The pre-frontal conditions were worthy enough to use up a vacation day at work, so that is what I did...it was the right call for Ed Levin this past Monday.
I met Eric Heinrichs in the LZ around 9:30...a H2 from Berkeley showed up with another pilot who opted to drive for us. Karl Almendinger showed up, also, and we headed up to the top in Eric's truck.
By 11 AM the conditions were already soarble, so I set up quickly as did Eric...Karl opted not to launch the H2 as the wind was ramping up to 25 mph...good call.
With nice smooth 20+ winds, I punched off with no problem staying above launch. Flying the new Rotor harness, I boated around effortlessly along the ridge and beneath the clouds...Eric was soon up in the air behind me and I could see Ben Dunn driving up the hill with Charlie and Paul. I flew around and watched everyone set up their gliders. Whatever thermals existed were pretty broken 300 to 500 above launch. At times the most efficient flying entailed linked 180's above various bowls along the ridge...that seemed to work best for me for the better part. Of course, there was the good old reliable cloud suck when all else failed.
Karl and Ben soon launched...Ben was up to cloudbase in no time and started to head south of the golf course. I followed, but hit sink and turned back to get higher and maybe give chase...that wouldn't happen...in no time, Ben was gone, that XC animal. Accepting defeat, I opted to head out over Hwy 680, then abruptly turned back as I could feel conditions shutting down. The wind had turned north and Mother Nature called an end to the day.
After breaking down my glider, I picked up Mr. Dunn 20 miles to the south...a nice XC flight from Ed Levin. Afterward, we had beer and appetizers at El Torrito in Milpitas...a nice ending to a great flying day.
Flight time: 1 hour, 38 minutes