The Skydog Report

Our Final Trip South This Spring

 Sunday April 29 th Oded and I fly to Wallaby from Rochester to retrieve Oded's van and when we arrive at Wallaby Ranch the local pilots have been flying all day and one of the visiting pilots from Japan has flown for 8-1/2 hours so we jammed our glider together and we took off at 5 pm. I was off first and did not find any great lift and sank out after 23 minutes. By now Oded was in the air and doing great so Oliver towed me up again and this time right into a big fat thermal that took me to four grand. Oded was up there too and we all over the area with Oded flying to Walmart and back. Both of us got up to 7, 490 feet. well, I was a bit lower at 7,450 feet so it was a spectacular day. We both landed with 2 hours and 20 minutes around eight o'clock and hurried to pack up or gliders and head off to Lookout Mountain flight park for Monday flying as the weather looked perfect for Lookout.

Sunday April 29 th o and we arrive at Lookout Mt. at 3 pm hoping for a tow from the landing area but when we arrive Dean Funk is setting up along with about ten other pilots and Dean say Hi Bob and get your glider set up as it is a great day. Well, I checked conditions on launch and the wind appeared to be coming from the left at 45 degrees and only in little puffs so I encouraged Oded to drive to the bottom for some towing. We watched as four pilots took off the ramp with only Heckman staying up and we were off to the bottom. Rushed our gliders together again and got in line for a tow from Dave Miller. I went first again and the tow was pretty smooth and Dave took me above the upper launch pad maybe a thousand feet and I was soon in a good thermal chasing Dean and others a bit to the south of launch. Wow, it was cranking by then and I circled up to Dean and we to some video or so I thought but later discovered that I has set the camera to single shots so I have 10,000 photos of my flight. Dean had three cameras on so He should have some great video. Soon Oded was up there with us and it was like we could fly anywhere and there was abundant lift. We flew until the sun was getting low and I followed Oded in for smooth landings. We both had great flights up to 6,500 asl and mine was 1 hour and 30 minutes and Oded was up for one hour and fifteen minutes. This was the first time that I had flow at Lookout in twenty years so it was very exciting for me and we could not have hit it better for lift. We noticed that many of the pilots flying at Lookout were younger ones like under forty and a few likely 25 year olds so that was refreshing to see. We had a great time and hope to get back to Lookout Mt. real soon.