Cloud 9 2013

The Skydog Report

Tuesday October 8, 2013 and here I am again at Cloud 9 and it was another blue sky day and Brian Ridder is here also but decided not to fly today after seeing me have a sledder. A gorgeous day but no lift. One flight 14 minutes.

Wednesday and another beautiful blue sky day with south east winds at 10 mph. I took three tows today because it was fun. First flight Tracy took me up and I searched and finally found a small one just west of the field by a tree line and I survived for 17 minutes. An hour later Lisa towed me up and I expected no lift so I wanged it down to 2,000 feet and them went to the tree line again and got something but I was to low to go back to far with it so I flew for another 17 minutes. Brian Ridder took a tow and I think that he lasted for 14 minutes. I took another one and after releasing from Lisa's tow I headed to the tree line and it was there and I took it up from 1,700 to over 2,000 and drifted back a ways and then I headed to a field being combined by two tractors and there was some lift there and I used it for a while and finally I was headed for the spot and had one wheel in and one out so no cigar today. This one lasted 24 minutes. Looks like Thursday will be the good day and hopefully Friday and Saturday too but that may be asking too much.

Thursday starts out same old thing, blue sky south east wind but lighter today. Brian and I put new screens in the rec room doors and get ready to fly. Trevor Glidersleeve and Marty Wagner come to fly and Lisa comes home early to fly with us and at the end of the day Tracy takes a flight. I took off first and Tracy put me into a decent thermal at 2,000 feet that took me to 3,200 feet ato and I played in this one for a while as Brian and Trevor get into the air. Yesterday a farmer was taking off the beans in a close by field and today they are doing another field just to the west of Cloud 9 so I head over the bean field to see if the combine was kicking off thermals and sure enough it was so I used the thermals to get up and follow back and then come ahead again to the bean field and get it again but finally I lost it and landed after a 39 minute flight. Just as I was landing I see Lisa being towed up so I got in position for a second tow and we were off again. Tracy puts me into another good one and I take this one up to 3,600 feet and see Lisa working at 1,500 feet below me and I use her position to stay in Lisa's thermal and after fifteen minutes Lisa is up close to me. We head of in different directions and I lose sight of Lisa as head over to the bean fields again and sure enough the lift is still there and I take it up to 3,570 feet as I watch Trevor, Brian and Marty get towed up and stick for maybe an hour or so. I am flying over the bean fields for quite a while and staying above 3,000 feet so I see another field being combined about one mile to the north and I fly over it but do not find any lift so I head back to my previous bean fields and when I get back I am down to 1,700 feet and I see Lisa and Trevor at 3,700 feet to the north east but my bean fields are still working and I am able to get back up to over three grand and I see Lisa and Trevor sinking like rocks and they land. It looked like they were coming down at one thousand feet per minute and I was scratching to stay above 2,500 feet over the bean fields. Now I see what I thought was Mark Dugan's Litespeed being towed up but it turns out that Lisa was towing Tracy up and I was getting close to two hours on this second flight so I wanted to fly conservatively and stick for two hours so I stayed within reach of the faithful bean fields and finally I saw Tracy getting lower and finally landing and I had my two hours by now but I was trying to go for 2:20 so that my total today would be 3 hours. Well I did not quite make it and landed with 2 hours and 18 minutes making my day total 2 hours and 58 minutes. That was a challenging but very nice day for all of us.

Friday is another sunny blue sky day with south east winds to 7 mph. Sounds good but the lift was scarce and Mark Dugan did a great job of finding a good line and flew for one hour and two minutes up to 3,000 feet. Bernie Spring and Jim Dedes took short flights and Owen McDermott from Windsor, Canada flew at Cloud 9 for his first time and had a good flight. I took three tows 13m - 17m and 13 minutes with only a few beeps. I tried the bean fields again without much luck today. The bean field gave me an extra five minutes but then I lost it. Oh, but I did hit the spot on my first flight. We all were amazed at how Mark Dugan can stay in such light lift. Nice flight Mark.

