First Flight of 2012

Like everyone else, I was anxious to get my first flight of 2012 (three days too late). Between weather, w**k, vacation, and 'o bummah' in town, it had been a while since my last flight. The definition of a while in my book is more than three weeks. Ouch.

I could tell by the glassy water that Makapu'u was gonna be perfect. I left w**k as early as I could to make the hour drive to Makapu'u before the sun set. Upon arrival I saw a couple gliders in the air including Big Mike for his first mountain flight (Congrats!), as well as Goto on his hang glider. I talked to a few pilots in the LZ who had already landed: Jorge, Brent and Thom and caught a ride to launch from Thom. We were previously told we couldn't launch Manics and Frank and I began to hike Cactus. As we were going up, we saw Reaper talking to a police officer in the parking lot and he said it was okay to launch Manics. We only got a few feet up the hill and knew it was gonna be a bit brisk at Cactus. So we went to Manics and Frank helped me get laid out and launch. It was butter smooth as I headed to the lighthouse.

Quite a few pilots launched shortly after me: Frank and Tommy from Manics, Joey with Allegra, Maui Doug with Donna, and Slacker who was top landing on Cactus to assist the tandems. Airborne was also on Cactus. (Sorry if I left anyone out).

As I left Manics and headed towards the lighthouse I waved at onlookers at the wall, I passed a guy playing his guitar, then the rock climbers who were all waving as I went by. I enjoyed cruising around the lighthouse, watching the whales play in the water below me.

It was a very voggy day and hard to see anything far away. You couldn't see Molokai or Maui, or even Kaneohe. But it gave it a certain ambiance that is indescribable. The sun burst through the clouds and later turned in to a bright orange ball (which could not be captured on camera - although I tried). It was a spectacular view being above the ridge watching the sunset as it glowed through the vog and clouds.

I had some fun with a couple spirals and wingovers and obviously had a lot of fun with my camera as I enjoyed a long overdue hour and a half flight. The winds were light, coming from the north and I came in over Sea Life Park, did some wingovers to get down and flew along the highway, over Reaper's truck and everyone's head, as I landed in the LZ just before dark.

Happy New Year!

Pictures from Makapu'u flight January 3,2012

A short video of my flight