Hello, Summer

[Faoro_Ron]

Remember high pressure? It was 29.98 on ATIS this morning. Not really high, but you know it's coming and the front range got a little hazy in the afternoon. Bob Hurlbett rang at 10:30 AM and asked me if I could slip away from work. A little after noon, we could see someone getting up over the Round House - looked like it wasn't half bad and the winds predicted hadn't developed. Bob found out Ty was going to give the pilot a ride back to launch and we could tag along. We left cars at East Beach and ran up to Parma in the Eagle van.

The pilot was Teacher Tim; we grabbed him at Parma and headed up the hill, listening to Ty's plans for fun in Slovakia, Italy and Germany in two months. Tim told us about the giant boulder in the road and the rough soaring conditions. We got past the boulder after work crews had cleared a narrow path and I launched about one o'clock. What an abrupt reminder about high pressure conditions as I tried to get above Skyport and then tried in vain to get high at the Thermal Factory. Small, sharp thermals and bouncy air all over. It's not often that the mere act of crossing the powerlines makes me feel uneasy. Finally connected at the Antenna Farm and punched through the minor inversion at 2,800 feet to get up to 3,300 and leave the bumpy air for East Beach. Had my camera in hand all the way out, but it was difficult to shoot any pictures because the rough air persisted. But I had a good tailwind with groundspeed of 25-30 mph. I made the beach with 1,500 to spare and landed in the 11 mph west wind.

Bob eventually made it out to the beach, although he got a much worse glide on the same wing. He squeaked into the beach and I watched as he cruised the palm trees for over five minutes. Surprisingly, the wind had shifted to strong southeast and he parked in the convergence before landing. As I watched, a person came up and started videotaping. It was none other than old "Doc," and he said he was interested if anyone wanted to sell him their old and possibly under-used wing for around $100!

Memorable events; 35 minute flight time.

[timobarker]

A mistake turned into a wonderful thing. I arrived at Parma at 10:30 like the Eagle site said. Hmmmm? Why isn't anybody here? Turns out that was yesterdays post. I called Ty and he stoked me out by saying "if you fly I'll pick you up." So, I drove up and checked it out. Very weak cycles (3 mph or less) were whisping in from the South/south east and the peak was reading 7 NNE. Cumulus clouds were building and dissipating quickly and I could visually see where the thermal lift was hitting the North wind, maybe a couple hundred feet above launch. But, as it was light, I decided before launching to push out front and fly further away from the North spilling over the mountains. I waited for a stronger cycle to come through with plenty of sunshine in front of me.

I launched, ran a bit more than I normally should and found myself on a very bouyant glide toward the thermal factory. I found my first lift over the power lines and comfortable sailed out over the antennae farm where I found some ratty and sharp thermals. They took me up repeatedly to the cloud base at 2600! It was fun getting into the clouds, but the bumpy ride quickly won over and I decided to glide out to. In retrospect, had I waited there for a 10 more minutes I would have made the beach with ease.

In getting to Parma, I found really zero sink almost the whole way. I was setting up for final at about 900 ft and found a strong thermal going up, which I took up to 2000, where it topped out. I kept hitting my head there and found that I wasn't getting much higher. However, I believe that when that thermal raised the next ceiling also raised and had I waited at the antennae farm, I would have been reached an altitude that made me feel comfortable to go to the beach. But I didn't, I boated around for over an hour and had a great flight.

I quickly packed up and met Ty, Bob, and Ron in the Eagle van for a ride back up to my truck. Overall, my first solo flight (without another pilot around) from the mountains went very well and I had a great time. Thanks to Ty for driving!