Ron Faoro (The Spin Doctor)
Saturday, 2/18/06
Skyport to St Mary's
Via Tree Top Touch & Go

You know you flew badly when you barely make St. Mary's!  A crew went up in Andy Palmer's rig on a day that looked pretty good despite the overdevelopment.  I launched first at 10:45 and went straight up to cloudbase - only 3,300 feet.  I swung over toward the Thermal Factory only to hit a sinkhole.  As I turned to fly toward the Round House in the sun, I noticed I had already lost five hundred feet and was having a hard time penetrating into a southeast wind of 10-12 mph.  It was time for some praying at the Holy Hills.

Caught a two-turn thermal that lifted me enough to clear the powerlines.  Then it was all kinds of weird air and rotor as I tried dipping into the crevices on the west side of Rattlesnake Canyon.  The wing went where it wanted, often pinning me backwards in a draw.  But there was just enough convective heat to barely clear each successive ridge.  At the third draw, my wing took a small assymmetric and as I dropped in a turn out, my harness pushed through the top four feet of a small scrub oak.  A few S-turns on the last bump above St Mary's allowed me to reach the LZ and avoid a tree landing.

[Irene's Article] [Andy's Article]