May

May has been typical. Wind, wind, wind and you got it more wind on the way. The flying scene in Arizona has really taken of in the last few years. The Phoenix group has grown to a Phoenix sized group of good pilots and a few hacks. I have been trying to link up with a few of them and fly but this damn wind keeps getting in the way. I really enjoy flying with good pilots from other places and think that it is a great way to learn skills you may not realize until you see them in a different light. Stay tuned as summer is on the way and I'm hoping for great things this season. We are seeing some big numbers go up on marginal days. I'm excited to see what happens on the right day. It used to be that with such a small community good days were rarely capitalized on. Now with more good pilots with different schedules anything could happen on any day. I think we will see a new state record this year. I think it could happen at any site on the right day as long as there is a pilot ready to send it. I hope its me. I would like 100+ from The Craters but we'll just see how the cards fall. If I get 100+ from another site I won't be complaining. Yet they may not fall in my favor and its still exciting to see this change in the AZ scene. Good luck boys and girls!

Tan/Dom

Will Viktora is at it again. He is working on a paragliding film and has been making sure we get as much footage as we can. Here is a small preview of the sweetest flight I've had in a long time. Not huge distance or super high just a great XC with my Bro's from Sheba to Rhoden Crater. I've been wanting to share a flight like this for years and when it happens unexpectedly it is that much sweeter. Thanks Will for the time your putting into this and thanks for making sure Dominic had a camera!

Blow

The wind talker at 2 Guns which is the closest to the hill shows sustained winds at 45 and the gust at 2 p.m. read 67 mph! YIKES!
Edit: Gust at 3:31 showed 70 mph.

Good Fun

The End Of a Great Day

It has been a fun couple weeks. I have been teaching my friends to fly and flying a fair bit myself. The days have been rewarding and challenging but always fun.
Always Worth The Trip

March Kicks Off XC Season

Roy and I had a great day on Tuesday. We both had the day off and headed to the Craters. Roy got off a quick warm up flight to the mail boxes. Then we went back up to try out some late morning thermals. Roy went first and I followed once I saw him with a good climb. We boated around in smooth lift for over a half hour getting about 1400 over launch. It seemed to shut down so I went and looked way out front for more as Roy top landed. He picked me up and we laughed our way up Merriam for some possible XC. Our 1st attempt was feeble as neither one of us had our game on. I left the storage compartment of my harness open and had to side hill land to avoid loosing precious cargo. This left Roy alone and he sank out. He said he was done and would chase me on the next one. So back up we went. I planned on going to the shop just for a quick fun flight and minutes after launching had the needed altitude to make the 2 mile hop. As Roy drove down and I made turns to land at the shop I slowly began to climb and soon found my self at 9000 ft msl. I let Roy know my plans had now changed and I would head out to Leupp Rd. Just south of Junction Crater I found another climb and headed for RC Crater nothing there so I headed for the RC field. A small climb here gave me enough altitude to make it to the Junk Yard so i went for it in hope of lift along the way. There is a little luck to every cross country flight and this was the lucky part of this flight. As I crossed over a small piece of no-mans-land with trees and 2 very large power lines I started climbing. Not fast, yet drifting toward the junk yard and not loosing altitude. This is great because the place usually goes off. It turns out that it was in fact going off. I had my best climb of the day and topped it out at near 9900 ft. Crosswinds and terrain forced me to head south on Cosonino Rd until I ran into snow covered ground and nowhere else to go. I landed near the edge of Walnut Canyon after 1 hour 20 Minutes 16.2 Miles.
The day still had some hours left so we ended the day perfectly by heading up and powering in a couple runs at the Snowbowl then Beers with friends at Harlans Birthday Party.

Looking South Down Leupp Rd From RC Crater.

Valle Pictures

El Pinon

Chris Out Front (yellow glider above horizon)

Chris At Cloudbase

Tres Reyes Day 5 - just after the start.

Back Home

When you go to Valle you know your going to have a blast. I had a ton of fun. Chris and I got out of town late due to the largest storm Flagstaff has seen in 30 years. With the airport shut down and all roads out of town closed there was only one thing to do. Help everyone dig out. When I-17 opened we where off to Phoenix to catch our connecting flight. A day late but we had escaped. My one practice day was a fun flight of 2 hours all around the launch area and towards the lake. Then came day one of the comp where I felt I flew just fine for not competing in many years. Climbs where low and things got tricky. A lot of top pilots hit the deck early. That night the cold I had been fighting took hold of me and I was down for the count. The next day I debated even launching. I decided to give it a go thinking I can feel bad in the air or feel bad on the ground so why not fly. It was a bad move. The head cold mixed with going up and down in turbulent air was a bad combo. Dizziness took over and I was getting my ass kicked in the air. I radioed Chris and he got us a cab. I spent the rest of the day and night in bed and hoped for a speedy recovery.
Day three was much better it seemed that the funk that I had wasn't going away but had moved out of my head and into my chest. I launched with some apprehensions yet there was no dizziness only a cough that kept me company for my 2.5 hour flight. Getting out on the course helped my score a little but taking the day before off had put me out of reach of a decent finish. With a goal of having fun as my main agenda I was still doing great. Day 4 was a total junk show. Light lift and the lowest climbs anyone had seen turned out to be a crowded sky. 150 pilots circling around looking for the same scrap of lift took all the fun out of my day and I went off alone low and then flew to the LZ to call it a day. Not long after landing my good friend Brett Zanglein encountered a mid-air collision with another pilot. Confirming my decision was a good one. Both pilots where uninjured and flew the next day.
Day five of the comp proved to be the best flying we would see the whole trip.
It started out slow but an hour and a half into the task the climbs got strong and higher we were finally getting above 11,000 ft and able to cover some ground. The next day was rained out and the partying started early and finished early the next morning. What a great trip. Chris learned tons and is hungry for more. Yesterday was our first day back at the Snowbowl and it took us both a while to get used to wearing ski boots instead of flip flops. I left my camera at the house we stayed at so no pictures for a few days until it gets mailed. Stay tuned! T