The SkyBlog

Greetings all, with the temps dropping into the freezing zone in Tres Piedras and seeing all the birds migrating south it gets me thinking it’s about time for me to fly south too!

I will be in Sebring Florida at lake Jackson for the fall SIV session Nov 6,7,8 i still have a couple of spots open. Then i’ll be doing a x-c clinic/team challenge event at the Florida ridge Nov 9th thru the 14th. but if i don’t get enough pilots signed up i may try to organize another SIV session for the 13,14,15 of Nov.

Valle de Bravo tours will start Dec 13th and run thru the end of Jan. i’m starting to get bookings for late Dec so if your interested you better give a call or send a email with your preferred dates.

The Monarca comp if getting close to full so if your thinking about competing then you need to sign up soon and get your payment sent to secure your spot. This years event is going to be the most valid points comp for any USA pilot due to the international attendance, not to mention the steller flying conditions.

Local flying has been weak at best, with a couple weeks of wind and now we got hammered with rain and snow, so i’m ready for some warm flying.

Hope your all gettin some.

D.

Last weekend i hosted a three day SIV session at Elephant Butte lake, i had five pilots attending and we had a mixed bag of weather with Friday being the best day as we had light winds all day. Saturday we were lucky to get in two tows before the winds howled all day long, and Sunday we had great conditions till 1:00 which allowed for 8 tows.

I had Brad from Phoenix, Hadley and Lee from El Paso and Carl and Todd from Durango.

Congrats to Brad C and Lee B it was the first SIV sesson for them both and they performed very well Brad has only been flying since June and was able to progress thru B-stalls, Asym collapses w/spd and full frontals w/spd. and Lee B was “the man” progressing thru to his first full stalls which he executed picture perfect at least his first one anyways. His second stall got a bit messy and required a third full stall which was complicated as he had one twist of his risers but he was able to sort things out with 1,000 ft to spare.

My next SIV session is planned for lake Jackson in Sebring, Fl. Nov 6,7,8 i already have a few pilots signed up and a few more on the fence so if you want in on this gig you need to let me know asap.

David.

I finally got the good weather day i was looking for, light southwesterly winds aloft with highs in the lower 80’s. So i took a small group of Pg pilots up the Sandia tram.

Of course not flying for two months will make anybody a bit nervous but launching a comp glider at 10,380 ft off a steep ramp will certainly get the adrenaline flowing.

After guiding all the new guys off the Mtn it was my turn and i had several launch attempts where my glider was just too snakey and i had to set it back down but eventually i had the perfect launch cycle and i was back in the air with a crowd of about 30 tourists cheering me on, it felt great.

I was stilll a bit out of sync with my glider and the thermals out front of twoer two were strong enough that i did’nt feel so comfortable and so i just got some altitude and decided it would be safer to just head out front and i set a challenge for myself to try to fly over to Bill L’s house where we would be having the yearly club party later that evening.

I was gliding over the north end of town and starting to get a bit low but i stayed on course and about 2,500 ft agl i hooked a light thermal and was slowly climbing out as i drifted back toward the mtn knowing that if my thermal did’nt turn on stronger i would not bemaking any forward progress toward my goal but after 1,500ft of gain at 200 fpm finally my thermal cranked up to 400 fpm and as i got high enough to make the next glide i moved forward and found even stronger lift, soon i was back at launch altitude  when my thermal began to wain and drift i headed out toward Bill’s house and as i got over the ballon fiesta park i could see that i would need one more thermal to make the glide to Bill’s but it was getting late and instead of making a final death glide to the edge of the river i decided to head back to some warehouses i thought might produce a late thermal but no luck finding one so i landed at the fiesta park which is about 20 acres of manicured grass, there were four Hg’s there who made the same flight as me but they were suprised i was able to make it in my PG.

Not bad for a first flight back in action in over two months, only my 6th flight since my accident in May.

 David.