Sunday July 22, 2007
Me, Ron and PG Sean met Karl and Katrin at Harriet Hollister on Sunday. Mark was headed to the FLAP with Dan and Todd having big XC plans to go over our heads there. When I launched Harriet the first time- I had a sledder and landed in the tall weeds - miserably hot and sticky breaking down. Ugh- this day was not going well! I had hoped to hook up with the pilots who left the park early, but we didn't know where they were at. Mark got towed up at FLAP and I could talk to him on the radio as I set up for a second flight. (Sean and Ron sledded and Karl had picked us up. Sean has the deep scratches on his leg to show for getting me out of the weeds.) Sean launched again and had a narrow escape out of the slot- he handled it beautifully! I heard Mark was at the north end of Honeoye lake when I launched into a decent cycle- this time, the lift was in the bowl so I had to 360 right in it- scary! But I was able to maintain mostly and I rode it along the back of the ridge until it really glued together in the middle of the east facing ridge. I saw Mark as I climbed out- I got to 5K over I think- and wondered why Ron didn't launch after seeing me get up. Mark and I talked a bit about going to Dansville, and he decided to top-land at Harriet. I decided to follow a street to Dansville and hopefully make it back, but as I headed under the fat clouds, they dried up and got crappy. I veered north and finally got something just west and north of the gliderport in the Dansville valley. I saw the sailplanes around, and I followed one that I thought might be onto something, but a big sweep around the whole valley proved it was dead as a doornail. The sailplane landed and I went in behind. It was cool landing right by the hangar ( I dropped the nose) where the glider pilots were hanging out, and Rizzo came screaming in from Avoca a few minutes later. Mark and Sean and Ron came to get me and we buzzed on outta there. Not too shabby for a day I thought was lost after my sledder! I had just over an hour and enough time up there to get really cold! Meeting up with Mark was pretty cool and even though we had to fly different sites, we still got to fly together. I hear Dan went to D-ville and almost all the way back to FLAP. Todd cut the cord and got out of the park for 5 or so miles. Scott Rowe made it to Canandaigua. Jeez- pilots littered all over the countryside!!! What a great flying day. Thanks to Mark for making the sacrifice and landing at Harriet. Thanks to Sean and Karl for hiking me out of my shitty landing place, and Sean for the lovely picture he took of me at launch.... payback is a bitch....