Saturday starts out clear blue but around noon some lenticular clouds show up and it is sort of windy like 10 - 15 at 2 pm. Today we have Mark Dugan, Brian Deimling, Bernie Spring, Owen McDermott and myself. Brian is anxious to get into the air and goes first but after ten minutes Brian in one the ground and it is my turn to ty it out. Tracy tows me to 2,500 feet and I pin off and go searching. Well I soon bumped into a bubble and after tenminutes I was up to 3,000 feet and I thought wow that was lucky and I did not expect much else but I flew upwind and found more lift and I seamed like the lift was under the lennies and I never did see where the lift was originating. Mark soon sw that I was staying up and launched along with Brian right behind him and then Bernie and Owen got into the air. Mark was doing really well as usual and later said that he had got up to 3,500 feet.After 38 minutes I was getting looking for more but landed and notivced that Bernie and Owen were still up there so I tried again but only lasted for 13 minutes this time. Now I see Owen still up high and I am wondering what Owen has going for him on his Sport 2. I think that most of us had almost an hour of airtime and some fun trying to stay up. Tracy towed us and Lisa acted as launch director. what a wonderful couple.

I decided to go home Saturday evening and hope to fly again before the season ends.

The Skydog Report

Tuesday September 24, 2013 - A sunny day and I will be here for three days hoping for more lift than today when I flew with Trevor, Brian Ridder, Marty and a new couple from LA, Todd and Megan. Trevor logged the most time with forty minutes and Brian and I did about twenty one minutes on my first flight and then I tried again for a 14 minute winger flight. Chris Bratsis stopped by for a visit. At noon we had lots of cummies but by the time we set up and flew they were all dried up along with the lift. Hope to do better tomorrow.

Tuesday's Video Click Here

Wednesday and another sunny morning with some high cirrus clouds and in the distance some cumulous maybe heading our way. Marty, Brian Ridder and I get in line around 1:30 and Tracy takes me off first and I survive for 39 minutes while Marty gets up and comes down quickly in the Falcon and next Brian goes up and sinks to about a grand when he finds some lift back up to two grand and then can't find anything else so Brian lands. I take a second tow and miss the lift landing after 14 minutes and then I try again and get 24 minutes thermaling from 800 feet ato up to 1,800 feet and finally I land after 24 minutes. These flights were all enjoyable for me as the challenge was staying aloft even if only 1,200 feet above the field. Oh yes, I missed the spot by three feet twice and 100 feet the second flight. the cummies never made it to Cloud 9 today so blue sky again. I checked the time being towed and a tow to 2,500 feet takes only four minutes with the 914 Rotax Dragonflies.

Thursday Fog until 10:30 then it is super sunny and the breeze is from the NW instead of east as it has been for days now so let's see how it goes. Lisa Colletti, Jim Dedes and Bernie join us today so it is Lisa Jim, Brian, Marty, Bernie Spring and me. Lisa goes first to check out the lift and she doesn't find much and lands after 15 minutes and then I go up and last 17 minutes and then Marty goes and then Brian tries but they both come down quickly. Jim tries his luck and finally Jim sticks in a nice one for about twenty minutes. Well, conditions are looking better and I try it again and get 20 minutes this time and then Jim goes again and I am in line right behind him and Jim sticks real good gaining a grand after getting down to 1,000 feet ato. Tracy towed me up right after Jim and it seemed like one thermal drifting across the sky from the east to west. I was filming Jim for quite some time. Bernie launched after me and got up with me for a few minutes and then went off to the south and when he came back to the lift line he was too low to survive and landed. I got up to 2,847 feet and Jim later checked his instrument and said the he was at 2,850 at one point. Jim lasted for 50 minutes and I logged 38 minutes. So Jim and I had a good time staying in the lift and after we landed Lisa cooked up corn on the cob and we had a feast.

