We drove up to launch, watched it blow NW hard and then Steve treated me to the best breakfast burritos I’ve ever had at Twisters on Simms and Colfax.
And I consider myself a breakfast burrito connoisseur. So, the NNE wind came and we set up our gliders with overfull stomachs. Hardest hike up I’ve ever had after that gut bomb. The NNE wind turned E so I went for it in a super liftoff with it blowing 10-15mph. I Dove at launch once and figured I shouldn’t play around since this potential virga induced wind even could very well end. It also could have been the frontal push too, but lots was going on.
It might have only taken 15 minutes to get to the other side of the towers. Some virga lines were out there and with the dry low level air, the microburst potential was in our heads. Since a bigger virga wall divided Steve and I, he opted to play around Golden in what sounded like a fun flight. Thermals and Rain?
Right off the bat I started to get low over Dakota ridge, but hooked a nice thermal. Today, almost every thermal turned into Mr. Hyde at about 8700ft. The 5 second averager got 950 fpm lift, and I know that’s b/c I got a full circle in part of Hyde’s rump but I was banked up wicked. The flip side was 1350fpm sink and I’m convinced these extremes all happened right by each other. I’ll post a video clip showing some of that sometime!
Since down low the wind seemed strong East and up high it was strong N, I think the shear level maybe was at 8700 causing the ruckus. Once, heading south I had a 20mph tailwind, another time I had a 1mph tailwind. The thermals were like vacuum cleaners to quote Steve.
Flying over our neighborhood bike trails that I rode this morning was kinda cool. I didn’t want to land on the golf course by my house b/c the strong NE wind would have made it too rotory back there so I figured I’d carry on and keep burning in my new harness.
Martin Marietta high security place… They’re watching me…
A hidden Quarry behind Martin Marietta.
Here’s the big picture.
Looking back NE. I came from the left of these beauts. And looking ahead to the S in the below picture.
I worried that the nice flat bottomed stuff had been there too long so it would either OD or fall apart so I dilly dallied in some lift wondering what to do. The picture above shows it after it’s disorganized a good bit. It didn’t OD but by the time I decided to head around to the upwind edge of it, it flushed me to the ground from 10.5kft for being wishy washy. I think I just missed a highway all the way over the palmer divide. Not complaining b/c it was tons of fun and new territory.
I landed in a super ritzy area and NOBODY would give me a ride. I always use to pick up hitch hikers, what’s up with these people? But I realized my shirt had paint stains and holes in it so I’ll give them some slack. I’m going to make a sign for next time “Hang Glider Pilot needs ride” or something.
Lots of people got to fly today in the smoother late day boaty air over lookout so we finally got a good day!
Flights: 1
Max Alt: 10.5
Airtime: 2:15
Distance: 24.6 miles
Cloud Base addict 
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