Apparently the weather is playing crazy all over the place, sometimes being just crappy and making flying impossible, sometimes super phat and great. Apparently there are even huge differences depending on exactly when you launch, what glider you fly etc. Asking those who went to Slide last weekend "How was it?", you are likely to get very different answers...
Justine, helmet girl, Thomas, boy wonder, Scott and Kurtis left thursday night, camping in an inconvenient spot, leaving Scott almost being run over by a car at 4 am. Barry, Jesse, birdbones and cookie girl left early friday morning instead. By the time we arrived at Slide, the sky looked seriously developed and I was starting to have serious doubts whether we would be able to fly that day. Sure enough, Scott reports from launch that they'll only do "sledders" for Thomas and boy wonder. Both had nice flights with plenty of lift and nice landings in the LZ where we picked them up to drive off to check out Hotsprings mountain, a site which is supposed to be good in southwest winds. The approaching thunder storm didn't stop us from driving up the horrible road to lauch and check it out. Instead of flying, we watched an impressive lightning-show and drove then off to Tahoe where the weather was perfect for swimming.
Saturday looked much better though we were expecting hard westerly winds again. Still, we gave it a shot, drove up to Slide launch and found perfectly fine conditions. Everybody hurried best they could to set up their gliders and get off the mountain before the wind would overpower the thermals. Most pilots had a hard time this day, some taking a sledder, others fighting for lift over the knob without ever getting high. Three pilots who had a very different experience... I was very lucky with a great launch cycle which took me up to above 9000' right at launch without any greater effort. From there I went on to the fingers, found plenty of lift over the last finger and made my way further up the mountain. I got over the top just to find that the lift there was even better and easier than anywhere else and circled easily up to cloudbase at 14600' feet, the highest I've ever been. The view from up there is GRAND! Lake Tahoe, Mount Rose, the valley, ... I was feeling pretty nervous about being so close to the clouds though, feeling a little too much lift to feel comfortable (12000' up without even turning..?). I fled the scene out to the LZ, trying to find my radio in my harness pocket and asking for advice on where to go from here. I expected to find a lot of pilots up in the air and heading for XC - but no. The only ones high up where Thomas and myself, Barry joined us later. Without any experience pilot to follow and a southerly wind which would force us to head north where LZs are scarce and the restricted airspace can be in the way, I decided to stay on the mountain instead. I headed back to the peak and circled my way up to the clouds once again. From there I decided to check out Mount Rose, made it almost to the peak before I turned around and played the same game once more. The second time, I got back to Slide with too little altitude to find lift over the peak, ended up in the rotor in front of the mountain. My ambition was to make it back up over the peak once more and then go to land in the LZ, but by that time I was both freezing, nauseous, tired and in need of a bathroom. I headed out to the LZ, arrived there at 9k just to feel a multitude of thermals ripping of the field. Reminded of Scotts rule I figured I should keep circling above the field and thermal out of it, but I was way too tired. Instead I did a bunch of boxes, watched the windsock a long time without seeing any crazy windchanges and had an ok landing in high, gusty wind. There I was, an exhausted but immensly happy pilot. What did I care that flying had been crappy all week when I got rewarded with a flight like that?
Some of us decided to stay an extra day, hoping to be able to fly on sunday. Arriving at launch at 10am, the sock was already blowing down vigorously. We drove off to McClellan, only to find a 30mph howling wind from the southwest. Nothing changed in three hours, except for Barry's left rear tire which had gone flat on the drive up to launch. Heading back to Berkeley in the afternoon, I guess I was the only pilot in the car really satisfied with the weekend...
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