Thursday's Video Click Here

Friday and another sunny day with the fog lifting by 9 am so we hope that the ground heats up enough by 2 pm. Brian, Marty and myself get ready to go and I take off first at 2 pm and Tracy drops me off at 2,500 feet near Cloud 9 east in decent lift and I am able get up to 3,000 feet in a few minutes. I see Brian and Marty being towed up but they don't seem to find the best lift but Brian stays up for 38 minutes and Marty gets 20 minutes on this flight. With the east wind I finally move over to a dark patch on the west side of Cloud 9 west and it is kicking up and the thermal edges are quite sharp but I am able to survive for 1 hour and 2 minutes and finally land. Lisa has just returned from a meeting and she is on a cart and Tracy tows her up and Lisa in going up fast so I get towed up again and work my way up to Lisa and we thermal together for a half hour with Lisa almost always just above me. Lisa heads much farther east and I watch as she gets lower and lower so I decided to head back to the dark field to the west of Cloud 9 and sure enough it is kicking off again so I stick around there and to the west close to Hyw 52. By now I have more than one hour in the air and I see Brian and Marty take off again and Brian comes up with me for a while and hopefully I have some good video of Brian. After another half hour I hit the top of the lift where I can see the inversion line at 4,047 ato feet and soon it seems to be all over and I am heading down and when I get down to 1,000 feet I see Lisa heading in toward Cloud 9 field and then I am back over the dark field again and down to 800 feet and expecting to land soon with Lisa but now I see three vultures circling to the west of the dark field and I join them at 800 feet and it is a tight slow ride at first but turns into a boomer that gets me up to 3,700 feet. I had seen Lisa land as I was circling up with the vultures. I was going for the two hour mark and finally I was there and on my way down at 5:30 and below was Brian and Marty with a GoPro close to the spot landing circle so I was eager to hit the spot and I did my usual swoop along the west edge of the field and made my final toward the spot but Oh No, I did not leave enough altitude to make it into the spot and landed 40 feet short. Darn it, I can't believe that I would do that with all the other close landings I have had this week. Oh well Brian filmed my landing on wheels as I always do which is rather boring. Maybe next week I will do a good stand up landing just to see if I still can. This flight was 2 hours and 8 minutes , and I am happy with that so I pack up and film the evening tandems and head on home. My total airtime was 6 hours and 17 minutes in the four days and it was very enjoyable.

See You next time

Friday's Video Click Here

The Skydog Report

Thursday September 5, 2013 - A sunny day at Cloud 9 with no cummies but Pat Winther says that he has had some of his best days on blue sky days so here we go. Tracy tows Pat up first with my Gopro on Pat's U2 and after a hearty attempt to stay aloft Pat lands after 18 minutes and Before he lands I get towed up and bump into a couple of thermals but I do not manage to gain in them. Finally I am down to 600 feet and ready to land when I get a good bump and I turn in it gaining 200 feet but then I loose it and land after an 18 minute flight. We Try again at 4:30 and Pat has a repeat of his first flight and I go second and find a thermal after releasing and I stay with it as it takes me across the Cloud 9 field and past about one mile and now I am at 3,5059 feet and move north to find another one. I get down to 1,200 feet and finally find a small one and take it back up to 2,600 feet and then I come back to the field and finally after one hour and twenty seconds I land missing the spot by two feet.

