Pine 11/7

From: Chris
Activity_Date:      
Remote Name: 209.144.103.176

Comments

.......WOW...............Tom P, Christian, and I headed up to launch at 10 and arrived somewhere around 11:15. Tom launched first and hit nice lift right away. I followed 10 minutes later and he was already at 9100. I must have launched into a mellow cycle because I just barely scraped over the spine and didn't find much. I was already eyeballing LZs and wasn't happy about it. Then BEWM, I got a nice fat, buttery thermal that took me to 9k. Moved back over the ridge and got to 9440. Lift almost everywhere. Then it stopped. Tom and I lost nearly 2k feet in a matter of seconds. At one point I was on final for a top landing and Christian (who still hadn't launched) said it was real mellow on the ground. Then as quickly as it quit, it boomed again. Back up to 9300 or so. At that point I didn't feel like risking landing out so I headed for the LZ. Christian launched and took an elevator up to the 9500s. This was my first Pine flight so I didn't even know where the LZ was until I spotted Christians car. Ended up over the LZ at 8k and with that much to burn I went exploring. The rock formations to the north of the LZ provided more than enough lift. I was able to boat around over the rocks and the riverbed for nearly 30 minutes. At several points I was starting my figure eights when i'd hit lift and go up 1k feet. While i was playing, Tom and Christian tried heading towards Cal Trans but hit a headwind and came back to the LZ. We all boated around a bit in the easy lift and then I started in on final. Perfect landing and I was quickly followed by Tom. Christian boated in around 5 minutes later. Real sweet flight. Smooth thermals, light winds, easy landings, great lift over the LZ.

I'm game for tomorrow.....Anyone else?