Saturday, December 03, 2011

Nylon Overcast

This is my most plagiarized story title ever, and hopefully Kaaawa Larry did not copyright it. Again the art is lacking, with no I-Alex-Phone and no Wing-Napper FlyStrong coloring our pages, so you'll just have to rely on these scratchings for coffee entertainment.


I started chirping, if you can believe that, at 7:30a.m. at the Makapuu LZ. It was light and WNW -- yuck -- so I went to work. I came back through after finishing a long day's work at 9:30 a.m. Ah, that would be a non-jobber joke. It was still light but had started a big swing, and now it was NW, so I went home.

Just like the other day, Woody and I putzed around the house, trying not to monitor the changing conditions. But finally it started to come around and we headed to MPU. Mad Dog was picking up Alaska Jack, and Larry was on Manics where we met him. We pondered a bit and Woody was the first to go.

Mad Dog was not liking the amount of wind, not the wing shredding signs, so he decided to head to Juice where most others followed. Manics was actually a better call, so I laid out and joined Woody.

We were the only two in the sky for the longest time. No one was getting out of juice and they were not on radio. With high time fliers like Mad Dog and Alaska Jack on the launch below us, Woody and I were wondering. "Do they see something we don't??" It ended up being a little light down there, and they were waiting for it to fill in. Thanks for going first Woody -- we got a little extra time in, like an hour.

The juice dwellers finally took to the air. The once blue skies were now filling in with clouds eliminating an XC run north, but that did not stop Mad Dog, Alaska Jack, and Cherie. Reaper coaxed them over to Sandy's with the promise of free beer. I refrained knowing that a Woody airport run was imminent.

The skies did get filled with colorful nylon by many pilots: Sidehill, Woody, Alaska Jack, Mad Dog, Cherie, Larry, Marco, Maui Phil, Joey, Bonbon, and JetFlap. Tandems by, who else, Jorge and Maui Doug. Present when I left: One-Eye, Airborne, Kevin. I heard from Flash in the comments below that he got a flight in.

Please, if I missed anyone, or if you did get a flight in, please chirp in the comments so the President's Log can be kept intact until his return.

That's all for now, and on a personal note, I am so glad to be back flying. I hope 5-0 Mike makes it back from his back and knee issues soon.

It's Time to Fly, to Nylon Overcast the Skies, so Get Your Gear and Go!!!!!

7 comments:

Sharky said...

Nice on Thom! Hope to bag some airtime today...gotta do some errands and work on a special christmas project that FlyStrong and I are doing, then chasing wind for the rest of the day.

=-)Sharky

Thom said...

On an other Site. Harvey got up at the Dill but soon into the flight it went east and strong. He was pinned over the ocean for awhile. He set it down in a homeless lady's beach encampment and stated that all was fine.

Flash said...

Thom,
I did manage to squeeze in a short flight -- felt some raindrops and decided to cut it short, but it was good being up in the air again! Hope to get some XC MPU flights in soon...

JK said...

Welcome "back" to flying, Thom! We shared in the pain of your injury by simply watching you sidelined. Now, from the sidelines myself, I have to wonder, "Why not Sunset Beach on a NW"? ----- BTW, Germany is cold, wet, windy and the days are short. I'll become pasty white and remain that way in about a week. Keep that in mind when the conditions blow out for a few days over there. It's still "good" from my perspective. Missing it already... Aloha!

Alex said...

Good question, JK! But according to wind sensor at Laniakea it doesn't look like it was ever flowing NW over at Sunset. It's super rare to get a true NW flow on the island but when we do it's definitely worth running out there for that rare North Shore flight. It's been many years since we've had a decent day out there. We're overdue!

Thom said...

Alex, Just for the record, I recall Harvey scoring a good flight from North Shore last year I think.

Alex said...

Thom, you are right, we have flown there within the past year. Harvey's great flight was quite poetically celebrated here. What a great photo that is - I guess Ginger must have taken it. And Frank is actually in it, and his ghostly image hasn't yet been erased. The cleanup crew in the spook world must be getting sloppy!

I guess what I meant to say was - I MYSELF haven't had a great flight there in years. And by great flight, I mean a long soaring flight, like to Waimea and back, with nice thermals all along the way, and lots of buddies in the air with me, and probably some attention from the police at some point, just because it's always such a shock to see us out there every five years or so.

I'm pretty sure it's been six years since we had a day like this one out there. I'm ready for another one like that anytime now.