Saturday, 5/11/13 [Weather] and [Flight Articles] by [Ron Faoro] & [Sundowner] [Susan Frank]
[Saturday photos] Sunday's Flights [Marty Devietti]

Susan Frank
Saturday, 5/11/13

Chiefs Peak to Lockwood Valley / Tandem Partner with Sundowner

Article Copied from: http://scpa.info/bb/forum/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=2821#p8478
Posted by frank_susan » Mon May 13, 2013 5:56 pm

Got the call; wanna do a tandem? YessirreeTom!
Chief's Peak, a gaggle of guys & me. Cool.
We were about the fourth to take off and all the old feelings came back. Soaring with the wind roaring softly in my ears, the thrill and the scariness of flying to the ridge and then going up, up & up. Tom wanted to get up to at least 10 grand, but we got to about 8, so we flew to Repeater and fished around. We'd get up and then loose the thermal and so on, knowing Tom he will go and go and go until he gets it right. We flew to the Bluff's and tried to get up, but same thing. We were circling around and around going up and up but then puff, it was gone. The Bluffs were beautiful. It was a little intimidating zooming up to them.

We went to Repeater a few times, the Bluffs a few times, back to Chief's, Stooges and Twin Peaks. We finally got up high enough (Yay) and flew over Piedre Blanca, Thorn Something. Tom had me take pictures, was he kidding, I had a hard time prying my fingers off the spreader bars.

We got very high, it felt like I could touch the clouds; it was cold up there. We could see off in the distance that it was raining.

It was time to call it quits. Plan A, land in a safe spot, but it was a 10 mile hike to the nearest road, or take our chances, tuck our feet, skim over the pine trees and land on a dirt road. Of course, we took our chances. We had a tail wind and were gaining ground fast - but like I've always said "Tom could land on a dime" and he did. It was perfect, sliding in on our harnesses. We landed in Lockwood and Ron came to our rescue with a 6-pack of DBA, yum. A thrilling adventure. Thank you thank you thank you

 

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