Mountaineer airtimes - Western Edition

1/30/99 - High Pt; JR, Marvin, Gardinator, Sheila, John, and a couple Cap Heads soared for a couple hours plus. No one got all that high (3000' MSL), but staying up wasn't a problem. Some of the thermals below the inversion layer were a little ratty, especially near the ground. This made for some interesting landings. JR was lucky to discover he had a defective downtube upon landing. Marvin looked like a shoe-in for the spot contest, but choked at the last second when he saw how close he was going to be and whacked it. Gardinator shows the local boys how it's done by taking the spot money, although the DQ's didn't hurt his cause.

2/5/99 - High Pt; a day similar to the preceding, but with a little better altitude gains and fewer ratty thermals. Homer, Adam, Gardinator, and JR boat the ridge for a couple hours. Adam goes out to land first and shakes the earth when he dots the exclamation point with his nose. JR lands next and comes up a few steps short of hitting the spot. Proving that it ain't over until the fat lady sings, Gardinator almost nails the spot with a no-stepper and snatches victory from JR's grasp.

2/10/99 - High Pt; a very pleasant, poosh-out day with gains to 4000' MSL in user-friendly thermals. Will was top of the stack most of the time, although JR flying his HP-AT gave him a run for his money on occasion. Poor Homer was kicking treetops most of the day and made one low save from 600' below launch. Everyone got an hour plus before things began shutting down. Marvin sunk out first and showed us it was going to be an interesting day in the LZ when he pounded it in landing north. JR landed next and made a Carl Lewis sprint to land barely under control. Homer had the same kind of landing and said if he'd been going even _ mph faster, he wouldn't have been able to keep up with the glider. Will was the last one to succumb to the big flush and made it look easy as he mushed his Fusion over the spot to a stand-up landing right beside it. He got the glory and the spot money.

2/27/99 - North Mtn; Marvin leads a crew of merry men to work on the ramp. Although there were some aspirations of flying Spruce Knob later in the day, it was obviously not going to happen given the imminent arrival of the rain. Marvin, Will, John (Meyers), and JR spent a few hours repairing and re-building the ramp. The good karma they generated from completing this badly needed project kept the rain at bay until after they'd finished and driven off the mountain. There may be some photos showing the work in progress and the completed task elsewhere in this issue.