Ward was the only pilot there when we arrived, and it looked like it was going to blow out, but the wind backed-off and the white caps on the ocean never developed into anything threatening.
Time to launch...
It was fun playing down on the lower dunes with the Sport 2. It reminded me of flying at Marina in my Falcon. Working my way up to Westlake was effortless, but there was definitely a strong southerly component to the wind at Funston on Saturday.
On the second flight, heading to Westlake was slow (12 mph ground speed), but you could ease the bar out and just float south gaining altitude along the way...I'd never really flown in such conditions at the Fort before, so Saturday was a good time.
1st Flight: 48 minutes
2nd Fight: 34 minutes
***
Sunday, Dunlap was the call as XC Skies showed that day as the most promising...I met up with Paul, Karl, Ryan, Trey, and the Berkeley crowd for a fun day.
We were up at launch by about 12:30 and set-up ready to go by 1:30 or 2. The cycles were blowing in nicely. Paul had been up for a couple hours in his paraglider by the time we all were finally launching.
Once in the air, the thermals were punchy and had a snakey drift to them that was frustrating at first, but eventually I / we got the hang of everything and worked our way around the ridge hopping to various landmarks the valley has to offer...challenging, but fun air to fly in.
It was good to turn some circles...well worth the 7 hour round trip!
Flight time: 2 hours, 6 minutes
Altitude: 6610' MSL