Its Fun When It Isn't Blowing

The last week has been an interesting one. After my South Mountain adventure, Saturday was an Epic day. Cumulus clouds as far as the eye could see, yet strong rowdy air. Roy and Ben got to launch before me and were up and established. Roy got to 11,111 from Sheba and was headed south. Ben was not liking the beating mother nature was giving him and top landed. I finally sorted through my gear and set up to launch and catch Roy. Ben told me of the textured air and I was eager to sample it. Yep strong. After some rowdy conditions around the take off I was screaming upward at over 1000 feet per minute thinking this is gonna be a long day. At 9500 feet I left my good climb to head towards Roy. A couple turns in another strong thermal along the way I saw him only one cloud away. Greed took hold of me and I made a total rookie error. I flew straight toward him, forgetting any XC potential and the fact that to stay in the sky you first have to stay in lift. After landing I laughed out loud as he came and landed next to me, only 4 miles from Sheba. He was cold, had to piss and was overwhelmed by the air. He will be prepared next time. So what we blew the best day of the year for a huge flight but we were all together laughing. That should always be the real goal.
Sunday didn't look so good but the afternoon had great potential for Apache Maid. Layback, Ben and I headed to the hill and couldn't set up fast enough when we saw the conditions. I punched of first and with minimal searching went straight to 10,400. I got another climb just east of Stoneman Lake and headed towards Lake Mary Rd. Here I was getting low and found an area of 0 lift. Learning from my reminder the day before I made some lazy turns in this area and drifted with it only to reap the rewards of it getting stronger and stronger and next thing I knew I was looking at Mormon Lake from 13,700 ft. After a long late afternoon glide I came in 100 ft above the Mormon Lake overlook where we launch when we fly there. I was laughing out loud in my harness when I started ridge soaring the smooth air off the lake. It was late in the day and I would find no more thermals but I flew for another hour or more until sunset. Why land and wait for your friends who are going to fly till dark when you can fly till dark as well. Just as I finished packing up they came and picked me up. May is windy here and these magical days are rare yet Thursday evening had the perfect ingredients for an Aubrey cliff session. Paul Alley has had quite a winter while being a new father and remodling his house he hasn't been out since Oct. I let him know what I thought and he was in. He with his hang glider and I with my paraglider headed to Seligman. Again the conditions were perfect and we flew for a couple hours and around 20 miles of mixed ridge/thermal lift. Glad I got to share another epoch night with him after his long break. Wow is the word most people use after a week like that. I actually managed to get some work done during this time period as well. But I don't think I'll remember it like I will flying with my friends. 6 hours of airtime and near 60 miles of ground covered I think I'll be able to sit back and watch May do what it does best for the next week. Between gusts I'll be day dreaming of the past week and smiling. From Dustin and Sean to Paul and everyone in between this was a really cool week in my flying career that I'll remember always. Huge thanks to Will for the laughs, the shuttles, and the ideas. You rock! Sorry no pictures were taken by me during the construction of the huge smile on my face.
T

South Mountain

Downtown Phoenix From 5000'

Well it happened. If you write it down it'll happen. On Thurs. I had to go to Phoenix to get some building materials. After loading my trailer with the goods I met up with Dustin Pachura and Sean Buckner. 2 Phoenix locals and down right good dudes. They took me to South Mountain and showed me around. In a little less than an hour Dustin and I got quite the tour from above. I even got to land at my truck and make it home before dark. Thanks guys! Too Bad there is a ceiling at 5000'.
Past this casino the airpace drops down to 3000 ft

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.