Sunday, October 11, 2009

Be Positive

After an epic day of Saturday flying at Makapuu, I really did not need to fly again on Sunday, unless it was going to be really great. Ray gave me a call to see if I was going to Kahana, and if I could bring the extra harness up for his friend Pillel. Like everyone else posting, I told him that the radar did not look so good.

Ray had missed the previous great day at Makapuu, and had only this day to fly before another long week of work. He wanted to fly with his friend Pillel, who started Ray flying in Brazil. I told him I would meet him at the mall and drop off the harness.

On the way to the mall I got a call from One-Eye. He was at Kahana and calling it decent. Now that's POSITIVE. I thought, what the hell, so I called Alex and he said he was on his way. I called Ray and said I would meet him at launch instead - I was going too.

When we got to Kahana, Jim was approaching launch, followed by Alex. I stayed back for a bit to get Pillel's gear ready. I started up North launch to see Alex and Jim in the air, this was POSITIVE. By the time I got to launch, I had to get the trash bag out - big squalls were on their way.

Jim decided to land, and I radioed up that I had an extra trash bag if Alex wanted to top land, since I think this squall is going to be short - this was also POSITIVE. Alex top landed to keep me company, and it was the slowest moving squall ever. We squall squatted, for a long while, but we stayed POSITIVE. The squall took its sweet time passing and the trash bags were not totally necessary. A window opened but the wind had slowed. Ray and Pillel arrived at launch, and the wind lines slowly reappeared.

Alex launched from his usual start place at low launch and kited up higher. I followed shortly after. We got up to 1,400 pretty fast, just over the Rhino. Alex was a little higher, and started out over the bay. Ray and Pillei were coming up as I followed Alex.

Darn if I didn't see another squall on the way. Alex made the crossing as the winds started getting a lot stronger. I made the call and headed back to land. Ray was already on his way in, and Pillel was soaring high in the back, further than I would want to go.

Ray landed, and it got stronger. I had a fun landing, and Pillel rolled in on his landing. Alex called from Swanzy Beach: I got beer, just need a ride. We gathered at Bobo's shortly after, and congratulated the King on another crossing.

Was it worth it? Hell, yeah. Thanks for the POSITIVE call Jim. As you said, "they were short flights, but they were flights". God I love this game!!!!!!

2 comments:

Waianae Jim said...

Nice story Thom - sometimes the short flights are all we need to keep ourselves together until the good air comes back around. I always am appreciative of any airtime I can get. My name is 1I, I am a flyaholic.

Thom said...

Thanks for adding the picture.