Sunday, April 10, 2005

Party Day

The Wills Wing Demo Days were going full force today at Wallaby Ranch. Tugs dragged gliders into the air 279 times yesterday! The wind was WNW going NNW so Dave, Rodger, and I decided to head down Route 27. I launched first, hit cloudbase, and then worked upwind to wait on the rest of the crew. Rodger soon arrived at cloudbase with Mark in close pursuit on a new T2. After Dave suffered a low weak link break, Rodger and I decided to head on course with Amy following on the ground. We got low around Wal-Mart and drifted east towards the restricted airspace. Rodger found a little climb that gave us some altitude to finally reach a good climb. From there we worked crossing upwind back to Route 27 at Lake Wales. We climbed to cloudbase and basically flew from cloud to cloud to Avon Park. I promised Amy we would get back in time for the party so I almost landed at Avon, but decided to push on another 8 miles so Rodger could get a new personal best at 50 miles. Rodger and I circled down at 52 miles and landed just as Amy pulled up. We scooted about 12 miles east of 27 to pick up Dave who left after us and went straight downwind for 63 miles, a new personal best for him.

You can look at my flight path at the OLC site.

The dinner and party was fun with lots of food, drink, dancing, and drunken golf cart off-roading. The weather today looks good from the NE, but I may skip the day so I can take Amy to the airport this evening.

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