As you can tell by the title of this post, we did not get that far...
The cloud streets were forming pretty well along the ridge line all the way south, but had a pretty good clip to them...the winds appeared to be building.
We all set up quickly as two paragliders launched...
Eric H. was first to launch and doing pretty well getting high and such. I launched soon behind Eric and bobbled around above launch for a while looking for lift wherever I could. A hawk out in front of launch was marking what looked like a nice thermal, so that is where I headed...Sure enough, that thermal got me well above Mission Peak, so the chase was on to find Eric to the south.
I headed out toward the LZ and water tower and found another mellow thermal to keep me heading south. By this time, I was at launch level...not very high, and the paragliders had landed in the LZ.
I decided to keep heading south anyway just for fun.
Half way between Mission and Ed Levin I hooked another thermal, but noticed it had a significant amount of drift to it...not the best conditions to go far today it appeared...I kept making the best of it, though, as I could now see Eric working the 600-foot hill at Ed Levin pretty low.
Over the quarry, I could see the thermals tracking over the pond just to the south...that provided me with a little more altitude, but the drift was increasing as was the winds.
Once at Ed Levin, I worked whatever lift was being generated off the ranch, but the winds were making it clear that it was best to call it quits at Ed Levin...with energy in the reserve I landed, but happy with what the day delivered.
Glider at rest...
Eric breaking down his glider looking up at Karl...Karl Almendinger and Paul Gazis headed south, too, and after a great effort, landed at Ed Levin, as well...
We accomplished one thing and that was leaving a record number of vehicles stranded up at the Mission launch...we also had some good flights.
Flight time: 40 minutes