The New Kualoa

On my way to Kahana today, I stopped with Sawzall Rich at Maui Doug's Kite Spot, to mark it on our new B-1 units. The wind was strong and easterly, so this marking was going to be for another day -- or so we thought. B-Ray's Dad, Raimar Sr., had a good friend in town along with two adult kids who wanted to fly. So Alex and B-Ray took them up for the flights of their lives.

Alex launched with a slight slide, and his passenger lost her sneaker. Too late -- they were airborne. B-Ray had to hike up a second time after a quick sledder with his passenger, and made it up easy.

We boated around the bay for some time, enjoying the scenery. Scot had launched first on his R10 comp glider, and crossed the bay with ease. Duck was in his new Sigma 8, and he got really high, with me on his tail feathers. He crossed, and then I crossed, but it was a scratcher on the other side of Crouching Lion.

Finally I made it up to keep Duck company. Oh, wait, both the tandems had made it across too. They were super low, and Duck and I were taking bets on which one of them would have to bail out somewhere … but where? These guys are good: with their passengers unaware of their possible landing, they did the lowest double save ever.

I went over to the next ridge with Duck, and then finally to Kualoa, where we waited for the tandems to catch up. Then a big fat streak of a UP glider went hauling by lower than me out to Chinamans Hat: The Reaper. He barely made any turns, crossed the Bay, flew to Chinamans Hat, and then went back to Kahana. He said, "Made it on cloud suck". I replied, "The clouds must have been doing lipo-suction." No B-1 for the Reaper, not even a vario. How the hell does he do it?

Well, after he left, we all decided to land at Maui Doug's Kite Spot, except for Duck. Duck is going the way of the Mad Dog! He stated that he was going to take it easy today, trying out his new harness under the barely flown Sigma 8. He passed Maui Doug's Kite Spot, and then went further to land at Hygienics. I never saw the top of his wing the whole day! According to the B-1, I had Hygienics on glide as well, but I elected to land with the tandem crews.

We were all packing up, Alex, Ray, Sidehill, the One Shoe Girl and her brother, when we looked back at Kualoa, and we spotted another glider. It was Sawzall Rich, having made his first bay crossing, landing at Kualoa. Congrats Rich! Oops, I did say 'first' - hopefully Reaper won't read this. This is the third time to MDKite for Alex and Sidehill. The King dubbed the spot as the New Kualoa, but it will always be Maui Doug's Kite Spot.

While riding back to Bobo's to get refueled, we saw Scrappy going in at MDKite (had to shorten it for the B-1). While at Bobo's, JK flew over the top of us on his Synergy 3, which was fresh out of the shop. He also stated that he was going to take it easy, but he fell to pier pressure and went to MDKite too.

Many others flew this great day, FINALLY: Sharky, Bradley, Brian, Bonkers, Harvey, SpiralSplash (formerly known as Divot, or Scrappy's Brother Steve), Airborne, Mike 5-0. And Ginny finally got her butt off the ground - Yeeeaaah! Not sure if I got everyone, but you can add your name in the comments.

There were no major incidents, but I think Ken Berry and Mike 6-0 (or TDMike, formerly 5-0) could write us up a little story on their landings. Also on Firsts today: B-Ray to MDKite, Duck to Hygienics from Kahana, JK to MDKite (although he could have made it on his previous flight a few weeks back, had he not gone back to hang in a tree).

Is it really happening? Are we getting flying weather again? I did work on the bathroom tile finally, and Donna said that's why we had good weather. I will work on it again this week because,

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