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FlyBC "Site of the Day Archive" - December 2012
Tapalpa all day long with FlyBC Tour guests
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 21°C We headed north to the Bellavista Training Hill and it was dry there but by the time we checked the winds there, it started sprinkling too. Hmmm, 50% POP became 100% very quickly? We also found out that the facility at the bottom of the hill is a gun range, yikes! No one has been there the same time as us, but there are signs recently painted that state "area of risk". I guess we better look for a new hill?
The first rains here in two months coincides with New Years Eve and first flights for Robert & Deanna, but it looks better for the remainder of their 9 day trip, so hopefully we get in the air tomorrow at Tapalpa.
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| 24°C We saw many birds soaring El Chante and Chapala ridgelines later.  Woodside Report - the first flyable day in a month at Woodside brought out some hike & fliers.
Elk Report - the Elk Mtn. Hiking Team was out prepping for a New Years Hike-Sleep-Fly campout and it looked beautiful up top.
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| 24°C Good hiking trail with 550 metres of vertical and maybe 4 kms of trail. It gets kinda hot fast with the South facing slope but the trees offer some shade in places. We stopped for some rest breaks but got to the top in 1:30 to find perfect thermal cycles and SE winds on the lake. Colleen got ready first and flew off with the Mojo4 and I followed her on the Ozone XXLite 19. Colleen got above launch fast and was "duking it out" with a vulture out front.
Parasledding with Eric from Golden - only in Canada, eh?
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| 26°C When we arrived on launch there were nice light inflow cycles and Danielle & Yakin were in the launch slot, they launched and barely maintained so we drove back down to save a "ride of shame" retrieve.
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| 27°C I got a clean launch and was immediately "hoovered" into space with a +5 m/s thermal right off launch. Smooth in the air but it was getting windy on the south side of Laguna San Marcos (the dry lake bed), as a huge dustie was being fed by winds and thermals. I climbed thru 2700 metres near launch before heading south to the Gap, getting a good climb there to 3000 metres before heading south. Everytime I hit a thermal it would drift me north so it was slow going and the GPS told me the wind speed was 25-28 kph at altitude. The best thermal had me just behind the dust devil coming off the laguna. and it was getting dark from the dust. Note to tour guests: Bring a painters mask or respirator for these days.
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| & San Marcos 26°C I flew and got above launch for some time but as I headed south I got lots of sink despite the black clouds, I guess the trigger points were far upwind. There was strong south wind on the dry lakebed as duststorms were kicking off. I managed to make it over the powerlines and into the back fields to save the retrieve.
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| 26°C After we opened our gifts, undaunted, we headed to Ajijic to see if we could find a roaming propane truck, but all we found was breakfast at Hotel Real Chapala. I forgot they had a stunning breakfast buffet for Christmas Day - all you can eat and really good food for 150 pesos.
After a long nap, the turkey was miraculously cooked and ready for consumption. Too bad there are not more people here as the bird was pretty big for 3 of us. Colleen says turkey pot pie for dinner tomorrow. No flying today as we were relaxing and enjoying the +26C weather, and calling family on Skype all day. Mañana volamos!
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| 26°C Netflix was hit by a massive outage last night so we had to watch SKY Satellite instead and there were no Christmas movies on, damn Amazon Servers went down for the third time this year.
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| 25°C Mañana volamos! NORAD Santa Tracker Santa is headed your way soon!
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| 24°C Camilo borrowed the Magnum II for a tandem flight with a client and they had a 20 minute thermal flight before landing at the LZ too. Derek launched next and Colleen was on his tail "pimping off him" as her vario died during the flight. They got above launch and were heading over the back when the lift just quit. It was hazy with Guadalajara smog and dust and no CUs forming. Also no vultures flying, not a good sign.
Beto arrived and wanted to kite the XXlite 19 and loved it so much he decided to fly it down (actually the plan was to soar and top-land but that didn't work out).
A nice lunch at Zacoalco and we were back at home by 3 pm, just in time for a siesta.
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| 23°C It was breezy on Lake Chapala with rollers and the odd whitecap but Tapalpa was probably okay. I had a dentist appointment at 230 pm that chopped up the day too, so flying didn't happen. I was getting some old amalgum (metal) fillings replaced and the cost for 3 filling replacements and a cavity filled (4 in total) for 1170 pesos or about $90 CDN. If you don't have a good dental plan come down to Chapala for some dental work while you are here flying or vacationing. Later we headed to the Outlet Mall in SOuth Guadalajara for shopping and a movie and we opted for "El Hobbit" in Ingles with espanol subtitlos. I guess the Mayans wither miscalculated the doomsday date or as some say "the odometer just rolled over". Fred C posted some flying pics on Facebook from Yelapa, so a lot of BCers are down here enjoying the weather.