Friday September 6, 2013 We start the day with clear blue skies and a forecast for lift to 5,000 feet. Mark Dugan, Jim Dedes, Bob Reed, Lisa Colletti and myself get ready to fly. Around 2 pm we decide to give it a try so Tracy tows me up first and I stumble around without much luck and I finally land after 18 minutes. When I land I see Mark and Jim doing well at about three grand and Bob reed is being towed into the blue sky. Ok so Lisa and I go for it with Lisa going first and we find decent lift with some good cores at 800 feet per minute. I have the Gopro on and am circling with Lisa pretty close while Mark is far off to the south. We are thermaling near cloud 9 east sailplane port and we get up to 3,600 feet. Finally Lisa takes off to the west and I loose sight of her so I am on my own again and I get down to 1,200 feet and catch a small one that takes me back up to 2,800 feet above Cloud 9 field. after boating around for a while I finally land after a 50 minute flight, I see Mark up at two grand so I go again and boat around up and down and land after 20 minutes. Happy faces in the landing area and some good stories. Tandems start around six pm and Linda and Erin do very well with Tracy's assistance. Video coming soon.

The Skydog Report

Saturday August 10, 2013 I rolled into Cloud 9 around 11 am and there were five gliders set up from Friday's flying which they say was challenging with Mark Dugan having the longest flight of almost two hours. Saturday at 12:30 Lisa takes off on Tracy's Litespeed and has a nice flight of one hour and twenty minutes as the rest of us scramble to the south end for launches. The beautiful cummie filled sky started to over develop and my first flight was a sixteen minute sledder along with a few others. We waited until 3 pm and tried again and this time most of us stuck to the clouds and had a good time getting to base. Chris Bratsis and I flew together for more than an hour trading places at 4,700 feet. Tracy took the Alatis sailplane up around 4 pm and we flew together for a half hour up to base again. My airtime was 2 hours and ten minutes.

Sunday starts out cloudy but by noon some blue shows and Chris Christoperson takes an early flight and sticks for a half hour on his Litespeed. By 2 pm streets are forming and the sky looks great so the five of us get in line for take off. I get up first and quickly sled out with a 12 minute flight. Brian Ridder and Mark Dugan try it without success then Brian Deimling takes a tow and Lisa drops him in a good one and Brian takes it to 4,850 feet for a one hour flight. Watching Brian up there was just too much for me so I tried three more times with my longest flight at 20 minutes and a 12 and a 16 minute one. My twenty minute flight was great because I was down to 350 and caught a little one that grew and took me up to 850 but then I lost it and landed. So my total for the day was 60 minutes.

The Skydog Report

Wednesday July 24, 2013 - Another beautiful day at Cloud 9 and only Brian Ridder and I flew today. The sky was cummie filled and there was good lift if you could find it. I took my first tow at 3:30 and caught a few good rides to the top at 4,300 feet and base. It was very cold up there and I will dress warmer next time. Finally I landed after 1 hour and 43 minutes and then Brian was ready to go so I followed him and took a second flight. The lift was more consistent this time and I took a good one up to 4,700 feet and watched as Brian zoomed all over the place in his new WW-U-2. Brian landed after one hour and I logged 1 hour and 31 minutes on this one. Linda and Marty took tandem flights in the evening.

