After watching cookie girl's flawless first flight off the top, I followed her for a smooth sledride down, a warm-up flight for a much more interesting one. As I waited for the winds to cycle up launch, there seemed to be more and more activity in the air, and so I was pretty excited to try to get some lift out there. Though I felt like the bumps I got after launch were all turbulence, I was told by those on launch that it had seemed as though I was actively avoiding thermals, turning away from them instead of into them. This was, of course, not intentional, but more a reaction to the turbulence I experienced after launch, (I got bumped around quite a lot), and the fact that I felt like I was pretty close to the hill. Which apparently I wasn't, so that will go on my list of things to improve on for my next flight. I then headed over to the ridge, flying over the 900 and the 600, but not really getting much of anything before I was low enough to do laps between the 600' and the 300' hills, and this is when it got interesting. Doing small passes in between the hills I was maintaining pretty well for a long time, even though it was a little turbulent at times. Though I may not have been going up, the feeling of being able to (mostly) maintain my altitude, and also playing around with thermals was seriously addictive. I was also lucky enough to have a very helpful paraglider film my flight as he was flying above me (will post the video as he uploads it), who also confirmed that I had indeed had my longest flight to far. At 15 minutes, it was my first extended experience playing with thermals at Ed Levin, and the reason why I am compulsively checking the forecast trying to chase down the prefrontal days of the coming week. (Monday? Tuesday??)
The day was finished off with an amazing bbq setup in the LZ by Karl, (who also sponsored cookie girl off the top), and also some evidence that hanggliders will do anything to get that sensation of flying (as pictured below.)
(no racks were harmed in the taking of this picture.)
Winds: Mostly dead in the morning (perfect conditions for first flights), 5-10 south winds on launch for my second flight. (More like 5 though, pilots on top told me I would have had much better conditions had I launched just a little bit later.)
Log: cookie girl (1 flight, 1750), papirtiger (2 flights, 1750).
William's video of my launch and flight:
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