Great flying

Day 2 of flying.

Overcast but nice lift with low cloud base. Again I left early and topped house at 8.4k or so and bugged out for El Penon. Worked the wall and up over the Mesa. This time I was at the transition to 3 kings too early so I worked back and took the Mesa route back to launch.

– Gave a good Kaa, Kaa to my Eagle PG friends and cored back to departure altitude. One of the best parts of the flight was that climb. About half way up I hooked up with Tre or Ty or one of the Eagle Guys whoever flies a Orange and White UP comp or 2/3. – Anyway he was cranked over and was moving FAST – I put my wing on end and we went tip to tip for about 2 minutes right in the center of the core. No one was around us and it was just amazing to be cranked over at least 60 deg. Going up and going very very fast with another fast glider at close range. – What a kick. He was hooting as well – We Just had a blast.

Second best part of my flight was Ralph B. who really kicked it running the ridge and ending up with a fantastic flight. As Ralph was landing I had left the clouds and was in route to 3 kings. – Just prior to this I had been totally white out trying to keep a compass line but not to well and worrying about a gray and blue mantra below me. As I headed west for the hills behind 3 kings I made a good effort at keeping in the clouds and maximum lift but my initial heading was off by 90 degrees or so so I lost some initial altitude for the gap.

Had I know what the other pilots plans were I would have gaggled up but I didn’t so I struck out on my own and ended up on the far ridge scratching unable to maintain. The other pilots were Norwegians and their plans were the same as mine but they were working together.

Eventually 7 of them ganged up and went for the kings. – 4 made it and 3 ended up with me. I found a nice little field and within 10 minutes I was sharing with my ancestral kinsmen. One of them told of telling the other to land where I landed because he knew the owner.

Great call – I was lucky, they had the experience – At this field a nice young man named Juan loaded us up in is tricked out truck – drove us to San Pablo for lunch and then all the way to our hotels in Valle – 100 p. What a great place to land. Maybe tomorrow I will go over the back at some point and see if I can make the lake. All is well –

Waiting for Doc to arrive. Preacher