Thursday July 25, 2013 - Brian Ridder, Bernie Spring and Lisa Colletti joined me in the sky today and what a fantastic day it was. I was first off around 2:30 pm and a great tow by Tracy and he dropped me off in a good thermal at the southeast end of the field and I took this baby to base which was around 4,500 feet ato and I stayed under this cloud for at least 20 minutes in which time Brian and Bernie joined me. Brian Ridder was flying his brand new WW-U-2 and Bernie Spring was flying his older Laminar. Brian and I had our cameras rolling. The three of us traded places at base for another twenty minutes and then Lisa on her Litespeed joined us and the four of us stayed close to cloud base for another twenty minutes with Bernie later taking off to the east and getting low and then Boom back up again. Finally Lisa got bored with this thermal and she headed off to the west and I decided to follow her as she usually does very well at finding new lift lines. Away the two of us went and after five minutes I could see Lisa climbing in a boomer and I pulled in behind her two minutes later and down a grand but soon I caught up and we were circling together again. Lisa went west upwind about four more times and I followed with the same good results each time and we were getting to base without any problem. The next thing I knew Lisa was heading back to the east and now I decided that I would stay with the good lift that I was in and try to head upwind and to the south toward Stockbridge Michigan. The jumps from cloud to cloud were working really well and I was on my own and arrived over Stockbridge at cloud base around 4,800 feet. OK so now I had better get back to Cloud 9 and oh well here we go and I lost lift and got down to 2,800 feet a way out there and I could not see Cloud 9 in the distance but I did see the big lake that I had crossed getting to Stockbridge so I flew fast getting to the lake and when I got over it I hit a boomer and was back to base in a couple of minutes. Oh, what a relief it was to be high again and now I could see Cloud 9 field in the distance. Now heading north east I came under lots of good thermals to base which was now up to 5,800 feet ato and soon I bumped into Brian to the west of Cloud 9 field and we flew close to base for a while. Brain and I both had our GoPro cameras on so were staying close for the good shots. Finally Brian headed off toward the landing field ad I took a run to the west over hyw 52 and found a good one that took me to 5,961 feet ato and I played out there for a while. OK so time to head home and I arrived over the landing zone with two grand and burned it off with wingees making a spot landing again today. My airtime was 3 hours and 15 minutes and the other three had good long flights of over two hours. Video to come soon. Friday July 26, 2013 Started out overcast but by ten am there were some streaks of blue and at eleven cummies formed under the overcast and Tracy said that if I wanted to try it that he would be happy to tow me up. I said to Tracy, do you think there may be lift and he said give it a try so I did. As I was being towed up at noon I felt some bumpy air so expected there may be lift and when I pinned off I found a bubble and worked it up to 4,026 feet ato and I thought wow this could be a great day but after leaving that first thermal I only found spotty lift and landed after 31 minutes. The sky was looking so good by now that I though that I would try again so Tracy towed me up and I found some good lift in a few thermals that showed 300 feet per minute. this time I only got up to 2,929 feet but there were thermals here and there. Well I lasted for 51 minutes this time but no spot today. I did get one on both on Wednesday and Thursday. I packed up early as I had a Kayak trip to take out at home on Friday morning.

The Skydog Report

Saturday July 13, 2013 - Another beautiful day at Cloud 9 in Michigan. Tom Niblick, Brian Ridder, Brian Deimling, Mark Dugan and myself were the pilots today. We first launched at 3:30 as there were no cummies except far away to the south. There was five of us and Mark Dugan and I flew together for most of my flight and Mark continued to fly for more than an hour after my one hour and forty seven minute flight. Mark had a 3 hour flight. We got up to 5,000 feet ato. Mark Dugan is amazing. No Spot landings made today. Tom Vansil and Linda Walsh took training flights in the evening and Lace Biehn's daughter Olivia took a Tandem flight with Tracy.

Sunday July 14, We started a bit earlier today like 2 pm and it was a challenging day with five of us in the air. Tom loaned me his extension camera bracket and I got some good shots today. I took three tows and first flight was 55 minutes and then a 26 minute flight and finally 1 hour and 16 minutes and I topped out at 4,300 feet. Brian Deimling was flying close by and we thermalled together for about twenty minutes. By the time we flew really close together, the camera battery had died. A really hot day on the ground and nice to be in the air with so many friends.

Monday July 15, Tracy took me for a ride in Their Wilga four seat aircraft when we picked it up in Marshall Mi. We were back by noon and the sky looked to be over developing so I quickly got my glider ready. I was flying all alone but that was no problem because there was very little lift and I sunk out in 20 minutes.

Tuesday July 16, I took two tows and on the first one Tracy took me high and I found a good one after 5 minutes and took it up 500 feet and then went searching and finally sunk out with 33 minutes. I tried a second flight but only lasted 22 minutes. These two days were very hot like over 90 F. and it was great to be in the air. I packed up and went home to take my grandson water skiing on Wednesday.

