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Friday, 5/24/13 Flight Articles] by [Aaron] & [Sundowner]

Friday, 5/24/13
Bates sleder to the Beach, Tandem with Tess
Bantoo

Sundowner's Flight Report, see also [Tess's Flight Index]

It was Friday.  The weather looked good on Thursday with a double pulse, building to low CB & OD early, and then lifting in the afternoon with a good lapse rate.  Friday was a bit more stable, but the trees still had some wiggle when school was out at 3 PM, so Tess and I went to give Bates a look.  The direction was good, but the velocity was weak.  Seemed like there was more wind to the west and inland toward the mountains.  Chris Grantham was there with a student from Canada.  He reported that pilots were doing better earlier.  His student was on his 3rd flight ever.  He had his first 2 flights at Elings (the training hill) earlier in the day.  Chris brought him to Bates because it had gotten a bit strong for beginners at Elings.  The student had a clean launch, but it wasn't very bouyant out front so he arrived at the main cliff low.  I thought he was going to the beach, but he snuggled in and got up, making a half dozen passes or more before flushing to the beach.  Tess and I were loaded light on a full size tandem glider, but below some weight the sink rate doesn't seem to get better, I think because the airspeed is so low (less than the design speed of the airfoil).  We did climb a bit toward the east end, but opted to setup for the base of the path rather than attempting to get up with an upwind leg.

Aaron reported good conditions in the Mountains and also out at Wilcox.

Tess and I went up to SB on Saturday about 1 PM.  There wasn't much wind on the coast.  It was a bit stiff at Parma, out of the SE.  Pilots were staying up, but had some drift.  Aaron stopped by as were were watching from the stop sign and reported stiff from the SW up higher, and SE down lower.  We would be loaded light even with full ballast, so I opted to throw in the towel before going up to launch.  Tess likes the smooth coastl ridge lift, and I don't want to her to get a bad taste of the mountins, so we needed a more buttery day.