HIGHLIGHTS:
 

1. It was a dark and stormy day. No, actually it really started out as a beautiful day and overdeveloped by mid-afternoon. In spite of the thick cloud base, the lift remained strong and widespread. We seem to have that sort of phenomena at Avenal quite often. Must be the geography or the type of cells that develop around the gliderport. In fact, in late afternoon, the strongest lift was just next to a rather well developed rain storm over the Kettleman Hills, as seen in the photo to the right.

2. Jeff Lowe was out again continuing his flight training. It's going well and he'll be a solo pilot in a matter of weeks. We look forward to that and I know he does, too. We flew one in the morning, then retired to lunch, then flew again in the early afternoon. His coordination is coming along nicely. BTW, you really need to get to know Jeff. He's an amazing guy and has talent to spare. He plays guitar quite well, does magic tricks, sleight of hand, has flown model gliders, has a RC pickup truck, not so small, and a whole host of other talents and skills he keeps showing us each week. I keep wondering what else he can do or has done in the past. I'm sure we'll eventually find out.

3. Gene Thompson came back to California for a visit and had enough time to come back with me to Avenal. We really had time for only one flight and so we took the Blanik since the Orange Crush was scheduled for its annual. Gene like the Blanik and we had a nice long, nearly one hour flight getting quite high towards cloud base.

4. Hanna traveled to Avenal with Gene and I and helped out a lot around the field. She was especially helpful to Joe Anastasio and Mike Schoenau who were doing the annual on the Orange Crush.

5. Jerry Badal brought his brother, David, and David's daughter, Kailey, to Avenal to fly gliders for the first time. David went first and we were both disappointed at the lack of lift in the area. We landed with only a few weak thermals to show for our efforts. I mentioned to David that some time ago, the same thing happened to a demo flight, and the very next demo found great lift. Well, wouldn't you know it. I took his daughter, Kailey up and we found lift everywhere. Our flight lasted nearly an hour and we were up for as long as we wanted to be. We took photos of Jerry thermalling in the 1-26 and in general, just had fun climbing and flying around, then climbing again, for most of the flight. I sure wish David could have experienced that same flight but by the time we got down, it was late afternoon and they needed to return to Fresno. Sorry, David, and I promise the next time we'll hit those thermals we missed today.

6. Jerry had a nice flight in the 1-26, experiencing more than 10 knots of lift several times. Most of the time, he was well above us as Kailey and I circled in his thermal. Once in awhile we got lucky and out climbed him, but that wasn't the norm. We both had fun, sharing thermals, and finding great lift.

7. It was a successful day of soaring with good heights and if one was flying a glass ship, some long distance was possible even with the overdevelopment.