Without a doubt, it was the most beautiful tow I've ever had. Cloud base was low, around 1300 feet (400m). Paul towed me up to cloud base, then circled alongside the cloud until we flew across its top. We emerged into field of brilliant white puffy balls of mist. I pinned off and immediately flew over the tops of clouds doing wing overs until I was leaving vortices in the roiling tops of the clouds. I flew through several cloud canyons until I emerge below the cloud base.
I gained several hundred feet in a weak climb near the field and then landed a happy man.
About an hour later I took to the skies again, after Dan G and before Roger I. The tow was bumpy but I didn't find any climb until I was down to 1000 feet (300m) east of the field. I followed a soaring bird to a better thermal nearby and started climbing in earnest. Roger joined me as Dan landed. Roger and I climbed to base around 2600 feet (800m) and then followed a lines of clouds upwind to the southwest.
The climbs were stronger and I had to run to the edges of clouds to avoid the higher base at 3200 feet (950m) I continued to push upwind until I got low and had to turn around. James, Ollie, Roger, and I all decided to land as a light rain started to fall. We spiraled down and had good landings in a heavy sprinkle.
Pilots continued to launch as I broke down. The sky continued to build and eventually we heard distant thunder which convinced many pilots that it was time to land. Several large cells moved through before a few more pilots launched later in the afternoon.
A large group of us had dinner at Red Wing before returning to the club house for the evening. The first meeting of the Race & Rally is Saturday evening.
Flights: 2, Duration: 1:27, Distance: 12 mile triangle
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