From: K Dumain
Activity_Date: 8/11/01
Remote Name: 152.163.207.137
Woke up to clear skies and the web was reporting a promising lapse rate over a low inversion. Couldn't go south, Fig looked real good, and even the Alternator appeared promising. Emded up joining Chad, Jim, Leanne and crew on a trip to the Alternator. We picked up Hans at the VOR. He was all ready seeing OTB there. Got to launch just before 12 with 5-8 knots coming up from the south, and 85 degrees F. Downtown had been showing a cool SE eddy. By the time the first crew was set up, the S was fading with alternating W and NW. Some strong dust devils were kicking off the dirt road above launch drifting to the SE. Jim got off first, no lift to the saddle, futile circle, followed by a fast downwind run to the slide. Chad eventually got the tandem off and rounded West Bowl to port. They found some lift over the power lines. A student found some convergence over the canyon on the way to slide, but he was the last one off launch. Waiting for the next cycle, the west began filling in. Hans was setting up his new wing under the wires right where a dust devil formed. Fortunately, he was only attached to one set of risers. The dust devil picked up his wing like a streamer. It marked the mini tornado with about 1 1/2 rotations and extended about 20 feet into the air. Hans appeared to be attached, so I ran over and jumped on his lines. I was a bit late, but fortunately it wasn't too strong and he was only attached on one side. In hindsight, no one should have been standing around attached for extended periods of time after we saw the first couple of dust devils. It was particularly a problem on the lee side of the west slopes. Eventually we packed up and relocated to West La Cumbre, figuring the West wind would be launchable there. Unfortunately there was nothing there, just a little OTB and some S eddies. The launch is looking very overgrown, hopefully we can do some clearing before the fly in party at Robin's next month.
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