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Hangola May 11, 2000

It was straight in with thermals rolling through at about 15mph and lulls down to 7 or 8 mph. at 1pm. I launched at 2pm. It was ratty to about 300 over and then smoothed out. Mostly punchy small stuff with a distinct left cross.

It made it interesting because I would work the broken stuff around launch and then a thermal would break off and sort of work its way down the ridge toward the rock pile. I could watch the thermal track down the tree line and follow it's progress at min sink. Then after it passed the rock pile it would play out into a larger area of lighter lift. I did that 4 or 5 times getting to about 1300 each time.

The rest of the time was spent trying to fit my 26? foot glider into 20 foot wide thermals. A truly nice day to fly, lots of fun with a lot of different characteristics to the air.

Mike Balk and two other pilots showed up around 3pm and got various kinds of flights.

2 Hrs and multiple 1200-1300 overs. Well worth dodging work for.

Ed

It was pretty clear Thurs morning that Woodstock was not the place to go. Spent a lot of phone time trying to track John D down to change the decision made Weds night but he was in a meeting someplace and by our prior arrangement was leaving for Woodstock immediately after. He was bringing a pilot from Ireland. Anyway I thought it would be pretty impolite to not show up so I drove on out to Woodstock. No John D. There sure was some smoke coming from my shorts. No fool he I thought as I watched a 1.236 mph gust fill the slot. But he did show up about 3 and said "I wouldn't do that to you". I guess I knew that. Anyway I flew. Sled. John and Irish pilot John Paul Duffy were still waiting for it to get good at 6:30 when I called it a day. Don't know if they flew or not. I doubt it -- totally dead by then.

Neglected to tie the glider to the car when I left. On about the third switch back car turned, glider went straight thereby validating some principle of physics. It really hit. Damage assessment time.

Sorry about the mishap Steve. You can borrow your old K4 after Sunday, when John Paul leaves. You may feel more comfortable on it than on a K5.

Although John Paul and I hung around until 7 pm, the hoped-for evening glass-off never materialized. In fact it started coming in over the back.

We packed up and stopped for dinner at Bobby's family restaurant. The specials were good value and tasty, and the staff were friendly.

Looks like pre-frontal conditions will make for uncertain flying tomorrow. Sunday looks more promising.

John D.

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This page last updated May 12, 2000