Awesome

(This flight was dedicated to my little green buddy).

We went back to Mount Emu today. Kevin's flat tire was the only vehicle problem I heard about today. The wind was very light and some cummies were forming. Since I did so poorly yesterday, I was way back in the launch order. I wanted to get into the air early so I signed up for the alternate pre-launch. I was the 6th pilot to launch. (Dean was 4th).

I wasn't sure that launch early was a good idea at first. The several pilots in front of me had marginal launches and were just barely hanging on slightly below launch level. By the time I launched several pilots were slightly above launch so I decided to go. I had a good no wind launch and managed to climb to cloudbase right over launch. (I saw one blown launch as I circle overhead).

Since I was so early and climbed out so quickly I had the sky to myself. I flew from cloud to cloud down the ridge to the start gate and arrived about 50 minutes early. Since I was at cloudbase by myself with nothing to do for almost an hour I did some wangs and "almost loops" to keep myself entertained. (I didn't do any full loops since the air had some mild texture). Playtime ended when the rest of the field started showing up. I was soon playing hide-n-seek with the other gliders at the edges of the clouds as we all waited for the start gate to open. Someone was flying around with their feet on the basebar, others were doing loops and wangs, while others explored the "white room". Since the start gates were 30 minutes apart, almost everyone took the first start.

The first turnpoint was on the other side of the mountain valley near a gap in the mountain chain. I was with the lead gaggle until I took a bad line near the first turnpoint and then missed a good climb a few moments later. I almost followed a gaggle across the gap until I noticed they were falling like bricks from an airplane. I stayed on the other side of the valley even though it was further off course line. I was rewarded with a better glide and climb before crossing the next parallel large valley. I could have written this note on that glide; it was long and smooth. I was low by the time I reached the other side but found some strong but broken lift that slowly got me back up.

I had to wait until some late arriving pilots left that thermal so I could "water the countryside". (I should have taken care of business before launching!) Once back on track I made a long glide to the next turnpoint that was behind Mount Buffalo. After snagging the turnpoint I dove at a huge rock wall. I knew there should be something there and it was. The glide towards the wall was sucking my glider in every direction until I hit a rowdy screamer to cloudbase at 900fpm. I eeked my way slowly towards the 3rd turnpoint. From there I cruised into the goal from 22k out at 55 - 60 mph along the ridge top.

The scenery on this task was just simply awesome. I wished I had a video running during the flight. Every XC hang gliding pilot deserves a trip like the one we had today. Simply too cool to describe.