Slingshot

What a great Kahana day. Maybe the best ever! At least twenty five pilots on a Monday, which surely must be some kind of record. I was stoked to get to 2,800 feet and cross the bay, even though it was a typical easterly trade wind day. I flew upwind almost to Mokolii, and then blasted downwind back all the way to Kahuku golf course, even though cloud base was only around 2,500 feet at that point, and it was turning more northerly right when I really could have used a good tailwind.



It was an unexpected long slingshot flight, and my second highest scoring Leonardo flight (the first highest was the same route with longer detours and much higher cloudbase). Today I also made my craziest low approach to the golf course ever, kicking trees on full speed bar on a crosswind final dash over the ranch.

Thanks to Don for the pickup, and to Thom and Larry for the root beers. Larry made his second ever flight to Hauula, handling a washing machine ride with aplomb at the park next to the school; Thom faced his arch nemesis with a great landing at a windy Pounders; and Duck braved hideous tree rotor to land in the greenest fields ever at BYU. I heard Sylvain and Aurelia landed somewhere around Sacred Falls in their tandem, and a nice lady offered them a ride back.

Today's visiting pilots seem to have snuck some students into their group of super experienced pilots. I hope they take the opportunity to do some ground handling while they're here - we have perfect conditions for that.

Don came back too low from a bay crossing attempt which doomed him to be the retrieve driver. We appreciate it! McStalker and Jason entertained us with multiple dramatic bay crossing attempts, and Dave and Jorge (tandem with Bonnie) put on an acro show at the end of the day. Duck ran up for a late session on his new baby, the 20m rainbow freestyle 2. He said it flies like a fast motorcycle. I know what he means - that's what the Zion felt like to me!

Roll call: Don, Thom, Larry, me, Woody, Alison, RK Jeff, Bonnie, Roland, Duck, Jason, Lake, McStalker, Fireman Dave, Jorge, Sharky. Visitors: Sylvain, Aurelia, Taka, Kazue, Hideki, Junko, and three more. And we heard lots of folks on the radio flying other spots, like Makapuu, and ... Kauai.