Run!

Another tandem for me today, this time with my flying monkey friend Sam. 

Everything was mostly charged and breakfast was once again very nice with fresh fruit, ham and eggs scrambled with the fantastic coffee here and fresh juice.

The ride up was dark at times with towering cumulus forming right away. Word circulated that today could "OD" (overdevelop), meaning that the clouds cold grow too tall and become thunder-storms. 

We made the call to launch ASAP and land in the ultralight airport below. The instructors stayed up and surveyed the situation and tried to render help when 2 pilots from another group landed behind the power lines low on the hill and were unable to make the glide out due to poor choices being made durring their flights. A third pilot landed into the side of a small foothill, clearly trying to make the glide over it to land with all of us. Had

he looked around he would have noticed one of our pilots landing safely behind him in one of our bailout landing zones.  He must have been overwhelmed at the time. The leaders of the other group seemed unconcerned about their missing pilots and turned down our offers to help. Go figure. 

Meanwhile Sam and I punched out front to escape the strong turbulent air of the mountains behind us and found a weak climb on a spine leading to our group LZ. After a few turns it became stronger and we were back up to cloud base in no time.  

Having altitude to burn, we did some big wing overs and some high-G turns.  Fun. 

Sam nailed the launch and we stood up the landing no problem as well. We were pretty stoked that we were all safe on the ground with plenty of time to pack up and relax. 

The owner of the field is super nice and has an ultralight in a hangar he built. 

We all landed together (except one). The shade of the hanger was a welcome retreat from the sun until our ride came to pick us up and take us to our favorite lunch spot. 

The owners were very hospitable and treated us like guests.  Super cool. Big dog!

Back at the hotel, I'm parked under my fan and it's lovely. Outside it looks like a flyable day, but only for top pilots with tons of experience.  The "tell" today was the absence of any local pilots on the take off. We all got off and landed safely, and avoided the long drive down with time to spare. Unfortunately, those other 2 to 3 pilots are sill dealing with their situation. 

A short day to be sure, but a safe one for everybody in our group, so we can always try again tomorrow. 

Cheers!