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| 26°C We found a south route from San Luis Soyatlan over Cerro Garcia that started out as a cobblestone road, then a dirt trail thru some farms ending up near Milpillas to the south. Unfortunately, as Colleen and I found out last year there are no south launch possibilities on Cerro Garcia. When we arrived at La Ceja Launch at Tapalpa, a mexican girl was talking to her esposa on the radio, and he was not in the LZ. I saw a HG land at the main LZ too. It was quite gusty from the NE so we headed to Tapalpa for lunch and to wait out the winds. After lunch we met up with Yakin (the HG dude), Christian (the PG pilot the mexican girl was talking to) and Herminio who had also flown down. They all had tales of rotor and rough air and being happy to be on the ground safe! Herminio also told us of great flying yesterday at San Marcos, apparently soarable along the entire ridge line to the south and back right til dark. Camilo's wind predictions were all wrong, we should have just headed there yesterday afternoon. On our return to San Marcos today we checked out the new training hill on a highway overpass. Perfect for south and north winds. We also found some training hills on the SW face of San Marcos, that we need permission to use as the cane crops are harvested but there are signs.
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| 26°C Pedro took some students to the new San Marcos area training hill and it didn't look windy there. Herminio also told us of great flying today at San Marcos, apparently soarable along the entire ridge line to the south and back right til dark. Camilo's wind predictions were all wrong, we should have just headed there in the afternoon. Port Mann Bridge is open now, but Transport Ministry closed the bridge earlier this afternoon after ice chunks fall on vehicles December 19, 2012 2:03 pm SURREY (NEWS1130) – The new Port Mann Bridge is open. It was closed for most of the afternoon after reports of large ice chunks falling from the bridge. Several callers to the newsroom said large chunks of snow and ice smashed the hoods and windshields of their vehicles as they drove across the bridge. “I’ve been sitting on the Port Mann for 45 minutes. There’s huge hunks of ice and snow falling off the wires and I’m sitting here with a convertible roof. I’m worried one is going to come through the roof,” describes one woman. “Wow, that was a big chunk! If that had hit my windshield, it would have gone right through. I’m getting pummeled here, on the bridge, by these chunks of snow coming off it,” says one woman, also trapped in traffic on the Port Mann Bridge. It’s not only the Port Mann Bridge where this is happening. This man drove through a similar situation on the Alex Fraser Bridge. “Halfway past the bridge up there, all this snow is falling down, and big chunks just hit the middle of the windshield and it’s hard to see at the moment.” He says the size of the chunks are significant. “I would say when they’re coming down, they’re probably about a foot long and all of a sudden, smash, in the side of the car and the windshield.” RCMP Sgt. Peter Thiessen said the ice has damaged several vehicles and even injured one motorist, who needed an ambulance. High winds and a thick blanket of snow covered much of Metro Vancouver after it blew in during the morning commute, causing ferry cancellations, school closures and traffic headaches. The second storm in as many days also knocked out power for about 18,000 customers in Metro Vancouver, the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island. ICBC has fielded 60 claims today related to the Port Mann bridge. Adam Grossman says some of those claims are the result of regular accidents on the bridge. “Some of those will be due likely to the snow and ice that was falling from the bridge, but there could be some other contributing factors as well.”
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| 25°C I took Andreas tandem and we had a super flight climbing to 2700 metres by the North Peak. He is interested in learning to fly so this was a perfect opportunity to let him pilot the tandem up high where it was smooth. We attempted many top-landing passes to let Camilo fly as did Derek, but it was getting windy & strong, so we bailed. Now we were down at launch height, and could see the south winds picking up as a dust storm was forming on San Marcos lakebed. Derek said he was getting 4-7 kph on his gps so it was pretty windy. We managed to head south along the spine and climbout enough to clear the ridge and powerlines and Andreas & I landed near the main road. Flight time: 1 hour+, lift to +4 m/s.  Meanwhile, back at the Ranch the snow fell!
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| 25°C Bob G was flying Tapalpa today and posted this video.
