Flushed

We have had very few dry days this season and even less dry weekend days.  I was not surprised when everyone wanted to go flying yesterday (Sunday).   I patched together a 4-way conference call with Jeff, John, and Rodger around 6:30 to discuss our options.  Although there was no rain in the forecast, several computer models were predicting strong winds from the west to our north.  Of course it was easy to focus on the one lone model that predicted moderate winds from the southwest.  Brace Mountain, to our south, would likely have the best wind conditions no matter what model you believed however most of us didn't want to hike 2 miles into launch.  The Mohawk Trail, north of Brace, would be OK if the winds were west, but not if they were southwest.  West Rutland, to the north, would be OK if the winds were southwest or light west.  Somehow we decided on West Rutland and agreed to meet at my place.  I scurried over to pick up Randy and came back to a driveway full of glider vehicles.  We strapped the 5 gliders onto my truck, squeezed in, and started rolling north.

Things were going well until we started noticing cumulus clouds racing out of the west and gusts shaking the trees.  We tried to ignore the wind and focus on the positive.  It was actually working until Mike and Dan burst our bubble by passing us going the other direction.  We pulled over at the end of the Rutland Vermont airport to "re-evaluate" our decision.  Some paraglider pilots stopped and quickly decided to drive south to Brace.  A few moments after they left Dennis and Ryan pulled up.  We were frozen with indecision until PK called and said two pilots were already in the air.  That was the news everyone wanted to hear and we rolled onward.

We were greeted with thrashing trees at the top of our muddy 4x4 trek up the backside.  We didn't even bother unloading gliders.  The two pilots that launched earlier, Bob and Keith, were on the ground because they didn't like the air.  That wasn't surprising!

Jake S, Gary, Greg, and others left.  It was now too late to drive anywhere else so we decided to wait out the day and hope the winds would slacken as the sun set.  We amused ourselves the best we could; including firing rocks into the air using a sling shot rigged from an exercise cord and a pair of flip-flops.

Clouds associated with a short-wave passing overhead started to fill the sky and the winds dropped.  PK launched and managed to climb over the top.  Dennis was next and hung out for a short time before sinking out.  No one else launched for awhile as they didn't have acceptable launch cycles.  Randy and a couple paraglider pilots launched and had short sled rides to the bottom.  Now it was my turn.  The wind was blowing 90 degrees cross to the main ridge and launch.  I launched when the wind went calm and managed to climb above launch along a spine that faces to west.  After a couple climbing passes I noticed some leaves blowing up the hill further west.  I pushed on, started sinking and was soon plummeting in the lee of another hill.  Dang.  I ran to the LZ with my tail between my legs and was soon on the ground.

PK got tired of soaring the workable 200 yard section of the ridge and joined us in the LZ.  John and several others took there sleds like men and women.  We enjoyed watching Keith's flight; he launched and immediately pointed to the LZ.  His course never wavered as he flew directly to a perfect spot landing on the dirt road.

Rodger and Jeff folded up their gliders on top and then drove the truck down.  We loaded up and spent maybe 7 minutes talking about our "impressive" flights before moving to other topics on our 3 hour trip back home.  I just kept thinking about that saying about a bug hitting the windshield, "some days you're the windshield and some days you're the bug".  We were definitely the bugs on Sunday.

Flights: 1, Time: 0:09