Friday, October 6th was a great flying day in Upstate, NY. I got out of work by 2pm and had my daughter/driver Dana riding shotgun down to Harriet Hollister. The cu’s I’d seen earlier were gone except way to the west, and the wind was a nice 10mph from the ENE as we drove south. Moritz was already set up and the launch conditions looked pretty primo for this site. Of course the cirrus pieces were drifting from over the back, and there was a 2mph up the launch- but that’s actually GREAT for Harriet. When Moritz got in the slot, two hawks actually climbed slowly right out in front of him. He launched as I stuffed my first batten and when I saw him maintain out at the point, I couldn’t get my glider put together fast enough. Henry and Inge Boessl showed up just in time to help me launch and it felt pretty solid when I did. But I got nothing much at the point and Moritz was like 1000’ over, and I searched down the ridge to the south. I had a brief moment where I was slightly above, but then lost it and was left groveling all the way along the face of the ridge. Damn, this was going to be a sledder! When I was adjacent to our “new” LZ, I was 700’ below launch and looking to land. I continued south a little more, pushed away from the ridge to the spot I climbed out in once before, and saw that I was 750’ below when I heard my vario beep once. So I turned and lost nothing, tried another turn and gained 10’, and again and again, until I was 2700’ over and straight above the spot where I had begun. I saw Moritz then, above the launch, and he came over near me and passed below to head into the valley low. I cruised around and I heard Mark come on the radio, asking where I was; 2500’ over and still south of launch. He was getting his PG ready and I was chatting a little with Dana and boating around really easily. The climbs were from 2-300fpm and once in a while I had 7-800fpm and bouncing against the inversion it was getting really really cold. Mark launched after Moritz landed. I guided Dana to where Moritz was when I saw my car with my Sting on it from the air, and then watched as Mark got high on the ridge and I went over to join him. He was all over me and I kept running to the north. I tried to go over the lake but I lost so much altitude on my way every time that I went running back to the mountain for more “up”. After almost two hours I had just about had it with the cold. Dana had run Moritz back to his car and was on her way back to the LZ. Mark and I headed out into the valley and I set up to land… badly. Still can’t get the hang of the rocking upright thing with my “new” harness. Aah well, Mark’s landing was as good as all PG landings- easy and perfect. We packed up and headed to Morningside.
P.S. I downloaded my flight on Google Earth and it is pretty cool to see my low save in 3D!