Why Ozone over other brands? - more news about the 2013 Glider Lineup from Ozone. The first size (ML) of the Buzz Z4 will hopefully be going to test before the end of this year. A little bit later than hoped, mainly due to the weather, but the design team are happy that they have made something to carry on the success of the Z3. The delays caused by the weather also affected the Delta 2, but this should also be going to certification within the next few weeks. We were flying the final version in Argentina and we all fell in love with this wing. We have split the M size into MS and ML, so it will be the ML that gets certified first. At the same time we are also hoping to certify a lighter version of the tandem - the Mag2Lite - utilising similar materials to the Geo and Swift it is about a kilo lighter than the Magnum 2 and will have the option of some very light spreaders. The design team will be spending January working on the other sizes of the Z4 and Delta 2 and on the Mantra M5. We also intend to have a special X-Alps wing - Mike
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| 25°C Colleen flew off around 11 am to test the air for Ali, and then Ali got her first solo today with a nice strong launch and super landing. Chris & Derek flew off and Derek managed an hour soaring above the North Peak early on. We went for lunch in Acatlan and then met up with Yubin & his daughter Fernanda who Derek booked for a tandem flight. We arrived at launch to decent cycles at 2 pm, and I flew off first and almost sunk out! But we went to the south face and the gulleys worked and we were back above launch to watch Derek launch with Yubin.
We regrouped and headed back up to launch for Ali's last flight here as she and Chris head out tomorrow for Cabo. Derek, Chris and Colleen flew off while the other locals were plying tandems at San Marcos. Everyone was soaring in the glass-off as Ali launched. She has an awesome reverse launch! Ali was above launch and I had her do some 360s to check her height and she was flying very smoothly.
This day like all the rest so far had been soarable and warm, so far in our trip. Lovin' Mexico!
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|  27°C
I waited for Chris and Derek to launch and tried to head south but found nothing but sink so back to the north again to climb out. By this time Chris and Scott had climbed thru 3200 metres too and tried the south route to the same sinky fate. I was back at 3200 metres over the north peak when Derek found a nice leeside thermal over the powerlines and was soon way above me. We headed east but apparently Derek made a smart choice and headed to the South Peaks from the backside and found a good climb as I headed east over the valley expecting a town thermal which was not there.
Derek reported in seeing me land as he was at 3200 metres to the south and had the Joco Malecon on glide. He caught a nice leeside thermal near El Chante launch and was almost back to cloudbase there before landing at the Malecon. Chris made it over the top and over the back for a quick retrieve by Colleen.
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| 24°C What a difference a night makes with the early winds straight in and reversible all day. Ali had a brilliant launch for her first flight and Colleen guided her into Pedro's LZ for a perfect landing. Chris also flew down to cherr Ali on. Derek was not quite here yet as he did an airport run with Candace returning back to wet Chilliwack after a 2 week vacation.
Meanwhile, Derek launched about 30 minutes later and got above launch and headed out to land as he said it was rough from the N winds. Chris flew out again and was soaring nicely and it looked smooth. Colleen flew down and said it looked good for Ali and we set her up and she had a few forward attempts that did not work, so we set her up reverse and she had a perfect inflation but looked down at launch and flew in for a sidehill abort rather than completing the launch sequence (too tired after all the fun today).
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| 24°C Jim & Ali went first and there were some thermals out front but the south wind was making it hard work to climb out. Derek & Candace got above launch a few times, but not close enough to top-land. Chris was working in the same thermals as Derek, and we were out front for 30 minutes of themalling. Landing conditions were very nice with SE wind, sometimes this LZ is calm and hard to read the winds. We went back up and Derek & Chris flew off with Derek climbing over the back to 2800 metres. He eventually landed at the main libramento after an hour or so. He reported some +5 m/s lift back there and Chris was getting bounced around out front so we bailed on Ali flying down solo. She got some valuable kiting done on launch though.
We collected Chris and Derek and headed to San Marcos (as NOAA predicted some south winds later), but as we got there it was blowing over the back and the position of the new windsock was in a bad place to see the leeside winds, so it was relocated. We also cut down the sharp branches left from the tree rescue a few days ago, it is much safer now for drifting pilots. I got a ride down with local pilot Scott to retrieve the Suburban while everyone else went back to their rooms for shwoers before dinner at the steak place in Joco. I was treated to a magical sunset as I drove back home!
