the postage stamp today! It is such a beautiful day. I know the lift is here, it felt here, it had to be here. Coming up on the lower knob way down low where I haven't been before a hawk takes off and I come in right behind her tail feathers, about ten feet from the front of my glider. She looks back like, "what the F". Stay cool baby and hold your turn, we are going to slowly climb out of this hole togethor. And we did oh yeah!! Cruised to the factory while John was in front of the round house and flew out to join him after awhile. We cruised around and the lift in the afternoon was so soft and sweet. We were benching back from the Monastary to the round house and it was just a ball. John eventually cruised to the power of prayer which is a dicey move at our altitude. We hung around but didn't get up and came into the Monastary too low to hook it. Still an hour of afternoon delight. Loved it!

[irene]

It is interesting how everything is relative in life! A flight like that at the peak of the season, when pilots go XC, and it would have been qualified as a really bad flight. But yesterday, it was pure happiness....
I wish I could have joined ! Thanks for calling us anyway.
irene