Great Flying in July

It's been great, the weather has finally dried out a little, and we have had some consistency with the conditions. We did have two days in the last two weeks that we were completely shut down, but for the most part it has been great.

On the evening of July 18th, with the winds from the north, several pilots decided to make the trek up the gondola, and a 30 minute hike to launch at a site we call the Cascade launch or Chair 20 launch. Two pilots went up on July 16th, an had some great conditions to fly in with and hour of soaring. Several of us were hoping to have the same experience.

We load the gondola in Lionshead on Vail Mountain, and hike down the run Simba, and with a short bushwhack we arrive at a steep, semi grassy, shrubby launch. Unsheathed kevlar comp lines on the glider really do not like the shrubby ground cover. Lines catch on everything, and the glider doesn't like to inflate evenly. A little landscaping will take care of this.

Once at launch winds were a little on the strong side, but not totally unreasonable. We settled in to wait for the right conditions, and placed some wind indicators in strategic spots for safe launching. After about 40 minutes some of the lulls in the cycles were at an appropriate launch speed, with gusts to about 18 mph. I decided to get ready. As I laid my glider out, the little shrubs kept grabbing the lines, and because of the steepness of the slope the winds kept lifting my glider into a serpentine format. Once hooked in it was easier to manage. I got the straight in cycle, and inflated, and launched into lift. Conditions were smooth, and the lift was abundant, and climbed steadily to 10,700 feet msl, which is a little higher than the top of the gondola on Eagle's Nest on Vail Mountain. The other pilots managed to get off with some soaring. Unfortunately, the launch is small, and only two gliders can be laid out at a time.

I got about an hour flight with the lift shutting down abruptly, landing at about 8 pm. It's great to have a site that faces northerly, as all the other sites we have face a more southerly, or easterly direction. It was great that all the pilots got to fly.

It seems now we are in a dry cycle, so I will be blogging about any significant flights we have. Don't give up, the best is yet to come.