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| 26°C Joe was the shuttle driver extraordinaire at Woodside for many years until his health started failing him in 2008.  Joe Miles - RIP Here are Joe's feelings in his own words ... The mountain has taken another casualty. This gives me a total of five. The other four were shaken to death. I'm the only one still alive. It's loosened off all my nuts and bolts From the bottom to my top. My brain cells are dropping like flies daily. I don't think it's going to stop... GOODBYE MY FLYING FRIENDS. Your sport and my job required quickness of mind. There is no forgiveness for error. Your mind and body must work as one Or face your last minutes in terror. I knew some day the time would come. I didn't think it would come this fast. Something told me the time was now. That last trip would be my last. I care too much to continue taking the risk. I've lost prowess and keenness of thought. I won't jeopardize your lives for a second. You're the closest friends I've got. It's with sadness I end my career. You can be sure I'll be around. I'll be watching when you leave the launch And be concerned until you touch the ground. Joseph Tapalpa Report - we went to Tapalpa and Chris had a really short flight landing at the watering pond below Tapalpa Launch (safely), while Ali kited on launch. We picked up Chris and headed to San Marcos with a deviation to the Bellavista training hill for more kiting for Ali. We got to the top of San Marcos around 4 pm to find a wing in the trees to the north of launch and the un-named pilot asking for a saw. We had no saw so they headed down the mountain to find Andreas and his machete. An hour later the wing was out and undamaged too, while Chris took off and soared for an hour before an exciting top-landing down the road! Despite an overcast sky, San Marcos was delivering smooth glassy lift.
Rueben was there helping remove the wing for his buddy, and finally got to fly when we drove down to dinner and he was still soaring as we reached the bottom, a welcome reward for the hard work.
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| 26°C
We took a break for lunch in Acatlan at Gueros Restaurante and watched an interesting dust devil move around parked cars and across the street, creating a defined funnel cloud at times. We headed to the Bellavista Training Hill for some ground handling for Ali but when we arrived, the forecasted strong west winds had touched down and it was too strong to safely kite there. We saw the San Marcos Lago was now looking very dusty with the strong winds so we headed to the El Chante Malecon Futball field and kited there til 6 pm, as it was smooth air coming off the lake.
A good day for Ali & Chris with 2 flights each. If we had skipped lunch we could have gotten some soaring in but then we would have had some logistic issues with some on the backside of the mountain and no one to drive.
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| 26°C
Later Ali & I flew tandem again at San Marcos for an hour letting her take control again in preparation for her solo flights. We had some nice soaring despite milky skies, and then the sun came out and we climbed high to the north peak. Dave from Oregon was out on his ultralight HG trike and tried to out-thermal us but we won! Later we practiced more kiting in Kordich Airfield and Ali can now reverse launch with style!
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| 26°C Then I drove to GDL airport to pickup Ali for her first day of training, here in sunny Mexico. We headed to San Marcos as west winds were forecast and evident on the Ibis Wind Viewer and the clouds. Arriving at launch around 4 pm, there were a few HGers in the air and on the ground. Nice strong launch cycles meant waiting for a lull, and we got off first try and were "heading to the moon" climbing through 2500 metres in 2 minutes.
The plan was to climb out and show Ali how we thermal and chase some birds: Check. Then let her fly: Check. And then land on our feet at Kordich Airfield: Check. Colleen drove down with Ali's gear and she was soon ground-handling in the Airfield in light west winds and she was doing really well but we ran out of daylight and energy so we headed for dinner at Le Cuba Bar in Jocotepec before retiring for the night. We booked Ali into one of the Jacuzzi Rooms at Casa de Marina and she is ready for some training hill action and ground school tomorrow.
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| 25°C The hike is about 4 kms and 550 meter vertical with parts of it in the shade of the forest so it is enjoyable with some hot spots in the sun. I was encouraged by the soaring birds overhead. Once we were back together we made it to the top around noon to nice cycles, light winds from the SE on the Lake. Camilo set up first and took off to the west narrowly avoiding the trees! Yikes! Next off Colleen flying the demo Mojo 4 Small as we had made up a hiking kit with an Oxygen I harness, and they were both soaring above launch as I readied the Ozone XXLite 19 for flight.
Colleen and Camilo were going out to land at the EL Chante Malecon Futball Field and I said I would land at the Sierra Lake field neared the truck. Bad decision for me as I was coming in fine but this boulder strewn field was kicking off some strong thermals and I got a downwind blast on final and was moving pretty fast and had to do a PLF at the end of my run! No pain or bruises, just a spectacular roll! By the time I packed up and headed to the truck, Camilo & Colleen were almost to the truck as well so it looks like the Malecon is a safer bet, with more laminar airflows. We went to lunch in Joco and headed to San Marcos arriving around 2:30 pm to nice Westerly cycles and birds soaring there too. My turn to drive so I watched Colleen & Camilo soaring around to the south, they got low a few times but always topped back up. Camilo came north at one point and climbed thru 2700 metres, but alas it shaded over for a bit and they both ended up landing at a new futball field near Chela's in San Marcos.