The Skydog Report

Tuesday June 4th 2013 Patrick O'Donnell and I drove to Cloud 9 field in Michigan and arrived at 11:30 and set up our gliders and Patrick needed a tail fin so Tracy loaned him one and installed it for him. We were ready to launch around 2:30 and the sky was blue with hazy high clouds and I did not expect too much lift but Tracy had said that the soaring forecast called for good lift to 5,000 feet. Patrick took off first and after release he climbed really well as I watched and prepared to launch. Tracy pulled me up to 2,500 feet and I was in some 200 fpm lift and took it to over 4,000 feet following it back to the south. I stayed to the south of cloud 9 and played in the lift for a half hour or so and then I noticed that Patrick was in a good one to the north west of the field so I joined him and we went up again to around 4,000 feet and I drifted with it to the south again and finally got up to 5,016 feet ato while Patrick stayed closer to Cloud 9 and eventually landed with a 55 minute flight. I boated around or a bit and sunk out after 1 hour and 04 minutes. Jim Dedes was ready to launch by 4:30 so Patrick and I got in line behind Jim and we all took off with Jim doing his first flight of the year for fifteen minutes and then Patrick and I hooked some good lift with Patrick again getting to 4,000 feet and landing after 35 minutes and I thought that I was going to be coming in just after Patrick but I got lucky and saw two birds soaring just above a grove of trees and so I followed them and the two vultures and I cored it up to 4,975 feet and I stayed aloft for 1 hour and 12 minutes not getting the spot landing that I had hoped for. Chris Bratsis dropped by and broke down my glider for me. What a nice guy. The forecast for Wednesday was mostly cloudy so we drove home and were satisfied to be so lucky as to soar with the birds at Cloud 9 again.

The Skydog Report

May 24 and 25 were great skyout days at Cloud 9. I arrived on Saturday at noon and set up my T-2 and when I arrived there were another six glider being set up. We got in line at the south end of the field and Tracy came to tow us up into a blue sky day with wispy high clouds. I did not expect to much lift with the type of sky we had but Tracy had said that the soaring forecast looked great so I was first in line. Tracy towed me up to 2,500 in strong lift and I pinned off and right away I was spinning up to near 6,000 feet in my first thermal. Well, I was amazed and very happy to be so high and I watched as Mark Dugan, Brian Deimling, Scot Maue, Pat Winther, Brian Ridder, Chris Bratsis and others were towed up all this time having no problem staying high. I watched other pilots and noticed that some were staying over the fields to the southwest so I drifted over that way and got into lots of good lift. Chris Bratsis and I were flying together for more than an hour and at the end of the day I waited watching as others floated into the landing field and finally at 5:30 I landed last. My flight time was 3 hours and 34 minutes and I topped out at 5,980 feet above the field. A great day.

Sunday morning Scot Maue and I visited Mark Bolt who was in the hospital near Detroit and got back to Cloud 9 in time to get our gliders out to the take off again at the south end of the field. Sunday we had Trevor, Tom and Bernie join us. Today I set my Gopro up on Chris's glider and after Scot Maue took of with his Exxtacy we got Chris of with the camera and I was next. Lisa was the tug pilot supreme today and Lisa towed me into a nice thermal going up at 400 feet per minute and I took the first climb to over 4,000 feet. The lift today was not as abundant as it had been on Saturday but by watching others I was able to stay in lift most of the time. I was chasing Scot for the longest time but never caught up to him but Chris was also in the same thermal so we tried to fly together for some good video shots. I never got as close to Chris as many others do with the great videos that we see on Youtube but I did come in pretty close a few times. The video from Chris's glider turned out quite well. check it out at -

Chris Bratsis SKYOUT May 2013 - YouTube

Chris outlasted me at the end of the day and stayed up for ten minutes after me with a total airtime of 2 hours and 4 minutes.

My airtime Sunday was 1 hour and 41 minutes and up to 5,490 feet ato. Another great day at Cloud 9