Pine Thursday

[brendanpegg]

Looking good for Pine today. We have a 10AM meet time at NHS.

[brendanpegg]

Ron Faoro, Robb Milley, Randall, Eddie and I were at launch around 1130. Strong cycles coming through with nice lulls between. There was some discussion as to just how strong the cycles were in comparison to other Pine days. We figured out that none of us has a very good memory.

Ron launched first as always and quickly established himself about 500 or so over the main spine. I was 2nd. Maiden mountain flight on my new Artik. I had flown it at the Grade, and at Oat, and had found it to be fairly active compared to my Sigma. Pine would give me a new perspective.

The perspective was pretty scary. The first twenty minutes or so the wing flew me. Very rough air. Some strong thermals that I lacked the fortitude to stay in, but then when I gave up the high ground and searched out front, I was permitted to do a little of the flying myself and I found some smoother lift.

Randall launched with a knot in his lines, and that caused him some drama initially, but there was plenty of lift around so he was able to dig himself out of a hole below the Bonsai tree and join the fun. My "smooth" lift out front brought me back over the back ridge with 8700 and it was kinda fun getting knocked around with my buddies for a while, but that sort of fun wears off quickly and before long I was working my way back toward the Sandpile.

Ron made 9 grand and cruised over to Cal Trans. Robb, Randall, and I bumbled along over Chorro Grande Trail, at times we all thought we might land on the trail, but then we would have missed out on the pleasures of landing at the Sandpile at 1:00 PM on a high pressure, very thermic day.

I think Randall and I were plenty happy just to be able to land without breaking any bones. Robb had to thumb his nose at the conditions by landing at the very summit of the large pile of sand in the middle of the LZ (and then doing a little victory dance). We'll have to wait to see if Pine forgives him for that transgression when he returns to fly another day.

We picked up Ron at Caltrans and he commented that we were lucky to have been spared the rough air he had to fly through when he landed.

[oj]

I wish I had been there to see you break in the new glider. I'm surprised you found the Artik 2 to have so much feedback, the dhv report and discussion on the intl. forum agree that it's a great wing. Probably just the difference between current glider designs and your old Sigma. The only thing I read about too much action on the A2 is with the re-trimmed acro version, but those are easy to spot and avoid since they're only produced in the bright orange/ grey color combination.