Cloud Base addict

Some highlights:

-BIG Golden Eagle, me, and a Red Tailed Hawk shared a thermal as they climbed through me…  Just before making it to cloudbase by the towers.  One gave me the upside-down talon flash as he flew under me.

-Strange feeling shared with a tower worker that was 2/3rds up the old radio tower.  When I said “How’s it going?” right behind him, watching him look side to side, and up and down was priceless.  He seemed to think I was on the tower too!

-A yellow balloon floated out of town up near me and I got to dive at it and play catch!  It’s WAY harder than I thought, but I got close and did a tight circle around it at least.

Click on the below for a quick video of the flight.

Cold Front Hang Gliding from bj herring on Vimeo.

The day was forecasted to slowly drop temp all day.  There wasn’t a defined frontal push of wind where the temp drops afterwards… just small pulses of cooler air oozing in that were tough to identify.  It really was great with a nice NE wind of 6-10 most of the time.  Cloudbase was 8300 when Steve got there and 8100 when I finally got to it.  I think the clouds filled the sky around 10-11am when Steve and I got our butts into motion.  Pretty sure there was a 4-6 hour window for soaring.  I got 1 hour and toplanded.  Then moved my video cam to the dntube and flew for another 45 minutes before landing in the miners field.  As I broke down, the smell of Greeley filled the air and the chill deepened while cloudbase hid 2/3rds of the towers.  It was pretty Northy but my guess is that it was soarable.  Great day!