Linda Salamone's Blog

Sunday, October 22, 2006

Some days seem to work out like magic, others leave you kicking the dirt in frustration! Karl and I drove to Harris, knowing it wouldn't be stellar, but thinking it would be stupid-soarable, at least for a while. And it WAS, just not for me! It was blowing really hard when I got out of the car, and I had instrument issues to work out anyhow, so I didn't rush to set up. Dan said it was less windy than earlier, but still too much for my liking. The sailplanes were out, and drifting back with the thermals at a pretty good clip, and not getting very high. I set up and when people got ready to launch, I decided to jockey some cars down so I wouldn't even be tempted to launch when it was this strong. I was gone maybe 25 minutes, and driving back up, I see 3 glders in the air, and Ed in his new-to-him Sport2 just standing on launch. It's just so NOT ED to launch potato so I wondered what was up when I got back on top. Dead as a doornail, pretty much! And in that short time, Scott, Dan and Ron were losing altitude very slowly. Karl pushed and scratched a while and got over the trees. I got in the slot and waited and waited and waited and watched while everyone (except Karl) got lower, and lower and lower.... Dan sank out, Ron sank out, then Scott sank out, and still Karl is kicking the treetops while I grow roots. Every time a cycle kicked a tiny bit, Karl got lower. It got deader- he went up 30 feet. Yikes. Finally I ran off, remembering I did bring my glider bag down earlier, and my car was down bottom as well. Launch was good, never got up at all, set up to land (didn't think I was going to clear the corn for a second) and dropped the nose when I flared weakly! Doug got off on his PG briefly, and Lon had a similar flight as mine. Jim never launched, but Ed's glider taught a hawk how to soar. Ah well.... 4 minutes, 38 seconds... chinese food, then 90 miles back to Rochester!

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