Olomana Tag Team

Another light wind day, another Makapuu flatland expedition to Olomana and beyond. Mad Dog led the way, and I followed close behind, along with Gaza and Doug. Mad Dog and I flew past Olomana to the Great Wall of Kailua (the walkway dividing the town from Kawainui Marsh), a nine miler, and Gaza followed, landing at Kailua HS for eight miles of distance. Doug connected from Olomana to the Pali and kept going all the way to Waiahole ES, over 17 miles downrange. Scot flew in our footsteps a while later, making a low save at Olomana, and flew from there back to Makapuu, for a 14 mile round trip.

Conditions were stronger than necessary for cross country trips, both the thermals and the wind, but Mad Dog seemed to be handling it just fine, with all his recent European experience, so I forced myself to man up and stick it out up there. I rode a nice freight train to cloudbase at Puu O Kona, probably around 2,200 feet, and from there I cruised the wispies out to Olomana, with Mad Dog right there with me. We took a wide line under the clouds and then faded back downwind to the peaks. Arriving in front of Olomana, I got jacked up by the strongest leeside thermal I've felt in a long time. Mad Dog saw me, and later he said he was chuckling to himself to see me hoisted up so hard and tossed around like that. He knew I was thinking that it was super strong, but he never felt that way himself. (That's why he's the Mad Dog.)

From there I tried to connect the clouds to Lanikai, but I ran out of wispies, and I had to follow Mad Dog over to Windward Boats instead. We didn't find much lift there, and contented ourselves with a long bumpy glide along the marsh walkway, making it most of the way across. We should have landed on the nearer side, because we had to walk back all the way to get a ride from Jim. Thanks, Jim!

Later, Nick, Jim, Ken, and Jack flew, and probably also Bradley and Bonnie flew after I left to go pick up Logan.

A great day at the Makapuu Non-jobber Convention! Over ten pilots and almost 60 cross country miles.