HIGHLIGHTS:
 

1. Late Friday afternoon, Dave Pilati and friend flew the Blanik out past the West Ridge. Ooopps!! Sink, no lift. So they headed in the same general direction as did Dave Johnson two summers ago, and it turns out they were only about a mile from where Dave touched down in the 1-26 on 9-2-7. It actually turned out to be a very nice area, with much room for disassembly. Trouble is, the Blanik is trouble ... to get the wings off. Took forever ... frustratingly so. Finally all of them returned to the gliderport some time after 1:00 pm, having left for the retrieve about 8:30 am. Then, assembly of the Blanik took so much less time than disassembly, and finally the sailplane was at rest in its tiedown area.

2. Mario Crosina, our resident expert on Blaniks, assembled a crew and some tools and with Dave Johnson's four-wheel drive Chevy Tahoe they headed off into the mountains. Later on, Joe Anastasio and Richard Walker worried about the integrity of the trailer they used, and decided to hook up Richard's Schweizer 1-35 trailer to Joe's pickup truck and find the landout site. They did, and had enough material with them to strengthen the first trailer. They all got back safely and with no incidents on the highway.

3. Bob Stroup and I stayed behind to watch over the place, and do some training. Turns out the flat and the West Ridge weren't working but the Kettleman Hills were booming. Lift to 10 knots, heights to 7600 msl. Bob and I went up once, then I suggested Alex fly with Bob for some different approaches to teaching from Alex to Bob. They had a great time, and soared up over 6500 msl, highest Bob has been in his training cycle. Bob continues to work hard at getting to solo and progress is steady.

4. Karl Kunz arrived mid-afternoon in his Cessna 180 and after some prodding, he "reluctantly" agreed he probably should fly the 1-26. Here is what he told me in his email, along with the two photos he sent:

Harold, you left early so I missed you when I returned in the 1-26.  Thanks for pushing me to go soaring, it was a great flight. I had 5-10 kts lift and got as high as 7600' over the Kettlemans. The wind came up in the late afternoon which produced some beautiful lenticulars and got the tumbleweeds blowing. Here are some photos taken with a cell phone. See ya soon -

Karl Kunz

5. Chris Karapostoles came out again this weekend and flew two flights. Seems the strong lift hadn't yet begun so he didn't stay up too long. And he took only two flights so perhaps next time he'll be here when the thermals trigger strongly.

6. I'm not sure whether the crew that retrieved the Blanik did any flying today. It was mid-afternoon when they finally got the Blanik assembled, then headed for lunch at Debbie's. If they did fly, the lift was still good over the Hills and they might even have gotten into the wave that blew on into evening.