We have had a significant dry spell of flying here as of late, and the blame was loaded on the Reaper's shoulders. After many years of flying he finally splurged and got a new wing. The day it arrived was the last day we flew in great numbers.The curse dragged on until Obama got here, which stopped all flying, but there really wasn't anything great even during his short stay. Obama left, and a few flights were eked out, but today was the official lifting of the curse.
We finally had a Makapuu day of old, even though the cloud base was on the low side, many monkeys had their first flights in quite some time.
Atom Ant, Phil Green and Jorge led a charge down range with me starting from behind to try and catch up. Jorge did a down and back and not sure where Phil ended up. AtomAnt landed 3k past Laie which from a text to Duck proved he is one of us, he will never land in a 'dry' town again.
I headed down range solo, it was smooth and the cloud base was low at the start but got higher as I zipped down the lane to the Pali. I caught Jorge coming back over Hoomaluhia and I could see in the distance that Phil appeared to be getting super low in Haiku, I hope he found a better LZ than the one I had near there. I could not get any intel from Jorge, he had his radio off, so I headed back with him to MPU. When we landed I asked him if it was bad further down. "No, dude it was perfect, if I didn't have a tandem I would have gone further." ARGH!! I should have kept going. Oh, well it was so much fun to go anywhere flying again.
Pilots kept filling the skies and all enjoyed a massive para-park day. Roll call flying as best I can remember: AtomAnt, Phil Green, Jorge, Sidehill, Flystrong, One-Eye, AwolFrank, TommyRD, Maui Doug, Scrappy, Divot, McStalker, Mike 5-0, Kevin, Harvey, Woody, Lake, Bonnie and Allegra, Hangies Goto, Leo and Mike with Ginny, AirborneKen, Sharky, BigMike, Brent and Johnimo stopping by. Last but not by any means least, in girth that is, The Reaper, who finally got to play with his new toy longer than 15 minutes.
I was thinking if we charged visiting pilots by the mile, AtomAnt would have to take out a mortgage, he killed it again today. Great job! Now rumor has it that the SkyGod, Doug Hoffman is in town and Alaska Jack too. Tomorrow should be really interesting!
If anyone is missing from this monkey barrel chronicle please chirp in, Alex we know you were there in spirit.
Oh, no long party for most in the LZ, we all had to scurry to Nikki's stag party which is probably still going on somewhere in Waikiki. I am sure there will be some stories from those adventures but may not be suitable for print here.
It's Time to Fly, The Curse is Lifted, Get Your Gear and Go!
JJ Jameson
2 comments:
Perhaps I should prefer to remain unseen and unknown, but for the record, I flew late from Manics. I probably should've waited for a better cycle, but I didn't believe there would be any better. Launched and kept flying based on faith that lift would be found, but had to keep spilling air in sudden turns when rapidly approaching terrain without having gotten the lift I was counting on. Sank out to a mostly empty beach to enjoy the lovely colors of dusk and the sweet sound of the ocean.
Nice post, glad to hear monkees are airborn again. Amazing to hear Pete actually bought a new wings. I heard he paid in doubloons...
Happy New Year All!
Marc and Cara
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