Some other locals arrived: Rueben, Scott, Chui, Yakin & Maria and they all flew and Rueben was above launch to the north. But as I was driving down and didn't see anyone above launch later. Seven days of flying now and soarable every day here in sunny Mexico.
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| 24°C We had a visit from the local cops from Zacoalco (a town to the SW), watching out for "bad boys". One cop spoke pretty good english as he had lived in Riverside CA. They watched me launch and said they would be pretty scared to try paragliding. We had perfect inflow cycles at 2 pm, but it was a bit shady. I launched and went up fast from the start but after 10 minutes I tried to get in for a top-landing and hit crappy air from the North. Felt like rotor from the north peak, but I hung in and the rotor turned into a good thermal of +4 m/s and I stuck with it to 2900 metres. Launch is 1900 metres. Doug had launched and got low and it took him 30 minutes to climb out to try some top-landing approaches but it was too strong near launch and he got low again too. As I headed East to Joco, he went over the back low in the rotor (the winds on the ground were 20 kph from the West), and landed on the road to Joco. I was 2900 metres high heading east but hit solid -2 m/s down and only about 50 kph downwind speed, so I came up short of crossing the Joco ridge. But I found a nice field bordered by powerlines and fences right into the wind for a nice landing with a grassy patch for packing up the M4. Did I say I was loving the M4?
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| 26°C Doug launched first into a nice cycle and climbed out fast to 2500 meters (launch is 1900 meters). I got the Mantra M4 ready as Colleen was driving this round, and the cycles dwindled to nada. I tried a few times but the M4 just luffed into a pile. Finally I got a good cycle and was off and climbing to the north but not well. Doug was nowhere to be seen? Last report from Doug was that there was no lift at the saddle and he was coming back north. I headed south a few 100 metres past launch and was soon through 2700 meters, but not to 'base yet. The thermal was drifting me NE as normal but it was tiny as evidenced by the small CU overhead. When I topped out at 2700 metres, I headed to the ridge past the saddle and yes there was no lift. Doug reported that he landed on the San Marcos road and was hiking back up when Colleen came upon him and they followed me.
There was nothing but sink along the saddle and ridge south so I bailed over the back to save the retrieve. I picked a nice green field to the NE of the highway and at about 1600 metres the vario started "chirping", not much but there was something out here. I circled in the lift and it became more structured and I was soon at 2900 metres and looking over Cerro Viejo and still directly over the green LZ, so no drift. At 3000 metres it got interesting as I could feel the NE boiling over the Cerro Viejo range. No collapses but turbulent air. Lift was a steady +3.5 m/s up at this point. I headed towards the Joco ridge and straight across the top of the ridge to get whatever was coming up either side and the only thermal was on the east side and not usable, so I headed out to the Lake and the Malecon. The fields in the Malecon were shimmering with recent watering and standing water in the futball fields and I decided a wet wing was not in the plans and headed instead to the new El Chante Futball field for a nice landing to the SE. Colleen and Doug were there before I packed up and we headed home. It only took 45 minutes to get here, for a 25 km mini-XC and almost home.
Ozone prototype news from Argentina - Click here to find out what they were testing.
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| 25°C I took the Suburban to the Taller de Mofle for a repair to a nasty rattle and they only charged me 60 pesos to weld up the catalytic convertor.
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| 26°C When we got to the top you could feel the NE component but the lapse rate is so good that the thermals were overpowering the meteo winds, and the "CUs were a-poppin'". Doug suited up and was in the air around 2 pm, and he headed south without a turn and was almost at cloudbase at 2900 meters in 15 minutes and he headed over the back towards Joco.
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| 27°C Colleen got the dust off her wings after a 2 month hiatus, and was out thermalling with Herminio at Tapalpa early on. Doug also flew and top-landed just as I was driving down to get Colleen. Camilo & Miguel were doing a set of Birthday Tandems and were also in the LZ so we had a full truck heading back up. I then brought out the Ozone XXLite 19 hiking glider for the folks to play with on launch, great fun for all to touch & kite. After everyone had a kite, I suited up and flew off with the XXLite 19 and was soon above launch so I played for 5 minutes and tested out the air and top-landed back on launch smooth as can be. This ship really thermals well despite the 16 meter projected area and me at 95 kilos all up! Camilo volunteered to fly the XXLite next and planned a straight glide to the LZ, but picked a leeside line and ended up short in a crappy field but he said he managed to gather up the wing as it floated overhead and had no tangles to clear. I next flew off on the M4 L and had a super flight despite some shading as the clouds OD'ed over the ridge and got to 2500 meters and flew north to the highway as Colleen drove down to retrieve Doug & Camilo. I have sold many M4s but this is the first chance to actually fly one and it is a super ride, can't wait for the M5! We drove to San Marcos and Colleen and Doug flew off and soared easily and headed over the back towards the Pemex as the lift "petered-out". Another nice day and the lift is getting nicer everyday!
