Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Flight of the Harvest Moon

Every twenty years, we are blessed with a full moon on the autumnal equinox. Tonight's moon was so picturesque, photographers were scattered across Makapuu Beach, and the skies were colored with a few paragliders and speed wings. I was on my way home when my phone rang: "It's time to fly, get your gear and go". It was Scrappy, who did not have a very hard time turning my truck towards Makapuu.

I arrived at the LZ around 5:30, only to find Scrappy and Allan C. "Where is everybody?", I asked. Scrappy said, "It's just us", so we headed to Crazy Man's launch.

The launch has been beat up a little by the construction, but still appeared to be functional enough. Allan laid out first, waited for a decent cycle and off he went. Scrappy gave me the next honor, and I laid out my Sport 4 for its first flight on home soil since the French Revolution. The launch is a bit more snaggy, and there is some debris that we are going to have to clear. Thanks to Scrappy for picking the baling wire out of my lines, then off I went.

Allan and I flew around for a while, waiting for Scrappy, but it had gotten lighter, and launching solo is not as fun with all the obstacles. There were two speed wings with us but they had to keep tight to the upper ridge. It was awesome watching the moon rise over the lighthouse. As dusk approached, I decided to land, because my dark tolerance is not great, but the beach glowed from the early moon arrival, which made a beach landing so sweet.

I looked up to watch Allan soar around, then another PG silhouette appeared. It was Carson on an Ozone, whipping up a few moonlight SATs. It actually got brighter as time went on, and Scrappy still could not get off the ground. After he assisted Allan with his first moon light landing (Oops, sorry Allan, Reaper probably read that), Scrappy decided to head to Manics. I gave him a ride, then a flashlight assist, and off he went.

We all landed on the beach, since the lifeguards were well off-duty, and we looked around and agreed that we are so lucky to see this view from the beach and from the air.

Scrappy, Allan and I drove back to the LZ to unload, and darn if I was not lucky for once....my cooler had 3 Torpedoes in it. We toasted to another safe and wondrous flight, and to another "O-dark-thirty" ride home.

What an addicting midlife crisis I have gotten myself into.

It's Time to Fly Get Your Gear and Go !!!!!!!!

1 comment:

Alex said...

Great story, Thom! Instead of a coffee story in the morning it's a wine story in the evening. I knew someone was gonna have to fly while that moon rose in the sky tonight. I could tell that conditions were sweet at Kahana too this afternoon, even though I was at home working, and sure enough, from my window I could see someone flying late in the afternoon. But out here, as usual, it was a bit too cloudy for classic twilight moonrise soaring, so Makapuu was definitely the right call.