Day 8 was a decent day, but it looked like it was going to fail.

We started the day with the idea of this XC plan that we’d planned out a couple days ago. The forecast was for high lift and lots of it, more than enough to get to what we wanted to do.

We drove over to the site, and since it’s Saturday the place was littered with other pilots. I’m told you can learn a lot from listening to them, but I found that my brain is full, can I go home please teacher? We waited. I didn’t want to fly with 15 other people at the same time, since my experience at Blossom Valley with cramped quarters was still with me, so I started getting set up to go. One of my housemates counseled that I should be patient, and that they would all dissipate quickly. We waited.

About 2pm someone decided to launch and sunk out pretty quick. The atmosphere got a little tenser as people started to think that the planned epic day wasn’t going to happen, that the forecast had been wrong and that everyone up on launch would only get a sled ride or two.

Probably about 2:30ish the launch had mostly cleared out, as people sat around waiting some more with their gear packed away, or had launched and prayed that they would be the ones that found the lift out there. Bob and Joe had already gone and sunk, so I figured that now would be a good time. Guy was launching at about the same time, and Jeff went just before me. I found a little bit, but nothing worth writing home about. Remembering my out-landing experience with the head wind from the day before, I started towards the LZ a little earlier this time – besides, I’d found better lift more consistently on the other side of the east ridge called The Regionals.

I get over there and I’m a little close to the ridge, but I’ve got the wind in my favour and lots of room to escape, so I poke about looking for lift. And man did I find it. About 15 minutes later I’ve risen up to 1962m (my highest flight yet), and at one point I had sustained lift of 3.5m/s. I’ve never seen that number on my vario – it takes an average over the last 10 seconds.

Eventually the lift dies down a bit and Jeff, Guy and I are flying around looking for some more. We spread out in this lovely little search pattern and wait. I find a little, and so do they, in a different location. If we’d been closer together, my story for the evening might have been a little different.

I poked around a bit, but eventually sunk down to 1100 and decided to head out to the LZ. On my way there, I found a really nice section of lift to about 1450, which gave me enough height to head back to launch and top-land again. I was starving at this point! Need to put my snacks in an easier to access location…

I mentioned a few days ago that my wing had a tear in it? We ran into a guy on launch earlier that morning who did repairs, so I handed my wing off to him for the evening. Going to go pick it up this morning sometime. Here’s hoping!

So Guy and Jeff…they found lift up to 1800-1900m again and decided to go try out this XC plan that we’d had. Apparently at one point Guy turned back and Jeff decided to try his luck making it to the end of the ridge. Unfortunately at that point, when he turned around, the headwind was so strong that he couldn’t come back along the ridge! He had a hairy landing after that, but made it to the ground safe and sound.

We drove back to the house and I made dinner last night, with the invaluable help of Sherida. Went to bed early, and now I’m updating my blog this morning instead of last night. 🙂

Today we head back to Marshall for a few flights. I may or may not fly. Yesterday was my most epic day ever, and whatever I got today wouldn’t be nearly as fun or interesting. Having said that, it would be smart to kite my newly repaired wing a bit before flying it again. 🙂

See some of you soon! My May isn’t nearly as booked up, so maybe we can hang out sometime!