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| 26°C Doug & I had to hike in because the "rojo puerta" is still locked and the key is not under the "rocas", but it is a nice warmup hike mostly on the flats. We arrived to nice cycles and a cloudstreet to the east and west, so Doug laid out and took off heading east towards his hotel LZ on Lake Chapala. The water level is down from the past years so lots of nice LZs everywhere.
Doug was struggling at times, a bit rusty from 2 months of no airtime, but he managed to get up and make it to his Hotel Balneario, with the hot pools and many spa options as I headed to the airport. Colleen's flight was on time but so were the other two flights that got to Customs first so it was an hour to get cleared but she is here for 2+ months so won't have to do that again for awhile.
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| 26°C I arrived at noon to see the tandems scratching around but they got up as I got ready. I finally have a nice kit here in Mexico with a near new Ozone Mantra M4 L, and SupAir Skypper pod harness. I have a superbig reserve in the harness and I am right in the middle of the weight range, nice speed and sink rate. I launched from La Ceja and hit a huge sink cycle just off the lip of launch and was kicking trees all the way out over the flats until I caught a nice thermal that quickly took me above launch (+3.5 m/s). I soared around La Ceja for 40 minutes and saw it looked like harder work to the north, but Stefan climbed out to 3000 meters there. Atuk (local sky god) was reporting over the Cross about 20 kms north that he was at 3600 meters on what initially looked like an inverted day. I top-landed at the back near the road, just as Miguel & Herminio landed there tandems behind me. The tandems were getting a good ride today! Bob & El Juevo landed at the bottom after soaring for 1 hour on their tandems. Just like clockwork the winds switched to SW around 2 pm, and flying there was over but they sad they were going to head to San Marcos so I packed up and headed that way too.
I arrived at San Marcos to find one HG truck driving down with 2 pilots that flew, Yakin had a sled ride and the other glider was soaring up high. After waiting for 15 minutes and seeing it was soarable, I risked a hike in case a top-landing was not going to work. And as Colleen & Norm can tell you it is a long hike! It was easy climbing out after an nice easy launch on the M4, with the strongest climbs to the south oddly? But to the peak to the north one could fly straight there and climb all the way. As I was soaring Pedro flew by me on his ultralight trike and yelled "Hi Jim!" Good eyes for a viejo! After 5:30 pm, I decided I should concentrate on top-landing, not aware how quickly it gets dark here in December. 30 minutes later I was still trying to get in, and everytime I got close I was 100 meters higher. I was considering the top launch area for top-landing too but it is a bit overgrown and I hadn't walked it yet so I bailed on that idea and finally got in coming from way back in the lee and having to pump the brakes hard to get down in the lift but it worked out well. As I drove down the hill I looked at the time and it was 6:15 pm, and official sunset is 6:11 pm. By the time I got in to Jocotopec it was dark, so if I had not pulled off the top-landing, I would have had to hike in the dark to retrieve the Suburban. But it all worked out. This reminds me of a flight with Glen Taylor in 2002 here when we had our rental VW siting on the top launch and we tried for an hour to top-land and it got darker and darker, and Glen had a collapse close to launch as he was approaching and he swung in almost downwind but landed safely and started to drive down. It took me another hour to get down over the dry lake bed as it was kicking off strong lift. Colleen & Lucille had flown XC towards Jocotopec and were enjoying a beer by the road, and eventually we were all reunited. Not as much drama on this flight for me.
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| 28°C I saw one HG rig driving down and saw a HG on the LZ packing up and one one bird soaring just above launch, but not getting high. So after 15 minutes I decided a top-landing was not likely and drove down to Pedro's LZ. I met new pilots Enne & Yakin who were the pilots driving & flying down. They are new HG pilots who learned in Valle de Bravo, and were flying on their own after only 3 high flights? Mexico has different expectations of their beginner pilots. We BS-ed for a bit and then I headed back to the casa. |
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