Today turned out to be a great day over at MPU, with the early risers Jetflap and Frank launching from Cactus in light NW winds. They were able to get out by the lighthouse and barely maintain 800 AGL or so. Next the plethora of other fliers today – I apologize if I miss anyone.
Mad Dog, Fire Dave and Don all made it look easy getting out of Manics, with Fire Dave once again proving his prowess by top landing by the old Lazy Man’s and launching from there too.
The Cactus crowd - Ken Berry wins the prize for hiking up a second time for two launches and two flights, although the first was your basic sled ride. Then there were Russell, Hill Billy, Alan, Reaper, visitors Carl from AK, JK from Seattle, and Juan (I think from Columbia?)
The wind eventually turned a little more north and everyone headed down around the corner. Mad Dog tried to lure us back to the Green Wall with nice lift working along the whole NW face around the corner – but there weren’t any takers. Guess it helps to have a working radio to encourage others after all.
As I left the scene Scott had just launched and Reaper and Fire Dave both had Tandems to go. On a final note Reaper is now Road Kill 2 (the sequel). You’ll have to ask someone who saw the whole thing. I can just say it involved his wing on the ground across the whole road and several people on the ground running out to help him gather things up quickly.
Saturday, November 25, 2006
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3 comments:
Great day for all of us. Students, visitors, and locals. Hopefully today will be just as good.
Click here if you would like to see the you tube video of my road kill landing -http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gzY5HIPPWgM
It is nice to see you post up an article Jim, even better to see you flying on a great day.
It was great to see all the different faces out there old and new. There is definitely a changing of the guard with all the new pilots on the scene now.
With yesterday's light northerly flow the far corner of Lazy Man's was working great. There is just about the right amount of space for a solo to lay out, and you usually have about a dozen people standing behind the railing 10' away cheering you on. Try it!
Sounds like a fun day out there. Nice to have someone reporting - thanks Jim!
I had a great day thermalling at Nanakuli with Scrappy, until Doug showed up and took Scrappy over the back to Kunia, just after I bombed out to the trailhead following a failed attempt to get up in the back. Doug consoled me over the radio as he benched up: Alex, don't worry about bombing out. You know what we call guys like you? (I don't know: sacrifice? loser?) He says, no -- driver!
After I brought them back, Doug convinced me that the conditions were still good enough for me to make another attempt at XC glory - so he and I hiked back up while Scrappy cleverly stayed down below. By the time we got up there the wind had died to nothing, and Doug made the no-wind launch look kind of challenging.
Somehow I miraculously survived two hideously hazardous launch attempts, finally lurching off the hill to bomb out next to my car for the second time that afternoon. I should know better than to chase someone else's great flight.
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