Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Soaking it up

Kahana sits just in front of the wettest spot on the island. The peaks and valleys behind it soak up more rainfall than any other place where it's measured. Sometimes the rain keeps us from flying, but lately, we seem to be finding windows on these rainy days where we can still fly there without getting too wet, and we've been treated to some spectacular vistas of the sparkling emerald valleys and cloud-soaked peaks.

Yesterday, I took advantage of the perfect light northeast flow to ride the low clouds across the bay to Kualoa and back, just cruising at cloudbase and soaking up the misty views. I returned to Kahana to find Jim and Doug launching, so I tanked up and crossed again one last time to show them it was working. Unfortunately Jim soaked up a bit more than he would have liked with an unplanned landing a few feet offshore of the beach near Swanzys! After we helped him sort out his gear, we all gathered at the LZ to soak up some beverages and comaraderie. Thanks to Duck for the refreshments! It was great to see Kaaawa Larry and Bonnie flying out there too.

2 comments:

Waianae Jim said...

Thanks to everyone for helping me out after my "splashdown". Wish I had some valuable insight to pass along, but basically I just pushed around the corner a bit too far without gaining sufficient elevation to make the transition. Once I got down in the sink, I just didn't make any progress. 20/20 hindsight says I may have been able to try going back into the bowl by Crouching Lion, but if I had done that my landing options would have been even more limited, albeit possibly dry. My judgement of headwind was also way off, if I'd have gotten that right I may have made it to the spit of land before Swanzy's that I was trying to get to. Once again thanks to everyone who helped out, Chris (a guy who lives near where I went in and who was first on site) for helping me get the wing out of the water, BonBon, Alex, Ka'a'awa Larry, and especially Thom for his glider washing expertise. Mahalo to John for refreshments and snacks for the debriefing.

JK said...

Those were my sentiments as well, Jim. Don't push it when there are no options and don't be dumb. That's all I could come up with as well. Glad to know the sacrifice of electronics was minimal and yes, we can all use a glider wash eventually. Thanks to Thom from me as well. Old Red flew just fine today after its cleaning and the reserve was once again packaged with perfection by Scrappy. Thanks to you too! Nice day at MPU.