Cloud Base addict

Zippy has a parachute!  Not just the back-up we hang glide with, but he’s a full on skydiver and base jumper.  Dude. 

Above: Zippy crawling out on the wing struts.

Below:  Zippy bailing off!

Search for “Lover’s Leap skibase” on youtube for a cool Zippy/buddies base jump.

Dad’s running my wing.  He kept a nice gust from pulling it up right when we started thank goodness. 

Dustina Martin did a 100km triangle at 49km/min today breaking the previous 44km/min speed record.  I tried too but got low after the second turnpoint and then the wind just worked me over bad so I was happy just to get back up.  I flew for 3.5 hours playing with the clouds and driving over to Mexico on Air-BJ.  Then around Zapata and back to the airport.  Ended up being 55 miles of exploration.  The clouds came back today around 1pm and we’re all excited for tomorrow.

Also, Zippy took Laura up for a tandem and it sounds like they had a blast up at cloudbase. 

2 days ago was a 10 hour, 302 mile flight that I’m dang proud of.  3 clouds for the entire flight.  One I got past the hill country and up to the higher plateau, I got a climb to 11.3k, but it was just too slow.  My tailwind was showing 17ish when I was low and a couple times showed just 5mph when I was high.  For 3 days, the wind has been all backwards…  22mph on the ground, but 5-8 up at 10k.  Weird.  Tomorrow and the next week show promise of making real wind all the way up to cloudbase which will help a BUNCH.  And we might also have clouds!  GAME ON.

I’ll try to write up the 50km triangle sometime.  Busy. busy here.