Opening Day

Lee and Peter met Jeff and I at my place for the relatively short drive to Hang Glide New England in central Massachusetts.  Although I have been flying a lot, today was my first flight this year in New England.  Also, it was the first time several months that I wasn't racing XC.

Rhett dropped me off in a weak, but consistent, climb to the south and I stayed relatively high for the next couple hours.  I shared several climbs with Peter J and Max.  A mature bald eagle climbed with us; at times coming in real close.

Max

Max and his new green machine

I played over the hills to the east until Lee mentioned he had a good climb just north of the field.

A bit later, Anna, rocking her new glider, joined the climb and I got to see what her glider looks like in the air.  Sweet.

Anna

Anna

Anna

Anna, Matt, and I shared a lazy climb to the south of the field before Anna left to prepare for tandem flights.

Matt

I slowly drifted downward towards a landing when I spotted Max at the same altitude preparing to land.  I quickly dove in to give him more room and ended up on final a bit too high with a tailwind and whacked onto the asphalt.  Ouch.  I ended up scuffing my knee and my once-shiney new glider.  Sigh.  Not the way I wanted to end my first flight back at home.

Max wrote about the day on his blog.

Flights: 1, Duration: 2:32