Monday, July 13th, 1998

amned if we don't go to launch, just to sit in the blazing sun BBQing ourselves for six hours before GW called off the day to do another spot landing contest. The wind had blown hard south all day, and only one glider had climbed above launch. We were all fried, but as soon as the day was called off, it began to lapse - we watched four pilots climb to 13,000 feet and head north for what was to be 40 mile flights.
     I launched shortly after them - just before the mad rush, and climbed easily to about 12,000 feet and proceeded to fly upwind, out over town. The clouds were developing beautifully above my head as I used the lift to push further to the west. There were nice cloudstreets setting up all the way to the other side of the valley, and a few of the thermals were big and fat, going up rather quickly. How quickly? I don't know, since I didn't pull my vario or GPS out of the bag at launch - they were all still packed neatly in my harness. I had put the Cricket around my neck, so I knew when I was going up - that's all.
     As I approached the far side of the valley, the wind was increasing, and I sank fast until I was just over the roof of a big house near the road. There was no more forward penetration, and in fact I was beginning to lose ground, even with my speed bar partly on (a bit rough to push very far). Luckily, I hooked a weak drifting bubble until it developed into a decent thermal and rode it back to altitude. Having drifted a few miles in the lift, I kept the heading and flew back towards the Hot Spring Resort LZ.
     Arriving high, I did a B-line stall and was amazed at how easily the Nova Vertex did the whole maneuver. It entered smoothly, and as I held it, the wing was very stable overhead in the classic "taco" shape while the ground approached rather quickly. When I let the risers up, I did so deliberately, but not abrubtly, and the wing surged forward as expected. There were no other collapses, and the glider smoothed into trim speed within seconds. Then came the wingovers. I won't loop a paraglider, but I got pretty weightless on some of these! Spiral dive was next. "Death Spiral" as Alex likes to call it, and after about ten full rotations I pulled out before he got satisfaction out of his phrase.
     Upon landing, I went to find the guys in the (warm) pool so we could do a tandem. Soon we were back on launch, suited up to take a Taxi ride! Nova's tandem wing is the sweetest bi-place I've flown, and we spent the next hour in the classic evening glass-off that Lakeview is famous for. We took pictures of the sunset and other gliders, and just plain enjoyed the sound of the cricket singing our ascendance. After a few wingovers and big ears, we came in for a smooth landing at the hotel and took off for chinese food in the hummer with the rest of the crew. Great day of flying, even though there was no task called.